An "Ugly Beauty"
You could almost mill those - the Timber is so heavy !!!
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@Tahr were they being very vocal? I was in there a couple of weeks ago- had roars from 3 different individuals, but they weren’t being very vocal overall. & saw a couple of young stags. I’m heading back in on Sat for 4 days, then again next Friday for another 3 or 4 days.
@Pixie Z Yes. Not quite full voice but stags are holding hinds and doing the rounds. The 2 I shot were holding hinds (the spiker had a couple) - the 5 pointer stag came out at my roaring to look but didn't seem ready for a fight but got shot anyway, and the other I just watched a couple of hinds on a face for 30 mins giving the odd roar until a stag turned up checking his girls out. And he got shot.
I watched an 8 or 10 pointer really going to town and herding 5 hinds - that was great - he was 375 yards away just on dark so I left him to it. I heard him roaring most of the night from my camp. All of the stags shut up at about 10am and started quite close to dark. I would say they will be about peaking now.
@Tahr Cheers. Sounds like you had a good trip. I’m looking forward to getting back in in a few days. Shut up by 10am sounds about same as my trip in a couple weeks ago, though they definitely weren’t in full swing & I didn’t hear much during the night. & the stags I saw weren’t the ones doing the roaring.
On a side note- you weren’t in there a couple weeks back on an electric mountain bike were you? Saw the photo of you earlier in this thread & reminded me of a guy I was chatting to at the West Arm camp in there recently.
One from the weekend, satellite stag from the Northern Pureoras
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Some ripper stags on here!
The weekend just gone was good in southland, on Saturday I heard well over 30 stags and snuck into 7 or so mostly just young ones roaring at nothing. First stag came flying in and though he'd snapped his antler off but snuck into one of his cousins later on and decided he need to go as he was identical, didn't realise the deer were inbred down here too hahaha
Stoked with my pig dog as she found her first ever deer saving me hours of searching in the crownfern, I'll take my dog with tracking gear everytime now! She hasn't had any deer training yet either just not to chase them
Took a mate out on Sunday afternoon and got close into 4 stags but they were giving is he run about moving off or shutting up at the last minute, so frustrating as I saw my mate close the gap and got within 50m but all of a sudden other stags sparked up everywhere and made him move off!
Only hunted 4 days this roar and it's been the best I've ever had surprisingly.
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How bad have the carparks been for everyone? I heard there was 17 trucks up at kiwiburn!! You've got to wonder why the hell you'd risk hunting with that many people around.
agree 100% about just having dog along with you....if they do NOTHING more than help find animal after you have shot it,they are worth thier weight in dog bikkies.
I am not envious of the great Stags taken
But oh boy - that bush makes me GREEN all over :-(
That wallow pic and its surrounds - leaves me salivating
Yep I'm a lucky bugger with this one, she bloody handy as she finds possums for me at work and can catch pigs and stalk deer with me so she gets the luxury of being an inside dog! Makes me wonder how many other deer I would've found in the past if I had a dog!
Here's a freshly used one for you mate haha awesome to hear lots of bird life too.
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Now that's a wallow
My effort for the roar, 11pointer from the MolesworthAttachment 165158
Wicked boys.
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Closest thing this resembles a stag is that it starts with ‘s’ n is male. transient spiker, most probably from a block of pines that’s currently being clear felled. Was hanging around (other side of fence) a mob of hinds. Was a little pissed up. Shot with the mighty .223....
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17 cars is a South Island crowd.. theres road ends in the Kawekas that have that pretty regularly year round. But 17 for the kiwiburn seems like a hell of a lot.
Another tonight from central otago Attachment 165210Attachment 165211
Nice Buck you have there @Padox :thumbsup:
very impressive brow tines on that buck. Cool
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Another one from Southland from my second trip of the roar.. I passed up a few obviously young ones with potential before spotting this one holding a few hinds in some bluffs about 1km from my camp. He was easily a third bigger in body size than any other stag that was trying to steal his hinds.
I watched him for two days through the binos and my Nikon P1000 before deciding to have a better look and eventually pulled the trigger once I’d gotten there..
I wanted an older master type stag and while I’m happy with my decision to take him, I’m not sure that I assessed his age properly and I’d like some opinions on his age?
Some background. He was living out in the tussock and scrub. The area where he was living was well chewed out, I’ve never seen deer damage like it.
His body was in shit condition, he looked skinny through the guts but had a heavy front half of his body so I assumed he was older and had just been rutting for a while. He’d gone orange under the skin and looked like this had been going on for a while.. The pedicles while not super high on the skull weren’t overly big in diameter and timber wasn’t much to speak of.
Any guesses on age?
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Attachment 165456last chance roar hunt for me,he wasnt roaring but still following hinds around.
Nice tops on him. Well done
What a day to remember, lost for words really. Riley shot his first stag, an 8 point Sika in some very trying conditions, patience was key and it all payed off!!
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Outstanding that’s a picture and memory to treasure. Well done Dad
Last night.
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Some certainty that the lack of last years roar hunting due to covid 19 pandemic was really good for the Stags!
Alot got that one more year older and it shows by this Thread!!
which is what happened with the WAR back in the day on the Otago herd, but the war kept people out of the hills a little longer than the Coverdup19 so there was some stock of great size.
nice to see what stock has been shot up this year :P :D ha haaa
I really didn't think about it but this is my first solo roaring Sika this Saturday.
Southern Kaweka's. Shit weather but things went to plan with this guy coming in to me from a good distance. Looks like he's damaged a pedicle so a reasonable 6 is now a 3 (that identifies as a unicorn).
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Ta @Mooseman Brian and I had a great overnighter. He got a buck too but not good enough to bring home. We were out looking for an exceptional buck that we saw in the velvet but didn't come across him.
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the headgear might not be worth taking home,but thats a nice floor rug.
Well done Brian,il chase them in a couple of weeks.
They've lost a lot of condition.
Mate and I caught up with this buck today absolute stonker 247 4/8ds was almost an argument as we both shot it hahaAttachment 165523
DS 247,woow thats a big set of head gear.Well done.