Hunting local + perseverance = a Te Puke fallow
Thought id share a bit of a yarn regarding hunting local/ perseverance / Te Puke fallow.
Like many (I suspect!) my hunting trips normally start with a long drive or jumping on a plane…and then a long drive, both resulting in getting to a “spot x” in the middle of nowhere. Earlier this year I was off work for a few weeks and with the spare time on my hands decided to investigate hunting a bit closer to home.
For the first few weeks I wasn’t up to going hunting, so let me “fingers do the walking” investigating local huntable locations and settled on having a crack at the Fallow herd in Te Puke after watching this video from a young guy who runs the NZ Chronicles you tube channel. I scoured this site for info (cheers @Gibo and others) and used it (and DoC Maps) to “scout” out a few potential locations to hunt.
Here’s how it went:
- Trip 1 – Scouting trip (no gun) – bush bashed for a couple of hours but managed to get where I wanted to go, arrived at midday, waited and watched - finally saw a hind and yearling feeding away on some grass, was stoked to see one… no luck (obviously given no gun)
- Trip 2 – Took a gun, found a quicker / easier track in which cut the walk to just over an hour, bumped a fallow in the bush and it stopped in range but bolted when I lifted the rifle to take a shot - no luck
- Trip 3 – Decided to try in the evening, bumped two in the bush, not seen. Got a tangled up in supple jack and lost my bearings walking out in the dark - no luck
- Trip 4 – Decided to make a day of it and take a very long way in, walked for 2 hours on the track and saw no sign at all, headed off track for a couple of hours and bumped 3 that were bedded down but didn’t get a shot off - no luck
- Trip 5 - Walked in in the dark (5 am), got to my hunting area at sunrise, stalked around and saw a hind in the same area that id seen deer in Trip 1. Lined up the hind and finally had one on the ground ! – Success !
What I learnt:
- Hunting is one of the best things you can do for your mental health
- I’ve driven/flown past a lot of deer – investigate what you have locally
- Perseverance is key
- Most of the posts on here regarding Te Puke Fallow are correct:
o Firstly, they certainly exist
o They are very hard to bush stalk, if you go slow you will hear (and potentially) see them but placing a shot on one as its buggering off is hard
o They love grass
- Hunting Te Puke is ok if you are local, but there are certainly better (easier / more animals) places to hunt in Waikato /BoP
- Always take a gun with you on scouting trips!
