Thread: Hunter shot in Kaimai Range near Te Aroha

Originally Posted by Sarvo

I want to relay a true happening in the same place - Pureora (been a few fatalities there to I might add)

Mate of mine came back to camp in a bit of a state.
He was coming down a ridge (a ridge that was reasonably open covered in Kidney ferns)
He luckily spotted approx 60m away a Hunter knelt down with rifle pointed directly at him - he yelled out (he does not remember what he yelled)
He also cannot remember the time frame between yelling and the Hunter standing with rifle down

That Hunter dropped his rifle and clasped his face in his hands

After an emotional and most likely a verbal abuse from mate (he had a firy temper) the Hunter said to him over and over again
"mate - you were a Deer 110% in my eyes"
How - how - he kept saying could I see a Deer when clearly now you are another man

It woke us all up - as then (80's) there were a few of us getting tipped over
The Hunter had been hunting a long time and he just could not believe what happened
If my mate had not of screamed out - as Hunter said - he would be dead !!

Had the same thing happen in Pureora a few years after the first incident. My mate and I were stalking along a face I looked up and saw a hunter kneeling down aiming his rifle, looking through the scope, at where my mate was. I yelled out and the hunter put his rifle down. He had heard us coming through the bush. He was waiting for my mate to come out in the open before he took the shot. I not 100% certain he had seen him and mistaken him for a deer, but he was expecting him to be a deer.

The mind set that needs to change is the expectation of seeing a deer. We need to expect to see another hunter, then realise it is a deer.