Roar 2019 South Westland

Well after a week away in the Canterbury high country with mixed results, it was a few days at home to Recover, get a few jobs done around home and repack for our trip down to a Haast ballot block, 2nd Period.

I picked my good hunting mate up from the airport the afternoon before and we doubled checked we had everything “Got the bread” “yip” “Got gas cans” “yip” looked at the map again for the hundredth time “that ridge could be good”

Even after 30+ years of hunting I still get that nervous excitement of a pending hunting trip, it was early to bed and a restless sleep, I was awake just before the 5am alarm went off, up, flicked the jug on, quick brew, some toast and we loaded the hilux with our gear. The road south of Fox was closed with the washed out bridge so I pointed the truck South for the McKenzie country, it’s about 8hrs from ChCh to the Cascade, we stopped at BP Omarama to fill up and then thru the Lindis Pass, yarning the whole way about all sorts of stuff. Sledging into Makarora we stopped for an early lunch and a coffee, plenty of trucks parked over at Harvey’s hanger and they looked busy flying parties around.

Came outside to see these clowns, guessing English may not be a first language :D

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Off past the Blue pools, Gates of Haast & onto Haast, then it’s a left turn and on the road down to the Cascade, just before we got to the Arawhata bridge my mate suddenly yells out “deer deer” bloody hell there’s a yearling standing on the side of the road at 1pm, for a split second I thought it was going to run out in front of us but it turned and trotted back into the Forrest, “that’s a good sign I reckon mate” as we joked about how funny it would be turning up to the chopper with one to fly in for camp meat :D

Past a few truck loads of hunters coming out and my excitement was growing. Pulled into the farm at the Cascade at 1:45 Haast Heliservices had 2 H500’s on the go, we backed into the temp scales hanging from a tree and the ground guy weighed our gear (lightest load for the day- should have chucked the kitchen sink in) took our details and said we’d be next.

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It was a great day for flying and Scott was kind enough to give us a swoop around the top end of the block, gotta love the old H500

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The weather forecast was good until mid week so we set up camp and grabbed our gear and went for a quick look down river to get the lay of the land, Scott said the first period guys had got a couple stags so we weren’t expecting anything to handy, the block has a few good slips on it and low & behold as we were making our way back just on dark my mate spots a couple of heads poking out of the scrub at the top of a slip, they cautiously came out and with about 5min of shooting light left I handed him my Sako 260 which has a suppressor and he shot the yearling which came tumbling down to the bottom, he reloaded and went to shoot the hind ‘click’ shit, reloads, click again! “Pass me my 270 he growls” Kaboom and the hind is getting a lift back to camp as well. Well that’s camp meat sorted for the week, It’s well after dark when we get back, hang the deer, get a feed on.
We inspect the bolt on my rifle, pull it apart, both the rounds (hornady factory) had light strikes on the primers, We think there was a bit of shit in the bolt face hole.

It’s two tired contented lads who climb in the tent after a long day “told you seeing that deer on the road was a good sign”

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Next morning we are up and away for a big day trip, we pick a ridge and hunt our way up it, roaring periodically, it’s another beaut weather day, by early afternoon we are sidling thru the bush when we come onto a wallow, I give out a roar and get an angry reply! Garth stays back roaring and I stalk in, I get to within 20m and there’s a bloody great big fallen down tree between us, I’m stuck and can’t see over it, shit shit.... he ends up wandering off barking/grunting and our one chance for the day is gone. That’s hunting...

Next morning we cross the river and do a huge day trip, climbing our way up thru the bush I bumped a hind in the crown fern, we get up into the area we want to hunt and it’s pretty shit bush, we eventually get a few weak roars out of a stag but he’s sitting tight and he’s a long way down in the next catchment.

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We find a nice spot on top of a slip for lunch and can see the Tasman sea.

Carrying on we drop down into another area, and come across this, Old forest service plot markers? Couple of them had a compass heading and distance scratched on them.
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Anyway it was a much better spot and we started seeing fresh sign, ended up getting barked at by a hind and bumped another later on, time was getting on and we had to hustle a bit, which lead us to pick the steepest place to climb back down to the riverbed just before dark, not a place you wanted to slip. Trudged Back to camp after dark for a cold Speights and a premade stew, I’d borrowed an InReach off a mate and dialed up a forecast which said rain the following afternoon. We had a bit of a sleep in, my Mates knee was protesting so he decided to stay in camp, bone the deer out and make things more weatherproof for the coming front.

I headed up river, hunting the slips and clearings, at 11:30 just as I’m about to cross the river for the 12th+ time I see the arse end of a deer on a clearing, I step back and wade around the side up to my nuts until I can in get a position to shoot from, it’s a tasty looking yearling, eventually it turns side on and the 260 does it job.

Shot from the rock
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I get back to camp just as it starts to rain at 2:30, we have dinner at a sensible time for a change, venison nachos

A sleep in until the bladders force us up, it started raining quite heavy during the night, we aren’t worried as we are ready for a camp day so it’s bacon & eggs, cups of tea, reading, naps, more food and cuppas. On these trips I always take a few tarps, flys to set up a dry area for rainy days. Couple beers and a feed of fresh back steak for dinner and early to bed.

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It stops raining during the night so we are up in the dark, feed, brew and off. Hunting straight after bad weather is always good, we head downstream checking the slips and clearings, a few km down we come across fresh marks from what looks like a few hinds and stag, we head up the nearest ridge, another steep shitty one to get up onto, hunt our way up abit until we mooch into a nice little terrace, sometimes you just know there must be deer in these places,

I give a toot and get an instant reply from maybe 25m! We both load, I give Garth the nod and he moves to a tree a few feet in front of me, another toot and an angry reply, oh yeah it’s on! I see Garth raise his rifle and know he’s seen him, I turn my roaring horn to point behind me and give a light roar to trick him into thinking we are further away, works a treat and he comes straight in fast, straight around to my left and stops looking at me less than 10m away, I whack him in the neck “sorry mate he was right there” no worries I didn’t have a clear shot, main thing is we finally got a stag! An Intense few minutes.

We have been hunting together for 20yrs and both understand in close bush hunting with a roaring stag like that, whoever gets a clear safe shot takes it.

Typical coastal South Westland bush stag
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Out with the back steaks, fillets, boned out the shoulders, and back legs over the shoulders we headed back to camp, a good trip trip just became a great trip.

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Late lunch and we head out to sit on some nice slips up river, an hour before dark two deer wander out onto the one I’m watching, I go and grab my mate who’s watching another one and he gets a rest for an uphill across river shot, the mighty 270 smashes both her shoulders, unfortunately she gets caught up on some tree fall and it’s a steep slip, So I cross over climb up the bush edge, sidle over and manage to get her down and throw her into the river without joining her! She floats down 20m and is hauled out, a short carry back to camp makes a change, more back steak, heart, spuds etc for dinner Yum!

Last full day and it’s another cracker weather wise, we decide a big day out is needed, off we head up a likely ridge which has some nice deer trails up it, and hear our first roaring stag that’s going to town on his own without any encouragement from us, unfortunately the wind is wrong as he’s on the next ridge over so decide we’ll come back down on top of him later in the day, it’s always hard to leave a roaring stag!

We climb high up thru the bush, hunt some nice areas and finally early afternoon get a stag replying, he’s above us so we head up and close the distance, we get to where we think he is and roar....We get an angry ROAR back and it’s all on, Garth heads in while I wind him up, an intense hour follows, every time he roars my mate sneaks in a bit closer but ends up in some thick shit, he’s just there and must hear something as he moves off a bit, I hear Garth roar at him and realise the stags moved by his reply, so head up closer to keep the stag going, he starts going off again and it’s back on!

I sneak in, find Gus by a tree and he indicates he can’t see him, the stag is just across a little gut from us, I’m a couple trees to his left and just slightly higher, after a few minutes I pick up some Red colour, shaded by some foliage I watch it, is that a nose and eye I can see? No where enough to confirm, I signal that I might be able to see him, Garth gives him another roar and he turns his head, I can see antler, head, neck, I’m 100% it’s the stag, and then he turns opening up his shoulder..bang... yeah boy! What an hour of intense roar hunting, another scrubby 8 pointer but what a day. This is why we love the roar.

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We get the meat off him, (sausages & salami) before having our lunch (3:30pm)

Back to camp just on dark feeling very contented, big feed, the last two beers each, happiness filled.

In the morning after a lazy breakfast of porridge, we boned the last of the meat out, packed up, sat in the sun on another glorious day in paradise reading until Scott turned up in the H500 (late of course)

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Magic flight out and then a long drive home, without a doubt this is the best trip we have ever had down to Haast (had a few awful ones) great weather, plenty of deer, lots of laughs, good feeds and the company of a like minded good mate. We took out all the meat, I picked up 50kg of bangers and patties on Wednesday and have another lot to be made.

Roll on the 2020 roar

Not sure why some of the photos aren’t showing? Here they are hopefully

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Good trip alright , good to see there were plenty of deer about.

enjoy all that venni...great write up and photos (even if the chopper had been turned into a lawn mower in one LOL)

Sonde likes a great trip. Good you picked up a few animals.

Wonderful trip report thank you!

Here’s a photo of the Hornady ammo that didn’t fire, both have light firing pin strikes on the primer, the primers seemed to be set quite deep in the pocket so pulled the pills and I reprimed them the other day and they both went bang, confirming it was a bit of grud in the firing pin bolt hole that caused the issue

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Good write up, I once had trouble with ammo not going bang it happened 5-6 times , took the rifle into the gun Smith & it was given the all clear , he said to toss the box of ammo , turns out it was a dud batch likely the primers seated to deep , the problem has never occurred again .