Thread: New to hunting

Hey guys new to hunting. And new to this forum. I have been hunting in the kawekas around mangatutu and had no luck yet . do you think i am in the right place?
Next i am going to try hunting in the beech forest near makino bivvy? Thanks fo your help

Welcome jhunt. Its a journey so dont expect too much right away. Go slow, look, listen and learn. It will come to you

ok Thanks mate. Awesome to get a reply so fast. Do you know much about kaweka hunting etc

Originally Posted by jhunt

ok Thanks mate. Awesome to get a reply so fast. Do you know much about kaweka hunting etc

Nothing

Just keep at it mate.

You have a lot to learn.

Goodluck and enjoy it

Welcome along.

Sent from my GT-S5360T using Tapatalk 2

G'day jhunt, Welcome to the forum.

Sika are sneaky little buggers and can certainly be a challenge to bush hunt. You dont have to go too far from any of the roadend access points in the kawekas to find them. They love to live in the tight manuka, but near impossible to hunt in that stuff. Find more open areas with fresh sign, where you can sit quietly and still and wait listening and watching.

Sika have good hearing and pick up movement very well, its hard for them to see/hear you if you are sitting still. This is obviously only worth doing if you are in an area where they are moving about, moving through. Many of the old experienced Sika hunters, use to take a book and sit in the one hot spot all day.

Quite boring, but possibly more productive that crashing around in the bush making a racket ;-)

Welcome to the forum, jhunt.

Originally Posted by GWH

G'day jhunt, Welcome to the forum.

Sika are sneaky little buggers and can certainly be a challenge to bush hunt. You dont have to go too far from any of the roadend access points in the kawekas to find them. They love to live in the tight manuka, but near impossible to hunt in that stuff. Find more open areas with fresh sign, where you can sit quietly and still and wait listening and watching.

Sika have good hearing and pick up movement very well, its hard for them to see/hear you if you are sitting still. This is obviously only worth doing if you are in an area where they are moving about, moving through. Many of the old experienced Sika hunters, use to take a book and sit in the one hot spot all day.

Quite boring, but possibly more productive that crashing around in the bush making a racket ;-)

wow thanks for all the feedback . That is the hardbit though. i went into the kawekas for the first time and me and a friend walked for hours in tight thick bush and it is noisy the whole time! so i just want to know where to find these openings etc. and then others say sika dont move around much at this time of year .. and i assumed you cant just stick to the tracks

Get off the tracks, and find their tracks if you can. You've set the bar high for yourself starting on Sika as they are notoriously tricky. I'm not saying you won't get one with time and practice, but the key for most Sika is to go slow from what I've been told. Only seen them in the flesh a few times on one days hunting in Kaimanawas, and they seem to be super light on their feet, ghost like even!

Pay attention to the wind, one of the most overlooked variables that can make the difference between seeing and not seeing animals!
A deers sense of smell is much better than a dogs!
If they hear or even see you, they still might not be sure exactly what you are and may still hang about as Sika are very inquisitive...if they catch your scent, it's more often than not Game over and they will move out of your way long before you even get a chance to see them.

thanks every one! does anyone have any better hunting places they can give me?

We would all like to know that

Welcome mate.

Originally Posted by jhunt

thanks every one! does anyone have any better hunting places they can give me?

Yes, send me a pm and I can take you to a few possies that have very good numbers of resident Sika.

You can then treat those possies as your own as there are more than enough for the both of us.

Originally Posted by jhunt

thanks every one! does anyone have any better hunting places they can give me?

I am still only learning myself, and started out spending most my time chasing sika in the tighter bush which i found bloody hard. I started seeing more sika once i started getting up out of the bush into areas where its more open, where you can look into areas with slips, clearings, tussock or short patchy scrubby stuff where you can see the deer moving about feeding.