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Hey Everyone,
Hope you're all good. Just got back from a long day out in the Kaimai (Wairere Fall's area) and didn't have much luck, unfortunately.
Checked out two clearings and wandered into some of the deeper bush, but only came across old signs.
I was wondering, does anyone have any tips on hunting around there or know what I might be doing wrong?
Cheers
Walk along the track for another hour and then start hunting would be my advice.
I shot my first deer up there a couple of minutes off the top of the track. The dog has winded deer on the walk up. Just work a new section each time, take gps marks, and build a picture of the area. The deer are there, but you need to do the hard yards to find your own huntable patch. Enjoy the process.
Come now, there aren't any deer in the Kaimais :D
Seriously, the animals aren't stupid and won't roam far from water, tucker, nice warm faces and flatter terrain. Old sign is probably from travelling from one 'home range' to the next, what causes them to move is pressure or change in environment such as a swing in weather, lowering of food, or water sources changing. Biggest problem with the Kaimais isn't the deer, it's the idiots with guns that all congregate on the same spots.
Your first job is to walk each of the tracks and record it on your phone app or gps so you can get to them at the end of your hunt and make a tidy exit back down the track. Find the lesser used routes like to the clay road and the old north south track.
As noted above there are preferred features deer will inhabit and there tend to be more further away from the falls than close to them.
Basically you need to explore, find nice spots and put in the hours off track there.
Try to spend the last hour of daylight up there and walk out by headlamp.
Cheers guys! I have noted the advice and cannot wait to go back out again
Sent from my SM-G780F using Tapatalk
I have shots 3 deer overthe years in the clearing you are talking about.
They are constantly been checked out by hunters. So any time a new deer pops up it pretty much get shot. You just have to be there at the right time at the right place…. Unfortunately.
I have heard of guys years ago who brought up bags of grass seeds and fertilisers to try to attract the deer there!!!
Go and explore the surroundings. You ll end up seeing and shooting one soon.
My experience in the kaimais is: 10 trips to see and shoot the first deer.
Then it gradually came down to 5 trips to shoot a deer. The best year was three trips to get one deer shot.
When you say clearings do you mean the old hut site a little up the river track from the falls.
Did my first walk past the falls this spring. Camped at the old hut site. went for an explore south and east from there.
Could be promising but you would need lots of time and to go real slow.
Next day we went up the track a bit and crossed over and made our way back to the falls on the north side.
Was interesting, several old camp sites and stored gear in bins, some old wallows, mostly old sigh, the new sigh I suspect would be deer just passing through except for the few more open spots where a large tree had come down or a fire had allowed some grass to grow.
Z
Yeah! The old hut site is one of them.
I wasn't expecting anything from the old hut site as people often stay there. However I was hoping to at least see some newish signs from the others or the surrounding area.
I should also probably mention I'm pretty new to this type of hunting so im hoping to learn what to expect/where I went wrong and trying again.
There is another clearing further north on the north south track. You have to go through some scrub to find it , it is on the right hand side.
I went through it a few times but since I forgot to lock the gps point I don’t remember where exactly.