Tabla de contenidos para Issue 78 en NZ Hunter

On the last day of March, we steamed south on the Aurora Australis. Our party this year consisted of Ty, Monty, Adam and I. Adam and I had not been to Port Pegasus before and were looking forward to exploring some new ground. We were not to be disappointed. The weather was great, so after getting our gear squared away in the hut, we fuelled the boat and headed out to get our bearings and catch a feed. Adam jumped in his wetsuit and quickly pronounced it the best diving he had experienced. It didn’t take long to catch a feed of trumpeter, blue cod and moki. The mission for the next day was to get some camp meat. The bush was still damp underfoot as I stalked my way…

We have fairly free reign by being able to load up a few days’ worth of gear into a helicopter and get dropped into one of those out-of-the way places (except for perhaps our wilderness areas) for 90% of the year. Now I’m certainly all about those hard yakka walk-ins from the road end or boat, but with limited time it often makes sense to shell out some hard-earned cash to get dropped straight into your desired hunting area, along with those few extra comforts the payload allows for. Those few extra comforts can make quite a difference, especially in winter. You will appreciate that extra jacket or spare pair of socks, the small camp chair or the extra roll mat, the camp gumboots or even the second pair of…

This may be because we have heard about it on various medical programmes. Some of us unfortunately will have dealt with it directly or have had friends or family who have been affected by it. So what is neoplasia? Neo means ‘new’ and plasia means ‘growth’ so neoplasia is the abnormal growth of a tissue. The resulting growth is called a tumour – and a tumour is more commonly known as cancer. The cells that make up organs and tissues wear out and die and are replaced with normal cells. This is a constant process and it is done by the adjacent normal cells dividing beside the cells that need replacing. This uninterrupted process is essential for the normal health of tissues and organs. Interference to the division of cells…

Since then others have tried it, and also Swarovski has leapt ahead in rangefinding technology with the release of their EL Range binoculars. A couple of years ago, they put what they had learnt developing the EL Ranges into a new, absolute state of the art rangefinding scope – called the dS. Now normally I prefer to keep my rangefinder and my scope separate, for the obvious reason of weight and bulk – incorporating a rangefinder into a scope is going to add both to your rifle. First impressions of the dS is it’s a big scope, but not as large as I was expecting. The length is not excessive for a 5-25x magnification scope, nor is the bulk for a long range scope with a 52mm objective. So where…

Obviously, the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown goes on and for our friends in the guided and commercial hunting sectors it remains an extremely tough time. The Game Animal Council is doing all we can to support them and make government aware of their plight. It has been extremely satisfying working with the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation and the Department of Conservation on the Fiordland Wapiti Area Venison Project. This is a classic example of a win-win-win situation. The 600 deer that were removed as part of the project will help maintain the quality of the Wapiti herd while protecting indigenous biodiversity. The 18,000 1kg packs of mince that are going to foodbanks are helping Kiwi families in need as well as maintaining local meat processing and helicopter industry jobs.…

“That’s a fancy goat” – direct quote from my wife Being the rep for Garmin comes with a lot of miles and a lot of work but it also comes with some great opportunities. In June 2019, along with Ian and Matthew, the outdoor and overall managers for Garmin in Australasia, I got to capitalise on one of those opportunities When you get a call from Willie Duley asking whether you’d like to shoot ducks or tahr, you’d probably do what I did – say ‘yes’ to the opportunity before you’ve spoken to the wife or anyone else. I chose tahr because I can’t shoot a shotgun to save myself. After a long drive south (I live in Tauranga) we all assembled in the carpark of a service station in…

Unfortunately, the weather gods had different ideas and James Scott told us outright we shouldn’t bother going with a foot of fresh snow in the Landsborough riverbed. Having met James on a previous trip and knowing his reputation, we were happy to take his word for it.. Having the leave and flights home already booked, we went back to the drawing board. We settled on a spot closer to home that Dad had been to 20-odd years before and we had always talked about checking it out. Compared to the West Coast trip we had planned, this was going to be a lower-geared, stay-warm kind of trip. While thoughts of a big old chamois buck or a good stag feeding up after the roar crossed our minds, our anticipation was…

On the hill, how many times have we said or heard others say “I wish I had done more training for this!”? Without a set and written plan we can easily get distracted, waste a lot of hard work and potentially get injured through imbalances in our training programme. Setting up a single calendar (that you can see each day) for your training and hunting trips will help you stay on course and structure your training to perform at your best. BANG FOR BUCK The most effective training plans must be specific, relevant, and translatable to the requirements of a hunter. Let’s look at what a hunter’s training plan needs to consider: • Carrying loads over undulating terrain (strength/endurance/cardio). • Manoeuvring through scrub/bush/rock formations (core/mobility/endurance/ body composition). • Stamina to…

. It was designated as minimal maintenance by DOC in 2004 and like many of the huts in this category no work had been done on it since the NZFS days and was unlikely to happen under the Department. The original rimu framing, iron cladding and chimney were intact and in good shape, however its piles and floor had largely rotted out. In 2009 a Permolat work party led by Mark Mellsop-Melssen went in and re-floored and re-piled the hut. Volunteers recut the access tracks from the main valley and an old tops track up behind the hut onto the Browning Range was reopened. The hut was repainted in 2014. Mid Styx is a standard NZFS S81 four-bunk design with open fire built in the 1960's and is largely unmodified…

They were the first we’d reviewed to come up with a scope that talked to your rangefinder and provided a ballistic solution in the reticle (the Sierra BDX range). They make a wide range of optics, from the entry level Whiskey3 line on up to their top of the range Tango6 with Japanese LOW HD optics. The Tango4 sits about amidships, and is made in the Philippines as are their other scopes below the Tango6 line. The Tango4 is a FFP scope with image magnifying reticle. It has a 30mm main tube with a 50mm objective. Available with either MIL or MOA adjustments, the target style elevation turret includes a zero stop with 25 MOA per revolution and 60 MOA of total adjustment. The side parallax knob incorporates an illuminated…

It turned out to be a super-sweet hunt with lots and lots of birds around and plenty of action to keep us busy and warm.  there in their hundreds on a large paddock of rapeseed oversown onto barley. We arrived to find most of the team already there, trucks lined up and headlights on. It looked like a runway strip for an alien landing movie with snow crystals glinting in the swirling mist and lights piercing the darkness. The guys already had their layout blinds in place and were busy setting up the decoy spread. It didn’t take too long to organise a setup of seven layout blinds (with me set back in number eight as photographer) in the snow with a mix of dry grass, greenery and snow for…

Charles knows the routine. He is attempting to sit patiently – his whole body shaking and front paws riverdancing as though he has just inhaled three cans of Red Bull. We pile into the ute and head off up the farm track with a cloud of dust billowing behind. With the exception of the depths of winter, this is a standard weeknight for us. Over the summer months we're able to sneak in a quick run or mountain bike before we head out, but in the shorter evenings, it's purely a race against the sun to get up the hill before the light disappears. Once we reach the top there are route options to suit almost every wind direction. Each route is dotted with lookouts to where the bush-clad faces…

It’s time to go 100% Alice in Wonderland on this new-found obsession and dive down the rabbit hole! What pill should you take and what should you pass on? What tools/ techniques and skills are ‘must haves’ and ‘must dos’, and what can be kept in the bottom drawer? First and foremost, let's look at the ‘two Cs’, which above everything else will get you the best results – consistency and concentricity. CONSISTENCY Consistency should be achieved at every stage of the reloading process, starting with component and tooling selection. Let's begin with what you have direct control over and will contribute significant impactful benefits. Quality measuring tools are absolutely essential and will not only massively improve your existing results, but also stop you chasing your tail, by eliminating inaccuracies…

After many years hunting without one, during the 2019 roar George decided to purchase one. That weekend, on the same day he registered and set up the new PLB, he found himself trapped on a narrow ledge, after falling down a cliff face in the Nelson Lakes National Park. Badly injured, and unable to climb up or down, he set off the PLB, leading to a technically challenging but successful rescue by Life Flight’s Westpac Rescue Helicopter. “I certainly believe that without the PLB, and the team at Life Flight, I wouldn’t be here to tell my story,” he says. George was on an annual hunting trip to Nelson Lakes with his dad, Peter, a ritual they had observed for many years. On the day of the accident, Peter remained…

Then someone says “Let’s go for it now.” Well…I wanna be that guy! Or… You’ve got a good shooting platform right here, the animal is quite a long way out, but it’s calm and you reckon you might just be able to pull off that shot. It’s worth a crack. Then someone says “Let’s get closer.” Well…I wanna be that guy! There are loads of these kinds of scenarios that play out when you’re on the hill… when someone suggests something a little more edgy, more challenging perhaps, disruptive even. I’d like to push the ‘rewind’ button to reflect on a typical moment when we’re out hunting, and unpack a few lessons that have helped me to change up how I had been hunting…moments that might instruct the way you…

Cam McCallum from Alpine Precision is a passionate hunter and shooter, who likes using good gear and providing it for his customers. He is now importing into New Zealand a range of quality products, two of which we’re reviewing here. ADG BRASS ADG brass is a comparative newcomer, but has been getting rave reviews overseas. It is entirely US made using a double strike method to create harder case heads which provide longer case life especially at maximum pressures.Justin Hyer of Longrangeonly.com has done a pretty thorough review on it in 6.5 Creedmoor: www.longrangeonly.com/adg-rifle-cartridge-brass-review-bylro-editor-justin-hyer/ Lapua brass has always had the reputation of having the strongest case heads, and brass like Hornady the softest. We have always found Norma to be the most dimensionally consistent with the least case wall runout,…

The slow cooking means it is soft and tender and when pulled apart or slightly shredded, the meat combines well with the sautéed gnocchi (pronounced no-key) Gnocchi originated in the north of Italy where the cooler climate is better for growing potatoes than grain. Every village or region has its own variation of gnocchi and a specific sauce or serving style too. In basic terms, gnocchi are small dumplings traditionally made from flour and cooked potato. They are rolled and cut into bite-sized pieces before being quickly cooked in boiling water to make them light and fluffy. They can then be sautéed in a pan or finished in an oven to resemble dumplings or pillows. If you don’t want to make your own, you can always find gnocchi at the…