Hossack no good.
Seen it getting hit with Waro about three times in the last year.
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Hossack no good.
Seen it getting hit with Waro about three times in the last year.
It needed to get hit with waro. We did 7 days in the area during the roar last year and saw 150+ deer with only 2 reasonably mature stags. We shot one chamois and one stag. Personally I felt like it was our duty to do some extra culling, but the guys I was with weren't having a bar of it.
The Lewis Pass RHA currently holds good numbers of deer, as WARO cannot operate in there. All other DOC areas and a lot of private land (with the permission of landowners) in the Hanmer area are being hit hard with WARO as the number of animals about and the current venison price make it viable again.
Get dropped on the Nelson or Doubtful tops (its a really big area) by a tarn to guarantee water supply and get stuck in. Shoot for meat and even to waste. Cruise along the tops looking into the creek heads especially early and late, it would be virtually impossible not to see animals. Crazy busy in the RHA during the roar period though.
DOC is well aware of the high animal numbers currently present so don't expect it to last. Having been in there a number of times over the past 10-years and seen the animal numbers build up, I personally think a good WARO operator should be allowed in for say a month to really knock numbers down.
Experienced first hand when stumbled apon a fresh waro gut dump with 15 odd gut bags on March the 20th last year, after spending 2 days getting off the beaten track into this country. Any other homework to do?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bos
The key is to actually hunt, even in the height of WARO they didn't get every deer, let alone every stag, all this pissing and moaning about WARO says more about you as a hunter than you'd think . . .
Did a control shoot in NLNP, Matakitaki area in November. It had recent WARO activity but deer were still about. Some stats from our effort. 4 groups of 4 hunters. Covered about 45 sq km’s. For 256 hrs hunting time 25 deer shot, including 4 males, out of 39 seen. My hunting buddy and I left two very promising looking velvet stags alone, there will be others about. As Tentman possibly alludes to, put the effort in and you may reap the rewards.
Yep, Acheron Heights. Had a lifestyle block on Woodbank rd a few years ago.
39 deer in 45sq km and 1 deer per 10 hours of hunting is lower than I'd expected, I'm surprised with a return like that they're actually going again this year. I did think about putting my name in for the next one, can't afford it unfortunately.Quote:
Originally Posted by woods223
Plenty of foot hunters still made a living right in the middle of it back in the day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tentman
Yip,Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesw308
Bill doesn’t hasn’t done any Waro for years, even sold all his equipment for it. Not profitable in a 500.
Anecdotal I know but the main property I hunt on has the chopper go over it fairly often. Last Spring we were there on a weekend and the chopper had been there during the week before, they shot quite a few animals and we still saw 40+ deer easily shootable.
Not too far from St James really as the crow flies either.
Got to bear in mind that the weather had been crap for the previous week and wasn't too flash at times while we were in there.Came in crap again after we came out. Pilot said from what he was seeing, most of the deer were staying in the bush. You just have to take it as it comes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jt89