Thread: Greetings from the Waikato

Evening all,

New member here, based just out of Hamilton. Hunted a fair bit in the Kaimais, Pureora, Whirinaki, and Urewera in the 1990s and 2000s but age, health, and young kids have limited my time in the bush for the last 15-odd years. Looking to get back into some light hunting now that the kids are showing an interest. The little shooting I have been doing over the last few years is clay birds with the Miroku mk70 and magpies/rabbits with the Remington 541-T. I started out hunting with a M38 Swede which I used for a few years, graduated to a Remington 700 SS in .243, and have acquired a few other rifles since: a couple of CZ 527 in .204 and .223, the bush pig is a Savage 110E in 30/06, and the safe queen is a CZ 550 in 6.5x55: a beautiful rifle in my favourite caliber, but pretty heavy to haul up the side of Wairere Falls. Unfortunately I had to send the H&K 630 for chipping with the buy-back a couple of years ago - that was an awesome goat gun and just beautifully made.

Looking forward to chewing the fat and finding out what has changed over the last few years (such as access to Whirinaki and Te Urewera), and seeing how gear has evolved and what people are using these days.

Cheers,
Bruce