Innehållsförteckning för Issue 82 från NZ Hunter

This is the point where we progressively cut the barrel length down and recorded velocities, I will just be relaying their findings as this level of gunsmithing is well beyond me! First - A quick recap for those picking up the series now: The goal of the build is a compact, lightweight 20” barreled 28 Nosler capable of a wide range of hunting situations - using a Hardy barrel on a Tikka action, Leupold VX6 Scope and NZ Hunter CF stock with DPT can and Spartan CF bipod. THE LOAD The first job for this issue is to decide on the preferred load, which Greg determined to be a 180gn Berger Hybrid seated to an OAL length of 3.400” - the maximum you can fit in a modified Tikka long…

BLACKWATCH RELOADING 101 Experienced reloader Jared Hearsey, who will be familiar to you from recent articles, has generously gifted us his reloading manual to reproduce in a series of articles. If you want to skip straight to the meat of it you can order the manual at: www.blackwatchreloadingco.nz To obtain powder options and charge weights, you must always consult a manufacturer’s load data manual such as those provided by Hodgdon, ADI, Sierra and Nosler. In fact, the majority of powder and projectile manufacturers now publish load data that’s available for free on their websites, and some have even launched free apps. The manual will require you to determine the calibre you wish to load, the projectile weight you intend to load and the powder you want to use. It will…

Dogs have been important to humans as companions and hunting aids for a very long time. The wolf is at the root of the modern dog's family tree and all you need to do is observe your dog's social nature to see the evidence of this lineage. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese and Japanese all have ancient artwork and texts that depict their canines as friends and cherished hunters from more than 10,000 years ago. Exactly when and where dogs were first domesticated is up for debate. But in an era where the life of a tribe depended on the hunter's success there is no arguing that the introduction of dogs as a hunting tool was revolutionary. In Aotearoa, the kuri were the first dogs introduced here by Maori ancestors.…

These days there is so much hunting content, videos, YouTube clips and other resources to learn the ways of the ‘hunter’ but a lot of the fundamentals about hunting and being in the outdoors can easily be missed out. I think we can all agree that the best way to learn is through doing If hunting isn’t something that you grew up with then the good news is that throughout the years the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association (NZDA) have run their Hunter National Training Scheme “HUNTS'' course with great success. The course has equipped many new hunters with the skillsets, acumen and knowledge to get out there in the wilderness with confidence to chase the numerous game animals throughout NZ. The topics covered by HUNTS are: » Ethics, ecology and…

Both Townsend and Koropuku (Big Tops) huts were NZFS S80 structures built in the Park in the 1960’s, maintained for some time by APNP, and then by DOC Hokitika They were designated as minimal maintenance in a DOC 2004 review and hadn’t had much attention for a while prior to this. The slow decline in condition of Koropuku Hut and its access track was noted with concern quite early on by Frank King and Honora Renwick of Christchurch and they adopted the hut, furnished it, and started regularly maintaining the tracked sections of the route to it from the Otehake Valley. These two were an inspiration for me when I was starting up the Remote Huts website and the Permolat Group. Townsend Hut was picked up much later in the…

They had previously been famous for their break barrel single shots – but the advent of the Icon and Venture heralded the production of their first bolt action rifles. The Venture was the more economically priced of those two options, but since then they have gone on to add an even more economically priced model – the Compass – which we reviewed back in Issue 66. Recently T/C have given both the Venture and the Compass an upgrade, and called them their “II” series. VENTURE II One of the bug bears of the original Venture off the shelf according to overseas reviewers was the trigger wasn’t up to the standard of the rest of the rifle. While I was able to get the original trigger down to a satisfactory 1.5…

We’d had a spectacular couple of days. Not long released from lockdown, Greg, Emil and I had just filmed a very satisfying and successful main divide Red stag trip and topped it off with a big crew of us enjoying the delights of Lake Ellesmere There was competition and laughs, good food and banter. The focus is always on having fun and not having to worry about cameras. We had three maimais all near to each other. In the first was Willie and Cal Mackenzie, sometimes joined by Cal’s wife Toya and Ash who was only weeks away from bringing little Isla in to the world. Next up was myself and Emil with my wife Sam, carefully placed in the centre blind because neither Emil nor I had learnt to…

HI GREG How short can I cut my 270 barrel if I want to run a can on it? I’ve heard some guys are shortening them down to 18”, and some even down to 16”? What are your thoughts on this? How will it affect accuracy, performance and how will a suppressor handle it? I don’t want to jeopardise any of these? CHEERS, DAVE HI DAVE That is a very good question which crops up frequently about many calibres, and I’ll answer what I can, and then we’ll go straight to the horse’s mouths so to speak for the rest of the answer! Firstly, accuracy wise, the shorter you make your barrel, the stiffer it will be and the theoretically more accurate it should be. This doesn’t always pan out…

As a hunting guide before lock down, I’d never really had a decent chance at hunting a mature Red stag over on the coast. I’m definitely not the best bush hunter by anybody’s measure, so I was looking forward to the challenge. After many days (which seemed like years) stuck inside with lock down I decided to head up a beautiful West Coast river with my good friend Zane Collins and my dog Bud. We set sail two hours before dark and started our way up the river, a rifle in my hand and Zane with his bow I had been talking to the local farmer who had said that if we saw two wild bulls while we were up there, to shoot them as he was going to be…

Nick, who I had met through Huntsoc, the student-organised hunting club at the University of Canterbury, had secured a roar block in the Haast wilderness area. Our paths crossed on campus the morning of our departure in late March. Nick had just finished his last engineering exam of Term 1 and had his gear and food all packed, ready to go. I, being a frantic postgrad student in the middle of conducting field work, still had experiments to tend to, maps to print out, and a truck-load of gear to organize. So, after a bit of humming and hawing, Nick graciously agreed to change the oil in the grunty old Nissan Terrano that I had recently purchased, and after several more errands and enduring the usual Ashvegas rush-hour traffic, we…

Now that is a big question. It depends on a lot of things, but is mostly constrained by intended use and budget. Over the course of the next few articles we are going explore the various camera options for the beginner, the bush hunter, the YouTuber or the professional. We’ll cover it all from phones and GoPro’s to DSLRs with million dollar lenses, Neutral Density filters, pent-axial image stabilisation and 96mp sensors. First off though, a little about me. I have had no formal training as a photographer. All that I have learned has come from experience in the field and it is all directly from hunting - a lot of ‘Hmm, that photo didn’t turn out as I expected, how do I fix that?” (and a lot of Matt…

THIS IS ONE OF THE PHOTOS OF LAST ISSUE'S STAG AND THESE ARE THE PANEL'S OPINIONS: Cam This is a really good example of different views providing different perspectives of an animal. In the quartering away image this stag looks older, while in the quartering forward image, he looks way younger. This stag is certainly starting to show some maturity, but we can’t really see the shape of his body or his leg length relative to body shape/size. His erect head and high pedicle height suggest he has a bit more development in him yet. He has good tine length on his tops but only the nub of one bez time on his right antler. If he retains access to good feed, I suspect this stag will put a lot…

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.…

It is one of their new range of premium outer layers, a heavy duty rain jacket using a full length zip with a focus on waterproofing and breathability properties. It uses quite a bulky material and comes across as very robust but I was pleasantly surprised when I weighed my XL in at 1130gms, a medium or large should be closer to the 1kg mark. The XL is a very roomy fit, good for the blokes out there with a big motor! There is a waistband drawstring that brings it back in though. At about 6’1” I and 105kg I might have got away with the large, but the XL is nice and spacious in the shoulders and has heaps of room for winter layers. The main function of a…

There’s a definite change to the weather with the heat of the summer but a distant memory. There’s a chill in the air and a spring in the step of all those keen waterfowlers out there. At long last it’s nearly duck season In this article I’m going to cover some tips and tricks that will hopefully make your ducks season better and more fun. In each section I’m going to include some real life scenarios to put things into perspective. GUN FAMILIARISATION Most articles like this always start with writers telling readers to get out there, pattern your load and gun combos and/or have a clay bird shoot to get your eye in. Mine will differ somewhat. Lots of hunters have been using the same load, choke and gun…

Sometimes though, I just think for the sake of the ease of service and carving for a crowd, boneless is the way to go So for this recipe the down side is that you will need to pluck the whole duck, and you’re still using the whole bird not just the breast meat. There are several ways to do this, but the best and quickest way to pluck them I have found is to heat a pot of water (big enough to hold a duck) to 80 deg C and add a wee squirt of detergent. Then plunge the birds in and out of the water for around 20 seconds and the feathers will just pull off easily. You have a very clean bird ready to debone. This recipe will…

My best mate and partner in crime Martin (RUSKI) Pannins, and I were heading directly into the beas - the Southern Alps. We had travelled for 24 hours through the night from our warm Hawkes Bay, and as our eyes adjusted to the growing light, we realised just how much snow there was. But the clouds were no more - not one could be seen and it was a classic bluebird day in an alpine wonderland. At our first stop in Tekapo we checked in with good friend, and head of our South Island intelligence agency or ‘local’ for short, Tim Story. After an hour’s wind down and a catch up with Timmy, it was time to wind up again and carry on down towards Mt Cook and deep into…

The opening statement of the Policy reads: "Deer are a serious conservation pest". Very few of us believe that statement, although we all recognise game animals do have an ecological consequence in natural habitats and that they must be carefully managed. . It is very clear 20 years on that the current Deer Policy has been an abject failure. Reliance on fickle international commodity markets and exchange rates to drive a commercial Wild Animal Recovery Operator (WARO) based deer management model that directly competes with other hunting sectors is fundamentally flawed. A lack of investment in research and monitoring hasn't helped. As the Department of Conservation follows a new Deer Plan development process, the opportunity arises to address game animal impacts through a new approach. There are huge win-win outcomes…

So, as the title reads, I'm about to give a full review on my personal how-to for bush hunting roaring Red stags. I started my bush hunting career in the Kaimai Ranges, near where I grew up. For me, the early years were spent exploring areas and covering much of that range. It took me a couple of years to find good areas and regularly start knocking over deer. These were the years I really learnt a lot about deer stalking in the bush and cutting my teeth so to speak, as I was very much self-taught. THE AREA As far as the roar goes, pick a spot you know and hunt it year-round and you will soon learn the area and the feed patterns around that spot, and when…

These days you can spend a bunch of time “E-Scouting” on various apps and websites to try and plan a feasible route, as well as get much more detailed forecasts even whilst in the field, such as via an Inreach. Guidebooks such as Moirs are still a fantastic resource, and provide good route descriptions for both the obvious and the more obscure places. Moirs has provided the inspiration for many a trip into new country over the years, and today’s range of online tools certainly compliments the research and route planning, as well as making you safer by having a better understanding of weather and avalanche hazards and so on. Here is a brief rundown of some of the more relevant online tools available, ready for when you’re planning that…

I talked about energy and killing ability alongside recoil, ammunition costs and availability, and threw them all together to see what came out the other side. One of the big winners was a wee cartridge that doesn’t get a lot of press amongst the hunting fraternity, but which is well known internationally for both good and bad reasons. That calibre is of course the 7.62x39 and it got me thinking. Now, I am not a huge player when it comes to building rifles. I like to put a lot of thought in, get something that works well for its chosen purpose, and then spend time getting to know the set up and making memories with it. I don’t chop and change rifles a lot. I love short, light, highly portable…

There I was, back in my second favourite place on the planet, Alaska. My buddy Wade (Renfro’s Alaskan Adventures) had had a late cancellation and offered me the spot so I was in Quick scramble for flights, hunting tags, etc and there I was. It was 23rd September, and moose rut time. My guide Todd had 20 years experience under his belt and was accompanied by his young ‘greenhorn’ assistant, John. I had flown into Anchorage, then northwest to the small township of Bethel. From Bethel we flew in a six-seater Beaver float plane further north to the hunting area. They had a good camp set up and I had a the luxury of a sleeping tent to myself. I got myself sorted and then to the cooking tent to…

But of course, the Swarovski optical engineers have not been resting on their laurels, they have been beavering away in their laboratories in Absam in the Tyrol, and last year released a new model with an even further improved optical design. Move over ELs, let me introduce the NL Pures! Swarovski are always very careful to keep their new developments under their hat until they have actual production capability and are ready to ship to their customers around the world. They are also very careful to protect their optical designs, in typical stoic, tight lipped Austrian fashion. So about as much as we know technically about the NL Pure design is it has enhanced field flattener lenses – that they say deliver an almost flat, completely distortion-free image – right…

Like many hunters around New Zealand, I am extremely excited about this year’s roar. As we know the 2020 roar was largely cancelled due to the level 4 lockdown This was a hard pill to swallow for many hunters, but it did have a silver lining. With very few males harvested last year the expectation is that there should be a lot of high-quality animals around and that could mean one of the best roar periods for a long time. I will certainly be out there having cleared the diary for a solid two-week stint in the hills. My role at the Game Animal Council is extremely busy and with a young family my hunting opportunities have been limited so I have been looking forward to this year’s roar for…