3 of us just spent 6 days hunting in the Mackenzie/Hunter Hills. Got home on Saturday. We do this probably 3 times a year.
Mix of weather with 2 good snow falls. It was pretty cold.
We were mostly hunting by about 1pm and that gave us 7-8 hours on the hill each day.
Our method is not dissimilar to deer stalking. Spot and stalk - and a lot of walking. We would get a few through to about 4pm and then they would become a bit more visible as they came out of cover. The further we walked and the more inaccessible the terrain the more we got.
Average range is about 150-200 yards with some longer shots mixed in. All .223.
So we got 448 wallaby, 2 Fallow and 6 pigs.
Here's a bunch of pics and some comments.
First day out was a lean area that gets a lot of 1080. Only got a couple of wallaby but did get a Fallow spiker (and later Brian shot one too). All of the meat was gifted around Tekapo village.
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The next day we got a good snow fall that clipped our wings for a day and half.
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After another lean day Rod joined Brian and I and we shifted camp to a hut in the Hunter Hills. Our tallies jumped immediately.
This pic is looking straight down from the hut and to a face on which I shot one at 460 yards from the hut. We hunted into all of this country.
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I saw a couple of Reds one day. Here's a spiker tucked in below the rocks. Saw about 30 deer in total.
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This is fairly typical of the country.
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I got 46 one evening down the bottom left of this gully.
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Brian and I use these Outdoorsman frame packs 'cos they are great for shooting off in the tussock and on steep slopes (and for carrying deer on).
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The lads eating. Always eating.
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Nice
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Deaded
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Sidling through the scrub. I got a lot on the green patches. Shooting across the creek was 2-300 yards.
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Rod brought his bike - he said it was good to get around on but pretty cold. Didn't use it much.
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Why I put on weight. Rod was in charge of breakfasts.
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Brian the snowman. We all got caught out in this storm.
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The next morning.
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The lads packing for home (someones' hard case sense of humour with the tanker sign).
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PS: Big weeks are not for the faint hearted. Im only 42.
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