Thread: Venison meat hunting in NZ in the past

Originally Posted by Woody

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.

Hunted a lot with Fraser King from the bar 8 , lot of fun back in those days . All day in the bar 8 then all night in the Rangitaiki pub

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.

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

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

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.

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.

BJ was in a different class.Was on goats in MT Bruce.BJ farmed across the road.Occasionally the dogs would end up hauling over there.Got to meet him to sort the pack out.A true gentleman (& wife)from a different era

they were gentleman - got to know Ian Kirkpatrick alittle - asked him who was the scariest bugger he had encountered on the field ( one does tend to ask people like that dumb questions ) he said Bryan Williams coming down the paddock at full steam towards you was close to it

Many of us had a dog along and in the 60-70 decade mine was a ue heeler bitch named Kim. She was bred by Garth Coghill (also NZFS staff). Gafth used to pig hunt Kaingaro out lg a tiny old baby austin with a wheelbarros strapped to the back. His finder was a border collie bitch and his holder wS King, a very solid blue heeler me stud dog. King had almost zero tolefance of other dogs and would kill if allowed. He wluld just .ooch along till the collie bailed and then head for the bark. He never held by the ear, always on the front of the nose. Even once the pig was stuck he wouldnt release until repeated smacks on his snlut with the back of a knife fotced the issue. Eventually he attacked the collie one day and so damaged her front leg that she had to be put down.
Anyway, Ming was the sire of my Kim. Being jusg a young buck of 18 when I got her I didnt know a lot about training a hunting dog; just had her along whenever I hunted, which was a lot. She self taught and was utterly fearless. She wluld find and bail and after a bit of ear cutting, wluld hold on command. My favourite weapon when pig hunting with her ( one dog only) was a cut down fern hook slasher. This cluld be used as a stabbing tool but more often I would get to a side of the pig and whack them just behind the ears. It put them down quickly.
On deer she adapted her heeling genes and in flat areas I would find a clearing or monowai flat and send her out. Sometimes up to a couple of hours wait I would hear the thump thump or crackle of approaching deer. She had the knack of quietly pushing them right to my position. In the ureweras in steep terrain I would watch her winding then we would go down into the nearest creek and then I would send her. She would bring a deer down into the bottom and bail within esrshot of me. One time in back of Moanui she took off ahead and bailed two blue boars. When I caught up to her she was bailing and when one broke she would bit its nuts making it sit down, then heel the othet back and do the same. I shot one and stick the other. In all honesty, Kim easily doubled my success rate and a great all round dog. I rescued her from drowning once on a dirty crossing on a sharp bend in the tauranga river below which was a log jam. She got swept under the jam and it wad a near thing to get her out. I know others who had similar close attachments and close esp eith their dog. I will never forget Kim.

This old faded pic is of Kim with the two blue boars mentioned above. Was lucky to get this because my camera took a dunking a couple of weeks later and this wad one of the few negatives that survived.

you mention Moanui Woody did you ever run into the rat pack meat hunting and possum trapping in there - Pat Braithwaite Jim Mitchell Dave Eccles ? real characters - when DOC started 1987 I was a Ranger in Waioeka gorge - I got the upper Waioeka as part of my area - but only Jim Mitchell was still trapping in there then based from Forks hut - Tawa hut was Braithwaite country - Kahanui hut there was a husband and wife trapping Lyn Thyne ? and I think her name was Marina

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

you mention Moanui Woody did you ever run into the rat pack meat hunting and possum trapping in there - Pat Braithwaite Jim Mitchell Dave Eccles ? real characters - when DOC started 1987 I was a Ranger in Waioeka gorge - I got the upper Waioeka as part of my area - but only Jim Mitchell was still trapping in there then based from Forks hut - Tawa hut was Braithwaite country - Kahanui hut there was a husband and wife trapping Lyn Thyne ? and I think her name was Marina

My times in there were in the 60's so missed them. I know of some trappers operating out of hautapu hut se of matawai but each time I was there was out of seadon for jackos to never actuLly met them some wild vattle in thefr which wete dangerous.

@Woody There's something special about heelers. You have to have one to know, their loyalty and commitment is remarkable.