Table of contents for Issue 89 in NZ Hunter

It is to be used for general hunting but also a bit of varminting, goat control and especially with youths and newbies. The idea stemmed from the trusty 223. I love mine. I have poured out thousands rounds on goats, possums and a reasonable number of deer over the years. The calibre has super low recoil and very cheap ammo is available. But it doesn’t deliver a lot of energy and a summer zephyr would blow it off course. Within the space of a week I had two situations where I questioned the 223’s limitations. One with my wife Sam shooting a Fallow buck at 250 yards, quartering on. I didn’t trust the light 50gn projectile to adequately penetrate through the shoulder. I needn’t have worried as she perfectly threaded…

Recently there was an article in the Southland Times titled ‘Deer Decimating Southland Forest’. Of course, every anti-deer person including Forest & Bird jumped on the wagon, chucking in their five cents worth The Hokonui Hills were a key case study for the article. Farmers were quoted as saying they are seeing large amounts of deer out on their farms. As it so happens, I know the Hokonui Hills well - in fact, as I write this, I am looking out the window at them. The article touched on carbon loss, canopy collapse and water quality - all the big-ticket environment problems blamed on deer. The article also touched on the deer population issue in other parts of Southland – for example, the likes of Landcorp farms that seem to…

We began our 10k walk from The Divide off the Milford Road, our destination for the first night was the McKellar Hut, this took roughly three hours in the dark along the Greenstone track. We decided to go the night before the ballot started so we could beat the forecasted weather and get an early morning hunt in before the rain. 200m from the hut we spotted an orphan fawn, who was a little young for the time of year and did not look too healthy, previous hunters might have shot the mum. After giving him some pats, he then followed us for 20 or so metres then realised that our bleets were not coming from his mum. This was a strange encounter but also a good start to our…

With its head basin squeezed between the two 2640m peaks of Mount Hooker and Mount Dechen it certainly looks and feels very alpine, even from back down at 700m where the landing site is – especially when you’re looking up at the 700 meters vertical of the McCardell Glacier. The campsite is fairly sheltered and handy to water, but as usual you’ll be waiting a while for the sun to hit and start drying yesterday’s socks. But it’s a great spot with a bunch of room and plenty of glassing from camp, just make sure you have a decent down jacket. This valley is seldom travelled outside of the tahr ballot apart from the odd keen tramper making the crossing into the Landsborough or the Clarke via the two passes…

Male = BullFemale = NannyYoung = Kid Known as the “King of the Southern Alps”, Himalayan tahr are a species of goat-like animal indigenous to the Southern flanks of the Himalayan Mountains. Tahr are one of New Zealand’s most respected, valued and premier big game animals. A Valued Big Game Animal for 118 Years Tahr were first introduced into New Zealand in 1904 as a gift from Herbrand Arthur Russell, the then Duke of Bedford. Six tahr were initially shipped from Plymouth, England and were released near Mueller Glacier, Mt Cook. Unfortunately, only five of the tahr made it to New Zealand – one bull escaped from its crate and jumped overboard en route. Further liberations occurred over the following years, increasing the number and range of the tahr. One…

Just because Angelo was born in Glasgow, Scotland, you won’t find a deep-fried Mars bar in this book as that’s a totally different style of cuisine! But with his Cyprian/Mediterranean heritage it's great to see a touch of this come through in the recipes, or even some classic flavours such as my favourite duck and quince with red wine jus on page 50. There are several things that will attract you to this book; first is the layout of the various sections of game and fish, and there is a comprehensive section on tips and tricks with preparation instructions like plucking, filleting etc. You should also find something to accompany your dish in the Favs and Flavours section. The way in which the book has been written is very organised…

Most often we only hear about other people's good luck and, when once in a blue moon, one of our own mates gets lucky, we get to be supportive of their little moment of glory. Then, when hell freezes over and pigs might fly it could be our turn to get lucky. On the last night of my first-ever trip to Stewart Island - that was me. Shooting my buck sounds like a success but came more as a moment of redemption, as I’d made the shocking mistake of shooting a fawn on the third day of our trip. It had been largely a day of successes. Although we were totally amateur free-divers Arron and I had done a half-decent job of collecting pāua and shooting fish, and had shot…

Sometimes I think, as a bowhunter, that the Red roar can be a more difficult rather than easier. It can be challenging getting in on that true-blue, big, mature stag with a bow. Without a doubt, bowhunters kill mature stags every roar and some epic close-range yarns can be told. However, for the most part, the old stags didn’t get old by being silly. And not only that, a close-quarters hunter has to deal with all the other issues that come with the roar. Young stags will almost always be present, poking around looking for an opportunity to steal a hind or challenge the next stag that wants to take his place in the pecking order. The chances of being greeted by a young stag when you knock on the…

Overall, the partners and supporters of the project are the Tahr Foundation, the University of Torino, Italy, an international interest group on diseases of mountain-dwelling wildlife GEESFM (Groupe d’Etudes sur l’Ecopathologie de la Faune Sauvage de Montagne based in Lyon, France), and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. Although chamois and tahr are abundant in New Zealand and since their introduction have been subject to hunting and population control plans as non-native species, they have only occasionally been the object of study as far as transmissible diseases are concerned. The information available in the official literature is scarce and mostly outdated. In Europe, Infectious Kerato-conjunctivitis (IKC) or “Pink Eye” has been the subject of numerous field and laboratory investigations that, over time, have clarified its clinical features, epidemiology, and etiology,…

The release of the original state of the art Kick-Off Mega A400 with its revolutionary twin hydraulic dampeners between the pistol grip and the rest of the butt stock meant the end of getting whacked in the cheek (called the B-steady system). It also had the third hydraulic bolt dampener, all up creating the absolute ultimate recoil reduction system - see the testfire in Issue 70. The earlier Xtrema 1 and 2 KOs were soft on the shoulder but didn’t solve the bigger problem in my opinion of either a bruised cheek bone or even mild concussion from the jarring to the skull when shooting either heavier recoiling shells or even just a reasonable volume of standard shells. A bruised shoulder never stopped me shooting well but a headache/spinning head…

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 Gareth Hall  "After passing up a number of stags over multiple trips I came across this old boy holding the hinds and decided to take him out of the gene pool. With a huge body, thick antlers and low pedicles it looked like he had been the boss for awhile. Having a damaged pedicle on one side he wasn’t going…

Photo Gallery 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.…

To the north, on the true right, slabs of rock create a series of difficult valleys running westward along the Adams Range, all terminating in the maelstrom that is the Barlow River below the landing site. On the true left, the southern side, a much easier series of forested ridges run up to essentially a huge tussock terrace, kilometres long, which runs out toward another landing site – Perverse Creek. This is the sunny side, and while certainly bisected by some ravines and difficult terrain, is generally a bit easier to get around and certainly easier on the body. The head of the river terminates in three glaciers winding their way down wild, tilted slabs of rock which tower to well over 2,000m, Mt Kensington taking the cake at 2,444m,…

It was, however, not without some stressful and heart-racing moments. Riley was hunting with me as soon as he turned five and has accompanied me on many excursions chasing trout, waterfowl, goats and deer. Cutting his teeth on trout and waterfowl, he naturally progressed toward medium and big game animals, securing his first goat at the age of eight and his first deer, a Sika hind, last year, aged ten. This obviously set the foundations for his next goal, which was finding a stag of six points or more. The bar had been set and the search for a stag was on. Over the course of the next year or so we went on a few hunts together but either never saw a stag or could never quite seal the…

With a clear weather window a plan was formulated, although there had recently been a heavy snow dump earlier in the week, which I had been closely watching retreat to around 1500 metres. The day started with a brutally cold snow melt river crossing in the dark, and there is only one thing to do after that….keep moving. It was now late in the day and would be dark soon and I did not want to navigate back to camp under torch light. My best route back was to continue to climb up and circle back along the main ridge to drop back down to the camp which was very rewarding with unreal views. The benefits of camping at this time of year and short daylight hours means a very…

Stan's is currently owned and maintained by the NZ Chapter of the Safari Club but is open for public use. DOC still has some kind of oversight as evidenced by the ubiquitous warning signs plastered on its walls and frequent fly-in hut inspections Stan’s was built as a private hunting hut by the late Stan Peterson of Hokitika who initially had a tent camp at the site from where he operated his hunting safaris. In 1985 he got permission from the NZFS to build a hut there, a basic four-bunker with flat-iron walls and roof, and side and front windows. When he got too old for the hunting business Stan gifted the place to the Safari Club. A few years down the track it began to leak badly and DOC…

Now on its 8th iteration the Hubba Hubba is a well-proven (and much copied) design. The 2022 model improves on what was already an outstanding three season tent. The Hubba Hubba has always been a tent that expertly balances light weight with liveability. Weighing in at 1.45kg all up (nearly 400g lighter than previous models) it is well and truly a lightweight, but the internal volume hasn’t been sacrificed. The interior height is 1m, with a length of 2.13m (ample) and a width of 1.27m (more snug). Some of the more specialised models like the Access or Carbon Reflex have a much harsher taper on the sides to better slip the wind, but the reduction of interior volume is very noticeable with two people. There are even lighter tents in…

Maybe we’ve come to the realisation that there is no such thing as a perfect set up, perfect decoy spread or perfect weather event and we’ve become a bit more relaxed about it in our older age. Let’s face it, you can plan a perfect opening weekend but little goes according to plan, ever. Having said that we spent all weekend on the pond and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say it was a bloody awesome opener! As the weeks started to countdown to opening we still weren’t entirely sure where that was going to be. Our spot at the timber hole was still suffering from silt build up in the water channels leaving the water level too low to get in there by boat…

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