Thread: Northern Kaimanawas

Originally Posted by Nick.m

Every year the general consensus seems to be its been a quiet Sika roar. I think you just have to be Jonny on the spot to get some roaring action, i honestly believe its partly due to hunting pressure. You only have to drive clements in the roar to see anywhere between 50 and 100 cars, Kikos the same 20 plus cars all at a road end heading in similar directions 10-20 cars in the public access poronui poled route carpark.. pretty much all kaimanawa access points are choked up with humans, If i was a stag id probably keep quiet aswell.

In saying that they do still roar at times,I had a bit of action last weekend with single callers Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Good luck out there, I hope you find some roaring stags

i hunt an area that pretty much no one does, never seen anyone in the last 3 years and we have 5-7 cameras operating at any one time and have never had a person on them.... we spent a considerable amount of April in this area, plenty of Sika, 11 stags visiting one camera and one of the worst ruts for sika roaring action in the last 20 years... we heard 5 Sika single calls for about 3 weeks combined hunting and around only 20 territory calls... while hunting pressure will play a part there is more to it than that, but don't ask me what it is... i have spent the last 10 years going to Japan for the Sika rut and some years they do not roar much there either, usually when it is a warm rut. Been hunting Sika for over 30 years and still do not have them figured out.... but as Nick has said above you just got to be in the right place at the right time to get some good action.

Hope your timing is on point.... early May can be a good time to get some roaring action.

Originally Posted by Rosco

i hunt an area that pretty much no one does, never seen anyone in the last 3 years and we have 5-7 cameras operating at any one time and have never had a person on them.... we spent a considerable amount of April in this area, plenty of Sika, 11 stags visiting one camera and one of the worst ruts for sika roaring action in the last 20 years... we heard 5 Sika single calls for about 3 weeks combined hunting and around only 20 territory calls... while hunting pressure will play a part there is more to it than that, but don't ask me what it is... i have spent the last 10 years going to Japan for the Sika rut and some years they do not roar much there either, usually when it is a warm rut. Been hunting Sika for over 30 years and still do not have them figured out.... but as Nick has said above you just got to be in the right place at the right time to get some good action.

Hope your timing is on point.... early May can be a good time to get some roaring action.

Rosco, cheers for that. Do you think it’s got anything to do with an imbalance between stag and hind numbers? Was listening to a podcast with Cam Speedy talking about the Sika herd, was mentioned that a lot of people in there will only hunt for antlers rather than meat hunts. It made sense to me that if there’s more hinds than stags then the boys don’t have to compete as hard for the ladies which would make the roar a bit of a fizzer. We are heading in hopefully to bring some meat home, would love a wall hanger but first prioity is to tip a couple of hinds over to top up the freezer.

Originally Posted by Liquidasset

Rosco, cheers for that. Do you think it’s got anything to do with an imbalance between stag and hind numbers? Was listening to a podcast with Cam Speedy talking about the Sika herd, was mentioned that a lot of people in there will only hunt for antlers rather than meat hunts. It made sense to me that if there’s more hinds than stags then the boys don’t have to compete as hard for the ladies which would make the roar a bit of a fizzer. We are heading in hopefully to bring some meat home, would love a wall hanger but first prioity is to tip a couple of hinds over to top up the freezer.

Where we hunt there is no imbalance as not many animals are getting hunting and shot, i do not know why they did not roar, it is low country with lots of feed so the hinds should cycle every year.
Anything Cam says to do with Sika and their habitat is normally worth listening to. Early May the good condition yearlings can cycle and also any hinds that did not cycle in early April so some good action could happen..... all about timing..... have fun and good luck.

Originally Posted by Liquidasset

Rosco, cheers for that. Do you think it’s got anything to do with an imbalance between stag and hind numbers? Was listening to a podcast with Cam Speedy talking about the Sika herd, was mentioned that a lot of people in there will only hunt for antlers rather than meat hunts. It made sense to me that if there’s more hinds than stags then the boys don’t have to compete as hard for the ladies which would make the roar a bit of a fizzer. We are heading in hopefully to bring some meat home, would love a wall hanger but first prioity is to tip a couple of hinds over to top up the freezer.

makes sense.