Thread: Ruahine loop with Tikka 284, and the cashew incident 1

With the stress of Christmas 2023 over and the prospect of good weather after new year I could hear Tikka 284 growling from the gun cabinet again. She wanted a walk, loves the tussock, and I had been reading on this Forum that there were a few deer in the Ruahines. I had taken Tikka down South to the Clarence a few months ago but the aviation security service had removed my ammo for some reason so she didn’t leave the truck at the road end (I thought I was going a bit crazy when I couldn’t find the box, until I found a little sticker on my pack…..). Tikka even heard I saw a few pigs, deer, and a cracker buck Chamois that hung around laughing at me with no rifle. Anyway with a few fresh reloads ready, it was time for a hunt. I packed up late morning from Auckland after an early horse ride in the Hunuas, and did the long drive down to Kashmir road end. A quick stop on the way was made in Napier for some freeze dry food, one square meals for lunch, and a couple of bananas for dinner. By 6pm I was lacing up my new Lowa Camino boots I gave myself for Christmas (will review later but they were excellent). The car park was full but I was committed now. This was new country and I walked hard up the steep climb to the tussock and the Longview Hut turnoff.



I met a couple of hunters who were heading out and they said the hut was full, but I wasn’t planning to stay as the weather was good. Light was fading as I climbed toward the main range while glassing into the creek heads and looking for a flat area to camp on the ridge. Right near dark I spotted two deer at the head of the creek 600yards away, so dropped my pack, marked it on my phone GPS, and despite being exhausted moved fast to a potential shooting position. It got a bit steep and about half way I slipped down a face and hurt my left hand on a rocky knob. A minute later I looked down to see my leg covered in blood and realised my left hand had a decent cut that was dripping, so I flagged the deer and did some bush first aid. By then it was too dark to see so back to set up the bivvy, drink some water and I crawled into my sleeping bag. It was an average night with the wind flapping the bivvy around but in the early morning it calmed down and at 5am I was woken by a deer barking very close. I thought I might finally get a hut/camp deer but as I looked into the moonlight tussock I couldn’t find the deer. Getting dressed I headed out for some glassing as the sun came up over Longview hut below. It feels magical to be in the tussock on a beautiful morning and fly camping often helps the “early bird to get the worm”.




After moving position a few times I caught a glint of red and zeroed in on two deer feeding out onto a steep slip. I ranged them at 600yards. I could see a reasonable spur at half the distance so dropped over the main ridge out of sight and sneaked in through the tussock, spaniard, and leatherwood. Now there were three and then 4 deer in various positions on the steep slip. I lay my small daypack over the vegetation and tried to get a decent rest. The bottom deer was 300 yards (290 TBR) and the top about 340 yards. I couldn’t get closer so I dialed up 4 MOA on the VX3 and wound up to 10x and waited for the bottom deer to stand side on which it duly did and I sent the 162 ELDX into its shoulder and rolled it down the slip. The next one up was a young spiker and that paused not knowing where to go so I adjusted quickly and sent another with a thump. It was hit a bit far back and stumbled forward and then climbed a bank. I managed another shot when it stopped and down the slip it rolled to join the first in the creek. My 3 shot mag was empty so I put a few more in and a yearling was still hanging around the top so I ranged at 340 and cranked a few more clicks. A clean miss moved it along into some scrub where I could just see its head and neck. I waited for about 5 minutes for it to move and lost patience and ended up trying for a neck shot…..another miss but it made the yearling climb back on the slip and stand side on where my last shot dropped it.



Now the hard part and the Ruahines biting back. I thought I could drop down and sidle onto the slip and then find the bigger deer at the bottom in the creek, but I didn’t understand Leatherwood. I was already exhausted from a big day previously and 30mins later I had only got about 100 meters closer and was trapped in leatherwood like a fish in a net. The deer were still way below me, the sun was out and I was sweating hard so I pulled pin and decided to leave the deer.
Back at camp I slugged down some water, had a feed and spread out my fly to dry out my gear then looked at the map. I was planning on a loop via Howlett’s hut but I also liked the look of some tarns over a leading ridge above Iron Gate creek. I also needed water again having used the 3l I carried up so packed up and followed the poled route up the ridge, almost pleased to not be carrying a load of meat…..



The sun was out, the views were amazing in every direction and a nice tarn allowed me to fill my water bottles so I lay in the tussock and had a quick snooze. There are plenty of hours in these long summer days. A group of young trampers came past and then another group which was good to see. I got out the map again and after cooking a decent feed I decided to head toward Howlett’s - a reasonably tough route in the hot sun.