Hi all, I had a fantastic time last weekend.

My partner had to head up to Fairlie to attend a couple of day's nursing training and a friend of mine was having a surprise 50th birthday party up in Christchurch.

I had previously been in contact with Neil as I had a .60 cal which I was finished with. I use a hand pump to keep the air up to my guns and the .60 requires about 38 pumps per shot. As well as the air requirement I find the medium calibres fine for the types of game which I typicaly hunt.

As Neil lives in Christchurch it was a great opportunity to finally meet Neil and his family and deliver the .60cal.
We had a fantastic day airgunning, I got to shoot some of Neils other guns including his NZ made .50cal and helped him tune his DAQ .308 which we are working on a slug design for. We also shot my 9mm rifle and a couple of my big bore air pistols. Neil lives in a beautiful place with a lot of land around which added to the experience.

I said goodbye to Neil in the afternoon and headed over to the other side of Christchurch just in time for a BBQ tea but I did miss the surprise which was sprung on my friend. We had a great party and I got to meet some more nice people. I slept over as driving was not a legal option given the partying but did wake up with a clear head.

My friends took me for a drive into Christchurch city centre as I hadn't seen it since the devestating earthquake last year. All I can say is there are a lot of unfortunate people, not only the one's who lost their lives and their families but also the one's who are effected by the ongoing disruption and changes in the city plan. It seems from what I have heard that even if your property wasn't adversly effected by the quake, if it doesn't fit with the new city plan the council will move you on and demo the building with minimal compensation. So much for Democracy.

I took off from Christchurch about midday and headed back for Fairlie to pick up Wendy who would have finished her course. I suggested we could head back home to Central Otago via Oamaru so as we could call in on Wendy's mother and say hi. We a nice wee visit with Wendy's mum and then headed off back home.

We took off up through what is known as the pig route which takes you over into Central Otago. I realised that I hadn't gased up on the way and wasn't sure how far it would be till the next gas station. Alexandra which was the next major town was some 100miles and the tank was getting low. As luck would have it the little town of Ranfurly had a gas station which was just about to close when we arrived, so we were saved the embarrasment of running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere.

We had been driving from Ranfurly on route to Alexandra about 10-15 minutes when Wendy said "hey there's a deer trotting down the side of the road. It was a red deer yearling hind in very nice condition. Wendy said "Buggar" we havn't got a rifle, to which I said yes we have.

I continued past the deer about 200-300 yrds and turned the car around, I drove to within about 100 yrds of the animal which was just standing there side on. I had to get out of the car, take the 9mm out of its bag , find the right slug's among all the bottles of slugs which I had taken up to Neil's place, and load the gun. All of this activity was making the Deer a bit titchy and just as I lined up on the Deers shoulder it turned and ambled off.

Wendy to her credit had shuffled over to the drivers side and beckoned me to jump in the drivers side just incase the deer was still around. She drove up to where the deer had disappeared and there was just standing side on thank you about 20 yrds away.

Meanwhile I had wound the scope down for a 40 yrd zero,so I simply lined up the shot and squeezed off, couldn't miss. Well the Deer just ran off into the bracken. I jumped out of the car over the fence after it. I didn't have to go far as The Deer had got about 20-30 yrds and dropped. I knew from the shot placement that the deer was down and on it's way out, not being one to let an animal suffer I got up close and gave a finishing shot to the head.

It was getting dark so we didn't muck around looking at the wound channel or taking photo's there and then but on gutting out the chest cavity was full of blood so the slug had obviously hit something vital.

We took some photo's of me with the deer after we got home which isn't ideal as the animal was allready gutted out but none the less here is a photo of myself, the deer, and the 9mm.

Wendy and I hung the carcass up to skin after letting it hang in a friends chiller for 5-6 day's.
Here is a photo of the entry wound.

And a photo of the exit wound.

And finally a photo of the slug which Wendy found hanging under the skin on the offside shoulder.

The 155grn slug doing aprox 840 fps didn't mushroom very well and did hit some bone on the way through so I will have too work on a design which will perform a bit better.

None the less a wonderfull weekend and some meat for the freezer. Are going out for a goat shoot this afternoon so may have some more meat yet for the freezer.

Regards to all, Danny.

Hello Danny,

Thanks for your post! Looks like you had a productive chance hunt. Very good.

It's been my experience to see all my deer on the way "to the hunt", "to the airport", "on the roadside", "in the median strip" ... sounds like you found the same. I've never been able to pull over and blast 'em though. hahah.

Looks like you have some seriour meat for the freezer with that one.

Thanks for the photos. They show clear blood shocked meat around the exit wound. Also remarkable you found the slug under the far side skin. I've done that a couple of times. Heard of it many times. So odd how the skin catches the spent slug.

Best,
Gary

Danny, I reckon that slug did the goods even without much expansion, by the look of all that tissue damage near the exit!
Nice-sized deer, and as Gary says, plenty for the freezer
Cheers
Neil

Garry, I hope you and yours are well and your move is going more or less to plan.

Unlike other countrie's we are quite lucky that deer and any other introdused mamal's are seen as an introduced pests. As such we are allowed to hunt them anytime anywhere as long as one has permission to shoot on that land. The side of the road is fine as long as it isn't in a built up area and one exercise's the basic safety rules.

Garry, Neil.
As for the slug even though it doesn't expand that well it seems to do the job. I shot a wild pig with the same about two months ago and the wound channel started at 9mm and ended up about 1.5'' over aprox 6''. I've had a few hangers which to me show's that the slug is doing what it should and dumping it's energy on site. still I wouldn't mind a bit more expansion with the 9mm.

Regards to All, Danny.

Nice post Danny! Seems to me the slug performed well, depositing all its energy in the animal. Having the penetration required and more importantly the accuracy to place the shot is paramount with airgun energies. IMHO. Now if you are going to use this on smaller game a big'ol hollow base wadcutter shot backwards would give you what you want. Hornady has a 148 grain .358 diameter which I think might be the right diameter.



Here's one that is .314 shot at about 730 fps into electrical putty. These were undersize (notice no rifling marks) for the 32 cal Victory and accuracy just wasn't there for hunting. Therefore, I don't have any actual hunting experience with it.

Kent

Hi Kent, Thanks for your contibution. I've had some trouble getting this poticular barrel to group.
I generaly like to shoot a 100 yrd three shot group off a single fill of no greater than 1.5". The slug design which I've posted is the only one of many slug designs that have come close. Even then the best I generaly do is about 2" at 155 grain. The same slug without the hallow point at 175 grain shot at aprox 750 fps grouped nice but didn't do the job on animals. However the wadcutter shot backwards would allmost certainly do the trick. hope you are enjoying your Victory, nice classic lines that design.
Cheers, Danny.

Hi Kent,
As I was reading, it occured to me that the slug would have been faster, had it achieved some backpressure in the chamber. Thus, allowing the chamber pressure to build and "Pop" the slug into the bore. Might be an interesting experiment for you - even indoors in putty ... to try those at .316", maybe .317" ... if the raw slug is .318".
Gary

Hi Danny and Gary,
Amazing that the little difference in the meplat would make such a big difference in performance.

The slug I was using was undersize and I tried multiple methods of increasing the diameter without success. Teflon tape seemed like a good idea.

So now I shoot only Barnes designed SureFIre cast slugs and Hornady buckshot. They always do the job if I do my part.

If I were to visit NZ would I be able to bring a Barnes or two for hunting? Might be a real blast with all those exotic varmits running around.

Kent

Hi Kent. Hunters visiting from over sea's do bring there own firearms at times. There are import restrictions on some air rifles which may effect someone bringing them into NZ even if only visiting and then taking them back out of the country. Also precharged air rifles are classed as firearms down here so one needs a NZ firearms licence to be in possession of and use them. Visitors from oversea's must be able to arange some kind of temporary licence as plenty of peaple come from oversea's to hunt here in NZ. Down where I live would be one of the more productive area's in NZ for a variety of exotic game both on private land and in national parks, but you are not allowed to shoot airguns in national parks so that leaves private land. We have a large home of which we will be letting out some of the rooms to tourist's but friends stay for free, if you ever feel inclined. That goe's for any big bore enthusiest's who visit this forum. Kind regards to all, Danny.

WOW Danny you are a most generous person . I have always loved NZ and the culture, geography, and now the people. My friend and his ma went there a few years back and had a really nice time.Except for the quake seems like a great place to live. Here in Michigan there is alot of state owned land that is for hunting and recreation but most of the parks are off limits to hunting also. Although some limited permits for certain hunts to control population issue each season are given away on a lottery basis in the refuges and forestry location . Thanks again for the hunt story and hospitality. Happy Holidays

Thanks
Kurt

Do they still hunt deer from helicopters there? I read a very interesting book on the subject a few years back, when they were trying (obviously without success) to completely eliminate them.

It's very convenient that you can shoot from the roadside there. Up here in Alaska we have to be at least a quarter mile off road to shoot, which can be a lot of rough country hiking in some types of terrain. I suppose the fact that deer are classified as varmints there might account for the difference.

Nice work on the deer, the rifle obviously does the job.

Do they still hunt deer from helicopters there? I read a very interesting book on the subject a few years back, when they were trying (obviously without success) to completely eliminate them.

It's very convenient that you can shoot from the roadside there. Up here in Alaska we have to be at least a quarter mile off road to shoot, which can be a lot of rough country hiking in some types of terrain. I suppose the fact that deer are classified as varmints there might account for the difference.

Nice work on the deer, the rifle obviously does the job when you use it right.

Hi rotorhead, yes almost every larger introduced animal are hunted recreationaly from helicopters here in NZ. Where I live in Central Otago red deer can become problematic for the farmers if the numbers get too high. I know of several instance's recently where as many as 150 red deer have been culled in one day off one farm using helicopters and buckshot and other instance's of 50-100 deer being taken in one day. In the daylight we can shoot off the road but spotlighting is elegal on some public roads. Cheers to all, Danny.