Innehållsförteckning för Issue 83 från NZ Hunter

The cold weather and snow has hit with a vengeance in some areas, and winter is really here now! It's tahr and chamois rut time, and we’re trying to get in the hills every suitable weather window – of which there haven’t been many! You’ll have to wait until next season’s episodes to see the results, but let’s just say – girls rule! The 21/22 annual tahr control plan we’ve been trying to work on with DOC has now been released. It is written only at Management Unit (MU) level, and on the surface we are happy with most of it, but as the saying goes – the devil is in the detail. We have given DOC extensive information on areas within the management units that require more attention, and…

It was now mid-April and the start of the school holidays. It was my first time in the South Island and I was so excited! I had always wanted to hunt chamois and a Red stag. I live on a sheep and beef farm on the North Island, and I have only seen a few wild deer. The biggest animal I have shot is a wild goat After weeks of fine weather, the day we flew to the South Island was wet, and as we landed in Christchurch it was wet and foggy. We drove two hours north to my uncle’s farm and sat tight for the next day because of the weather. I was starting to wonder if this hunt would actually happen! That night we checked the weather.…

The species and the country they live in can push you and your abilities to new levels, as well as truly testing your gear. If it’s a mature stag you’re after then I’m sure most Rusa hunting stories in New Zealand will start off pretty much the same. Cold. Countless days sitting on blisteringly cold faces watching deer bask in the winter sun. Ironically these are the best days and probably the ones that have taught me the most as a hunter. The importance of sitting and watching. So the plan is pretty much the same most times I head out into the Ureweras to chase these elusive beasts – find a nice sunny face within range and watch. You've got to be happy just watching, learning not to pull…

From a filming perspective, smartphones are becoming increasingly useful pieces of kit. With every upgrade and new model, camera resolutions, frame rates, sensor sizes, and lenses are vastly increasing in quality. Image stabilization in phones has really developed in recent years, but the same technology has been applied to the action cameras and compacts as well. As mentioned, their typical lack of zoom and short focal length means they’re useful for two main video scenarios: filming close and spontaneous clips and selfies, or connecting it to film through your spotting scope in the likes of a Phoneskope case. The added magnification of the spotting scope (which you’re carrying anyway) suddenly turns your cellphone into a high-quality super zoom machine and allows you to capture great animal footage which can be…

I was thinking about hunting and life, and some of the things I have learned over the years, and thought I would jot some down for this issue. I apologise in advance if I offend anyone, but these are my lessons. We are all different and make different decisions around things and that is OK by me. My priority here is to speak straight to younger hunters who are surrounded by a ton of hype and opinion, and hopefully encourage them to take a step back and look with open eyes at some of the reasons people do things. This has never been more important with so much information and chat bombarding us on social media. So, I hope you can forgive my thoughts and take from it what you…

It had the best combination of range finding and optical features in the most ergonomic size and weight package for our particular usage. The second generation came out in 2015, which entailed some minor ergonomic changes relating to the neck strap and eyepiece covers. These first two iterations of the EL Range used standard definition/non Swarovision optics, and although they were still better optically than most other binocular rangefinders, I always wondered how long it would be until Swarovski put their fluorite lens/ Swarovision technology into the EL Range. Well, in March of this year the Gen 3 EL Ranges were released and bingo – incorporating the full Swarovision optical system including the field flattener lenses. But Swarovski didn’t stop there. They have also incorporated full Bluetooth compatibility with a…

Firstly, we finished off the assembly. Fluting and sandblasting the barrel, fitting the stock and the bipod and then moving on to tuning a load. ASSEMBLY BARREL FLUTING Ian graciously performed the fluting while we were all out in the hills chasing stags around! It’s a precise milling operation, especially a button rifled barrel that may still have residual stress. As we’ve said previously in this series, removing metal from a steel component with residual stress from an earlier manufacturing process stress relieves it, which will allow that steel to move and grow somewhat. With a tube like a rifle barrel, it means the diameter both externally and internally may increase. If you remove more metal from one flute than the others during the fluting process, then the bore will…

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 We're finally up to the actual reloading part! Read on below for a step-by-step description of the process STEP 1 - RESIZE/ DEPRIME Starting with used cases, take your cases and place them in the reloading tray. Give them 3-4 sprays of case lube, ensuring the inside of the case neck gets lubed. It’s important not to over lube the cases to avoid denting the shoulder of the case. If using the lanolin/isopropyl alcohol mix, leave the sprayed cases for 4-5mins until…

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.…

A great way to turn your secondary cuts of meat into something awesome for the BBQ is to make a batch of proper saussies. Luke Kavanagh is the founder of The New Zealand Casings Co., an Aussie import (don’t hold that against him) and passionate sausage maker. I've caught up with him to learn all about sausage casings (skins), sausage making and why you should never prick your sausage. NATURAL VERSUS COLLAGEN? When it comes to sausage casings, Luke is a fanatical naturalist (not to be confused with a naturist which is something quite different!). He believes that natural casings are perfectly made by mother nature so there is absolutely no need to muck around with casings that were invented in a science laboratory (aka collagen casings). Sausage casings generally…

The oldest of the three, Scottys Biv, is located at 1000m on the Tara Tama Range high above the Taipo valley. It is one of three remaining first batch B49 bivs built by the NZFS in Westland in 1958. The late Alan Farmer from Rotorua was one of those who put it together with materials dropped from a Dominie aircraft with wing racks. He later wrote about it in his book of high-country exploits called, "The Best Job Ever." Scottys is an old dog box classic with flat-iron walls and roof and a single perspex window down at the end. It is perched on a tussock bench overlooking the impressive rock buttresses of Tara Tama and is only accessible from the tops. In 2006 Scottys became Permolat’s first maintain-by-community project.…

The Kahu's design endeavours to make the most of its comfy harness and provide a significant amount of storage to go with it. It starts with a full length, zip-topped pocket behind the binocular pouch for your phone, so it sits right against your chest. This is a huge plus for me, these days a phone is a crucial piece of kit. You use it for GPS apps, ballistic apps, quick snaps etc., the list goes on. To have it nice and protected but also handy is a great design element. It could fit an Iphone 11 with a lifeproof case on, so should cater to most larger phones. Beyond the phone pouch it had two capacious elastic-topped pockets either side. Heaps large enough for earplugs, a small knife, spare…

This will be the most polarising recipe to date….. I think. What I mean by this is that you will either love it, you will hate it, or you will think, ‘I haven’t tried it and will give it a go and make my own decision from there’ and then you will fall into one of those other camps. What I am talking about is, of course, offal. Offal is the word given to the organs of an animal and the pieces we generally leave behind. Hopefully, we can change your thinking on that. Cooking with offal offers a lot of benefits and options, apart from the nutritional aspect, and this shouldn’t be overlooked. Some of the items we now eat and love without really thinking about it, such as…

In 2018 we were due to fly into our balloted block, Bubble Creek, for the fourth period, but the forecast for the whole time was atrocious with heavy snow predicted for most of the week. We had made the call to pull the pin a few days prior, thinking it wouldn’t be worth the travel from Wellington, if we were even able to get into our block. The team was the same as we had last year - my Dad Mike and his long-time hunting mate, Barry, and me (Josh), with our destination this year being the Edison Block. Day 1 Being from the North Island, I was really looking forward to my first tahr hunting trip down on the West Coast. I was hoping to bag my first tahr…

Yet I was thwarted in this secondary goal by the deficit of animals from the recent tahr cull - promoted by those supposed experts in government that had resulted in a swathe of killing around both sides of the Divide Mostly I found just carcasses, both male and female, in my area, and only one lone juvenile bull that quickly scarpered. So, after hiding out for some while, I headed on down the ridge trying to find some more bulls. This is when it got interesting. At one point I sat down and glassed along the slope down below my position above the bluffs and immediately picked up a lone Fallow, just mooching around in the scrub. He was too far away for me to take the shot, so I…

Understanding what you are seeing can help you work out where the really old bulls might be, or at least save you from wasting a heap of time in looking at one immature bull after another. Partially as a result of our tahr ballot most people seem to focus on the first few periods, which is understandable as the weather is warmer and there is less chance of your camp being buried under knee deep snow. However, often in those early periods, the rut hasn’t even started, or is really only just warming up, so there’s certainly pros and cons to getting in early. But sitting back and watching a bit might actually help you be more effective when you get in there. Outside of the rut one can see…

If it can fit in your pocket (i.e doesn’t need to be carried in your pack, out of reach) you will capture not only more photos, but a better variety of photos, as you can have it out in an instant to capture that dramatic moment. Perhaps a stag that’s walked out in front of you, or the little things like your friend leaping across a creek – things you wouldn’t have had the time or inclination to stop and get your big camera out for. Smartphones Smartphones are home to some of the most advanced camera technology. They’re severely limited by the space the camera component can take up within the body of the phone but incredible consumer demand and market competition combined with massive profits means a whole…

THIS IS ONE OF THE PHOTOS OF LAST ISSUE'S STAG AND THESE ARE THE PANEL'S OPINIONS: >Cam Sika demonstrate incredible variability across the central North Island both geographically and seasonally. We don’t know where or when these pics were taken. But my immediate first impression of this stag is “lanky” which could mean youth and/or poor feed and/ or late/post rut timing. The ash-pan manuka-tussock habitat certainly speaks to me of ‘hungry’ country but you don’t grow big antlers without some reasonable nutrition, so I suspect this guy has had access to improved pasture or soils with marine sediment influence. He’s probably therefore, in the southern end of the range. A reasonably good Sika stag at skeletal maturity (3+years) stands 30 inches at the shoulder, and has a skull length…

Suddenly manufacturers couldn’t claim exaggerated velocities for their products anymore, as they were getting caught out by the number of shooters who now had chronographs. These shooters quickly called BS when they found the velocities didn’t come close to matching those advertised. And handloaders have been able to work up far more consistent loads with a much better handle on pressure and velocity variations. The large majority of these chronographs have used the photo-cell light-sensitive screen technology that relies on seeing the bullet passing over the screens to start and stop very accurate stop watches. A simple little calculation in the various units “brains” of time taken to travel the distance between the screens and bingo you have the instrumental velocity. As all this type of chronograph relies on is…