# Hunting > The Magazine >  a wee story from scribe/The Devil Looks After His Own

## mucko

On behalf of a good bugger *The Devil Looks After His Own*
I spotted this animal from the Makirikiri Bluffs, for those that know the Western Ruahines. He was in a little clearing high up in the Makirikiri stream about half-way between the Bluffs and the Horse-paddocks. I dont usually drop that far down to get my venison as the climb back up is a killer with a load and I usually go and look for an easier deer instead.  But this animals coat gleamed in the late afternoon sun and he shone like a fox as only a sika stag can. Somehow he lured me down from my perch high above, down into the subdued light of the Forest to begin the stalk. I sensed that the stag was a trophy worth having even though the distance was too great to judge his antler quality, but I had that feeling and I wanted him. 
As I slithered gently through the pepperwoods that clothed the top of the ridge where I could get a glimpse into the clearing I spotted him and froze.  Despite the fact it was impossible for the stag to smell, hear, or see me, he was staring straight at where I lurked and he was poised to fly. I think cunning stags have another sense not generally acknowledged, particularly Sika Stags.  I took a hurried shot at his neck with the sako .223 and down he went. Over the years I have learned never to trust a neck shot so I fired another into him as he rolled over the bank. On the short trip down to where he fell I replayed in my mind that brief glimpse I had of a beautiful eight point head just before the shot. This was all I had to sustain the memory for years.
Alas though, when I got to the spot where he should have been he was gone. The marks showed where he had rolled into the stream and got up and either run down stream or up. The dog could not find where he had exited the stream as the area was saturated with scent from the harem the stag had gathered there.  So during the next few years when I was in the area I thought about this stag often and suffered the what ifs that torment a man when he loses such an animal.
Time rolled on as it does until the winter of 2013 when Taihape hosted the Big Four hunting competition. My Brother and two mates who were sharing the hut with me on that fateful day I lost my stag, just happened to be at this event. At some stage of the prize giving they were admiring the above head fully mounted on the wall of the Gretna Hotel.
 Who shot that head they asked a local. Jimmy Barrett he told them. Over the years we had met Jimmy once or twice in this same area so when the boys caught up with him later in the evening they asked him. Where did you shoot that Jap on the wall Jimmy.
I didnt shoot it Jimmy admitted. I found it dead on a clearing in the heads of the Makirikiri Stream a few years ago. We think we know who shot that stag. My hunting partners told Jimmy and he agreed it was probably the same animal.
For six months no one told me about this head in the Gretna until we were back in the area at Christmas for a hunt and one of the boys said I am going to tell you something that will upset you. We saw the stag you lost fully mounted on the wall of the Gretna Hotel.
Well he was right. I brooded over that stag for three months and then one day as I passed through Taihape on my way down to the reunion I decided I must try to get a look at this head to satisfy this itch that would not go away. So I rang Jimmy Barrett. 
There is no way I have any claim on that head Jimmy but I would like to see it I began. Yeah right, if you come around to my place I will give the head to you. Jimmy said It will always mean more to you who shot it than to me who found it.  So I met Jimmy at his sons house where the head had pride of place on his lounge wall. I noted the sad look on the sons face but he did not hesitate, he took the head down and graciously presented it to me. It was a hard thing for the young fellow to do I could tell.
I asked if I could pay for the full shoulder mount. No Graeme that is another story. We have a local Taihape Taxidermist who wanted a sika head to mount for the Sika Show. He had a head skin from out of the Army Land and my son gave him your set of antlers. Well he won the prize for the best mount at the show with this head. So he was pleased and there was no charge for the mounting .  
We talked for a while and I realised that Jimmy knew the country well including the secretive track down to the clearing from the Horse Paddocks that only a culler or possum trapper would utilise. Few, even among good hunters would recognise it or realise that it existed only to allow a hunter to make a soundless approach to a clearing that every year held a Jap stag and often a trophy.
Honest and generous people and Good Hunters restore your faith in humanity dont they? 
 I will never forget what Jimmy Barrett and his Son did for me. 
This is no world beater as far as heads go. Its good and it is a trophy in my eyes. It has history and I guess that is what matters in the end.
                                                                      Scribe

----------


## Happy

Wow !!

----------


## Rusky

Brilliant story.  And what a good bugger Jimmy is!  :Thumbsup:

----------


## Neckshot

What a bloody great Story,Thanks mucko for passing that on.
Thanks Scibe.

----------


## Rushy

Fantastic story. Scribe you are sorely missed from the forum. Hope you are keeping your powder dry.

----------


## craigc

Awesome. What a legend Jimmy is! 
Well written yarn too.

----------


## mucko

> Fantastic story. Scribe you are sorely missed from the forum. Hope you are keeping your powder dry.


 email him if you have his email address he lost yours, pm me if not i will give it to you. @Rushy

----------


## 7mmwsm

Good yarn scribe. That happens sometimes when you use a "poo poo free" on deer.

----------


## Ryan

Good read and a fine specimen indeed.

----------


## Scouser

> Good read and a fine specimen indeed.


+1 with bells on.....what an honest man, great yarn there!!!

----------


## Dundee

To much,what good buggers and a great read :Cool:

----------


## Andrew46826

Awesome story! Small world eh.

----------


## Gapped axe

Great yarn and kudos to Jimmy

----------


## Chris

Still exists a fellowship amongst bushmen 
Nice read Scribe thank you for sharing that .

----------


## phillipgr

What a great story! I'd be over the moon if that happened to me. Awesome.

----------


## Rushy

> What a great story! I'd be over the moon if that happened to me. Awesome.


You will have story's like that when you are three times older than you are now Phillip.

----------


## phillipgr

> You will have story's like that when you are three times older than you are now Phillip.


Will I have a fit young (and dumb) pack carrier too?

----------


## Rushy

> Will I have a fit young (and dumb) pack carrier too?


If you groom one properly you will.

----------


## Monk

That's awesome. To few people around like Jimmy these days.

----------


## MackaS

Absolutely awesome story !.   :Have A Nice Day:

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

Hi Folks, Thanks for all the kind remarks above .
 I have had an eighteen month holiday from the forum and NO it wasn't compulsory... I promised mucko if he put this story up I would come back and contribute if I can. My attention actually was caught by the Winter Story Competition and as I had just put "The Devil Looks After His Own" in the last Deer Cullers Magazine I thought it might suit in the Winter Story Competition.
It didn't make it into the competition, but never mind. It was a damned good effort from the seven who did enter and congratulations to the winner. 

Getting back on here was an effort, more like an attemted resurrection. My account must have still been working as I received notifications that someone was trying to use it. So the old Scribe is done for and his password is lost.

I am unfamiliar with the forum now and I hope that this 'Reply To Thread' will work. Some of the members that posted regularly a while back seemed to have faded into the ether. The likes of 'dougie'  I miss them and I hope they havn't gone for good. 

Scribe

----------


## Dundee

Welcome back Graeme your knowledge and wisdom was truley missed. :Have A Nice Day:

----------


## andyanimal31

Good on ya sturgy!
Good to see ya back

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

Hi Dundee, I think I will have to do a circumnavigation of the Ruahine's one day and you are one person I would like to catch up with.

I spend quite a lot of time in the NW Ruahine's now but years ago I hunted around the SW in the Pohongina and the Takapari Road Area. 

 I have spent less time in the NE though. A few trips through Big Hill into No Mans, Ruahine and Shutes and in the SE around Coppermine. It has been awhile now since I visited these places. Maybe it is time.

Do you remember Ken Strong an Ex Culler that used to be the Venison Buyer around Dannevirke . I think he was buying for Consolidated Traders then. I sold a lot of meat to him. He is in a rest home over there somewhere???.

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

Hi Andy, Keep those long range cannons of yours out of my hunting area. Its not really sporting you know. Might see you next time I am down

----------


## Rushy

On ya Graeme. She's been a hard row keeping these young fellah's on the straight and narrow without you.

----------


## Dundee

Yes Graeme, Ken is in Rahiri Home. He was my Dads best man. He was a culler ,buyer of venison,shoemaker, fur buyer keen fisherman all round top bloke.

----------


## Chris

Nice to see you back Graeme ,hope all is well in your world & you'll be around for a while to prop Rushy up .

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> On ya Graeme. She's been a hard row keeping these young fellah's on the straight and narrow without you.


Hi Rushey, You are back already... I would have thought after a five hour wait at Auckland Airport for your plane to turn up and a deep cavity search you would have come home by sea. 

Was it a rough flight out of Auckland. 

I don't know about keeping these young fellas on the straight and level Rushey. Past performance doesn't seem to indicate that either of us has much success along those lines.
Scribe

----------


## Rushy

> Hi Rushey, You are back already... I would have thought after a five hour wait at Auckland Airport for your plane to turn up and a deep cavity search you would have come home by sea. 
> 
> Was it a rough flight out of Auckland. 
> 
> I don't know about keeping these young fellas on the straight and level Rushey. Past performance doesn't seem to indicate that either of us has much success along those lines.
> Scribe


The flight was fine except for the ascent and descent through the storm front.  I was knackered when I got to the hotel though and only got about four hours sleep before the body clock woke me up.  You are right about the whipper snappers.  There is not a lot of hope. Gibo is the ring leader.

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> Nice to see you back Graeme ,hope all is well in your world & you'll be around for a while to prop Rushy up .


Good to hear from you too Chris. Have you been catching any trevally over your side. Wife and I have been surfcasting for them on your side but well north of you.

Last three trips 28,22,16 last two fishing in the moonlight. We do it every year and its good from April until July. I don't know if they are still on. Must go and try again.

I have fished in many places but catching those big trevs is the best fun around that they don't want to lock you up for.

----------


## Chris

No Trev's round here ,normally late spring when the white bait start to move they turn up. Few school sharks about being hard on gear & me. Some good snapper still though ,not in big numbers but 2 or 3 each trip.Bit bumpy out the coast at the moment will see if it flattens off next week .

----------


## mucko

Good to see the return of scribe one name or the other.

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> Good to see the return of scribe one name or the other.


Thanks again Mucko

----------


## Gibo

Gidday Graeme, Twoshot has told me alot about you. All good things so no need to call in the hounds  :Grin:

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> Gidday Graeme, Twoshot has told me alot about you. All good things so no need to call in the hounds


Hi Gibo, I don't remember if we have talked before, but how are you. Where are you from??? I am going to try and find where members 
are and 'you know' go to a few meets and that sort of thing.

Don't believe anything Twoshot tells you. He was Oneshot when we all went out for a shot one day and Twoshot when he got home. But least he got the deer. My dog had a brain fart when a yearling came down the bank at about 4 metres away and tried to grab it and put half the deer population in the Urewera's to flight that were about to cross the river to the farmland. Wisely she went and slept under the motorbike instead of coming back to the hut that night. 

A good dog will at times still cost you a deer. But it doesn't make it any easier to put up with does it, I was cross enough that night to gnash the woodwork of my Sako with my teeth.   


Scribe

----------


## Gibo

> Hi Gibo, I don't remember if we have talked before, but how are you. Where are you from??? I am going to try and find where members 
> are and 'you know' go to a few meets and that sort of thing.
> 
> Don't believe anything Twoshot tells you. He was Oneshot when we all went out for a shot one day and Twoshot when he got home. But least he got the deer. My dog had a brain fart when a yearling came down the bank at about 4 metres away and tried to grab it and put half the deer population in the Urewera's to flight that were about to cross the river to the farmland. Wisely she went and slept under the motorbike instead of coming back to the hut that night. 
> 
> A good dog will at times still cost you a deer. But it doesn't make it any easier to put up with does it, I was cross enough that night to gnash the woodwork of my Sako with my teeth.   
> 
> 
> Scribe


Ha Ha! Yip heard the one shot metamorphosis story  :Grin:  
Im in Te Puke. Currently terrorising the Kaimais, Pap hills and wider Rotorua Lake forests  :Grin:

----------


## Toby

I dont remember a scribe :/ I remember reading that story but never remembered a scribe. Hows that for a memory?

----------


## veitnamcam

Welcome back Scribe  :Have A Nice Day: 

Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> I dont remember a scribe :/ I remember reading that story but never remembered a scribe. Hows that for a memory?


I think I was a couple of ridges away when the actual name changing event took place.

----------


## Rushy

> I dont remember a scribe :/ I remember reading that story but never remembered a scribe. Hows that for a memory?


You were hospitalised with you leg when Graeme was last around Toby. To many pretty nurses to distract you to remember anything else from that time.

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> Welcome back Scribe 
> 
> Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2


Thanks Mate, How are you. I read your story about Otutu with interest. It brought back memories. I have been in their a couple of times on meat shooting runs. Its hard to get Sika up there in the winter alright.

I am going to tell you how we used to hunt the little bastards. We used to leave camp at 10 and travel a reasonable speed all day expecting to put up twenty and maybe get three or four of them. I know this is opposite to what most people might say and I have no beef with anyone else's hunting methods. But experience showed us that it was all that stop to listen and start off again that put deer to flight (think stalking cat) Accept the fact that the deer is going to hear you before you see or hear it, but if you kept the noise down and just sort of glide in they don't know you are not another deer. They cant afford to run from sound, they wouldn't get a root or have time to put away enough tucker to survive. We always found we could trade distance travelled for the loss of a few animals from noise and always be on the right side of the ledger. Not just with Japs either.

Otutu was the first hut that I can remember hearing about the Kaimanawa Huntaway. I must have been told about it by Dick Hart and Paddy Clark the resident meat hunters. But out to the west of Otutu, possible on the Maori land or even on Ngamatea there was some great golden tussock basins with small patches of mountain beech in the bottoms. We used to roll bloody big gooleys down the ridges into the bush to flush out the deer. Why this method is called the Kaimanawa huntaway I don't know because I have used and seen the method used in other places.

----------


## madjon_

An once he starts running you can't whistle the bastard in!

----------


## veitnamcam

> Thanks Mate, How are you. I read your story about Otutu with interest. It brought back memories. I have been in their a couple of times on meat shooting runs. Its hard to get Sika up there in the winter alright.
> 
> I am going to tell you how we used to hunt the little bastards. We used to leave camp at 10 and travel a reasonable speed all day expecting to put up twenty and maybe get three or four of them. I know this is opposite to what most people might say and I have no beef with anyone else's hunting methods. But experience showed us that it was all that stop to listen and start off again that put deer to flight (think stalking cat) Accept the fact that the deer is going to hear you before you see or hear it, but if you kept the noise down and just sort of glide in they don't know you are not another deer. They cant afford to run from sound, they wouldn't get a root or have time to put away enough tucker to survive. We always found we could trade distance travelled for the loss of a few animals from noise and always be on the right side of the ledger. Not just with Japs either.
> 
> Otutu was the first hut that I can remember hearing about the Kaimanawa Huntaway. I must have been told about it by Dick Hart and Paddy Clark the resident meat hunters. But out to the west of Otutu, possible on the Maori land or even on Ngamatea there was some great golden tussock basins with small patches of mountain beech in the bottoms. We used to roll bloody big gooleys down the ridges into the bush to flush out the deer. Why this method is called the Kaimanawa huntaway I don't know because I have used and seen the method used in other places.


Makes sense to me.
The amount of sign in the bush from summer autumn was incredible!

Other than that trip haven't been hunting for a while, scored a dingy so trying to be a fisherman  :Grin: 

Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2

----------


## mikee

> Makes sense to me.
> The amount of sign in the bush from summer autumn was incredible!
> 
> Other than that trip haven't been hunting for a while, scored a dingy so trying to be a fisherman 
> 
> Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2


And I would say doing a fairly good job....  :Grin:

----------


## veitnamcam

> And I would say doing a fairly good job....


you mean i am rough? :Grin: 

Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2

----------


## mikee

> you mean i am rough?
> 
> Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2


nah, there just seems to be more fish in your freezer at the moment than mine  :Grin:

----------


## veitnamcam

well I do seem to be hard on the gear so i must be doing something right  :Grin: 

Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> Makes sense to me.
> The amount of sign in the bush from summer autumn was incredible!
> 
> Other than that trip haven't been hunting for a while, scored a dingy so trying to be a fisherman 
> 
> Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2


Sika don't much like the cold. You see 2 or three in their winter coats standing in a little patch of sun with their quills sticking out like hedgehogs. They are great sun hunters in the winter, look for the first place in the valley that the sun touches on a frosty and there will be a couple of sika standing in it. They don't like the valley bottoms much in the winter too cold and shady.

In spring they move up to the tussock and stay in that vicinity but storms will drive them lower. March is the time we used to see the greatest number of sika. When we were into live capture their wasn't really a market for Japs so they were pretty well ignored by most operators and they tended to ignore the Helicopters providing you never came to close.
From about the 5th March through to the end you would see jap stags marching around the tussock in mobs of up to eight. They are restless and nearly always on the move sniffing the ground where the hinds have been pissing.
We used to see some of the best trophy stags in NZ during this month. I would never take a trophy out of the helicopter It didn't seem right to me.

----------


## Scouser

Hi Scribe, newbie hunter here and i havent shot a jap yet, seen a few, but too clever for me!!!!.......big thanks for the advice you have given out, will defo give it a try, big thanks!!!

----------


## Gibo

> Hi Folks, Thanks for all the kind remarks above .
>  I have had an eighteen month holiday from the forum and NO it wasn't compulsory... I promised mucko if he put this story up I would come back and contribute if I can. My attention actually was caught by the Winter Story Competition and as I had just put "The Devil Looks After His Own" in the last Deer Cullers Magazine I thought it might suit in the Winter Story Competition.
> It didn't make it into the competition, but never mind. It was a damned good effort from the seven who did enter and congratulations to the winner. 
> 
> Getting back on here was an effort, more like an attemted resurrection. My account must have still been working as I received notifications that someone was trying to use it. So the old Scribe is done for and his password is lost.
> 
> I am unfamiliar with the forum now and I hope that this 'Reply To Thread' will work. Some of the members that posted regularly a while back seemed to have faded into the ether. The likes of 'dougie'  I miss them and I hope they havn't gone for good. 
> 
> Scribe


Graeme I'm sure if you wanted your old forum handle back the admins could sort it.

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

Hi Scouser, I was never culling in areas that held the big numbers of sika. Some of the experts like Dick Hart seemed to be switched onto sika and had no trouble scoring big tallys. Dick was a great traveller. My advice for what its worth is to try to sound like a deer. They glide through the bush but they still make a certain amount of noise. Sometimes when doing a bit of guiding you would be in a position to watch the animal being stalked. As long as the animals ears told it exactly where the intruder was it would hold until it had a sighting. If the intruder stopped the animal would become alarmed and break shortly after that because it could no longer be certain where the danger lay and one of its main defence systems had gone out.

Deer are very seldom on their own, so even though the deer you see may be stationary there is nearly always another moving just out of sight. So I believe the deer you meet, may in a normal day meet 5 other small groups of deer whose sound is a low volume constant  hum of noise so that is what they are expecting.

It is difficult to explain these thoughts really... sit and listen works... but for us distance travelled/more deer.

----------


## hunter308

Welcome back Graeme (scribe) we missed having ya around

----------


## Timmay

I know the guy that does the work in Taihape. Does good work on reds too.

Royal 12 pointer

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> I know the guy that does the work in Taihape. Does good work on reds too.
> 
> Royal 12 pointer
> 
> 
> Attachment 26926


That's a good head Timmay and the mount looks good. I wish I could see the top right tine of the three. Though its shadow tells us its good I cant quite get the idea of its position. Unless it is the descendent of  farm stock it didn't come from around Taupo. It doesn't look like a Kaimanawa Red. Nor a Hauhangaroa red they tend to have reasonable Timber but less spread. If I was asked to pick a place that has similar stock when we were into live capture I would say East Coast Gisborne area, or the Wairarapa.

Though again farm genetics are changing our herds everywhere and from a trophy point of view for the better.

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> Good yarn scribe. That happens sometimes when you use a "poo poo free" on deer.


Thanks 7mm, How are you? Are you trying to take the piss. It happens with all calibre's. I wouldn't mind a dollar for every hour I have spent on my knees looking for blood spots after a .270, 308, 3006, 303 bomb up. Despite all this talk I can only remember loosing about one animal a month.

Guys with the bigger calibres seemed to be unable or unwilling to take seriously enough bullet placement and in my opinion suffered higher losses. When all has been said and done a deer cant be any more dead than dead. A bullet through the engine room delivers that, a gut shot is a gut shot by any calibre.

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> Graeme I'm sure if you wanted your old forum handle back the admins could sort it.


Gidday Gibo, I would mind Scribe back he wasn't a bad buggar I don't think . I am not so keen on this fella though.

As I say I tried to slide back into my old skin but there seemed to be an obstacle to that. I don't pretend to know how these things work at all.
I seem to have membership still as my name is still on the list. I must have some sort of an account as I got emails say someone was trying to access my account. I sent an email to admin say that was me, waited a couple of days and reregistered.

I wanted in like I say because I like things like the winter story competition and I have many stories. I had intended to get this one into the competition and I told 'mucko" if he put it up I would climb back on board. But it was not as easy as that.

Scribe

----------


## Gibo

@Spanners, is there a way of getting scribes account sorted?

----------


## Spanners

Will look at tonight

----------


## Graeme Sturgeon

> Will look at tonight


Thanks 'Spanners'

----------


## Scribe

HNTMAD@ Can I put this story in your 'Competition Time'.

 I originally posted it on here hoping it could go into the Winter Story Competition. But for one reason or another it never made it into that. 

So, as it has not been in a story competition yet I would like to put it up against the other entries.

That is such a nice Knife and Pouch I am gonna go balls to the wall on this.

----------


## Gibo

@HNTMAD  :Wink:

----------

