Thread: Fiordland Advice

The rule it is vertical, boulders or swamp is fairly true. Deer don't like any of those things. It is definitely not all like that. Every Fiord has plenty of streams day lighting into it. These will have a delta, some small and some huge and these will have deer. Where deer are the bush is open enough to stalk through for even average hunters and there is the odd clearing. If the bush is extremely dense the deer won't be in there anyway.

You use the Deers track system in Fiordland or you are going nowhere. The streams and rivers will have a good solid deer track up one or both sides. Every now and then, if there are good numbers, the track will open out into well trampled bush. This is a feeding area. The deer move from feeding area to feeding area. When you get to these, move ultra slow and the odd deer will just stand there and look at you in some places, they don't see many people in the more remote fiords.

As it is the roar, you will find very steep deer tracks you can clamber up. The stags will hold hinds on little knobs and terraces like little defensive castles.

The best place to find and shoot deer is on slips and as stated, you will have plenty of opportunity to shoot from the boat. Just put someone with a clue on the top deck. When I did a similar trip we took an older guy who was an epic shit talker and Army Rambo. He spend the whole week on the roof glassing and we assumed he had it covered. The skipper spotted a deer out the galley window while making scones and one of the guys shot it. Rambo had buck fever. He got taken to within 20m of 15 deer on a beach in the dinghy at night by the skipper and he could not see them.

There are beaches and the deer come out to run around and stretch their legs.

Don't do what we did when I first went down there and just clamber through virgin bush for half a day. Deer are not this dumb.