Thread: Hunting spots done a complete 360 on us

Well @Chelsea I've got news for you, if you learn to stalk successfully in the Kaimais you'll be a productive hunter anywhere in the world!

Its a tough gig, for sure, and to be successful you need to put in hard yards off the main tracks. I would hunt the east side to the south of Katikati as a start, get up in there early having made a rough route on Google Earth and a good 1:25000 map like Memory Map, linking clearings and slips. Get up high as quick as you can. Be very careful of the gradients, worse on the western side. Plenty of stories of guys getting bluffed out in the Kaimais and ending up spending the night in the bush.

The only way hunters get deer out of the Kaimais is hunting very quietly into the wind, well off the beaten track, hard to do in the mongrel bush in there. You need to get onto freshly used game trails and sidle around the contour, being very sure to mark your progress on your gps as you go. When you're on a fresh trail (mark made that day, warm mucousy pellets) you need to be covering a few metres slowly, stop, listen, repeat. Most of the success me and my mate have had has been either walking right into them as they come from upwind on the same track, and snap shooting, or sitting up with the wind in your face near a well used clearing and waiting. Regular Kaimais hunters have a library of game trails and clearings on their gps that takes years to build up. A good indicating dog is worth his weight in gold in there.

Not unusual for experienced hunters to only take a deer once every several trips, especially at the beginning of your time in there. But perseverance will pay off.

Just one final word of caution, its a prick of a place to get around in, very slippery and steep. I was going uphill once a few years ago with my mate behind me, and I slipped and sconed a tree root, right in the side of the head. Knocked myself clean out. Lucky for me I had someone to tell me who and where I was, and all up it wasn't too bad... hurt a lot though. Never heard the end of it either.