Thread: Identifying Animals is the Bush?

Better they check than just fire, should use binds but most the time in the bush you don't have them. Scopes are ok so long as the trigger finger isn't near thetriggerand the rifle is safe. I have looked down the barrel of an irate dope grow and it isn't nice especially when they are as mad as this guy was. Bit different to a roar situation but the result could end the same, be safe out there everyone.

I've been looking through my scope with a loaded mag but not one in the chamber - first light looking over a clearing by a river - and had another hunter walk through the area I was looking at

Gun up, sling it over my shoulder and yell hello just a fraction of a second before breaking cover

No problem

All good guys its the first time I’ve met up with anyone else in the bush so was just a new experience!

Originally Posted by Nighniz

Just wondering how you guys feel about this as yesterday my mate a i had an encounter with another couple of hunters in the Pureoras

just curiops and not that it makes any difference, which general area of pureora?
i.e. piropiro, northern block, southern block etc?
have always avoided the place in the roar dont really want to become a statistic and another excuse to restrict/ban firearms

My experience bush hunting has always been that I've identified the deer by naked eye before bringing up the rifle to shoot it. I cant think of a deer I have shot in the bush where I had to evaluate it by scope to determine what it was before shooting. It has always gone, stalking stalking, shit there's a deer, rifle up, yup most definitely a deer, boom (as an example). I would sure as hell prefer someone to confirm me through their scope rather then just send one my way though!! Every noise, movement, roar is human until confirmed otherwise. I have lost a good mate to a hunting misidentification, if you have to spend some time evaluating what it is through optics then its probably not a safe shot! Running into other hunters often puts the shits up me in the bush now, I'm always in blaze blue for the roar.

You should be asking yourself "Is that a human" NOT "Is that a deer".
Your brain only sees what you say / think - for example if I said "DON'T think of red tomatoes" I bet you just saw red tomatoes !

@Nighniz, What colour blaze clothing were you wearing and was it the clothing that identified you as human to the other guy?

Originally Posted by Flyblown

@Nighniz, What colour blaze clothing were you wearing and was it the clothing that identified you as human to the other guy?

Hi we both had blaze orange on, my mate had the shirt and hat i had a vest. And yes he said it was the clothing that gave us away as the bush was quite dark, they had full camo on and i couldn’t see them till they stepped out 15m away all i saw first up was his head bobbing around but this was after they yelled out to us.

Quite a few years ago I was hunting fallow in the rut. I'd roared up a buck and it was about 6-10m away on the other side of a clump of manuka; but out of sight. I was 99.9% sure that it was a deer, but obviously wouldn't shoot until I'd positively identified it. But...... I knew the area was poached quite heavily because it was close to a road and I began to think.... " I know I won't shoot just at a sound or movement; but what if I've roared up another hunter? Can I be sure that he/she wouldn't?"

I was also wearing a tan and black checked bush shirt; it was before the days of camo and blaze. So that made me think "What if it is another hunter and he sees a glimpse of brown and fires?" Anyway; I put the shits up myself; started whistling (so if it was a hunter they'd know it was a human) and backed away. I didn't hear anything run away; but a buck could have sneaked away; and a poacher would have done the same.... I just figured that it was better to live another day than take a risk....

Its only a deer if it runs away, so be it