Thread: Stags Shot 2018

Just got home from a week or so away. Spent some time on the West Coast and some time in Otago High Country...once the snow had thawed out a bit. Chased the best of the average weather, but the coast really put it on for us. Love it there.

Saw plenty of animals, enough to keep things interesting. Stags were roaring well (contrary to several 'hunters' opinions we spoke to on route/at the heli pad). Roaring was mostly at night though, and they wouldn’t commit in the bush - cagey... But we still roared some into the open in daylight hours.

Saw a cracker west coast alpine stag earlier in the week, well in the 40's long and minimum 11 points. A long way off, so he's still there...although my mate got within 250m of him and couldn't see him standing above him on the slip...I could though...talk about frustrating! But a good yarn for around the campfire and he'll be there next year...

After the heavy morning rain cleared on Thursday the sun came out and we heard a stag roaring in the direction we'd decided to head, so we put the heads down and cut the gap quickly. Fortunately we caught him out crossing a slip after a hind.

I chose to shoot him...even though he was only a 10, he is old and a classic west coast character head. I’ve passed up many better ones and been eluded by others before on the coast, and am rapt with this one. Wasn't until I put a tape on him, we realized he was 40 inches long. He has cool looking tops too, a real character trophy. He was in fantastic condition and his back steaks were melt in the mouth good last night after a few days hanging.

Came back south-east on Saturday night and repacked then headed straight back into the mountains. Glassed bush edges and basins for a couple days and saw another 6-7 stags...all roaring well, including two young crackers which we left, hoping they'll get another year at least. Roared a couple up in the snow flurries yesterday morning and almost pulled the trigger on a very nice 11, but opted not to due to time constraints and difficulty of retrieval.

Back to work for a few days, might sneak out after a few more reds before the end of the month. They're still roaring good. And have a fallow hunt planned for next weekend, then duck shooting, then tahr, chamois and winter stags. Busy time of year...lucky my wife loves me...

Have a shit load of vid footage to sift through so will start working on that in the weekend...



Cheers
Josh