Innehållsförteckning för Issue 52 - April/May 2016 från NZ Hunter

MIKE WAS LEADING THE STALK WHEN HE FROZE DEAD STILL. The urge was growing in me to chase some bull tahr before the heavy snow took hold of the higher slopes in the Southern Alps. Earlier in the year, I had received a letter from the Haast DOC office saying that my tahr ballot application was unsuccessful, but I could wait a month till March 18th and then reapply. It was a ‘first in first served’ basis for any remaining blocks that hadn’t been occupied. Nine o’clock on D-day, March 18th came around pretty quickly. Anxiously, I rang the DOC office, hoping to lay claim to a half decent block. The phone line was busy - apparently every other keen tahr hunter in the country who didn’t have a block…

The roar and duck shooting are two of the biggest players. What you may not know is that all over New Zealand the highest represented members of our sport numbers wise are also getting twitchy about the same time. Yes that’s right. In New Zealand there are more pig hunters than any other type of hunter. In rural areas and towns all around New Zealand you will have seen any number of utes driving around with dog boxes on the back. Some of you may have wondered what it is all about and may even be keen to give it a try. It is for this reason that I want to ‘lift the lid’ a little for you to take a peek in to the world of pig hunting. So…

The sky was clear and a heavy frost hung from the foliage. The vista far below me was a blanket of white and the chill in the air was crisp and fresh. The stag continued to roar well; he was following his hinds as they moved from their feed area down in the creek. The stag and his harem slowly moved up the ridge opposite. I checked what little breeze there was using my wind check powder and got the wind direction correct before I crossed the small gully head which separated me from the animals. My objective was to get ahead of the stag and set up an ambush. The head of the gully was a clean ponga gut which had a good game trail sidling through it so…

UNPACKING THE HUNT challenging our thinking about hunting and outdoor adventures He wrote five books and for many years recorded his exploits through weekly articles, which The Christchurch Star published in a well-known column entitled ‘Hunting with Harker . When Peter moved to Ross on the West Coast his hunting and exploration was initially for recreational interests, but due to his knowledge and skills he eventually hunted professionally for both meat and headskins in the likes of the Cook, Perth, Jacobs, and Karangarua while he also guided overseas hunters on foot in such terrain. He did a stint shooting from helicopters in the more controversial years of the meat recovery industry and later was active during the first years of live game capture. Through his foot hunting he also represented…

» Have I got all the answers? No. » Will it be easier said than done? Yes. If you have the patience and are keen enough to learn the skills you will join those that enjoy one of the greatest experiences that waterfowl hunting can offer. There you are, watching mob after mob circle once and then pitch in and land. You are close to the action, maybe close enough to hope for some pass shooting, but you don’t get to shoot a single bird. Then you realise that next time you need to be where those birds REALLY want to go...because it wasn’t where you were this time! Here are a few tips to help you go the extra mile for ‘on the X’ success. » SCOUTING In an…

Grand Winner Ronan Byford aged 7, helping his Dad carry the deer home Tate Drummond with a Fallow he shot Michael Kelly with a stag he shot Pippa Raymond aged 9 and Bree, with the first of seven wallabies she shot A successful roar trip for Dane, Allan and Kalem Bernsten , Whakatane River, Te Urewera Katy Buttle aged 11, shot her first tahr with a Tikka T3 25-06 William Baker with a nice trout he caught on Lake Rotoma The winning photo receives a Hunting & Fishing voucher to the value of $100. Send all your photos to editor@nzhunter.co.nz Note: Photos must be of a suitable size for printing - a minimum file size of 1MB is preferred.…

Jeremy Woolhouse, Logan and Mark Sinclair, and Luke Dickson comprised Team Blackmount in the annual Te Anau-based hunt in June last year, and took the overall prize for the combined weights of their pig, deer, and trout. The regular hunting team hails from across Otago and Southland - Te Anau, Ranfurly, Blackmount, and Balclutha “That weekend was good, and it was big. We did a lot of hunting.” Mr Woolhouse said. The boys split themselves up to handle the weekend workload, one to catch a sizeable trout, one to stalk a deer, and two to sort out the pig. The first two objectives fell relatively easily, but a decent-sized pig proved to be elusive until the final hours of the competition. "It took the whole weekend pretty much. We…

It seems like a reversal of roles when a normally super cautious animal comes to you – and the hunter becomes the hunted. Chris Crosse from East Kaweka Helicopters and I have a competition each roar –will the biggest Sika come from his Ahimanawa private blocks or the public Kaweka Forest Park? Last year I lost the contest and had to clean out his large chest freezer. It was a whole day job - there was venison from 15 years ago hiding deep within the depths of his electric rubbish bin - as well as other indescribable items. Our dogs and chooks had a varied diet for the next week; from ancient cakes to freezer burnt fish. So would this be my year, when I could get Chris to endure…

Sure enough, there was a big twelve pointer lying down in the thick brown snow tussocks watching his seven hinds below him. We decided on a route to stalk them and luckily the wind was in our favour. The stalk down the hill was incredible, especially when everyone agreed that I should be the one to shoot the stag – yeah! Finally we came to a small ridge and we couldn’t go any further because the hinds were spread out all around the stag. We lay down on the ridge where I would have to take the shot. The stag was still 250m away which was a bummer but we couldn’t do anything about that. Dad explained that he would back me up if I missed so that was all…

We actually gave four X5s a serious work out on a number of rifles including on our massive 338 Lunatic. We shot gongs from 300 yards to 1820 yards on my steel range out the back of Ngamatea Station, and also fitted in a little hunting with Aussie writer Daniel Burke shooting the first game animal in the world with an X5 – a magnificent 9 point Sika stag. Since then we have fitted X5s permanently to two of our rifles – a 5-25x56 on the 16 pound/7kg all up weight including scope 338 Lunatic, and a 3.5-18x50 on the 8 pound/3.6kg 338 FX. We have used these rifles and scopes extensively for a variety of hunting and shooting, and now can back up with experience what we have to…

To add to the torture I had been sent a new shotgun from Beretta NZ to test fire which was sitting unused in the gun safe, waiting like me for the first days of spring. The shotgun meant more to me than just the fun of playing with a flash new toy because I was in the market for a new weapon myself. I have a Beretta A400 Xtreme, which in my opinion is the best specialist waterfowl shotgun available. But as good a shotgun as the A400 Xtreme might be for the serious duck and goose hunter, it is not a multipurpose gun for someone who does a wide variety of shooting, especially a hunter who needs to carry his weapon for extended periods. With my old ‘never say…

The Game Animal Council supports the objective to rid New Zealand of Bovine TB on the basis that hunters will benefit in the long term from: » Reduced risk of contracting Bovine TB from infected game animals » Reduced unintended consequences of aerial poison applications (mainly by-kill, dog access, and environmental and human health issues), » Reduced costs of inspecting commercial meat harvests. The expansion of vector control activities required to eliminate TB could however have some negative effects on hunters in the short to medium term. Potential effects include: » Reduction in game animal numbers as a result of by-kill and TB monitoring, » Recreational access restrictions, » Reduction in areas available for commercial meat recovery, » Adverse environmental outcomes should game animal numbers increase because of restricted recreational…

This recipe is written with duck in mind but will also work very well with goose, swan and venison. The recipe is as simple as it gets and can be done on the BBQ flat top plate or in a fry pan. A schnitzel is meat, thinned with a meat tenderizer, coated with flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs, and then fried. Originating in Austria, it is popular in many countries and traditionally made using veal, mutton, chicken, beef, turkey, reindeer or pork. It is very similar to the French dish escalop The term Wiener schnitzel is a protected name in Austria and Germany and can only be made of veal. If it is called anything else then it must be called or named accordingly. FOR THE COLESLAW » 100g white…

THE 12 POINTER WAS NO MATCH FOR THE BIG STAG AND HE QUICKLY RETREATED INTO THE THICK BEECH FOREST. TO MY RELIEF, HE WENT DOWN THIS TIME. There was added excitement as I was heading into country I had never hunted before but I had been told it held a reasonable number of Reds. On my way up the south side of the valley, I could hear two stags roaring in the head of the basin. Then I stopped in my tracks when I suddenly saw what looked like a ripper mature stag disappearing over the skyline no more than 100 metres away. I couldn’t help but think that the very trophy I was looking for had just slipped away because of a slight breeze blowing up the face from…

WINNER Send us your hunting photos featuring one of the Beretta Family of products as listed, the winning photo will receive a pair of Burris Montana 8 x 42 binoculars RRP $549 Entries should be emailed to Photo Competition email: editor@nzhunter.co.nz Firearm used must be shown in photo…

It felt great to have a pack on my shoulders and my rifle slung over my neck. I had 11 days to hunt for chamois in the Lewis Pass area. I was hunting solo and my route was one-way. I would start at the mouth of one river valley, traverse its tops to the head basin, drop over into another valley after some sidling and then walk down to the road end for a pre-arranged pick up. Based on the topo map I estimated my journey would total 55 kms of ‘straight line’ walking from A to B, without factoring in side trips and hunting jaunts. My entire first day was filled with travelling up the valley floor. Although a trudge, it was a pleasant route made interesting by river…

We are asking for anyone who has a good photo or series of photos of a Wapiti bull to email them into us, and our ‘expert’ panel consisting of Roy Sloan, Cam Speedy and Jeremy ‘Jere’ Dearden and the Editor will be giving their age estimates and why. THIS IS ONE OF THE 3 PHOTOS OF LAST ISSUE’S BULL AND THE PANEL’S ESTIMATES: » CAM We’ve seen this guy before - most of his tines have lengthened and he has more length and mass with that extra age. He is a fine looking Wapiti bull. The key criteria I have used to estimate his age are: the low coronets; the saddle in his back; the short length of his legs relative to his body; the square shape of his body;…

Leupold’s news for 2016 is an improved version of their VX3, which they’ve called the VX3i for improved (not illuminated as I first thought). The VX3 has been the stalwart of the Leupold line for many years now, and I’d hate to think how many of them they’ve produced over the years. Before the advent of high zoom range scopes in the 5 to 6x range, the VX3 was pretty much the top hunting scope of US manufacture, and even today a lot of hunters don’t need the extra features of the high zoom scopes. For years my favourite scope was a Vari-XIII 2.5-8x33 as it was in those days, and while obviously ideal for the closer range bush stuff, I did a surprising amount of successful shooting out to…

The reality that I was actually going didn’t really hit home until I booked my seat on Air New Zealand and paid for my visa. From Luggate in Central Otago to Eastern Shore on the mighty Chesapeake Bay of Maryland, USA…here I come! » WEST COAST My American adventure began in Portland, Oregon where I was hosted by Mario Friendy of Avian X. It’s true what they say about American hospitality; I was spoilt from the get-go by Mario, his lovely family and his good buddy Mike Hanson. Within a few minutes of being collected by Mario in his ‘Yank tank’ oversized Ford pick-up, we were at Buffalo Wild Wings for hot and spicy chicken wings and a catch up. This was followed by a 9pm (they’re open until 10pm)…

Before we do though, there’s planning to be done, decoys to be rigged, blinds to be scrubbed — and everything else! It’s an endless battle that we live for! I would like to share my top ten tips for this season that may help you and your team of fowlers: 1. Concealment Staying hidden from the eyes of wild creatures is something I have been really pushing with my hunting buddies lately. To be honest, we’d slacked off on it a little and I knew it just wasn’t good enough. The difference between a half-assed job on scrubbing a blind and going all out with your effort is huge — and I’m talking all blinds here such as layouts, boats, maimais etc. After spending a bit of time looking down…

01 NEW Mad Water Waterproof Gear Bags NEW to NZ, Mad Water gear bags are 100% waterproof. Constructed from double coated polyurethane with an YKK waterproof zipper, they can even be submersed up to 4.5 metres without letting in a drop! This means you can put them on the back of a ute, take them on the boat or even float them down the river with you, and your gear will always be completely dry! The long nylon handles allow you to turn the bag into a backpack if necessary. Made in USA. Available in 30l, 65l, or 90l sizes. For more information, please visit www.tightlines.co.nz Distributed by Tightlines 02 NEW Sunday Afternoons Adventure Hat Introducing the incredibly lightweight, UPF 50+ Adventure Hat from Sunday Afternoons. Its award-winning,…