Hunting trip - 8th Feb

Hi guys. Sorry putting up this report bit late as was caught up.

Date: 8th March, 2014
Time: 3.30am
Mood: Excited

The alarm goes on and I jump out of the bed.. Very excited for the planned hunt. Me and my mate David ahd been planning for the whole week to head out on Saturday for the day hunt.

Plan was that I meet up at his place by 4.30am, park my car and we head out in his forester to our planned spot. I would say David is a very organized hunter and has many of the necessary equipment any hunter should have. As scheduled, I reached Davids place a few min before 4.30ish.. We headed out fairly quickly as we knew it would take us about 2 hrs to reach the intended spot.

We reached the car par around 5ish and with flash lights started making our way through the tracks. Swift breeze was blowing on our face and the feeling of being out there was great. I was overlly excited as it was my new Sako A7 first day out and I was really hoping to get it blooded.

After 1 hr 45mins work we reached the intended spot along the Tauherenikau river. Sun was still not up fully but we could now work without flash light. We took a quick break, had a drink, popped the flash light in the back pack and decided to head up the river bank looking for any early signs. Since we were new to the area we though it would be better to glass along for a while before we went in to bush bash.

We spotted a fresh mark on the opposite side and decided to go have a look as it seemed to be the deers foot prints. Fair enough it was. Very fresh. seemed that the deer might have had come for a drink while it was still dark. We followed the tracks and go in the bush. A lot of more fresh signs spotted and a track found. We started following the tracks and were very hopeful that we might spot the deer anytime.

Than things played up a bit and the wind changed dirtections all of a sudden. One moment it is coming from the north and the next moment it starts blowing from the south. Our scent must have travelled at real hig speed as we had sweated alot while on the tracks. The animals seemed to have moved higher up as the sun was out by now.

We decided to move to another spot that we had in mind and spotted fresh signs as well. We waited around the spot for a while to see if there was any movement. We also found what looked like a wallow but not sure if it really was. Marked it anyways to have a look there again soon.

We did a fare bit of bush bashing and than decided to call it a day as the wind was really farking it out..

We started walking back at around 2pm towards the car park where we started. Met a fellow hunter who had been in there for 4 days. The first few days of his were just spent at the camp as weather was not very promising. He was just in there in preparation for the upcoming roar. He said that he had smelled a stag close by when out that morning and had also seen a lot of fresh signs.

On our way back we met two other hunters who were heading down towards where we were back from. The Smiths creek area seems to be getting a lot of trampers and hunters this days and theerfore the animals down there are very cunning; thats what I learnt that day.

"It was fair enough that we didnt get any animal in there because it was our very first trip in there. there are fellow hunters who have weared out their arses to find animals in there so am happy to have atleast seen the signs on my first trip"

This was a self motivational quote I made for myself to get me in back there this weekend.. lol

All in all out the GPS read 18km when we reached back to where our car was parked.


Attachment 21464


Attachment 21465