Innehållsförteckning för Issue 85 från NZ Hunter

We’ve just come out of lockdown as I write this, and the poor old Aucklanders are still in level 4, so there hasn’t hunting lately our - be canned and now the Red stags have cast their antlers, but we’re hoping to squeeze in a Fallow hunt before they too drop in October. I had thought that most people who are endangering the future of hunting in New Zealand are outside of the hunting sector but unfortunately, that is not the case. I have been absolutely flabbergasted by some of the vitriolic stuff we’ve seen and heard recently that has come from within a small minority in the hunting sector aimed at the dedicated groups of volunteers that give freely of their time to try and make hunting better for…

The uniting factor for the cameras in this issue are interchangeable lenses In this article we cover the various types of interchangeable lens (ICL) cameras – DLSRs and mirrorless, crop sensors and full frame. It would be great to split this topic into two articles about crop sensor cameras and full frame cameras, but unfortunately all of the discussion is relevant to both, so buckle in for a big one! LENSES Interchangeable lenses give you the ability to swap between lenses for specific photographic situations. Each camera manufacturer has a mount system unique to their own camera bodies, so generally people use lenses made by the same manufacturer as their body, but there are a few independent lens makers. Sigma and Tamron are probably the biggest and they make lenses…

Have you shot a bull tahr stacked with age rings, a heavy old stag, or a battler of a buck? Email us some high resolution images and a caption (under 100 characters) to go into the draw to win the annual Old Man Trophy - a grand prize for one of the six winners each year: A $1000 voucher supplied by Tyron Southward Taxidermy for any of their services WINNER Cameron Forlong "Shot this bruiser of a Sika a couple years ago from Clements Mill Road. I had very mixed emotions seeing him on the ground. His one antler is 30.5", would've been quite something if he had a matching one on the otherside... He also had a damaged left eye and baggy skin like he didnt fit it anymore"…

They’re general duty pants with heavy duty double-layer nylon from upper thigh to ankles like chaps, then wrapped right around the bottom like gaiters. The concept is great, especially for pig hunters or upland bird guys, but I’ll admit I was doubtful how well they would wear with all of that reinforcing. I needn’t have worried, the Americans have their pants down to a fine art and First Line especially so. It all comes down to fit. Restrictive pants sap your energy and can chafe enough to break the skin. This was not an issue in the Sawbuck pants and that’s especially impressive given they’re built from non-stretch heavy nylon from upper thigh down. The articulated knee functioned well, retaining an attractive cut whilst preserving a full range of movement.…

I’d set Angus up with the rifle over a pack to prepare for a shot but there was a problem – the wind. The forecast had predicted nor’ west gales or severe gales for the duration of the weekend, and it had proven accurate. We watched plumes of dust and debris being hurled into the air from the streambed below us while the tussocks surrounding us shuddered with every gust. Dust blasted into our ears and eyes. But there was little we could do about the weather and we couldn’t close the distance for we were utilising the last piece of cover. The tahr meanwhile, were tucked away in a little fold amongst the tussock face, sheltered from the elements. The tussock around them barely moved. It was clear we…

Most old boars would show an outhouse rat a thing or two about cunning. In this yarn I'm going cover a few facts about boars that may interest you. Pigs inhabit a huge variety of areas, from pig beds in massive open basins in the mountains, to pig digging on the foreshore of some of our coastline. They are a very hardy and adaptable animal and can be found over much of New Zealand's landscape. In my opinion, pigs were made for bowhunters. Their poor eyesight lends a helping hand when closing into bow range, and they are often very noisy as they go about their days feeding and socialising, making it easy to locate them. They can be quite bold and create a lot of sign, adding to a…

Latin - Pseudopanax crassifolius Maori - Kapuka or papauma 70% of a deer’s total annual consumption is made up of woody plants and that 70% consists of seven main preferred species. At the top of that preferred list at 22% is broadleaf while lancewood came in second at 14%. This was a surprise to me as lancewood just doesn’t seem like a nice, succulent, nutritious food source. But there you have it … the deer obviously know something I don’t. Lancewood has several very distinctive identifying features. At first glance the most obvious one is a very straight and slim trunk. A closer look at the stem reveals a second physical attribute, that of lovely, fluted ribs and channels running length ways up the tree. These two physical characteristics make…

Spring has many positives, with days getting longer and pleasant temperatures. It’s the ideal time to fill the freezer and easy enough to keep that meat in good condition before its frozen. It’s also an ideal time to take the kids out on an adventure and show them where their food comes from. Also there’s enough daylight left after work hours to get away for an evening hunt, or to tackle a walk in on Friday evening and set yourself up for a weekend in the mountains. As the spring growth comes away on the river flats, it’s likely that’s where the deer will be. The flats are easy hunting from a terrain perspective, and focusing on the first and last half hours of light is not too disruptive to…

The tracked sections up Pell Stream from the Alfred River are not officially maintained but have been kept open and in quite reasonable condition by volunteers. The last bit of trackwork in the upper section of the route took place in January of this year. The Pell tracks were marked on NZ topomaps from 1979, but were removed and have been absent from the 2009 series onwards. Pell Stream Hut is located on the edge of an open river flat on the true right (TR) of Pell Stream with views of the Mueller Range. Whio, kaka, kakariki, and long-tailed bats can be encountered in the area and old gold workings are evident in the lower sections of the stream where there are several deep vertical shafts beside the track. There…

The exciting product range is distributed here in NZ by the team at Lacklands and I was thrilled to get my hands on a unit to play around with. These units can charge both 12v DC and 240v AC devices. The River is the smallest of the range in weight and power. For only 5kg it can power devices up to 1800w on X boost mode. It has 3x 600w (1200 surge), pure sine wave AC outlets for running virtually any common 240v appliance short of an electric stove. Alongside that it has a 100w USB-C, 2x 12W USB A ports plus 1x 18W fast charge USB. For DC power it has a 136W, 10A Car Charger port (which we wired our LED light strip to) and x2 3A DC5221…

An invite to join Paul and Andrew at Labour Weekend for their annual long weekend goose fest meant a quick check of the wall planner and a fast yes to join them. For me, the added bonus of spending a couple of days in an awe-inspiring location meant that any geese taken were going to literally be the icing on the long weekend cake. The weather forecast was a mixed bag of everything, but we headed north on an absolutely stunning spring day starting out cold and ending sunny and warm. In this location a northerly wind forecast is always an advantage for getting the birds up and moving off the riverbed but it turned out to be vastly more than a light breeze. As we headed up the lake…

"Hopping into a chopper with ten days' worth of food and hunting gear and knowing you are about to fly into some of the harshest, steepest and most remote country in New Zealand is an incomparable feeling. All the months leading in are filled with excitement, anticipation, planning and preparation for this moment... so what have we forgotten? What sights and stories will we come back with?" The feeling of isolation grew as each unpassable ridgeline disappeared behind us. As we approached George Sound, we received our first glimpse of the Whitewater Wapiti block - our home for the next ten days. As we were sharing the block with another hunting party we had split the block using the main Whitewater River as the boundary. The true left of the…

Covid-19 had come at the worst possible time for a keen hunter, just as the roar was upon us. It was a big blow for all, but it had to be done to save lives.. I had just finished nine months of training Meg, my BGID (Big Game Indicating Dog) and I was planning that my first hunts with her would be after my annual fly-in roar trip, which was obviously not happening anymore! So, now that there were several extra weeks ahead and not being allowed to hunt, I could put more training into Meg, just to consolidate all of her lessons from “The Blueprint”. Back in 2017, the Edgecumbe flood had my wife and I living in a 9m by 3m transportable cabin. We had bought a lifestyle…

Here’s a series to help you get ready. For both new and experienced hunters, the focus is on gear requirements, with some suggestions to help you trim down and ‘hunt lighter’. We’ll start with ways to hunt lighter with the gear that you most likely already have. It may make you re-think what you carry and why, or there may be simple ways to switch it up with a few key purchases. With summer and autumn hunts on the horizon you’ll likely want to get more out of these trips. Perhaps you’re thinking of doing a few reconnaissance trips to spy out where big stags might be for the roar, or looking out for good concentrations of female chamois in those less frequented valleys, so that you can be in…

Note: Photos must be of a suitable size for printing - a minimum file size of 1MB is preferred. Grand Winner Mitchell Thomas 13 with his first stag shot at 40m with Dad's 6mm Rem - Pureroa Forest Thomas Brown with his first billy goat, shot up the Old Woman Range with his new 223 Jacob Johnson (14) shot his first stag with his cousin in Wairoa Lachie Ensor 'I am 10 years old and I caught this 42cm Rainbow tr out trolling on Lake T aupo with my gr andad John" Shane Powley's buck was taken on a r ecent trip to the South Island with a Browning 7mm WSM Josh Telford (15) with friend Chris in the Tongariro area…

He runs a hunting and fishing outfitting business, specialising in moose hunts. His hunters harvest several moose per annum over the 70 inch mark – yes 70 inches!! Personally I wasn’t too worried about the width of a moose but had antler mass and big fronts in mind. I had paid for a moose tag, and also one each of a brown bear and black bear tag, although the chances of filling all three was very remote. Having two bear tags in my pocket allowed me to be able to shoot a wolf or wolverine if we came across one, and still have the brown bear tag up my sleeve, which I could use for brown or black bear. So, I had options (Alaskan Fish and Wildlife have a system…

And when you’re shooting at long range, you’re often wanting to make elevation and windage corrections for the specific environmental conditions of the day - but to be able to do this, you need to know where your shot actually went in the first place! No matter how powerful your spotting scope, atmospheric conditions like mirage will dictate whether you can see your bullet holes or not. In ideal conditions with a quality spotter you can usually see reasonable size bullets holes in the white of a target out to 600 yards, but beyond 300 yards they are impossible in the black. The bullet splash on a freshly painted gong can be seen a lot further out, but if you miss the gong due to misreading the elevation/ wind correction…

You can now find kombucha on tap in bars, not to mention all the fridges in Cafes are full of the stuff. Sourdough bread in restaurants and cafes and more varieties of yoghurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi in your local supermarket People have been using the natural process of fermentation all over the world for thousands of years. So, chances are you have been eating some form of fermented foods, maybe without even realising it. So many of the everyday staples we take for granted such as wine, tea, cheese bread and chocolate – are all made using different fermentation processes – not to mention beer as this fits into this category as well. So, what is Fermented food? In short fermented foods are foods and beverages that have undergone controlled…