Thread: My Sambar for 2022

Hi guys

School me on Sambar, ive been shooting a reasonable amount of deer over the last few years. Usually 6-10 a year with 2019 being the exception of 14, mostly been doc land hunting around the Waikato, and all have been reds and fallow.

I really want to shoot a Sambar this year, i have had a look around Hot Water Beach, Tarawera inlet, Kaingaroa over the years but not much luck.

What is the best approach for getting on to sambar on public, or publicy accessible land? Pretty much just bush stalk/ambush around where the sign is like for reds? Or stalk around/sit and ambush the grassy areas like for fallow?

What is the go with Sambar?

Ideally id shoot it close enough to a road that i can carry all the meat out in a few trips as i know they have quite a bit of meat.

I know thay a lot of people dont like the Sambar meat but ill give it a go.

Cheers

Also, im quite happy to take long range shots too of that means anything. Pretty confident in knocking deer over out to 600 or so. But tend to avoid it on doc land as recovery is too much hassle.

Samber are to much hassle .

I'm not much help iv shot 2 a few years ago and that's my dash done they seemed to be in swampy areas and they were pretty bloody cunning to be fair I did recover both animals and even the saucages were crap however corned it was pretty darn good worth doing for sure . Best of luck their a horse of an animal

A lot of the good Sambar hunting is on private land or closed forestry land. We have hunted them for about the last six years and have had reasonable success. The trail cameras have captured many nice stags and animal groups which are trophies in their own right.
I have shot several good stags one at 197 and the other at 212 DS along with several around the 170-180 class. An interesting animal , sometimes very hard to get close to and other times they have done dumb things. My two best were classic examples of not so bright, the 197 one we drove past at about 30 yards trying to hide next to a pine tree at about 3 in the afternoon. The biggest was in the evening and walked out about 40 yards from me and walked slowly away watching me.
Meats ok in small goods but a nice steak off a red beats it hands down.
The shores of Lake Rerewhakiutu ( spelling wrong)and around Waimangu have good numbers and as far as I know is DOC land. You could go talk to DOC in Rotorua they would have a better handle on what's the go out that way. There is farmland bordering this DOC land so a bit of door knocking may gain you access.

No DOC land around Lake Rerewhakaaitu and Waimangu DOC is land locked. The operation manager of the Pamu Farms in between both used to had it all stitched up and would only give his mates access and from what the landscape looks like on a couple of youtube videos, also selling access to some hunting guides to take clients out. Funny thing is, that DOC has to spend tax payers money regular on Sambar culling at Waimangu as they do damage to the near by tourist attraction, instead of giving hunters access which would do the culling for free. Kaingaroa has pockets but looks like a lot of deer getting shot as by-catch when the pig dogs bail them up. There was a nice population I found but it got wiped out by 1080 three years ago. There are some in the shrub around the tourist attraction on the left but again not public and they are so close to the walkways, you wouldn't use a rifle. The odd one makes it into Rainbow Mountain but again, mountain bikers and walkers vs gun?
Those Sambar are pretty smart and I think they figured out they are safe from dogs and hunters when close to people...

Yes you are right , I meant Lake Rotomahana , you used to be able to launch a boat and get across to the southern side where the scrub on the faces run up to the Onuku Maori trust farm, always plenty of sambar in there but it is shit bush and a lot of blackberry. As far as I know that land is DOC run. I used to work on the Onuku block servicing bait stations around that scrub / pasture margin, always sambar sign about. On the lake shore there was always truck loads of sign on the small beaches. Access is difficult but a bit of door knocking may gain you access.

I used to hunt waimangu 6/7 years ago used to take the boat over. Lots of deer through there when I hunted it some days I'd see 20, only ever shot a couple small representative stags. I had my cameras set up there for some time never saw any decent stags on it, a handful of red deer are in there too and heaps of pigs. Paid to walk down the track a few years ago and jumped up in the doc for a few hours and all the places I used to shoot from were overgrown. Too many deer in there imo makes it too hard to find anything decent. Some of my trail cam pigs had 10+ deer in one photo.

Craftiest deer you'll ever hunt they make sika look clumsy, your best bet is to watch scrub faces from a distance. They're basically the pig version of a deer always in the tightest scrub. You'll see them throughout the day ghosting through the scrub.

The winter months are the best time of year to hunt them when they're rutting, all you have to do is find a group of hinds and yearlings and stags are usually within 200m of them up wind.

The trail cam showed me the older stags cast mid November but you'll see stags in hard antler and velvet throughout summer.

Hard to get access to hunt them though, I think the forestry is real strict now. the reds pushed all the sambar out from behind hot water beach apparently.

Update to this thread, i have not yet shot a Sambar

Victoria is the place to hunt Sambar.

Yep, spotted three this morning. But no chance of a shot.

@NewbieZAR

Shot one yet?