Thread: NZ Hunter

I’ve been meaning to answer a couple of the questions, finally found time sitting on the ferry to do it!

Firstly, Mountaineering, as Dalts says, you generally don’t rope up unless you are in glacier travel mode on flat terrain, or if you are putting in anchors and pitching on steep terrain. Crossing that angled snow face with a bad solar aspect, we decided safety was in speed getting across before it warmed up any more with the risk of wet slide avalanches - and you don’t want to be roped together if that happens. So long as you trust the sure footedness and headspace of your crew - safety is in speed! We probably should have explained that at the time.
Rifles wise, we are sponsored by Tikka and Sako. This season on the Show we are using an Aspire 7mm Rem mag, a Strata 300 Win mag, and a 270 Tikka T3. The Aspire is a tack driver shooting 166gn Hornady A-Tips @ 3150fps with a can, but not so good with a brake. Whereas the Strata shoots with both a can and a brake, shooting the 225gn ELD-Ms @ 2975fps. As someone said, the fact Tikka/Sako have finally updated their 30 cal rfile twist from 11” to 10” was one of the reasons for experimenting with the 300. It could do with being a little faster again, 9” would be nice. We have been seriously lobbying them to speed up their 7mm Twist rate too, and supposedly it is coming!
The 18” barreled 270 shoots the 145gn ELD-X @ 2925fps, which is a neat load capable of reasonable ranges.

We generally use the Aspire 7mm with can, as it provides the best ballistics with minimal recoil and no need for hearing protection. Especially if we have new shooters, as trying to have everyone using hearing protection around a braked rifle when you’re coaching someone is impossible. On the Mt Hooker trip it was only me, Nigel and Emil – all experienced shooters who wouldn’t need coaching, so we took the lightest rifle system as it was a big trip, which was the Strata 300 with brake.
Of course then we ran into the Fultons who had flown into the Landsborough and walked up on to the Solution Range, and we definitely should have had the Aspire with the can, as we ended up coaching Eva into taking that great old bull. The extra time it takes to get hearing protection in and out, and being sure everyone including the cameraman is aware you’re gonna shoot, cameras are rolling, probably cost us a couple of earlier chances on that bull.
So that should answer the conspiracy theorists who think it was a jacked up meeting!

The other couple we ran into, Nina and James, are NZ’s leading transalpine trampers at the moment, and if you want to see more of their fantastic adventures check out Nina’s Smugmug page, https://ninadickerhof.smugmug.com/. We share route info with them a bit, and in fact the route we took from McCullaugh Creek to the SW ridge of Mt Hooker was one of theirs, so it was such a coincidence running into them on that very route! They were on a 10 day traverse of Mt Dechen when they met up with us. We almost never see anyone on our trips in the remote hills, so as everyone has said, it certainly was unusual to run into 2 parties in the Hooker/Landsborough Wilderness Area!

And Micky D, that little 270 shoots so reliably out to 400yds or so, and its our current bush gun as well as you would have seen in the Sika episode – so def love the 270, especially if stuck with using factory ammo!