Thread: Good Weekend

Heath rang and asked if his nephew could join us for the weekend , he was keen to secure his first deer with his new rifle , Sure why not , We were heading over to the block I hunt as I am still chasing a nice stag and had seen him the weekend before but ran out of time to get closer for a shot.

It was Waitangi weekend so we were away after work on Thursday followed by the rain as we crossed the hill to the east coast , luckily the summer had been dry and the track into the hut was still rock hard and the stream low even thou it was raining , the ground was just soaking it up. The down side was we weren't keen on an evening hunt getting wet so we settled in for a coffee and chin wag , The young guy Connor sat back and quietly listened to the boys normal BS before we settled in for the night.

It was a later than normal start the next morning but we were still away at a reasonable time . We climbed the first hill to a lookout together and soon spotted a couple of stags across the valley feeding out in the open , plans changed and we were soon stalking through the trees to a vantage point 200m across from them but arrived as they moved back into the scrub.

It was a while before we saw the animals moving about but they only found a nice sunny sheltered spot to bed down not giving a clear shot which wasn't a problem really as we were hoping to see if it was the same group we saw the week before with the two big boys so we settled in till they decided to feed out again , time about 9am.


While watching the dozing stags we glassed further up the valley and spot another two stags feeding out in the open , soon joined by a spiker , they weren't moving fast as they were enjoying the sun and slowly fed down into a gut . Once they disappeared down into it they must have disturbed two chestnut fallow spikers which ran over the top towards us and disappeared up the valley , looked like the same ones Dave and I had photographed the weekend before.

By lunchtime we were getting restless and Heath and Connor decided to head back over the top and check out the next valley while Dave and I kept watch on the stags , I flicked Heath a radio so we could stay in contact . While they we were away Dave spotted another two fallow , a nice dark Buck and a black spiker mucking around in the scrub , giving Heath a call we tell him it could be a good stalk for him and Conner , unfortunately the deer didn't co-operate as something spooked them and ran off before the boys got within range.


After rejoining us the Stags across finally decided to move and we set up to take the shot , the plan was to wait for them both to be in a shooting position and shoot together but as luck had it there was never a time where both were standing right and before long the settled back down for another rest , man these things were lazier than a teenage boy.

By 2.30pm I could take no more waiting around and decided to head up the valley to where we had seen the other stags and see if the big boys were with them leaving the others to wait it out.
Across the valley I settled in to glass and wait for the evening feed to start , just after 4pm I hear a distant pop and radio Dave to see if they had shot ' one down' came the reply ' the other is standing around not knowing what to do' shoot it was my reply and a few seconds later another pop and Heath and Dave had a deer each .

After crossing over and dealing to the animals the boys headed back to the hut for a late lunch before climbing the hill to our main lookout for the evening.

Having radios helps and soon I get a call that the boys could see the two stags feeding a couple of guts up the valley from me , I decided to put in a stalk and climbed the ridge to the top to cut around and drop in on the deer from above Dave giving me a rough idea where they were amongst the trees , unfortunately things didn't work out , I had Snuck around but came upon the stags earlier than expected , I was sneaking tree to tree trying to get a shot but never had a clean aiming point amongst the trees , Dave in the mean time had been tracking my progress around the face and had lost sight of me , when he did he got on the radio advising me so , unfortunately the deer heard the radio as well and heads came bolt upright seconds before they bound off , bugger.
It was getting late and I headed back to camp , on the way I spot a spiker feeding in a clearing and call the boys who decided to stalk in , this also wasn't to be and he walked off before the boys could locate him in the scrub. It was a late dinner and bed that night buggered after we retrieved the stags across the valley.

Next morning Dave and I head over the back valley while Heath and Connor hunt the front stream. Unfortunately there was a radio malfunction and the boys could hear us when we advised them of a couple of spikers sleeping off their breakfast on our side , so not wanting to miss out we head down to find a position closer to shoot from , just over 200 I could still see over the scrub and was just clearing some grass from in front of the rifle when they spot me , both dropped on the spot and the real work begins.

When we get back to the hut the others have already started boning out the stags from the night before so after lunch we give Connor a butchery lesson and discuss the last days plan. Having enough meat we decide to hit another valley prior to sun up and look for the big boys and try to get Connor his first deer , It was a cracker the next morning and the full moon gave us enough light to climb the ridge before light , No stags were seen in the first but as we sat and glassed the next we started spotting deer out feeding , we split up deciding to glass different ends of the valley and it wasn't long before we called the others back after spotting a couple of stags bedded across the valley , Heath was able to get Connor to a couple of hundred meters across from the deer while Dave and I sat back and watched the hunt , Unfortunately the first shot wasn't a hit but a bedded deer doesn't present a very big target for a new shooter , after the shot it gets up and runs around the face but as it pauses his second shot drops it on the spot . They had a tough climb down across the gut but it wasn't long before they had the boned out animal back up to our side and we head back to the hut.


You couldn't get a happier chap on the walk back and with the heat of the sun he certainly earned that stag . Nothing left than to pack up and head home , another successful weekend.

Thats alot of Pine tree's to edit out mate Great pics and great story, well done.

Nice work! Good to see a few deer out and about huh.

That block looks well established considering the dry country it's in. Drought in S.Canty this year has played havoc on some of my young trees planted over the last couple of years. They're dying off on all the bony sites and ridge tops due to the dry

Brilliant LU, great weekend by the sound of it, Conner looks chuffed and so he should be!!!!!

Sounds like it was an awesome weekend. Nice country to be hunting. looked pretty warm for you too. Well done!

That fallow spiker would have been a good one for the bow