The roar has come and gone way to quickly as usual however the weather gods smiled on me (most of the time) and I had some fantastic stalks on roaring reds in both the North and South Islands. Here's the highlights of a trip to one of my favourite spots which I've been going to for 20 years so know it like the back of my hand.
The long walk in with my mate Dean was interrupted when a stag roared back at me from just across a small creek. After an hour long game of cat and mouse, I never saw him but got very close. We decided to camp the night under the stars and head for camp on the main range first thing in the morning. On our return trip I saw this stag at close range amongst the supplejack as I tramped down the terrace but he had the upper hand is still running.
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Our camp is on a little knob at the head of a valley which gives a commanding view of some prime hunting country. Being up high at first and last light increases your chances big time spotting animals and locating where stags are roaring so a stalk can be planned. When we arrived we found a stag had been bedded on our campsite, a very good omen indeed and there was plenty of fresh sign about.
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We watched this young 10 pointer on numerous occasions and he will make a great trophy in a few years.
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The weather in this area dictates when you can hunt effectively, if it is a screaming Nor-westerly then we wait and don't scent the area out as the wind swirls about. When a forecast day of light winds arrived we were ready to go. Dean headed over onto the next ridge to chase a stag that had been going all night while I headed up behind camp, roaring as I went. I had three stags answering me with the one nearest Dean closing the gap quickly. A shot rang out and Dean had taken a nice 11 pointer. It was coming into my roars so fast it would have literally gone over the top of Dean and he didn't even use his scope, just up and BOOM at several metres.
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After the shot, I headed over and found a very happy hunter. After a photo and butchery session we headed back to camp and a well-earned coffee. I was giving a few roars from camp and getting the odd reply but by late afternoon things were cranking up so I planned a big loop that would go through the areas of 3x roaring stags. Leaving camp there's a good climb so I didn't worry too much about noise until the ridge flattened off where three ridges joined together. A low moan only 100 metres away saw me quickly find a good view point and then I let out a low moan. Being so still, I could hear an animal approaching with very little noise and then, there he was, standing still listening and looking from behind some scrub. I didn't think he was a shooter so had the camera ready but as he came into view the camera was quickly replaced with my .300WSM. Since his first moan only 2 minutes had passed, amazing how such a big animal can cover so much ground so quietly at speed.
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Back at camp we swapped stories and soaked up a magnificent evening while watching a few deer and goats feed on nearby slips. Great times indeed!
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The goats here and right through the range are becoming a real problem eating all the feed on the slips and bush terraces but it's a Catch 22 situation, if you want a stag then the last thing you do is start shooting goats. Amazing to think goats had virtually been eliminated from the range after decades of targeted culling by the NZFS and then DoC but this was stopped by Head Office for some reason.
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With gales forecast for the next day I decided to take a few goats out in the morning before we left but alas the weather was so foul nothing was seen. With a big load on the going was mighty slow downhill but eventually the river came into view and finally the car after a 6 hour slog.
