Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 68 i NZ Hunter

I had just floated the idea of a few days away in the Kawekas via a helicopter ride with Chris Crosse seeing we had no plans for the New Year break in a few days’ time. Saturday morning arrived and we loaded the last of our gear, including our trusty Labrador Spud into the back of the Hughes 500, ready for the short flight into the Omarukokere Bivvy on the edge of the Ngaruroro River. The plan was to spend a few days fishing and hunting and mooching around, enjoying the peace and quiet of the backcountry. We passed the morning testing our trout fishing skills in the nearby hut pools. When we realized we had been outwitted, we decided to cut our losses, pack up and head to the…

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Most people start with the throat. Hunters who harvest the bigger deer species will free up the windpipe to help let out the heat from the neck and chest regions, especially in the hotter months. A - You can either open the neck right up from chest to jaw, or you can simply make a small incision where the neck meets the chest. Then you just reach in and sever both the windpipe and food tube (esophagus) leaving them within the neck. B - In both cases give them a tug where they dissapear into the chest cavity to free them up. C - Now to the back end. To work around the poo tube below the tail, you really need a thinner bladed knife so keep…

It gets reasonable through traffic and day visits from hunters and fisher folk, yet still offers some diverse hunting, bush, tops and river flats. It’s also an easy place to get kids and family into for a little taste of back-country Westland. The cableway across the Hokitika 10 minutes downriver from the Hut would be a new and exciting experience for many. Rapid Creek hut is located on the true left of the Hokitika a kilometre downriver from the Whitcombe junction. Access is via a rough 2WD road that turns off from the Hokitika Gorge carpark and leads to a locked farm gate and carpark 2kms further along. From here a farm track is followed for another 2km to a locked cableway. A section of boulder hopping takes you to…

It’s almost guaranteed that if you turn up at a party with homemade sausage rolls, they will be the first thing that goes. The humble sausage roll can be turned into a gourmet treat using rabbit meat with bacon and prunes. First you’ll need to nail a couple of rabbits – and at this time of the year it’s great to get out with the kids or grandkids and get them their first animal. This will give them some memories of a lifetime – and a great feed too. If made in batch form, these sausage rolls will hold raw in the freezer very well. Defrost and bake when needed. Ingredients • 2 rabbits • 1kg pork mince, preferably skinless belly •…

Well that’s what I thought the attitude was. My mate managed to shoot a Wapiti bull on that trip, not quite up to today’s standards though. Five years later, I drew the same block. This time my brother came with me and we flew into the southern tops of the block. We glassed those tops high and low, heard stags roaring and the odd hybrid bugle, but we did not actually lay eyes on a deer in the three days of fine weather we had. We then spent the next four consecutive days lying in our tent in torrential rain. In between these big rain storms, we ventured out to the edge of the bluffs above a valley. In the head basin below, we could hear the roar of a…

I’d just been told not to take the shot unless I was 100% sure I was going to make it count. And I was. We’d spent several hours getting into this location, waiting out the fog and getting set up comfortably. The rifle was resting on a pack against some scrub and it felt snug in my shoulder. “I’ve got this” I repeated to myself this time, and as Dad had taught me, squeezed back gently on the trigger. The 270 roared. “Is it down Dad, is it down?” I called. “Mate, that’s a chamois down” Dad replied proudly. There were high fives and hugs all round as we celebrated my first big game animal, a majestic chamois from the mighty mountains of South Westland. simply couldn’t believe it! Dad…

This time would be a bit different as Paul had managed to jimmy up some Alpacka packrafts to take down the Waiau River. Work commitments meant that Jahn couldn’t make it, so Max took his place to join Piet, Paul and me. We had only three days to play with as we all had different schedules, so the plan was to get picked up the day after New Year’s Day down at Te Waiotukapiti Hut. Meeting at Derek’s helipad in Murupara in the evening, we loaded up the Jet Ranger and were soon landing at the top of the Waiau, with me still feeling pretty queasy from a bout of food poisoning I’d had for the past few days. We set up camp as the chopper disappeared into the mist…

In early 2016, light-hearted discussion with my great friends Harry and George quickly turned into a commitment to hunt the Top End in July. We booked the hunt through guide Pete Mayall on Karl Goodhand’s Western Arnhem Land concession. Mark Rohde was our second guide. In the last week of July, Mark, Harry, George and I rolled into camp to meet Pete. While Karl was building a permanent camp at a new location, we used a temporary camp made up of canvas tents, a dining awning and a shower and toilet block. With rifles checked, gear sorted, and dinner done, our first day in Arnhem Land ended with a few drinks around the fire. We had brought an interesting collection of rifles with us. My choice was simple, an old…

Most people can usually get a little time away from their day job during summer too, which means that it’s an ideal season to explore some of those places you’ve been eyeing on the map all winter and spring. There’s nothing better than breaking out onto the tussock tops after a long, hard grind through the bush to get there. It feels good to finally set up camp, drink more water than you thought possible, and start glassing those likely looking places. I’m always trying to find myself a ‘round trip’, where once I’ve gained the altitude, I can link up multiple creek heads or valleys to look into. Then over the course of a few days, I’ll head back down to the road a completely different way from where…

Composition – ‘describes placement of relative objects and elements in a work of art’ Careless 'up and shoot', snapshot-type photographs more often than not lack any sense of organisation, order, balance and direction, leaving the viewer confused and lost in the image, unsure of where or what s/he should be looking at. Keeping a couple of simple rules and guidelines in mind when composing photographs will improve your images no end, at the same time giving people a much more pleasurable viewing experience. Horizon Lines & Rule of Thirds Have you ever walked into a room with pictures hanging on the wall and noticed that one or more of them is not hanging straight and level? It just doesn't feel right, like the whole room is out of kilter. I…

However the survival of whio depends on a very high quality river habitat that consists of a fast-flowing, narrow but stable channel, coarse riverbed stones and gravel, high water clarity, shallow margins, pool and riffle sequences and forested margins – a very specific list of requirements indeed. Many moons ago, in the late 80s in fact, I worked for the New Zealand Forest Service as part of a crew that kept the huts and tracks within the Mt Richmond Forest Park in good condition. For a young fellow keen on the outdoors it was a wonderful lifestyle which I never thought of as a job. A typical week would entail getting a briefing from the boss in the office on Monday morning, detailing where we would be working and what…

So if you’ve found yourself (or someone else) in a bit of a tricky predicament, here’s how a basic snatch block pulley system can help set you free. First and foremost, if you own a winch you should own a snatch block (or two or three) as they’re pretty important when it comes to tricky situations. Snatch blocks are primarily used for two things: 1. to provide more pulling power and reduce winch load 2. to change the winching direction. Depending on your situation, you will need to decide what type of rigging technique to apply to get the best recovery result. Is it a simple straight line single pull situation, a double/triple line pull or is it so obscure that you will need to recover the vehicle from a…

Unsure if he had heard, I waited – part of me hoping he hadn’t – and I’d get the chance to pull the trigger on the bird instead. I braced myself, mentally preparing for the shot when rather gracefully, the bird slipped over the decoy spread and hovered right in front of us. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the blind doors open and in one fluid movement David sat up, his gun already to his shoulder. He fired a single shot that struck the bird with multiple pellets and sent it falling, lifelessly, into the decoys. As the sound of the shot died away, the air was full of feathers that rained down like snow The previous day I’d invited David out for a mid-season big…

Like the great 40x40 Red stag trophies shot during the 1920s, the big tahr horns of 13, 14 and even 15 inches shot during the 2010s will become legendary When I first cast my eyes towards the lofty Southern Alps, a trophy tahr head was widely regarded to be one with a shortest hook of 12 inches in length. An exceptional head was 13 inches. The trophy needed to have two needle-sharp points, big bases and strong ridges or keels. Of course a blonde mane, which makes up half (or more) of the value of any trophy, is vitally important. A large head that does not attain these features is known as a ‘character bull’, a term coined, I think, by the editor of this magazine. To be an NZDA…

I’d had a massive year of guiding and we’d taken some amazing animals. I had done a fair bit of hunting for myself but didn’t pull the trigger on anything apart from a few meat animals. Maybe I’m getting too fussy… I had four days to myself to see in the new year and had a few plans I’d been tossing up for a while. The weather was not perfect for the alpine crossing I had been aiming for, so I headed into some more eastern tahr country instead, where I hadn’t been for a few years. This area always holds reasonable animal numbers but it also attracts a lot of hunters. Finding a mature animal would be difficult so I had planned to cover as much country as I…

It would be a mission to get there, but the burning desire to find out what was in there was too much to ignore. I had looked at this area on a map and through the binos a hell of a lot from afar. For a hunter, there is always that desire to see what’s over the next ridge, or as you scan a topomap, you yearn to find that hidden spot. The forecast was for an easterly wind flow, which in my neck of the woods brings cooler temperatures. This makes for earlier activity on the deer front and the hunter tends to enjoy himself a little more too. Things were starting to line up. My plan was simple – hunt all day, sleep under a bush and hunt…

Twisting its way up the mighty Ngaruroro river, it then banked sharply to the left before its cargo was dropped down to the thick, scrub-covered faces. Sweat dripped off the men as they cut manuka poles from the surrounding hills before dragging them back through the scrub to the small clearing on the hot January day. The long slow process of stripping the bark from the trunks to reveal the clean timber took place before the gang worked on the foundations. The mighty hand-built hut started to take shape before being completed in June of 1970. For the next 48 years, this hidden-away Sika hunting camp remained a secret to most, receiving only a handful of visitors… The 2017 festive season rolled around and I hijacked plans made by the…

It seems to have struck a chord with many readers of all ages going by the comments I have had. For this issue I want to take it one step further and talk about the forgotten art of stalking. Forgotten, you say? Yep a little bit, I think. Read on. It has been my privilege over time to hunt with people from several of the cultures that have consistently bred the best hunters through time. I refer to the Aboriginal people from Australia and the Kalahari bush men from Namibia. These people have evolved in land that is harsh beyond our imagination, and to fail as a hunter is to perish. What does that mean? Well it basically means that they need to get good, real quick and put everything…

What other gear did I have with me? Pretty much just a sleeping bag and a knife. Was I OK? Yip. I have fond memories of those hunts as a younger fella – they were blissfully simple as I just went hunting. For some reason though, we outdoor folks keep feeling the urge to level up. You probably understand this term already, which likely hails from the gaming community. A player moves to a new level in a skill or skills, accompanied by the ability to use new power, access new places, or begin new assignments. Scenarios become more complex and difficult as the player ‘levels up’. When I started hunting I chased after rabbits with a single shot 22LR and open sights. I loved rabbit hunting (still do) but…

The top of the line is called the Forge, and that’s what we are reviewing here. Now the fact I say Asian made is not a derogatory comment at all. Some of the worst but also some of the best stuff including optics comes out of Asia now. It all depends on the specification they are given to work with, and the quality control to make sure the products meet that spec. So let’s see how Bushnell got on meeting their requirements. The Forge is a target/tactical style second focal plane rifle scope designed for use at longer ranges whether the discipline be competition, steel gong shooting or hunting. The features that make this scope suitable for this purpose are a multi turn zero stop turret with enough elevation for…

They specialise in products for shooting - ranging from rifle rests and benches, to targets, chronographs, ear protection, rifle slings and holsters. The Lead Sled is probably the most well-known of their affordable range of rifle rests, and was designed to minimise the recoil when sighting in large magnum rifles. JP Furley are the importers for the Battenfeld group now, and they sent us four of the large range of Caldwell shooting rests to try out. Lead Sled FCX $1099 This is the top of the line Caldwell rest that includes both a joystick type adjustment front rest, and connected recoil reduction Lead Sled rear rest. The FCX stands for fire control, and this is the joy stick 360° adjustment that allows you to align the rifle with your front…