hunting nz

[kiwi hunter]

arrived here in auckland on tuesday and flew down to wanganui to pick up my little car n then cross the straight to the mighty south island to hunt all sorts of critters. well the car started first pop after sitting around for 5 months but unfortunately it wouldnt go into gear, booked it in to get the problem fixed and now waiting, not for too long i hope. im only here for 2 weeks so fingers crossed i get 7 days hunting in. am supposed to meet a hunter who needs a few pointers on how to suss out the semi open country to become a better hunter. i was going to take the 300 wsm down there as well but on reflection seeing as i have around a thousand rounds of 223 then that is going to be my sole shooter for this trip. cheers for now

 

[vanish]

Following

 

[ashersdad]

Good luck!!

 

[kiwi hunter]

rung the garage this morning and have been promised that today is the day, fingers crossed now. gear selector cable was the culprit, they have to make up a new one as no second hand available.

 

[kiwi hunter]

Am now at Christchurch airport awaiting flight to Australia. Unfortunately the car took a while but I did cross the straight to arrive in south canterbury on a Thursday and got a quick eve hunt in, had to sight the 223 in as I'd brought my loopy vx 2 over. First a bore sight and then three shots to be 1/2 inch high at 25 mtrs, told myself to drop the sight down a bit and then forgot about it. Why 25 distance, it's the only flat spot up in the rugged bit that I hunt. Anyway saw 7 fallow deer out n about in 2 then 3 then a2 they were coming out of the steep brush for nitetime foraging. As it was nearly dark and the nearest three were 300 plus across a deep gorge I gave shooting away and made my way back down by torch and slept by the vehicle.

 

[BoulderBulls]

Following along!!

Is this the rut season down there? Maybe y'all call it the roar?

 

[kiwi hunter]

Next morning back up to the top(near vertical track) I made my way to the far corner as it had a mixture of clear and bush rather than the normal brush. At first there was only wallaby sign but eventually some fallow crape was spotted but not over abundant. I kept on sidling the face thru bush and the open strip's which ran from top of the Ridge down to the creek, my deer magnet kept drawing me on until the last wee patch of trees with no live animals lurking I started to swing uphill and to the right but in my peripheral vision I could see an animals ears, wallaby entered my mind at first, on close inspection a wee sprocket looking down wondering what that object(me)was up to, I quickly sat down , anchored one leg against the steep hill and as I was shooting to the right across a steep depression my left leg utilised my right leg as a rest and then the knee of that leg utilised as the rifle rest, in this awkward position the but wouldn't go into the shoulder so the butt rested on my arm, so shooting uphill I aimed at the brisket area for a heart shot. Upon being hit he reared up high and semi spun around then vanished behind the hill. I felt comfortable with the shot and fully expected the deer to be down about 60 yards from where he'd stood. At the 50 yard mark about where I expected the blood to be was some splashes, one tiny bit rather pinkish, says to myself he'll be down in another 20 yards and bobs my uncle. But lots of trailing down the face to arrive on the block boundary to see he'd gone under the wire and a goodbye. All I can hope for was that the bullet entered between the shoulder and ribs without doing too much damage. Back to the car and off to meet up with my new apprentice.

 

[kiwi hunter]

Following along!!

Is this the rut season down there? Maybe y'all call it the roar?

Ruts just finished on deer but just starting for tahr.

 

[kiwi hunter]

A wee chat with the apprentice and the deal was we meet up in the mountains at noon tomorrow, I was going in first to recon the area as to how many animals were still around as I'd been told that the govt had been shooting the area with a helicopter to mainly knock down the wallaby numbers. A couple of hours stroll and I'm climbing up onto a low watershed, it's half an hour before dark and the old enemy the rain makes an appearance, normally it's no biggie in a north westerly as it's far out past the main devide and sheltered, I ignore and drop down the other side to strike the matagouri in the bottom, a wallaby hops around a bit then sits on his haunches and watches me walk by, yesteryear it would have died of lead poisoning but I've decided that it wasn't my job. Only cover another fifty yards and spots some deer ears floating above the scrub and now and again a bit of its head, it's running to my left so I sprint for some open country and quickly sit down as the spiker charges across the stream and up the hill, I wait till he stops but very awkward for the 223, but can just see the shoulder bone protruding and this became my target, smashed him good and on three legs he swirled around twice but as he slows down giving me a clear shot for the lungs I let strip again and In another 4 seconds he's dead. Now that's much better I thought. Cut the back wheels and whipped out the backsteaks, threw them up into a coprosma bush and strode down the valley to where I knew there were two old tarps to hopefully get some shelter from the wet stuff. Unfortunately this became my second worst nite out in the mountains as the tarps leaked, still I survived.

 

[kiwi hunter]

Last chapter tonite. So what shall I call it?
Ah I know.
The sorcerers apprentice.

Now during the rainy night I'd looked at the time on the cphone to spot a txt sitting n waiting for me. Now it said I needed to get in touch with the real estate agent as the buyers finances needed another week to find and they wanted an extension, so at the crack of daylight I made my way back into the other watershed and left my gear in the trees hanging up to dry.
As I was going along a cunning plan developed as I knew that the apprentice would be walking in on the track but would have no idea who I was, we were supposed to meet at the hut.
Eventually I spot him and say that a lot of yrs ago Stanley the Explorer had gone to africa to track down doctor Livingstone and upon meeting him somewhere in Uganda he put out his hand and said Dr Livingstone I presume, hah as it could be anyone else at that time in history, OK back to the present, I put out my hand and said Dr Cheng I believe and the look on his face was priceless.

I quickly told him to go over to the trees and wait while I made out to the car and rang. So we met again under the trees, left out gear there and went so far n I showed him the spot where the bull tahr was, high up and holding a couple of girls, rut time. He made the comment it was the first time he'd seen tahr in the wild.
We crossed over the catchment Ridge and saddled out along the face, this allows a different perspective and in a lot of the open country one needs to shift position to get another angle to glass into little nooks n crannies, we'd seen three deer to start with but by opening up the angle we soon spotted another 7, mainly young stags.
As we had a bit of time a journey down to the forks was undertaken and just before dark we spotted another 7 deer race down into the creek to join the 2 that were there already.
We left them to live another day as the spiker I'd shot last nite was enough for us, it's about 4 hrs down to the car.
With luck my man will put up a couple of pics I send him.