Oldbloke wrote:Looks like easy country to hunt.
It's not too bad up high as there are some decent tracks and because most of the top was cleared for sheep the fallen trees don't block you too much, you can go around them or climb or crawl under them. There is one old vehicle track from the road into the old sheds and sheep yard, and two narrow animal paths from the biggest dam through the bush to the south. To my great annoyance there is a vacant ten-acre block in between two properties I'm hunting on, and we can't get hold of the owner to ask permission to cross it. Even up on the cleared slopes there are a couple of stretches that are difficult to climb up but fairly safe when it's dry, coming down them though I scoot down on my bum, I don't think it's safe to try to walk down them.
Down into the valley though it's very difficult as it's never been cleared for harvesting or farming. It's very steep, very muddy, very dense undergrowth and there are hundreds of fallen trees to get through. There are also several tributaries that have cut very deep and steep-sided valleys in the hills that are impassable, you either climb up the hill to go around the top or go down to the bottom, wade across the creeks and climb back up the other side. Watching out for leg-breaker traps like this one.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YwJRk3ZeULYThis deer was on the bottom of the cleared part, still 260m above the bottom of the valley. There are deer paths coming up from the valley to the dams at the top. I've been clearing these narrow paths as I get around but have come to big fallen trees that I can't clear or climb over. One path I think I can clear a route on the down slope to get around the tree, but I haven't bothered putting in the time yet as I'm certain there'll be another tree a few meters past it - it would be quicker, with a more useful result, to carry in a chainsaw and clear the tree. According to the owner, and my GPS coordinates it's quite close to where the track doubles back on itself so there should only be maybe 30m of bush in the way, but it's very, very steep. I'm more inclined to try to go in at the bottom from another property and try to find a way up the hill. Recovering anything from down in there is probably not going to happen, if I shoot something down there it'll be staying there.
Those skylined shots would technically be legal on public land, though hardly very safe. But on private property I don't have permission to shoot on some of the properties on the western side of the valley so I can't take such shots in that direction. I do have permission to shoot on all of the property to the south and east, hence my trying to get up above and around the animal.
We start calving in about ten days so I won't be able to get out much over the next couple months, that's why I'm pushing it hard this month.