G'day Norma,
I'm sorry if that came across cranky! I'm just amazed how many people come and hunt New Zealand...but pay a guide to do so! We are so lucky here in the way that we can just head for pretty much anywhere in the mountains without rules and take whatever we want...and the people who put a bit of effort into figuring the place out first tend to do alright.
Harry had a great trip-how do you know him? He murdered his fair share of animals in a short amount of time...over 30 in 6 weeks I think...and he had his mrs with him for half of it.
I loved England, and I loved the Roe. I have always wanted to hunt them. When I was young at school I read about them and always wondered about the wee deer that hid in hedges, and I was not disappointed when I got to hunt them! I took some great animals, and learnt a heap. I will be back next year as I have been given the opportunity to hunt a black class one buck in Germany, an opportunity that I could not miss! I will take the chance to hunt in the UK when I am back too, so I will be there for the rut again!
Anyways, here is two stags from this year-I posted them in my introduction thread, but I will elaborate this time.
This stag I took in the Rakaia river catchment in March. The Rakaia herd is quite famous for it's heads, it's genetics originate from Stokes Park. The Rakaia herd has been hammered in the past year by foot hunters, 1080 and the most devastating of all (because the huge country is so open)... Wild Animal Recovery Operators...helicopters. The animal numbers are down in this area, but they are still there. My mate and I watched 54 animals over the 4 days we were there although we put some miles under our boots to find them!
He is a bit narrow, and his Bey tines are fairly non existent...but, I am happy with my trophy, the first deer i have shot in the Rakaia catchment...after 4 years of hunting it hard.
And here is another stag. My friend Erin shot this one. He was on the back of some private property in North Canterbury, his genetics of no real significance. It was a great hunt. I was photographing a spiker and gave it a couple of roars to get his attention for the photo...and this fella rocked up ready for a rumble.
Erin shot it, but we lost it. The next day, with the help of her wire haired terrier she found it. This was her first bit of antler, and she is over the moon.
So don't get me wrong... I have nothing against hunting private land... but, I recommend giving the mountains of NZ a go if you are going to make the journey out here... they add a lot more to the hunt than just the antlers you take home. You can bet your bottom dollar that Erin will be charging around in the alps next year
If your mate is coming back... get my contact details and I will point him to some deer.
Cheers
Spot X Hunting i think, it basically lists something like 1000 'x' marks the spot type places vuagely where deer/game are or should be and gives a quick description of place and likely spots/times. Hopefully will try to get out in a couple off years time just after the rut/roar and do a bit of DOC hunting living out of a tent. Dunno if u can order it here but NZ hunting magazine was a really good read.
[/URL]
