Thread: The Roar is on!!!

@Moa Hunter

Cheers mate.

After a fair few years of poo luck with reds.

Felt good to slot this one litterly a hour or 2 after setting up camp

Originally Posted by Rock river arms hunter

@Moa Hunter

Cheers mate.

After a fair few years of poo luck with reds.

Felt good to slot this one litterly a hour or 2 after setting up camp

Yeh you should be happy with that stag its a nice one.

35.5 inches on the right.

34 inches on the left.
24 inch spread

Just came out of the Leithan today and there was no roaring in there yet, plenty of barking hinds though!

Originally Posted by Rock river arms hunter

I wont brag.

But this guy came charging in a few days ago on public land.

Heard him roar.

Then I replied a few times and he went mental and proceeded to stand broadside at 200y.

One 168gr TMK from the 308. Bammo. PB red for me!Attachment 163257

Thata a thumper.😊

Just returned from an overnight trip into the Ruahines and no roars heard where i was so i expect its pretty much a normal year with an early April start, very dry in the bush and all streams an rivers very low at the moment.

Originally Posted by deer243

The Roars started in our area. Went today, stags going good.
Had three going for it in Doc Land. Exciting stuff esp when i got to within 60m of one twice. Slipped down a bank to stuff up the first attempt to shot it.
second time half a hour later his hind busted me. She went nuts, barking for ages, should she stuffed it for me so decided i just shoot the hind as needed some meat.
That was a stuff up too as the neck shot missed and ended up with only this..




Attachment 162928



Found my set of unusal antlers from a big stag i shot i n the same spoyt 3-4 years ago.

Another top Nelson head

I heard roaring up the back of my place last night. I don't think there are any deer farms up there but might go for a look. maybe someone has recently put up some fences and got some in. Might be time for a sticky beak

Originally Posted by 30late

Just returned from an overnight trip into the Ruahines and no roars heard where i was so i expect its pretty much a normal year with an early April start, very dry in the bush and all streams an rivers very low at the moment.

Yeah was up there and heard nothing yet

Part 2 of @Rock river arms hunter story above, we spotted a couple of nice stags up on terrace about 1km away from the first big boy. Just on dark a big 14 or 12 appeared on bush edge about 350 m away but was smart enough to stay in the cover of some fallen trees making the shot a no go, and if we moved from our position we’d be busted by the younger stags further out. While only got glimpses he was clearly big and one worth checking out. Came back a day or so later with wind favourable for a different approach where we had clear view of bush edge and back into bush....down side only cover was a clump of several tussock bushes. Nice 12 pointer showed up with about 30 min light left - 3 on top but missing beys. Probably 3-4 year old. Not what we were after so we watched him graze. The big boy was now roaring real well back 4-500 m in the bush - having a discussion with another stag further down who was just giving the occasional grunt. But sure fired up the one heading our way. The younger stag kept looking back over his shoulder, so pretty sure the noisy one was Mr BIG.
As the mins ticked by the big boy was getting closer to the bush edge and more vocal. Problem was the young 10 pointer had taken a strong interest in the clump of tussock we were hunkered down in, clearly it was “different”. Being down wind he could not scent us but his curiosity was peaked and he came into about 20 m away before deciding the tussock was too scary and trotted back to bush edge. Thankfully this did not spook big boy was now just back from bush edge by sounds of it, and we gave a roar to encourage him out. The commotion had out him on high alert and just on last shouting light he ghosted into view amongst the windfall. He chased the 10 pointer away before turning to present a shoulder. Quickly counting points we got 12 or 14, big dark body stag....this was our boy. A 150 ELDX thru the shoulder from the 284 did its job. He ran about 30 yards back into the bush before keeling over.
Once on ground confirmed 12 points, 4 on top on each side but missing beys. But he was not Mr Big, a nice head but probably son of Mr Big who’s out there spreading his genes.

At dawn this morning DOC land was just locking my car and there it was. Not a roar more of a moan followed by another same area about 1 min later. This is my first roar and I didn't really know to reply or not. Decided to push up the hill (steep) spooking something, not the moaning stag to far away? on the way up. Top of the hill 30mins later checked the wind found a good position with fair visibility and copied what I heard earlier. Expectations were high. Silence, nothing, jack shit. Had a poke around found a trail cam, thought about having a look to see if you could see what was on there but decided to leave well alone. Returned to car disappointed again. Really need rain as cornflakes underfoot and any footprints are few and far apart making tracking difficult. But Rotorua is moaning, next week its all on.

Keep going back chindit,youl find them or they will find you.

I was on the Ruahine tops Monday-Wednesday night. No roaring.
I found a good mob of Reds the second day and watched them for an evening and morning. There were a few stags of varying ages all feeding together with the hinds and spikers.
They werent showing any rutting activity really. Stags feeding together calmly. I ended up shooting two stags, first shot was the first stag i've shot in the Ruahines small 8pts and the second was just over the rise and looked bigger so he died too, heavier but only 7pts. Both stags didnt smell either.

Hopefully they fire up roaring from now on for you guys.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

I was on the Ruahine tops Monday-Wednesday night. No roaring.
I found a good mob of Reds the second day and watched them for an evening and morning. There were a few stags of varying ages all feeding together with the hinds and spikers.
They werent showing any rutting activity really. Stags feeding together calmly. I ended up shooting two stags, first shot was the first stag i've shot in the Ruahines small 8pts and the second was just over the rise and looked bigger so he died too, heavier but only 7pts. Both stags didnt smell either.

Hopefully they fire up roaring from now on for you guys.

I was up in the Ruahines the first week of March and seen three stags still in velvet , they were only young 6 pointers but thought it bit strange.

Anyone heard any sika action yet.