# Hunting > Hunting >  An area of Pureora Forest

## BLABLANZ

Looking at going for a mission to Pureora-forest with my brother in law this weekend for some goats and whatever comes our way...

heres hoping for some success, weather is looking okay. just a bit of an early mornign and decent drive

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## Solo

It's a beautiful place, as yet I've only been there for camping, but once my FAL comes through, an armed expedition won't be far off.

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## Carpe Diem

Hi there.
 @northdude, Craig and I went for a 13k loop wander through Northern Pureora off the end of Tolley road yesterday. Our first time on that loop we went in from the Tolley Rd Poled access and South wards along the contours and spurs until we hit the Pine plantation where the 4wd camp is., followed the road and track back out in a big loop

We were all shocked at the lack of sign, uneaten good browse in the clearings and lack of activity poop and animal tracks on the clearings. Such a beautiful piece of bush but what really blew us away was the lack of bird song and it took an hour and a half to get busted by a wood pigeon, saw one fantail and heard 3 tui's - The bush was eerily quiet... man it was sad  :Oh Noes: 

We did manage to get busted by a couple of animals but this was in a area a couple of hundred meters before we came out into the pines. We then did a mission out going along the road to the track looping back northwards to the farm we started on - You'll see the track on your topo map a little bit of pig sign on the track itself but no animals seen there. From the exit of the track its still a good hike back across the farm (via indicated track) to get to the Doc Carpark at the road end. Fortunately when we got to the top of the first paddocked hill we ran into the farmer who had been out spraying (which was great as we could ask advice as to the best route out as we didn't want to disturb any of his stock as the track route itself shown is actually quite confusing based on the layout of the paddocks and undulations) He's a really good old bugger and offered us a ride back to the carpark on the back tray of the tractor. Sweet  :Thumbsup:  Our legs certainly thank you today.

So my advice to you is if you wanted to hunt that northern block section is to drive into the 4wd camp from the Barryville or similar access points park up at the road ends and hunt into the bush from there around there. It had rained heavily (36mm) two days earlier so gave a pretty good idea of what was there although I'd have to say the numbers were very low tho.

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## northdude

yep that bush was to quiet thats the 3rd time ive had a look in there in the last 3 months that 1080 has wiped every thing out i think but other than that its not bad going in most of it if you go near the 4wd park just be carefull not to shoot someone theres people milling around that area

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## kimjon

Dude, I just back from a day hunt from there today. Plenty of deer... plenty of birds.

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## MSL

> Dude, I just back from a day hunt from there today. Plenty of deer... plenty of birds.


How many kereru did you get?

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## BLABLANZ

> Dude, I just back from a day hunt from there today. Plenty of deer... plenty of birds.


We went in today but a small small block north of the main blocks which has sweet F all, only 2 x kid goats  :Sad:  gutted but oh well. In saying that there were A LOT of wood pigeons.

Are there really a lot of deer? I'm looking for my first deer after Hunter for a few years and finding it hard to get a good spot

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## kimjon

> We went in today but a small small block north of the main blocks which has sweet F all, only 2 x kid goats  gutted but oh well. In saying that there were A LOT of wood pigeons.
> 
> Are there really a lot of deer? I'm looking for my first deer after Hunter for a few years and finding it hard to get a good spot


Yeah mate, saw plenty. I only shot one as that's all I can carry. Anywhere a few hundred meters off the road shows sign. I followed a feed belt on the sunny faces about 3/4 the way up and siddled. It was open bush where I was, but as long as it had feed there was sign. Spooked a few, then found one feeding on leaf litter off the ground unaware about 20m from me, a neck shot with my trusty .223 and happy days.

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## BLABLANZ

> Yeah mate, saw plenty. I only shot one as that's all I can carry. Anywhere a few hundred meters off the road shows sign. I followed a feed belt on the sunny faces about 3/4 the way up and siddled. It was open bush where I was, but as long as it had feed there was sign. Spooked a few, then found one feeding on leaf litter off the ground unaware about 20m from me, a neck shot with my trusty .223 and happy days.


nice! that sounds like exactly what im after to get rid of these blardy "V" plastes lol.. im only after one as well.

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## kimjon

Keep trying, it will happen :Thumbsup: 

Took me many trips before I shot my first deer. Persistence is key to success in hunting. Also mix it up, ie try something different each time and learn from it. 

Kj

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## BLABLANZ

cheers Kj, yep will keep on it

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## northdude

Took me about 3 years before I got my first keep trying

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## Solo

I went in near Piro Piro Flats yesterday for an overnight recon. Managed to run into goat sign just as I left the road, then deer sign pretty soon after. Not particularly fresh, but as someone brand new to looking for it, I was stoked. Didn't go too far into the bush as that spot was plan C after Plan A was scuppered by a big rock in the road that wasn't on any of the maps, and plan B fell foul of empty looking fields actually being full of blackberry. Got camp set up and water found just in time for dark, then spent the next 16 hours sleeping/bored as I waited for the rain to stop.

Lessons have been learned, and hopefully when I return with a rifle, I'll have a better handle on things.

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## northdude

Good that you got out there and got a bit of a feel for it

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## tetawa

Hunt Pureora North block from HW30 3 or 4 times most weeks, there are area's with reasonable deer numbers but many with few. One thing to remember there is that where there is vehicle access it will be bonnet hunted for pigs which makes the deer hunting harder.  At the moment I seem to be seeing deer first thing in the mornings which is what usually the norm for this time of the year.

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