Innehållsförteckning för Issue 75 från NZ Hunter

Well here we are approaching that time of year again. It’s the countdown to the roar and our favourite time of year. The maps are out, heads being scratched and plans schemed to work out where we’re headed this year to try and find that true wilderness stag to top all stags! The good thing is there’s been little WARO this season, so there should be more animals out and about in some of those west coast alpine areas that were absolutely trashed last year. Numbers will still be very low, but the survivors shouldn’t have been driven into the bush, and should have had ample feed to grow a good set of antlers. If you are in an area with a lot of animals like the Ureweras and Lake…

This year we decided to explore the Clarence Reserve country with plenty of local help from all-round good bugger Shaun Ford, or Fordy as he’s known to most. Sam and I were in the trusty ol’ Patrol and Mum and Dad were in their Ranger. The Clarence is very open, clad mostly in sweet briar, a bit of matagouri and a few stands of dry alpine manuka, with bright green poplar and willow in the creeks. Mildly reminiscent of the Otago tussock lands but with short summer-beaten grass instead, it’s the division between the scrubby coastal Kaikoura country and the vast, dry Molesworth territory. The harsh country felt almost desert-like by New Zealand standards, but absolutely beautiful because of it. It’s got some really varied geology along with active faults,…

I stood, disbelieving, frozen in place, bow in my hand, 400 metres away across open ground. I had been hunting all rut, hounding this animal. Now here he was, and I was caught out. A fortnight before I had been here with my father searching, as always during this time of the year, for a mature Fallow buck. One particular evening we were hunkered down in a favoured glassing spot which looks over a native gully, when we spotted movement. Through the trees came a few animals and the old man whispered the words that hold so much hope “Buck – big buck!” I trust the old fella 100% when it comes to what is a buck and what is a ripper so I tossed my binoculars to the ground,…

This was not one of those hunts. I had decided to take Sami into the bush for some quality father-daughter time, but had some work admin to attend to first. So by the time that was done, and we had driven down to the edge of the amazing Aorangis and got into the actual bush, it was close to 9.30am. Ah well, the deer didn’t evaporate after dawn. Things had been wet but cool and conditions were ideal for bush hunting. We were heading up a big bush ridge that meant that the wind would be crossing it a bit more than just straight in our faces. Once we had gained elevation further up the ridge, my intention was to drop off the side and sidle back through the faces…

Dealing with that pressure can be very difficult. Whether you’re a seasoned rifle hunter and have just got into bowhunting or you’re new to close-quarters hunting full stop – movement, wind direction, noise and timing will never be so important. On average, most deer are shot from around 22-24 metres with a bow in New Zealand. When you are this close to deer, it’s like there is an invisible sand timer on your shoulder. But unlike a sand timer that runs out in exactly ten minutes every time, this one has an unknown amount of sand before your deer disappears. Let’s say you want to shoot your first deer with a bow. You’ve had your bow for a while now and you feel you have shot your target enough. You’re…

He owns a farm with a massive forest. Dad and I were riding on the four wheeler. Gus and Morts were on the two wheelers out through the farm and on the forest tracks, while Dad’s mate Oots was driving the ute. Gus, my older brother, had shot his first deer on this farm but I had never been there, and I had never been hunting before, so this was my first time. We set off. The McQuarries went together and the non-McQuarries went together into the hunting zone. Gus had the gun on his back and we were looking for our prey – deer! One time when Dad was hunting there and just creeping along, there was a deer in the trees so he took a shot and got…

The original Xlite was arguably the best functional balance between weight, functionality, durability and insulation for NZ hunters. With the new WingLock valve it is almost undoubtedly so. It’s extremely light for its performance. Weighing in at just 340 grams (in a regular) for an R- Value of 4.2 it crosses the threshold for a four season mat. Perhaps just as importantly it’s super packable, squeezing down to about the size of a litre water bottle. At a glance the R Value is a significant increase. The old model was only 3.2. The new rating of 4.2 takes from a 3 to 4 season mat. However, when I delved deeper into how they achieved such an insulation increase without adding any weight I received some interesting information. Nothing about the…

Rivers and lakes were clean enough to swim in and teemed with ducks and trout and I was just an innocent teenager.Well known hunting identity Geoff Thomas produced a VHS tape called ‘Shooting Secrets’. On the tape was all sorts of things like how to call ducks, clay bird shooting with instructions from a national champ and some duck hunting. Towards the end Geoff and his mate hunted in Hanmer Springs with John Gemmell, NZ’s first waterfowl guide. They shot a heap of Parries, the odd Mallard and did some Canadian goose hunting. After a few unsuccessful hunts they managed to jump shoot one bird at extremely long range and the next morning from memory they got a huge total of four geese. To my then untrained eye they looked…

Bushnell are proud to promote this page aimed at celebrating our game animals. Send in your photos of live game animals to luke@nzhunter.co.nz to go in the draw to win an exciting product each issue. The prize for this issue is... Bushnell Prime 10x28 Binoculars With an RRP of $299!…

They’d seen a few good velvet stags and explored some new country. Now with the roar just around the corner, it was time to give the legs a good stretch. My good mate Aaron Loader and I decided that chasing a few chamois around the hills for three days was as good a way as any to get the blood pumping in preparation for the upcoming rut. With the target species decided, all we had to do now was to choose the destination. This wasn’t easy, for as we all know, the very steep terrain that makes Fiordland special is the same reason the low numbers of chamois are pretty safe. We decided on a spot that looked quite promising on the map with a good steep climb into a…

The first recordings of deer by a camera trap were made in the 1880s by a wildlife enthusiast named George Shiras. Shiras is the conservationist who is credited with the discovery of the subspecies of moose that roams Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area. Some of you may have heard of the Shiras moose. George Shiras developed an ingenious trap with trip wires and an automatic flash bulb connected to a very large camera by today’s standards. The modern passive infrared (PIR) trail cameras were introduced in the late 1980s. In 2003, before trail cameras were available here in New Zealand, we put together a motion-activated device called the ‘Wise Eye Video Camera System’. This system housed a Sony video camera inside a waterproof Pelican case. The system used…

Emma and I were sneaking through the wet scrub and tussock, trying hard to get eyes on a groaning stag across the gully. We paused in the relentless wind to wipe the moisture from our binoculars as the cold rain continued to pour down. We moved forward to a clear spot in the scrub when he roared again, a low lazy moan rather than a full-on aggressive bellow. We both spotted him lying in some tussock, contently watching his group of hinds feeding about him, but letting the younger stags know to keep their distance. Big Dad is the boss! Even lying down, we could tell this guy was mature by his sheer bulk ¬– he made the other animals look small. His long, wet black antlers stood out from…

However, it has been here so long that it is now considered a subspecies of the Aussie version and therefore could be classed as an 'endemic' species. Shovelers are the fastest flyers of all our waterfowl species and are highly mobile, with many birds suspected of annually traversing the length of New Zealand before returning again to their breeding areas. My first hunting success with shovelers took place on a farm pond in North Canterbury many, many moons ago. After a fairly dismal evening hunt on a pond the previous day, it was suggested that I try sitting on the pond 'up by the hayshed' for the morning. I sneaked into the edge of the pond before daylight. With the absence of trees and scrub around the pond, my only…

Ted Brennan of Bold Head was working for DOC at the time and took one of the managers for a walk up there and the guy was impressed enough by the little shelter to have it shifted back to 'fully maintain'. The years passed and Ted noticed that nothing much was happening up there so in 2019 he self-funded a mission to re-seal and paint it. The Biv is in great shape at the moment and will continue to be DOC-maintained over the longer term. Mikonui Biv is located in the river of the same name, a small rugged multi-branched catchment a half hour south of Hokitika that boasts three other remote huts besides this one. Access is via a long and torturous dirt road up the Totara valley, prone…

“The mountains speak. They draw us in, take us on missions into unseen corners, cast spells and sometimes let us on their summits. They throw us into gorges, stun us with their peaks, drag us into heroic struggles, forge fantastic friendships, and change our lives forever.” Geoff is arguably New Zealand’s foremost transalpine explorer of the last 50 years. The journeys he has completed are simply legendary. His expertise has been used in editing many of the route guide books and also in the production of the TV Show “First Crossings” The title of Geoff’s book says it all – it takes you on a journey of his adventures exploring the vast seldom explored wilderness of the South Island. The Great Unknown is actually a peak on the western side…

Anyway with the hunting having taken bit of a back seat over the last couple of years while I worked to keep our heads above water in Wanaka, I vowed this year was going to be different. Getting a bad bout of giardia threw a serious spanner in the works. I lost 12kg in six weeks – not ideal when I normally weigh only 72kg on a good day. Late March finally rolled around and the weather was somewhat settled with 4-day fine spells on each side of the Alps, and although temperatures were quite warm, it was good enough for me. I’d done a few solo overnighters by this stage so I was good to go. Cole and I headed west on the 28th March to Haast for a…

We kept talking about the urge we both had to do a proper backpack mission; one that pushed us out of our usual comfort zones, both physically and mentally. Over a couple of midweek beers at the local pub we got to work on brainstorming a few ideas. There was only one place we both thought could offer what we were looking for – South Westland. We did a bit of research and planning before choosing a valley to fly in and hunt out of that would take us at least three days of solid walking to reach our truck. This would leave us three days of hunting tahr and chamois in the headwaters and side creeks before hopefully knocking over a handy deer or two on the flats to…

1. Mature stags that are holding hinds will not always come into a roar until you get right into their territory. When right in close, turn your head away when you roar to make yourself sound further away or even just break the odd stick and stay quiet and watch and wait. 2. Cover the ground at a steady pace roaring regularly into catchments. Let your voice do the walking. Always be aware that a stag could come in to you silently while doing this so keep your eyes peeled. 3. Gain a bit of height to help hearing and so your roars carry further. Keep away from rivers and streams and any noise that will stop you hearing roaring stags. 4. Big stags can turn up on river flats…

It’s a funny feeling getting dropped off by helicopter – one minute you’re in civilisation – the next you’re alone in the middle of the mountains. This was the second year I had decided to do a fly-in/walk-out hunt. After doing plenty of big walk-in trips throughout the year, I was looking forward to saving my feet for the hunting, and of course to maximise time. I had been fortunate enough to take a couple of nice stags already this year, so this trip was dedicated to getting my good mate Patty something nice on the deck. We had planned to hunt our way along the tops of a main ridge system over the next five days, dropping off the tops on the last day and doing the final push…

Around nine years ago, I also picked up a camera and started photographing animals and birds. As I gained more experience with my hunting, I started to see the animals in a different light. That is to say, I was gaining a very real admiration and respect for them. And if I’m brutally honest with myself, I think it was also a case of growing as a person.The move to bowhunting 25 years ago was at a time when much of the excitement and thrill of hunting with a firearm had disappeared for me. The necessity of having to get right into well under 40 metres on an animal to ensure a clean kill introduced a whole new ball game of thrills, challenges, adrenalin, nerves and excitement. Even the ‘uncontrollable…

These trained qualities provide the platform to move, shift heavy loads and walk for hours. Both can give us a real competitive advantage when chasing game on the hill – extending both our hunting ‘range’ and the capacity to carry more load. TO DISTINGUISH THE TWO: » Muscular strength is the amount of force you can put out or the amount of weight you can lift in a small number of repetitions. » Muscular endurance is more about how many times you can sustain a repetitive movement pattern without getting heavily fatigued. In this issue we will talk about muscular strength. In the next issue we will talk about muscular endurance and how these two qualities interact. THE MECHANICS OF MUSCLE MOVEMENT All skeletal muscle contractions (apart from seizures) occur…

in mammals it also plays a crucial part in the transport and distribution of antigens, antibodies and immunologically competent cells. It is important too in the destruction of cancer cells and immune reactions to them. The whole principle of meat inspection is based around the lymphatic system. If we ever need to make a decision on a carcase, we use the lymph nodes as indicators. If you have forgotten about blood and its flow and need a refresher, go back to issue 72 where I discussed this. Reading or rereading about the blood will help you to follow this article. The word ‘lymph’ means a clear fluid and in fact, that’s what it is – a colourless watery fluid. In any animal with substantial blood pressure, fluid and some plasma…

The Tikka T3 is currently the number one selling hunting rifle in NZ, and for good reason Not many other models can boast the range of features, simplicity of design, and enviable reputation that the T3 has built up since its introduction. The T3x facelift model came out a couple of years ago, and there’s currently 22 variations of the T3x listed on the Tikka website. Now add one more – the Strata SuperLight. Striking in appearance, the Strata has a “Lichen” camo pattern (called TrueTimber) on the stock and an OD (Olive Drab) green CeraKote finish on the receiver and barrel. For those of you who don’t know, CeraKote is a very hard wearing weatherproof finish ideal for firearms. The bolt is black Teflon coated and has an enlarged…

The particular focus was downhill mountain running (and I mean alpine French alps running) which can be felt in the pronounced forefoot which changes your stance, and also in the super thick, cushioning sole - all in the pursuit of retaining momentum for running. As such it’s clear where these boot’s heritage lies, while they are a hiking boot on the footwear spectrum these are a big brother to trail runners, not a little brother to conventional boots - which makes them quite different to anything I’ve ever worn hunting. One of the obvious advantages is they’re as light as feathers – weighing in at 550 grams per boot compared to 970 in my Meindls. That’s phenomenal. Of course it comes at some cost - they have no insulation in…

Is it the hunting of them or the eating of them? I know one thing though, they cost the farmers a lot of money and there never seems to be a shortage of them! It has been estimated that rabbits in NZ cost $50 million in lost production and a further $25 million in pest control a year! Wild rabbits compete with livestock for pasture by eating the best grass and cause extensive damage from burrowing therefore making farming land useless. The main problem is that female rabbits can spend up to 70% of their life pregnant and can produce 20 to 50 young ones per adult. Rabbits and small game are generally where most kids start their hunting adventurers by being taught from an older member of the family…