Thread: First Ruahine hunt

Hi all,

My work is taking me to Pahiatua this week and I'm hoping to tack on a couple nights in the Ruahines Thursday Friday. I've never hunted the Ruahines before but I'm pretty bloody excited. It's been a mild winter for us in the Naki and the central plateau and I'm wondering if this has meant an early onset of spring feed in the Ruahines? If anyone can shed some light on this or has any other tips for a Ruahine virgin I'm all ears

You going east or west side.
Things should be starting to move in the lower county most places have really good numbers.
An evening watching a good slip should produce a few animals.

Sent from my CPH2531 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the quick reply 25/08 IMP! I was thinking about heading to the coppermine road area so South side

Originally Posted by Dinguskhan

Thanks for the quick reply 25/08 IMP! I was thinking about heading to the coppermine road area so South side

A good area just know your boundaries plenty of animals around there.
Also around the kairataki hut plenty of slips to watch.

Sent from my CPH2531 using Tapatalk

Any of the road ends on your pahiatua side will be worth a walk. Jump on google earth and check out the slips and go watch one, you should be in luck.

Awesome thanks again guys. I'll report back with some pics etc from my trip

Hi guys,

With the weather forecast looking dire for Wednesday night we made the decision to head up to Kiritaki hut from the top of fairbrother road. We took the followed the Ridgeline on the southern side of the river where the main track is due to how swollen the river looked and in hindsight I'm bloody glad we decided to keep our boots dry as that night was bloody cold.
The next day was wet but the galeforce winds had calmed down. Cloud was rolling in thick so I spent the day trying to bush stalk. I employed all the information I've been soaking up from these forums and I reckon I got pretty bloody close. Found fresh sign, stuck to that elevation band and crept as slowly as I could with the wind on my nose but never managed to seal the deal. I'm determined to keep trying my hand at bush stalking. What seemed crazy to me was how much sign was in there. The place must be laden with animals and it seemed crazy to me at the time that I couldn't see any given such high numbers.
The next day (Friday) we woke up to a beautiful sunny and clear day.

Hopes were high that we would see some on one of the many slips around the area and we could get back to the style of hunting we are more familiar with. We hiked up the ridge towards what I believe was the end of the number 1 line track and soon spotted a couple of animals sitting at the top of a slip soaking up some sun. They were around 600 yards which is out of my range so we made our advance towards a spur that would allow a 200ish yard shot. To say we battled our way there is an understatement and the going was tough. What was even tougher to swallow was when we were nearly at our bench a little plane flew directly over us, very low and very loud and when we crested the ridge to where our shooting platform was the animals were gone. The whole gulley seemed to shut down as we didn't see any more animals on any of the slips but heard a bit of grunting in the bush.
When we got back to the hut we packed up and made our decent home down through the track that follows the stream down, hopeful that we'd run into an animal on the way down but no such luck. Still an awesome trip and someday I will be back.

The spring flush is well started at farm paddock level. Many deer will be down there at night jumping the boundary fence and getting a good feed. They will go bed down for the day a km or so up the hill from the fenceline. Just get on WAMS, get to know where the public land boundaries are and save yourself a walk. Come November and December the flush will be up higher and fill your boots walking further up towards the main range.

Awesome Intel XR500. If I get back there within the next wee while I'll stay lower in elevation and save the grunt to the top for the warmer months