Thread: Public land deer - 53 years ago.

Originally Posted by TeRei

Your manuscript will qualify as a suitable submission for your PH.d. The Forum members can vet it and vouch for authenticity. Everyone would be happy to throw in a few footnotes for added gravitas. Take up the challenge .

All this time, and now your humility and sense of humour shines through.

And I thought that you were just a one trick Targex and Barnes junkie. Shame on me

Originally Posted by Tahr

Im flattered to think that anyone would be interested, but nah, thats not me really. When I left the farm after 20 years I got into academic stuff and uni lecturing so Ive pretty much had my fill of writing and researching. I enjoy jotting stuff down here though.

It would be cathartic for you to add all your jottings together . That would mean all your writing talent would see fruit . You could become the Resident Writer in the Haurangi's until the manuscript is finished. 2 chapters a week and the jobs done. You owe it to you whanau as well.

Originally Posted by hebe

You ever thought about writing a book @Tahr ? I’d certainly buy it.

Iv never read a full book in my life,read lots of hunting and fishing mags.Id probley buy a hunting book written by Tahr tho,Be a bloody good read as long as it had lots of photos,i like photos.

First deer we sold was at Mahi, driving back out in Vauxhall with no exhaust. I’d just left school and Dad had given me £20 for the holiday with two mates. We had toured the length of the North Island and we’re heading home to Masterton. Seven deer on the side of the road, we bowled one and sold it to a buyer for, from memory, for £70, but maybe off the mark. Holiday improved with that in our pocket. I was 16, so 57 years ago.
Worse haul was 3 hinds, a stag and a spiker off the Wairarapa coast side of Otuahome Station, to Tinui, between 3 of us. I can still feel the relief of sighting the Commer Cob in the dusk. We’d shot them at 9 am in the morning

You do realise he's older than you Trout!

Relating to SF90's experience, my mums in a home in a pretty similar situation. See her most weeks, but the conversation is tapering off, as you can see the ideas swimming about in her eyes, but she just cant put the words together much more.

The nurses these days are almost all Philippina, and do stirling work always with a smile. As I walk the corridors around to mums room, all spare spaces in all the corridors are chokka to the ceiling with boxes and boxes of adult diapers...and the place has 'that' smell

The hay making lark was a good wee earner as a teen. Did it at age 16-17-18 over the xmas holidays. A school mate's dad ran a small ag contracting business out of Rongotea, and we all worked for him. The smart ones of us got our heavy trade as soon after we got our car licences at age 15, as we could. That way we could get a spell from lifting bales and drive the Bedfords.

The worst job was always filling the top couple of tiers of bales under the roof of a hay shed. At 5pm it must have been hovering close to 40 degrees under there

I worked in a foundary for the August school holidays, and got put on an assembly line for those tow behind concrete mixers made by AF Martin. 15 years old and Mig welding for a job!. I have no idea how many of mine fell to pieces being towed behind a truck Went back to school and told my mates I was earning $6/hr, and they said "No, $6/day, and I showed them my brown paper pay packet with the week's total written on it and they were most impressed.

But a cast iron foundary is one dirty dirty place to work. One of the 'lifer' fitter and turners was on a lathe every time I worked there, over three School holidays...always turning cast iron. He was head to toe dirty, covered in blackheads and turned up each morning looking just like he had left the day before Old guy (30 something), still living with his mum

Well if we are both feeling young,thats all that matters.

About once a week a small farmer(500 bales=4-5hrs work for 3)might bring out morning tea.Hot flasks of tea,scones,biscuts and sandwiches.They went down a treat as you were so hungry.They treated you like kings.

More old pics from the meat days...

Puketois



Tararua head



Kaimanawas



Ruahines



Waewaepas with the old 303's. This was skin hunting.



Puketois



Puketois



Ruahines



Puketois



Ruahines



Ruahines



Fire lighting a 400 acre scrub block on the farm



Ruahines glassing up the Pari stream



Puketois



Kaimanawas

excellent pics @Tahr , can def see you're Craigs papa!

Originally Posted by Tahr

More old pics from the meat days...

Puketois

Attachment 214148

Tararua head

Attachment 214149

Kaimanawas

Attachment 214150

Ruahines

Attachment 214151

Waewaepas with the old 303's. This was skin hunting.

Attachment 214152

Puketois

Attachment 214153

Puketois

Attachment 214154

Ruahines

Attachment 214155

Puketois

Attachment 214156

Ruahines

Attachment 214157

Ruahines

Attachment 214158

Fire lighting a 400 acre scrub block on the farm

Attachment 214159

Ruahines glassing up the Pari stream

Attachment 214160

Puketois

Attachment 214161

Kaimanawas

Attachment 214162

Great how people could shoot deer back then without wearing camo clothing.

Very interesting Bruce, I meat hunted the Whirinaki area for a while in the mid 70s after culling for the NZFS. Have to say those were some of the best years of my life. We didn’t make heaps but enjoyed life, .60 cents a pound when I sold my first deer then it went up to a dollar plus a pound. Mostly used a Sako 243 over that period great rifle wish I still had it.After I got married I used to sell all the deer I shot as it was a good earner asRabbit Board pay wasn’t the beast back then. I never had a good camera back then which was a shame as I missed out on a lot of good photos and memories being recorded, since 1980 when I bought a decent camera I have photos of all the animals I have shot bar one. When the mind starts to fade I hope the photos will refresh my memory. It was a great era to be hunting in that’s for sure.

Great thread, i grew up, a touch late for the meat hunting, but Dad was a culler, bridge builder and hut builder for NZFS, so lots intresting yarns when his work mates were about,
I too, carted hay with an old bedford with a 1.5 m extension to the deck, bulls and Marton area, 6 high took us to just over 200, 240 with a double row to tie in the top if paddocks were roungh, had to stand on the side loader and biff up over head, sure was fit, 10 g hay the first summer, with a neighbour son who started contracting,
.75 .80c a bale, depending on distance from base, and cart distance, i got .10 cents, increased to .12c the second summer.
Hated pea straw as it would scratch the hell out of you legs,

Shot my first deer up the Ruahines, with a NZFS .222 sako, age 15

The old leather leggings were good for protecting the legs.These bloody tight baling twines on the early morning baled lucerne or pea straw were a bitch on the fingers.

Ah this is a great thread.

My great grandfather was a culler Sid kershaw, from a young age I loved reading his old diaries and seeing the photos, definately pass all you history down!

Nostalgic to say the least!

In the mid-late70s my younger cousin from Timaru was one of the youngest pilots to get his commercial chopper licence(18yrs old).He and his shooting partner brought a R22 for deer recovery.All going well till they got it serviced while on the West Coast.After the service,in the evening they were taking a few containers of fuel up a valley for the next days hunting.They never got half way up the valley.None commercial bolt was a replacement in the tail blade holder.R22 was shaken out of the sky on top of the fuel containers under neath.You can amagine the rest.Bloody waste of good lifes.