Thread: Rookie mistakes!

If you wing a magpie with your shotgun dont try and club it to death with the butt the second round could go off....if you go spotlighting dont leave the spotlight connected when you get home and go to bed the light mite come on and burn your car out this is especially bad if your car is parked under your house.

Originally Posted by GravelBen

I just got 63,850 points... does that mean I'm an awesome hunter?

Pro, man, pro!

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

If you wing a magpie with your shotgun dont try and club it to death with the butt the second round could go off....if you go spotlighting dont leave the spotlight connected when you get home and go to bed the light mite come on and burn your car out this is especially bad if your car is parked under your house.

Rad! Both are in the same night?

There are more deer shot in the pub than ever seen on the hill, but the the guy / gal you want to be yarning to is'nt in a bar nursing a beer they're the one at home skinning a deer / pig / hare!

Your doing it right your on the hill! Enjoy that for a start the rest will follow.


Most of all respect the animal you wish to take.

Originally Posted by stingray

There are more deer shot in the pub than ever seen on the hill, but the the guy / gal you want to be yarning to is'nt in a bar nursing a beer they're the one at home skinning a deer / pig / hare!

Speaking of pubs what's a good one in Nelson? Be down there next weekend

No both were different learning curves on different occasions the 1st was when we were quite young grabbing the old mans gun and going for a wander down the back the second well as we,d been shooting possums all weekend for the palmy possum shoot my mate droped me off home at 3am and went home parking the car in the under house garage leaving the spotlight still hooked up to the battery latter that night the cat woke my mate up he smelt the smoke they all ran down steers to find the car fully ablaze they managed to push it out before the ceiling caught fire....then the fire brigade got stuck coming up there driveway a fare bit of heat comes of those spotlights especially with a jacket over it !

Originally Posted by Nibblet

Speaking of pubs what's a good one in Nelson? Be down there next weekend

passport please

Originally Posted by stingray

passport please

Might not pass customs, I only have 20digits

Another one that seems pretty basic when you think about it but easy to get complacent and forget... always have your navigation tools (map+compass / GPS or both) with you when you go walkies, even if you're only planning a quick scout up the hill behind the hut. Even experienced people can stop paying attention to the terrain/weather at times, next thing you know its dark or clouded in and you aren't quite sure which way you should be going...

Originally Posted by GravelBen

Another one that seems pretty basic when you think about it but easy to get complacent and forget... always have your navigation tools (map+compass / GPS or both) with you when you go walkies, even if you're only planning a quick scout up the hill behind the hut. Even experienced people can stop paying attention to the terrain/weather at times, next thing you know its dark or clouded in and you aren't quite sure which way you should be going...

Good advice, just look at that farmer in waikato the other day, add plb to that. Mine lives on my belt.

Originally Posted by GravelBen

Another one that seems pretty basic when you think about it but easy to get complacent and forget... always have your navigation tools (map+compass / GPS or both) with you when you go walkies, even if you're only planning a quick scout up the hill behind the hut. Even experienced people can stop paying attention to the terrain/weather at times, next thing you know its dark or clouded in and you aren't quite sure which way you should be going...

Mmm very true, especially in winter when getting caught out by how quickly the sun sets and darkness in valleys. Casually went to watch a sunset in the Richmond Ranges, climbed a hill 20 mins behind a hut - on way back down with the sun just set reflectors were hardly visible and bush was pretty thick! Pretty rookie but I had a wee torch on my cellphone to catch the reflectors so that worked out fine. Good to have some markers of some point I reckon - snap a few branches, make a few cairns in thicker bush if it's rough - that kinda thing.

Originally Posted by Nibblet

Good advice, just look at that farmer in waikato the other day, add plb to that. Mine lives on my belt.

Damn, PLBs are a godsend. I'm going to save up one day for sure - worth the price to save your life! Luckily in Nelson I know some SAR guys who'll rent one out to ya real cheap (compared to other places...). In Christchurch hit up the CUTC for cheap hire too.

This really goes out to everyone - invest in one of those things, hire or buy. So many kiwis have that "Eh she'll be right" attitude. I was a committee member for the Canterbury University Tramping Club and last year one of our most experienced mountaineers hired out a PLB, but decided to leave it in their car as they went out. DOC didn't have full information on how low the snowline would be, so they got caught out without crampons on an ice ridge (all these rookie mistakes!) - slipped and fell down a pretty steep cliff damn far, the both of them!!

Now their trip intentions said they were heading out for about 4-5 days! And on day one, they were at the bottom of a cliff - broken pelvis, bashed in heads/losing eyesight, broken ribs. Had to share a sleeping bag, urinating on each other, trying to cook and stay warm (thank goodness they had all the other decent survival equipment! Proper -30 degree sleeping bags, survival blanket, the right amount of food and all that; no PLB ) - it was 4 more days out there before finally a chopper came in and they were on their last legs really, that much pain and internal bleeding.
Could have been saved within the day with a PLB.

INVEST! As these very, very highly experienced trampers/mountaineers/climbers will tell you - even the best of us can get caught out in nature, and a PLB was the ONE thing they needed. Luckily fully recovered now, we tell this story to all the newbies/international students that come into the club and wanna organise their own little trips.

Sounds like you have enough experience from others to be more than fine.

So what's a good pub? Important things

Originally Posted by Nibblet

Sounds like you have enough experience from others to be more than fine.

So what's a good pub? Important things

Smugglers Or Sprig & Fern, Honest Lawyer, or Vic Mac's Brew Bar... depends on your tastes haha