Table of contents for Issue 88 in NZ Hunter

By the time you read this the roar will be well underway! We’re about to head in on a West Coast Red stag mission, a little early yet but hopefully we can find a big old stag going walkabout checking what hinds are where before he settles down to the serious business of passing on his genes. The East Coast is copping a lot more rain so hopefully the West Coast will stay fine and cloud free – clag being the perennial problem of a “Coast” hunter even when it’s not raining! And for the waterfowlers, we’re in the run down to the duck season, only a month to go. I was in the Canterbury region over the two weekends NC F&G ran their trial “Summer Duck” season this year,…

For countless hours I sat on cold, freezing faces in mid-winter, dreaming of and waiting for that big Rusa stag to walk out on the sunny face opposite. It never happened. Oh yes, I saw lots of hinds and a few smaller stags, but nothing big. On one trip I saw three small stags, including one about 20 metres away in the bush. I passed them all up. On yet another mid-winter roar trip I watched seven Rusa for hours on a clearing opposite and failed to spot the stag. My ongoing trophy search was an incredibly frustrating exercise in challenging Urewera country and, to make it worse, it was always in mid-winter. That's the time of the Rusa roar. My rifle was beginning to wonder why I even took…

The fairly straightforward pass in the head basin bears the name of one of our more notable early explorers Gerhard Mueller, who was responsible for surveying more than a few West Coast towns as well as many of Westlands more rugged valleys. With Zora Creek just over the pass, the Jacobs to the north and the Otoko to the south. The Mahitahi Block is smack in the middle of some of our finest wilderness, and home to it’s fair share of tahr. With upper and lower landing sites you have the option of hunting the upper tussock country with its steeper sides and camping fairly exposed at about 1100m. Or the steep rocky creeks of the lower site with it’s more sheltered but dark and cold campsite at about 700m.…

The hut in question lies just outside of the boundary of the DOC takahe Special Permit Area and as such it is open to public access. This doesn’t mean that it’s straightforward getting there and acquiring a permit to pass through the SPA does allow you to take a more direct line and possibly save a bit of drama. For those who don’t like getting permits, or during the months that the SPA is off limits entirely, Robin Saddle can be approached up the Irene River from George Sound, or from Lake Te Anau along the ridgeline from Lake Ione at the head of the Gorge Burn. The former has its obvious access issues and the latter requires several days hard travel over challenging terrain. This is probably why the…

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 Nathan Holland  "I shot this old stag in the roar down in Fiordland. We were near Lake Marchant in the Large Burn block. My brother (Glenn) and I were dropped off at the head of the block and after a couple of days set off to base camp (a three day hike) to catch up with the other lads. We…

It’s made from 100% Recycled 300D / 600D Ripstop polyester with TPU coating for water resistance and weighs in at only 1.1kg. 45L is about the perfect size for an overnighter pack, especially in bush country where you aren’t carrying a few of the bulky items like a spotter and puffer jacket and can often get away with just a fly, and even do away with a mattress. That being said, I carried a 2 man tent around no trouble, but there might have been a shortage of space for meat, if everything had gone to plan! The pack is nice and streamlined in shape, with a big lid that drapes down nicely to stop rubbish working its way under. The lid is adjustable on all four connections so you…

As young fellas, my brother and I grew up frequenting rivers and lakes in the deep south, through the heart of Otago and into Canterbury, chasing waterfowl when in season, then fishing trout or salmon during the rest of the year. As well as giving rabbits and hares a bit of a run around and numerous weekends playing rugby, that pretty much sums up our childhood. As we grew older our minds started wandering to the mountains in search of new challenges and animals with hooves and horns. Our minds still wander and are often followed by our feet but we are still very much grounded around duck season. It’s what we love and what we’ve always known. Don’t get me wrong - we’re always seeking a bit of mountain…

With Covid giving the great Southern bulls another year in the Fiordland mountains to grow, and our Aussie brothers not likely to enter, we all agreed to throw our old hats into the ring. We needed to put together a team of six experienced and gnarly mountain men, but a look around the room soon showed we were clean out! Just three old, crusty demons that hunted the Kawakas! Once we got over that small hurdle names were thrown back and forth before Dave penciled in his farming mate Greg, and I vouched for ‘Mark the Hammer’. We needed one more for this team of six and she was right under my nose! Little Red’s hand shot up faster than an Electron Rocket clearing the launch pad at the thought…

Though I had missed out on the ballot we were still keen to go and see what had transpired over the course of the hunt in another area I had marked out for just this purpose a few years back. A pub meal was a great way to begin the proceedings followed by an early might in preparation for an even earlier start on the morrow. After arriving at James’ heliport, we unloaded and sorted gear for the machine as the distant sound of approaching rotors reached us. His familiar purple chopper swung into view and set down for a quick load-up and got away with the first group, Bernadette, Nathan and I, for the campsite. A brisk sou’ easter was flowing out of the main valleys, causing a few…

For experienced West Coast hunter, Hamish*, doing all the right things couldn’t prevent a life-threatening situation following a nasty fall in the Karangarua Valley I’ve lived in the South Island all my life and have been hunting since I was a child. I grew up reading about Phillip Holden’s exploits and love getting out there - even if I don’t see anything. I hunt somewhere new most roar periods and have spent time hunting tahr and chamois in South Westland. I had some leave coming up and was looking forward to getting away from work. T he weather forecast looked good so I packed up the truck, ensured I had a permit and told my partner where I was going and when I would be back - I always text…

I tend to think this is because, at a distance, manuka and kanuka do appear very similar. However, a close look will reveal quite marked physical differences not to mention the fact that they are not even in the same plant ‘genus’. Manuka is also found in parts of Australia (locally known as ‘jelly bush’) whereas kanuka is an endemic species, not found anywhere else in the world. The main difference between these two is the height to which they grow – kanuka can attain heights of 20 to 30 metres while manuka reaches 8 to 10 metres at best. Back in the day, when my good mate Aaron and I were young and single, we used to tongue-in-cheek joke to each other about the necessary characteristics and knowledge girls…

I spend a lot of nights in tents, but when I’m not I’m often in huts, boats, on peoples couches and in the back of the ute! When Dave from Ironman first handed me the Swag Bag sleeping bag (on the last night of a four day 4wd trip I might add!) I was a little skeptical of how much I would use it. It’s large - in its duffel bag it is 900mm long and nearly 300mm in diameter, and weighs in at 4.5 kg. I’ve spent the entirety of my hunting career shaving as many grams from my sleeping system as I can, so it seemed antithetical to go for this giant of a bag. But then I stopped and actually thought about it. This bag was never…

Luke reviewed one of their models, the Lynx Mid GTX, back in Issue 86. I know he found them a very comfortable all round NZ bush boot. In this issue we are reviewing a much more serious alpine model, the Mountain Trek, designed for mountain hunters and climbers. Zamberlan say about the Mountain Trek: “Made to more easily transition from climbing to hiking with a hike-friendly midsole. Technical DNA endures allowing for climbing technical routes with or without gear. Designed for high-level mountaineering and glacial routes as well as high-altitude big game hunting.”  First impressions are the Mountain Trek is a very striking looking boot. Rigidity wise they have a very stiff 5mm fibreglass shank, with very little flex under the ball of your foot. The lacing system starts very…

Photo Gallery  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. We've had a bumper crop of images from readers supporting Hunting & Fishing so this time around we have two pages, and two winners!…

After an action packed second morning, roaring up three separate bulls, we managed to navigate our way around Gorges two and three, which is not something you would chose to attempt in wet weather if you value self-preservation. The scenery around every corner was mind blowing - deep crystal-clear swimming holes, cascading five metre waterfalls which were tame right now but would be a different beast when the inevitable Fiordland heavens opened up. We had set out goals to reach the large swamp by the end of day two and after a lot of sweat and a good seven hours hard grind, the bush started to lighten up through the gaps in the beautiful beech trees, and with the late afternoon sun open river flats appeared. This is where we…

I woke to the sound of my alarm beeping away Now, I’m not a morning person, but when it’s hunting or fishing related, I’m out of bed in a flash. I flicked on the kettle and popped the bread into the toaster. The gear was loaded into the truck, and I began the drive to the DOC car park in the Ruahines where I would meet my mate, Brad. When getting out of the truck, the wind was a lot stronger than forecast, but at least it was blowing in the right direction for the morning’s hunt. With packs shouldered and headlamps on we began the one and a half hour climb up the DOC track. Now I'm blaming the extra Covid kilos and the fact that I've spent more…

Owen, Peter, Cam and I had spent hours and hours checking out topo maps and researching potential spots for the trip, most of which at the expense of our University studies. After great debate, we finally settled on one of the spots that I had found. As none of us had hunted in Fiordland before, we were heading into the unknown. Driving to the start of the track we were greeted by several brief showers of rain, as well as a cold breeze, but the views of the fantastic country we were in were more than enough to offset the weather, as excitement and nerves brewed. We reached the start of track, parked and locked the Lucky Lux, and started walking. By this stage it was mid-morning, and the bush…

We have reviewed several of their products recently, including the Sauer BDX range system (Ballistic Data Xchange) back in issue 68. Read that review for a full breakdown on how this ballistic system works, but in brief, the rangefinder talks to an app on your phone that uses an Applied Ballistics engine (currently the best in the ballistics business) to read out your “come-ups” and wind holds in an optics display – either their 3000 BDX binos (reviewed in issue 73) or one of their rangefinders. You enter the rifle and load’s ballistic profile into the app, and it takes into account all ballistic parameters including environmentals (temperature, pressure, wind strength and direction), and then sends the data to the rangefinder or binos to read out. You can either dial…

I was all packed up ready to go to Makahu Saddle Hut with Grandma and Grant to try and shoot a Sika stag. I really wanted a nice skin to make a mat for my bedroom floor. When we got near the Makahu carpark we all had a guess at how many cars would be there. It was the long weekend so we knew that maybe there would be no room in the hut. We were lucky - we were the only ones there. After putting our gear in the hut, we started up the track to look out across to the spur. We saw two stags grazing across the gully a bit over 600 yards away but with the windy conditions and darkness fast approaching, they were pretty safe…

If you’re in the middle of duck shooting season, stop, and before you pack up and put the BBQ away for the winter then you may want to try this Rotisserie Duck The rotisserie is a common attachment and a great method of cooking as the bird will be delicious with a lovely deep caramelised colour of the skin on the outside. The rotisserie produces a very flavourful bird with well-done meat. However, if you don’t have a rotating spit then you can still do this recipe under the hood in your BBQ, but you will need to turn the duck at least four to five times during the cooking process. CAVITY FILLING • 1 orange cut in half • 2 spring onions cut into thirds • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced,…