Thread: what are people thinking the start date of the roar will be .... ?

Originally Posted by Longrun

Bit of noise first thing Saturday in pureora. He was pretty shitty but moving around and then shut up. I suspect it wasn't his first rodeo.
Quiet otherwise. Hope for some colder nights for next weekend.
Shot a hind and pig on farmland in evening.

They learn to shut pretty fast in Pureora...

Was in the sout ruahines overnight and was very quiet,got lucky and heard a moan and had nice 10 pointer pop up only a few metres in front of me an the dog a few minutes later as we came out of a creek onto his run he must of bin going back and forth no hinds with him tho

Just out of 5 days in the Te Piri block (southern Kaimanawas) and they were regularly heehawing there, but no single calls and stayed deep in the bush which was corn flake dry, virtually impossible to stalk even in bare feet. It was stupid hot in the days still, we were in shorts and singlets and even swimming in the Mangamaire, for perspective.

North Wairarapa/Pahiatua just getting going. Roared up a spiker last evening (he lives) and another stag unseen going well. Up to now, nothing. Very high temps for the area. 22 yesterday.

It's warm as here in the Hawkes Bay, 27-28 here the last two days.

I was in the northern Ruahines on Sunday and there were a few stags going, but only just starting, most not going properly. Called one young 6-8 pointer into 15-20 yards, my newbie hunter mate was with me and had the rifle, he messed up and had the safety on, almost pulled the trigger out of my rifle! So the stag lives, prob just as well as his antler length and width showed potential. Heading back in on friday for a couple of nights, hoping they are well into the swing of it by then.

i'm doing 4 days in the bush next week, tuesday and wednesday have the potential for a fair bit of rain. I'll still go in and the forecast will likely change by then but i'm wondering what the roar is like in wet weather? Will it have much impact on stag behaviour?

Originally Posted by Louie

i'm doing 4 days in the bush next week, tuesday and wednesday have the potential for a fair bit of rain. I'll still go in and the forecast will likely change by then but i'm wondering what the roar is like in wet weather? Will it have much impact on stag behaviour?

Somehow I don't think wet weather will put off a horny male animal from performing horny behaviour.

Originally Posted by Tahr

North Wairarapa/Pahiatua just getting going. Roared up a spiker last evening (he lives) and another stag unseen going well. Up to now, nothing. Very high temps for the area. 22 yesterday.

im hunting in a similar area,tararuas Behind a farm between pahiatua and Eketahuna,the front country is silent but pop over the back and they are going alright.
Are you hunting front country stuff mainly?I have a feeling our farm edge boys aren't gonna really get going this year, last year they went beserk though.

Interesting thread. Back to pureora again tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Longrun

Interesting thread. Back to pureora again tomorrow.

Me too if I can drag my butt out of bed at 2:30am.

The stags were going off in my spot on the 7th of April 1994, hopefully they are doing the same 28 years later!

Took the boat up the top of South Arm Te Anau with @Sako851 the other day and we checked out a likely looking valley. Typical fiordland stuff, looked nice and accessible on topo and google earth etc but it was a whole different ball game once into it! We had two stags roaring at each other one afternoon but couldn’t close the gap on them due to wind then next day had one sneak right in on us (not roaring at all) to about 15yds but he got the jump on me, I was staring intently at the spot I thought he was about to appear in before realising he was standing about 10yds to the left and downhill and had pegged me so as I moved rifle around he decided to high tail it out of there, had nightmares all that night about missed opportunity but that’s hunting. Pretty quiet really there would have been a fair few deer around us where we had the boat parked at night and no roaring heard. Pretty big days put in and no cigar but that’s what makes the successful trips all the better! Good to meet another good bugger from the forum and I’m sure we’ll get some more hunting done together when opportunity arises. Will be back in Te Anau on Friday night to take another forum member into wapiti block and I have another area I want to check out and hopefully stags are a bit more fired up.

Originally Posted by Louie

i'm doing 4 days in the bush next week, tuesday and wednesday have the potential for a fair bit of rain. I'll still go in and the forecast will likely change by then but i'm wondering what the roar is like in wet weather? Will it have much impact on stag behaviour?

rain is good if its not heavy or driving in, the stags will more than likely be more active if its a nice rain and stalking in the rain is good it cancels out a lot of your noise.

Mates up the Molesworth for 4 days, yesterday said stags roaring good, got a 10 pointer and having another go today.
Not much actgion around anywhereive been in last week. Certainly nothing like last roar...very poor this year.
Kaikouras 4 day hunting comp recently must of went great.
82 stags weighted in, biggest 171kg

Just walked through a fair chunk of the middle ruahines 2-8th. 4th April was pretty good but overall it was more quiet than not. Stags roaring just enough to advertise themselves but not going berserk.

Originally Posted by Mohawk .308

I always wonder how the hell they get those big stags out whole, a lot of them must be shot on farmland where they can get a Ute or quad to them.

You got that right, all about how good your private land is that competition. And you can guess what happened to most the 80 odd stags weighed in after being in the warm sun getting fly blown while the hunters got pissed. Raised a lot of money for charity though.