Table of contents for Issue 79 in NZ Hunter

It’s a lot of fun at this time of year, especially if you’re into saunas and perspiration. Some of the Otago/Southland tussock high country gets temperatures into the 30s, which when you have a pack full of camping and hunting gear and sundries soon gets your attention on the steep bits. The sweat blurs your vision, which is good as it’s harder then to see how far you still have to go. Over the last ten years or so the ‘full pack’ idea has had the Jenny Craig treatment in a big way and the lightweight theme is definitely the go these days, including the boots and rifle. They say there’s no point in getting older if you’re not getting wiser and at 51 years of age, the ‘older’ feeling…

In 1918 the owners of the station where Scott now works were forced off the place by a plague of rabbits. They literally dropped tools and left the stock to fend for themselves. Some of the hardy Merinos survived and bred in the harsh conditions to become the wild Clarence Merino flock. Eventually, keen new owners came in and farming operations resumed, with small groups of wild Merinos continuing to survive in sheltered pockets near the Clarence River. From the moment I’d first heard about this rare flock, I was intrigued by the history. Coupled with the fact that wild mutton is quite tasty, a Merino made for the perfect objective for my first animal. One weekend Scott and I went in search of the wild woollies, notably a mature…

We’ve gone into the same block for the same dates for five consecutive years. Never did I think, even in early March this year that I may not be going on our trip but as the end of the month arrived, my anxiety level was rising. Sure enough, all of April was lost to hunting and I spent it watching footage of other people’s Sika ruts from previous years, and sulking at the same time. I still held onto some hope that we’d be all go for level three and this kept me going through a very tough month at home. Although I loved being at home with my wife and children (both of whom love hunting with me) I was ready to get amongst some roaring stags. Well, what…

. Without realising it, we are often guilty of looking past what others around the world can only dream of. I want to repeat something here: often, we hunters want the best available option of a successful hunt. That is smart thinking really, but at times we are also in danger of missing out on other aspects of the hunt – the experience and the challenge. If you want to increase the level of satisfaction from your hunting, then simply increase the challenge and stack the odds against yourself more. You can do this in a number of ways, such as bowhunting for example. The other option is to hunt places where the odds are in greater favour of your quarry, or where there are fewer animals. I am talking…

During Conservation Week 2020, the New Zealand Game Animal Council, with the help of some passionate volunteers, launched an initiative named ‘Hunters for Conservation’ The aim of this was to shine a spotlight on the amazing hunter-led conservation projects being achieved around the country and to show that hunters really do care about the conservation of our public land. When you lace up your boots, shoulder your pack, grasp your rifle and head for the hills to go hunting – what is your reason? What is your ‘why’? Is it the chance to put ethically gathered meat on the table for your family and friends? A trophy set of antlers or horns? A recharge from the stresses of everyday life, by spending time with your mates? Or to experience everything…

Pig hunting with dogs can be a roller coaster ride – and that’s in the settled times. Raising pups to become good pig dogs is not as easy as it sounds. There is a huge investment in time and energy, and depending on how high you set the bar, sometimes young dogs simply don’t make the grade you want Then if they do make it but they get injured or killed while hunting, you can suddenly find yourself back at square one. Starting again requires dedication and commitment, and five years ago, I realized I didn’t have the necessary drive to do this. My good old dog had been killed by a boar and the young ones in my kennels simply weren’t performing at the level I wanted them to,…

And besides, not all of us are interested only in trophies; there’s always a few extracurricular activities that can be included around those morning and evening hunts during warmer days. In the low country, the longer days are the start of growth on the river flats, and if you have your timing right, these flats are magnets for deer. November and December is prime time to fill the freezer, with hinds kicking off the yearlings as their new fawns drop. Now on their own and lacking life skills, these yearlings often make an easy and delicious addition to the freezer, with the added bonus of being a great way to keep your local deer population in check. It’s also a great time to get the kids out hunting, given that…

The Crawford is the main tributary of the Kokatahi River in central Westland and forms part of a DOC maintained circuit starting in the Styx valley and finishing at the Toaroha road end. There are two alpine saddles on this loop, Lathrop and Zit, both of which require reasonable levels of experience and fitness to cross. I did a Level Two wander to Top Crawford from the Styx end in August and was the first person there in five months. You can’t blame COVID entirely for this as the Styx valley was officially closed this year by DOC due to track damage caused by successive floods. Despite this this it’s still OK to get up the Styx at low or normal flows by following the riverbed where it’s washed out…

Merino is a wonderful fibre, but on its own it’s not super durable. A good merino blend brings that all-important durability and can enhance the fit, wicking and drying time. Point6 have capitalised on our world renowned merino and combined that with some clever yarn and construction techniques in their USA factory. They use a method known as compact spinning as opposed to more conventional ring spinning, this reduces loose fibres to aid durability and reduce pilling. They’re completely open about the ratios, the Ex. Heavy’s were 83%, the Medium's 70% and the Light’s 69%, the balance being Nylon and a little Spandex. The physical construction of the sock is a step up from the ol' wool bag shaped like a foot! It includes nylon reinforcing around the heels and…

I don’t want to go into detail about the ins and outs of the recent debate over the 2020-21 Tahr Control Operational Plan as I’m sure most readers will be familiar with it, but despite a pretty challenging process overall the Game Animal Council did make some gains for hunters in the end. Discussions with DOC about the remaining control work will see the reallocation of hours outside the national parks move away from a number of accessible tahr hunting areas to more inaccessible and remote locations. We also gained a commitment that control work was not to take place close to road ends, huts and helicopter landing sites frequently used by hunters. Instead operations were targeted at areas of known high tahr density and that are largely inaccessible to…

This one was about me and the Mountain Goat himself, Jason Thomsen heading into some West Coast scrub country in late November in search of a big, mature bull tahr for Jase. With trips few and far between these days however, it’s more about catching up and if a mature trophy ends up in the cross hairs, that’s just an added bonus. With one of our good mates Mikey based at Franz Josef to do some pilot training, I shot down from Nelson the night before Jase and I were due to head in to our hunting location, to catch up with him, have a feed and a yarn about hunting. The next morning dawned with patchy drizzle coupled with the standard coast low cloud blanketing the nearby tops. With…

I have back issues already from falling off a horse in my younger days so I am a bit conscious about making it worse. On this occasion, I was loaded up with boned out venison and there was no turning back. A few months later, inspired by some serious time racked up watching YouTube videos I decided to embark on a journey to find someone in NZ who might be able show me how to hunt with pack animals. After just three phone calls I managed to find some people who hunted with llamas, and this is the story of the trip that followed. I was heading into the St James conservation area with a new buddy Brad, who I’d met on a meat hunt last spring. Brad had seen…

Having the right recovery strategies can help us to hunt stronger for longer, recover faster and get ready for the next mission. If our training simulates what we will be doing on ‘game day’ our body becomes ‘conditioned’ or familiar with those movements. Doing this preparation before we venture out is ‘money in the bank’. Enhancing recovery times is not just about strategies we can put in place DURING or AFTER a hunt, but also how we prepare BEFORE the hunt. Something as simple as hydrating and fuelling the body on your way to your hunting block can be a great easy win first up. Let’s look at what we can do during and after the hunt to recover faster. FACTORS DURING THE HUNT Carrying heavy loads over variable bush…

While not targeted at the pure hunting market, this new modular rifle system certainly is a hybrid capable of a wide range of competitive and fun range shooting, while still suitable for less strenuous forms of hunting. Starting with the action, the S20 is a new version that reminds me of a cross between the TRG and A7. It is a three lug action with a spring loaded plunger ejector, composite bolt shroud and alloy bolt handle. The steel receiver doesn’t have the usual tapered Sako scope mounting dovetails, but has integral picatinny front and rear bases machined into it – a very sensible idea allowing you many different yet rock solid scope mounting options. The trigger is a more adjustable version of the very good standard Sako/Tikka option, with…

Normally it’s a time of high excitement mixed with some nervyness and often if things aren’t quite running to schedule, a fair bit of panic. There were only small degrees of these feelings this season, with everyone acting pretty calm and chilled. All the other members of the hut were feeling the same way. Conversations were limited and everyone was extremely reserved, especially the younger members of the crew who tend to make a fair bit of noise and are normally told at least once that the older folks would like some quiet time. Things were so quiet and reserved that most of us drifted off to bed well before we normally would, some to dream of paddles-down Mallards in the morning and some to ponder what was making things…

It is one of the most celebrated dishes in France, where it honours the tables of both the rich and poor. King Henry IV of France even declared “I want no peasant in my kingdom to be so poor that he cannot have a poule au pot on Sundays.” Poule au pot is basically the same as pot au feu. In medieval France, most peasant households had a single hearth, in which a small fire would be kept burning for most of the day. Suspended from a hook or nestled in the corner was a large earthenware pot. In the morning, the ingredients would be thrown into this, covered with water and left to cook slowly for several hours. At lunch, then the main meal of the day, the meat…