Thread: Venison meat hunting in NZ in the past

Originally Posted by Tahr

The Bergs buyer Cliff Fergus at Mangatainoka was a great bloke. Supplied a lot through him. Cliff used to have sets of spare ears "just in case" they were needed. He would safety pin them on and rub a bit of mud around . A stag I shot won his "heaviest stag" for the year prize one year. It got the new set of ears treatment 'cos it had a tag in its ear - it was a deer farm escacape-ee. Miles away from a deer farm. Got a crate of Tui.

Another time I shot one on the back of a farm and had forgot to get permission . The farm manager "x" who was always chasing hunters must have heard my shot cos when I took it to Cliff he said "x told me you would be in here this morning". Good times.

@Tahr,just like up North the Sth Is chillers would fight it out for kgs thru the door.Mairs (Hokitika plant) running a heaviest stag comp to drag them in.We all know naturally jammy bastards along the way.An Ashley forest woody if given a job to go dig a long drop would likely come up with a Krugerrand in his paw.And equally tinny with his hunting.Mode of attack- red bands,bonnet finders on the J1,& a crate of big botts between the seats.But he could sure slay them.Roar of '84 and he tips over a friggen horse of an animal.Something like 140kg class on the hook delivered to Mairs chiller at Loburn run by the Sampson's.Beat all comers from the wider Sth Is including those big Rakaia boys.I was on $114 notes a week in the hand plus found @ the time.Stag went $250 notes on the hook and another $250 notes for the prize which went on the bar at the Ashley pisser

Originally Posted by bluebaiter222

@Tahr,just like up North the Sth Is chillers would fight it out for kgs thru the door.Mairs (Hokitika plant) running a heaviest stag comp to drag them in.We all know naturally jammy bastards along the way.An Ashley forest woody if given a job to go dig a long drop would likely come up with a Krugerrand in his paw.And equally tinny with his hunting.Mode of attack- red bands,bonnet finders on the J1,& a crate of big botts between the seats.But he could sure slay them.Roar of '84 and he tips over a friggen horse of an animal.Something like 140kg class on the hook delivered to Mairs chiller at Loburn run by the Sampson's.Beat all comers from the wider Sth Is including those big Rakaia boys.I was on $114 notes a week in the hand plus found @ the time.Stag went $250 notes on the hook and another $250 notes for the prize which went on the bar at the Ashley pisser

Great times and hard case people.

My first day meat hunting I earnt the equivalent of a weeks wages for the shepherds' job I chucked. I kept my dogs and mixed casual work with the hunting. Best years of my life.

Originally Posted by bluebaiter222

Attachment 250591

The other in Masterton was Paddy O’brien, used to sell him Venision and hares. After Paddy passed, the facility processed Pāua, was jointly owned by Owen “frog” Fairbrother. Biggest Pāua processing plant in New Zealand Frog told me a couple of years ago. Owen passed away about 6 months ago.
Fred Burling owned Burling Transport and was on my R/T frequency. The air would turn blue when old Fred got into sorting one of his drivers, Goff enough to pull over and listen to the exchange, mainly Johnny Bak would be his favourite to pour shit over. Both those guys are no longer with us.

As a NZFS trainee in cni in the '60s I shot off a pushbike initially ,after work and weekends. Venison eatned 12p a pound and pigs 10p but with wages at 3quid a week, less camp and cookhouse fees it was worth doung. Later in mid 60's I would work ot for no psy but took time in lieu and haunted the central and upper whirinaki and pukeroa matea areas. Joe Keeley was a culler in Kaingaroa at that time and used to drag a teatree branch down to pukeroa so A F couldnt track him. We often crossed paths in there, me for meat and he for extra tails. Later '60s and early 70's I shot Tokoroa Taupo areas as much as I could part time day and night. The Bullring owned by Johnny Brewer had a meatsafe and he gave me a key. Most carcassed were tagged S Claus M Mouse etc and when $1 per pound eventuated and most headshots weighed about 120lb the money was a great help. I quit the game early 70's as work-job became more demanding and just hunted for my friends and family freezers from then on as need arose. My knees today ensure the memories remain but back is still ok

Another yarn re the celebrated Ashley Forest woody.Strictly no hunting in the working forest Mon -Fri, then open to staff and general public on a balloted block system over the weekend.14 blocks but a shit ton of hunters , a first choice of which block set up.The HQ office chick drew the 14 marbles out the hat on the Friday arvo, then the lucky 14 punters informed accordingly.She,d write out 14 permits to be picked up on the Saturday am as the dodgers headed into their blocks past the HQ entrance gate.Of course many unlucky punters so try again next w/end......Thing was ol mate was tupping her and would always get his first choice every weekend of the year,Bless him

AF,s rh man for dpf Kaingaroa was Gordon Eastbury in the 60's and I dont know what teally happrnbed but he got himself drowned ijn the whirinaki. A search locsted his body but I was never able figure how a manof his experience ended up like that, but shot happens. One timeI was lucky to have a friend tag along. There wad a very long steep climb out of central whirinaki on the west side, named The ring buster. I had a deer strapped across my mountain mule pack snd slipped near the top. Fell down slope about 20 metres and ended up upside down faway from the dirt, woth deer and pack and tifle still attached but jammed solidly between two bits of scrub. Sheer below and I looked up between my feet to see my mate sit down laughing and rolling a smoke. FFS! Finallly he managed to get down to me and dragged me upright. Glaf he could hold on and that the scrubby tree roots supporting us didnt let go. Another time we went in there and both arsed up crossing the river to the hut flat. Our rollys got soaked. The papers all stuck together and we were in for a week. We dried the baccy by the fire and made a couple of pipes out of maggie soup pkts. The dried baccy thru those pipes just about burned our throats out so we did it hard for next few days ay
Lots of storoes come to mind from in there.

Another of Alan Farmers push bike hunters from 60/8 and the Big K lives just a couple of miles down the road from here Gordon Silvester- you mite have bumped into him @Woody in your travels on the Plateux

Great reading, my dad and poppa knew all these guys. AF found my old man’s best mate asleep in a Kaingaroa hut at 9am, kicked his ass out the door.
A steep one in there @Woody.

Originally Posted by bluebaiter222

Another of Alan Farmers push bike hunters from 60/8 and the Big K lives just a couple of miles down the road from here Gordon Silvester- you mite have bumped into him @Woody in your travels on the Plateux

Kiorenui hut springs to mind. Cobber Kingi and his big alsation dog was the reknowned pig hunter around bar 8 in those days. Was at a burn off down there one time. Lew Skudder and Lester Bell and co were there and we were standing around a bit of a firebreak when a mag full of 303s went off close to us. Somebody must have lost it in the scrub. Scattered us a bit ha ha.

John Ransfield was the Bergs buyer in Rotorua and over the years I dropped off a lot of deer to his chiller.
The next time I saw John was when he arrived at my place in 2015 to do my safe inspection etc for my Firearms Licence renewal. John has always been a top notch guy

trying to keep the thread alive fellas cause I'm bored of posts of black guns.Cant for the life of me remember dropping off to a Marton chiller but maybe that was head office and I dropped off to one of their depots out in the sticks.Post # 105 @sharps no 1- a chit from the Marty chiller run by the joker Higginson

Might have been Graeme Higginson. He was based at Martinborough and also was into eeling in season and trapping. Spent some time shooting back of Tuai while he trapped. Je ran on the smell of an oily rag and could cover a lot of ground.

best weight I can remember was a mate sold a stag from Te Kumi right up the east coast 404 lb sold shot out in the paddock in velvet - most whole stags we sold were in the 130 -230 lb mark 230 was rare - most stags were around 150 -180 lb - our best pig was 290 lb - but most boars were 100-150 lb mark - best goat was 110 lb - but the freezers rarely took goats- but one could sell if at the right time of year they could get a big lot - when I shepherded on Makomako at Tokomaru bay we sold some big musters of goats one truck went out with over 200 on it live - much later we shot it just before it went into pines - over 3000 goats in 3 weeks of shooting - Kel set our record of 119 in one day and that was with a .270 I bet his ears are buggered today - ear protection was unknown to us then lol - all the goats I have tipped over culling the best head I ever got was 35 1/2 inches goes to show how rare those 40 in plus goats are - I never saw a goat head bigger than mine shot - my best stag culling or meat hunting was a big 12 shot at Willow flat and that was the biggest I ever saw from any of us - I watched a bigger stag a 14 pointer at Willow flat one morning but was not allowed to shoot deer on that property only goats - trust me I was very tempted - I sat watching him thru the scope trying to figure out how I could shoot and retrieve later but let him go

Originally Posted by Woody

Might have been Graeme Higginson. He was based at Martinborough and also was into eeling in season and trapping. Spent some time shooting back of Tuai while he trapped. Je ran on the smell of an oily rag and could cover a lot of ground.

Yip that's him @Woody.A scruffy rough diamond who commercially eeled on Lale Wairarapa.Had a small holding on the fringe of Marty on the Sth side of town.Happened to Coinsidently share the same name with the well known AB lock from the Bush.Drove a Mitsi Delica 4WD van that stunk like a fish factory.You soon learned to keep up wind of him

AB Higginson from the Bush. When I farmed out there I concurrently had 3 current and ex All Blacks as neighbours. I still have aspirations for being an AB.