Innehållsförteckning för Issue 95 från NZ Hunter

Our only roaring horn, the sleeves on my merino shirt and a litre or two of sweat seemed a small price to pay for the view of the basin above me. It wasn't long before the critters began moving about. A lonely one-antlered stag revealed his track to the tops and a couple of chamois could be seen high up on a steep rock face. I kept climbing higher and higher before realising it was now going to be a headtorch mission to the bottom. The only trouble was that a headtorch wouldn't last five seconds on my head fighting through the thick dracophyllum, alpine totara and leatherwood. I radioed Charlie on the opposite face and told him I'd stay up here and see him the next day. As the…

NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE How To Over the past few years I have noticed that there are consistently better "trophy" animals being harvested. Now this could be because of the influx of ways to communicate your hunting success -1 mean if you didn't put it on Facebook, did you even shoot a bull? It's now far easier to keep track of who is shooting what and where because of the photos that get published, and it's easy to judge the quality rather than the old mate at the pub telling you that Bruce from down the way shot a bloody massive bull the other day. There are actually very few people I trust when they tell me they saw a good animal (maybe I'm just getting picky) but photos don't usually…

A thick band of monkey scrub separates the steep bush-covered valleys from the rugged mountain tops above. Rough battered tracks weave their way up the gorge riddled rivers - it has a certain allure to it. You know it always has the potential to offer up that trip of a lifetime. That's exactly what Chris, Raddy, and I were searching for when planning a week of hunting into one of our bucket list spots. We'd spent hours poring over maps, analysing route guides and reading stories of other adventurers' trials and tribulations experienced in the remote headwaters of the area. All we needed now was a bit of luck with the weather forecast and we were off. Rain. Bucketloads of it. Our second Westland trip was cancelled for the year.…

NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE How To The process of properly cleaning your rifle, and especially bore, can be a bit overwhelming with often contradictory information thrown about. I asked Greg to run me through a complete demonstration while I took notes - and here's the results. If you’re a bit daunted by the outlay of all of these tools and products, band together between your group of mates and chip in. For the volumes we use as recreational hunters these products will last a long time. RIFLE BORE CLEANING TO BEGIN There are two compounds present in bore fouling. Carbon and copper. The first to clean is always the carbon, and on quality barrels that’s likely all you’ll ever have to worry about. Use a bore guide – the ones with…

NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE How To The hut vistas are dominated by the towering northern faces of Mt Alexander whose bush covered slopes bordering the flat taper rapidly to sheer rock. There are two gorges in the lower Crooked and the track to the hut is rough and undulating. It’s not the easiest of walks and the state of the track is not ideal currently. At the moment a fit party would need to allow a good 5-6 hours to reach the hut from the roadend. Upstream of Jacko Flat the river settles down somewhat and the terrain becomes gentler with more open flats. Top Crooked Hut at the head of the valley is only a couple of hours further up from Jacko Flat. The Crooked has always been a fairly…

Supplying not only apparel, but now binoculars and trail cameras. The new trail camera caught my eye as it comes in very cheap at only $200, so when Ridgeline offered one to review I jumped at the chance. It arrived just in time for the roar, perfect I thought! There was no time to get too familiar with it, it needed to get in the hills asap. Local lad Josh Coles and I set it up on a wallow with high hopes of hundreds of stag photos. When Josh went to collect it a month later we discovered that we hadn't turned it on properly. … the slide button from 'off'to 'setup'to 'on' doesn't have a very positive click. Be sure to wait until you see the five second countdown…

NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE How To New Zealand Herald 27 November 2006 Missing hunter spends fourth night missing in ranges Police are still confident of finding alive a Northland hunter after his fourth night lost in the Kaimanawa Ranges. Andreas Thirling, 50, from Ruakaka, went on a solo hunt for deer in the Waipakihi River Valley on Thursday morning and failed to return that night. Senior Constable Barry Shepherd said conditions in the ranges had been mild and "all is not lost". "It's been a bit cold at night, but the weather's not been too bad. "We're being realistic though," Mr Shepherd said. This morning dog handlers were joining 11 search and rescue teams, which stayed in the area overnight. Mr Thirling was described as an inexperienced hunter who was not…

GWYN THURLOW - NZDA Fallow Deer Dama dama Male = Buck Female = Doe Young = Fawn First brought to New Zealand in 1853, there have been numerous liberations of fallow deer all over the country. Today, they have a patchy but widespread (and increasing) distribution, being found on both public and private land. Fallow deer are the second most hunted species of deer in New Zealand, beaten only by the red deer, but is that order changing due to the prevalence of fallow deer?. Characteristics & Behaviour: Fallow are a medium-sized deer. Bucks usually reach up to 1m at the shoulder, and weigh up to 90kg; does are smaller, standing up to 85cm at the shoulder and weighing up to 55kg. For most of the year, fallow deer tend to form…

The low number of entries is probably from the loss of momentum of the competition due to the previous cancellations. The slight drop in the average age of Harvest in 2021 and 2023 could suggest there are more young stags around, but the following graph suggests it is more likely there are fewer older stags in the herd. Average jaw size has remained boringly consistent. The largest jaw is an anomaly. This stag was only 40 months old and has a jaw size similar to a Fiordland Wapiti type animal. Escapee? And again the Oldest Stag column has remained consistent at around 8 years. Red stags reach antler maturity at 8/10 years of age. Old animals are very rare in this herd due to the hunting pressure. Pureora Stag Statistics…

NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE Events & Politics When the Te Ara ki Mua wild animal management framework was released in June 2022 one of its key principles was the involvement of communities and hunters in the management of deer, tahr, chamois and wild pigs, and the control of goats. To those involved in local conservation work, the positive role of the community is obvious. However, we should never take political support for local conservation for granted and we need to remain vigilant to make sure that local people (including hunters) remain at the very heart of conservation and game animal management in New Zealand. The reason I raise this point, is not to unnecessarily provoke anxiety amongst hunters that they will suddenly be cut out of the system. In fact, I…

NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE Food & Fauna Traditionally the casings are made from intestine, but sometimes synthetic materials are used. You could say sausages are as kiwi as it gets, up there with the meat pie, jandals and pav. How many fundraisers or charity events and sporting clubs use the sausage sizzle as a means of money making outside our DIY stores or on the side of sporting fields every Saturday, with a slice of white bread, tom sauce and onions? I can remember fishing trips with my poppa, and we always had smoked savs for lunch out of a pot on the riverside, and when he was at work as a builder, he used to boil them in a jug. Saveloys are also a type of sausage and every kids…

So, when my long-time bush and diving buddy Daza suggested a mid-winter heli-hunt I jumped at the chance. My last hunting trip with him had been on his stag do and saw me bag two Sika and a 6lb trout, so I was happy to trust his nose to find us a good location. The Ureweras were chosen because we would likely get a hut to ourselves and maybe find some foolish deer hoping to warm themselves by our fire. This trip seemed to be blessed from the outset, as not only was Daza doing all the planning, but my Dad decided to join us. With the help of the lads at Heli Hire in Murupara we loaded up and flew over the Galatea foothills into the wild. Flying in…

I’ve now lived in New Zealand for ten years and relish the opportunity to hunt the magnificent large game animals this country has to offer, thriving on the chance to explore new territory but also the privilege of being able to harvest fresh free-range meat to feed the family. Crossing paths with a mature trophy animal along the way is always an added bonus. In the last weekend of May, Braydon and I decided to hit the mountains in search of my very first chamois. Family and life commitments meant we only had a twoday window for this hunt. We set off first thing Friday morning and headed for Makarora, where we decided to try our luck in new public land and were flown into the valley at first light.…

Kai, my one-year-old Viszla/German Shorthaired Pointer cross, winded then looked back at me. This was our fifth day of public land bush hunting since we’d completed the Deer Dog Blueprint. We’d already accounted for a Red spiker on our first visit to the Kaimais, and a respectable Sika stag in an area close to where we had been on a previous trip. We were about an hour into our early winter morning walk deep in the Kaimanawas, along a rich green moss covered bush trail alongside a steep river gully system. “Trust the dog” was something my hunting friends had drilled into me. With that thought in my mind, I encouraged him with a double peep whistle to move and follow the scent. He acknowledged and worked ahead. Ducking under…

NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE How To A SERIES PROFILING A TAHR BALLOT BLOCK EACH ISSUE Between 1899 and 1924, Teichelmann recorded 26 first ascents of mountains and seven first crossings of passes, cols, or saddles. He was also a prolific photographer that dragged the extremely heavy cameras of the era along on his journeys, and today a collection of more than 600 of these images is held in the MacMillan Brown Collection of the University of Canterbury. So, it is hardly surprising that there are a number of peaks, passes, and creeks named after him as well as a monument in Hokitika. Teichlemanns Creek is located near the head of the Perth Valley in the Adams wilderness area, and right on the main divide where, with a bit of effort, you could…

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All the while we happily banged away at some good-sized mobs of parries and the odd unlucky mallard as they flew past to reach their nightly feeding grounds. As it got darker and all the cars had switched on their headlights we decided it was time to call it quits on what had been an exciting and profitable hunt. We had a big pack up ahead of us and Dad and my son Jake had a good two-hour drive back home. David had an hours drive a head of him and I was lucky enough to be heading even further north to cross off something that I had on my bucket list since I was a kid. I was off to hunt a trophy ram and a huge Fallow buck…