Thread: When men were men

had the pleasure of meeting Gordon Roberts twice.....he was up as lake sumner off to take photos with bid old tripod in tow many years ago,we were up there with NZDA....He came and gave talk with slides in Timaru clubrooms...if any of you have his great books of photos..the sika in low vege series were coming up one at a time in sequence...the reaction from room of hunters was unreal...ALL OF US craning in seats absolutely spellbound..... the man was a magician with a camera.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

had the pleasure of meeting Gordon Roberts twice.....he was up as lake sumner off to take photos with bid old tripod in tow many years ago,we were up there with NZDA....He came and gave talk with slides in Timaru clubrooms...if any of you have his great books of photos..the sika in low vege series were coming up one at a time in sequence...the reaction from room of hunters was unreal...ALL OF US craning in seats absolutely spellbound..... the man was a magician with a camera.

Gordan would get around a bit too., I met him in the bush of the Far North in 1999, he was looking for large Kauri to photo in the Puketi Forest, I had a contract possum control job and showed him the best specimen I knew of in the area... he was stoked.

A top bloke that put his rifle down and picked up the camera to share his love of the outdoors.

Had the pleasure of sharing a hut with Ivan Wilson a few times co inventor of the net gun.
A few whiskys and the yarns would flow, he had us all roaring with laughter. He had hundreds of yarns.
One that sticks in my mind was either him or his shooter literally falling out of the helicopter and firing the net gun to recoil himself back in.

The original 3 barreled net gun was was under a bunk for anyone keen enough to try firing it.

A good read recently published is "Dieing for a living" by Milts Kiri.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Had the pleasure of sharing a hut with Ivan Wilson a few times co inventor of the net gun.
A few whiskys and the yarns would flow, he had us all roaring with laughter. He had hundreds of yarns.
One that sticks in my mind was either him or his shooter literally falling out of the helicopter and firing the net gun to recoil himself back in.

The original 3 barreled net gun was was under a bunk for anyone keen enough to try firing it.

A good read recently published is "Dieing for a living" by Milts Kiri.

Milton Kiri's book would be hard to beat about the aerial recovery venison era. He survived so he knows what it is all about. Has a second book in pipeline which maybe out in December. The South Coast vid's on the venison era are superb.

Ruahines. Mate skinning back the back straps for the carry out. The best price was for the hq and backstops so we would pin bone the hq with the back straps attached, and fold the BS back over and down through the arse cavity for the carry out. We would leave lots of skin to fold over the whole lot to keep it clean and add weight.. Consolidated Traders got onto us and started cutting the surplus skin off so it didn't go into the weighed price. The camera was a Russian copy of an old Leica.




A big one for the chiller.

I forgot to point out that those velvets and venisons in that pic are actually on the back of Daves buggy,parked up in the main drag in TeAnau.
Here's a better pic of Dave and Gordon and the old buggy..Mavora way.

Second pic is Dave given the old buggy a test run..

Originally Posted by doinit

I forgot to point out that those velvets and venisons in that pic are actually on the back of Daves buggy,parked up in the main drag in TeAnau.
Here's a better pic of Dave and Gordon and the old buggy..Mavora way.Attachment 181435Attachment 181436

Second pic is Dave given the old buggy a test run..

Fantastic couple pics those

Originally Posted by Lucky

Fantastic couple pics those

Nothin fantastic about them Lucky...no biggy at all mate.

Real men - 1999 – Glaisnock River - John Muir of Feilding with the shaving brush and Les Battersby of Kaikoura/Picton - both John and Les were very involved with management of the Wapiti herd back then and made many trips to Fiordland.

Originally Posted by time out

Real men - 1999 – Glaisnock River - John Muir of Feilding with the shaving brush and Les Battersby of Kaikoura/Picton - both John and Les were very involved with management of the Wapiti herd back then and made many trips to Fiordland.

Attachment 181438

Squirel looks a bit different with the shaving foam on. I think the photo is from "69 though, in '99 he would have been 65

Originally Posted by time out

Real men - 1999 – Glaisnock River - John Muir of Feilding with the shaving brush and Les Battersby of Kaikoura/Picton - both John and Les were very involved with management of the Wapiti herd back then and made many trips to Fiordland.

Attachment 181438

Ive seen that pic a few times. Worked for and with Les for a while and spent many a night in a hut with him., Even had a few fly in trips with him in his later years before he passed away. Loved his sailing, his hunting, and his gin He was a genuine good bastard

Originally Posted by Bos

Ive seen that pic a few times. Worked for and with Les for a while and spent many a night in a hut with him., Even had a few fly in trips with him in his later years before he passed away. Loved his sailing, his hunting, and his gin He was a genuine good bastard

One time we were going to go in to the Muzzle hut ( the one in the stream where the river forks ) Before we left, Les ( always a good story teller ) Started off with one about shooting up hill with his .303 But had his pipe in his mouth. Fired the shot and broke a tooth.

He then goes on to say.
" oh I've shot Chamois from the door of that hut, check out the bluffs on the true left if you get to the hut"

We got there alright, its a bit hard to find. ( I have a photo of it in another old thread about huts ) We had stalked in looking for Chamois from the river bed ( you werent allowed to shoot deer on the Bluff station at that time..... live recovery was the thing then. )
It must have been mid morning when we got there, and as you do we checked out the hut, dicked around for a while and fired up a gas stove and had a brew. Sitting outside blowing on our mugs, One of the guys says real quiet like.

"dont look now but there's three Chamois staring down from where Les said they would be"
After a bit more whispering we decide to do the old 1, 2 ,3 bang trick.

We all got settled behind the log, 1,2,3,bang!

Nup they all ran away! Maybe we should have all aimed at just one of them.

Originally Posted by time out

Real men - 1999 – Glaisnock River - John Muir of Feilding with the shaving brush and Les Battersby of Kaikoura/Picton - both John and Les were very involved with management of the Wapiti herd back then and made many trips to Fiordland.

Attachment 181438

John Muir used to give me absolute shit about being a meat hunter.

If you are keen on DVD's here's a good spot
https://videosouth.com/2021/04/13/ne...-live-capture/

Mate after a bomb up with the 303's. Skin hunting. In the Puketois.

Bill's foresight was a filed blob solder.