Te Miro - Fallow

Hey all,

I applied for the Te Miro ballot and have drawn a couple of days early March and Late April (might miss their rut?) - having never been in there has anyone got any advice for the block?
Would really like to find my first fallow - and would be awesome to find some with my father inlaw who has never been deer hunting.

I know the numbers are supposed to be a little low - hoping they might be up a bit with no hunting last year...

planing on going in for a scout this weekend before hunting opens on the 1st of March to look at the terrain and look for sign etc

I haven't hunted Te Miro but have done quite a bit in one of the other blocks. I've got ballot days in mid March and early April.
The deer numbers seem to go up and down, some days there is bugger all sign, other days you see several. I think they move between the bush and the farmland depending on where they are getting hunting pressure and where the food is. With the dry conditions they may be in the bush now, but it is very very noisy moving around, the rewarewa leaves seem to be the worst at cruching underfoot.

Walk the fenceline just before first light, and just before dark.

And avoid that flat area on the North side. Took us about 1 hour to travel 200 meters. Full of vines.
Did find some good rubs but the only animal we bumped was near the water course heading back in from the west side back to the entry.
Z

Focus on the northern side and go super slow!

take a set of snips with you for cutting the supplejack!

I hunt on one of the farms near there and the farms are crawling with fallow theres heaps of them, I would be hunting the edge of that block. fallow love grass.

Update - we went in yesterday (unarmed) just to scout before the restricted hunting opens today.
Super crunchy under foot - that might be dampened down this week if the weather report is correct. Heaps of supplejack - already carry secateurs for the Kaimais so that was lucky as there are plenty of big tangles in there to block your way.

We went in from the public access point - followed the fence line up the hill on the north eastern side up to the top where it opened out a little, looped back down along the stream beds looking for any sign. We saw a very small amount of sign lower down - very small amount - the most promising was we found a spot where they obviously scoot under a fence and out onto the farm next door - but the amount of droppings was really low.
Didn't go right up to the northern most end so perhaps that may have better activity levels....

As stated before get up on the northern side before day light go in an anti clockwise direction from access point and work the fringes, i hunted alot there in the 90's try getting access from the last property up that road, i found Sept the best time to look for bucks as they are mobbed up and are venturing out on the grass regularly.