Thread: World Record Red Deer!!!!......according to an American

Well guys, I just happened on your thread and thought I ought to put to rest all of these questions and misunderstandings I've read here! I'm Jessica Brooks-Stevens, the hunter who took the "world record reed deer" you're all discussing. I do not own Barnes Bullets, rather, my parents (Randy & Coni Brooks) purchased Barnes Bullets in 1974. They built the business from the ground up. I began working at Barnes when I was 4 years old stuffing lead cores into copper jackets, and have worked in just about every department here. I am currently the Marketing & Product Manager. I went on my first hunt when I was 4 years old - an elk hunt in the mountains of Colorado with my dad - and have been hooked ever since. I am both a trophy and subsistence hunter. I eat what I kill here in the states, and I love the adventures I've had hunting all over the world. I very much enjoyed hunting the South Island last April, and plan to come back this year. I prefer to hunt free range, although I do not castigate those who hunt high fence areas with reputable operations. The stag is a bona-fide true free range stag and I assure you as an American western hunter, this hunt was no hand-holding exercise. It was comparable to hunting mule deer and elk in our high Utah Rocky Mountains.

To clarify, this stag is currently the SCI FREE RANGE WORLD RECORD RED STAG, scoring 359 6/8 SCI points. SCI, and FREE RANGE. We are all well aware that this is by no means the ALL-AROUND WORLD RECORD RED STAG. This is only for SCI, and only for FREE RANGE. That said, when I saw this brute from afar, I couldn't have given a damn if he was a world record or not. He was absolutely beautiful on the hoof - a very majestic site to see him roaring and gathering his HINDS (yes, I realize I originally spelled it Heinz in my story, but I can hardly understand you damned Kiwi's sometimes! HAHA). The hunt was incredible - I was full of adrenaline and exhausted at the end. I can't wait to go back.

Now, I'm going to pontificate here based on discussions with Gus Bisset, who is a great personal friend, a solid business associate, a phenomenal PH who made this all happen, and works for New Zealand Trophy Hunting. NZTH has a 3000 acre high country game ranch near Kurow in the lower South Island where they hunt for a number of species including massive red stag. All of their hunters who choose to hunt in that area are well aware that this is a high fence situation and are very happy to hunt there as it is brush covered hill country and provides excellent and challenging hunting for several species.

Gus also has access to more than 250,000 acres of privately owned sheep and cattle ranch country in the Northern end of the South Island where he conducts TRUE free range hunting for many species including some of NZ’s largest wild, free ranging red stags.
There are no game ranches within hundreds of Kilometres of the remote , mountainous areas where he hunts, and it is more than 500 Kilometres from their game ranch. In fact, up until 6 years ago, trophy hunting was not allowed on the sheep and cattle ranches for more than three decades prior to this time. Gus put in a lot of hard work and selective culling to manage the numbers and quality of the animals. There is an abundance of red deer in the region and on these properties they get to grow old and some grow very big.

I understand there is some misleading information out there surrounding free range hunting in New Zealand, and that it is very difficult to find a true free range red stag much bigger than 300 SCI. However, as per Gus, I have it that small numbers of very big free range stags do exist on a few large expanses of privately owned land where there is careful culling, very low hunting pressure and good quality sheep and cattle pasture for good nutrition. This is the case on the free range areas where we hunted last year with Gus. We plan to hunt other areas with him this year for free range Tahr, Chamois and Fallow buck. So, maybe you ornery ol' Kiwis will be a bit welcome and keen to welcome a Yankee Girl to your land down under???