Thread: A different Tikka to the Tararuas

I spent a lot of time in the Tararuas as a young fella - tough country, very few deer, but a great training ground. My wife and I headed South for a holiday near Otaki Forks area, and a short evening hunt on the edge of the Tararuas was sorted through some family contacts. I had the Tikka 284 primed and ready to go after loading up a few more rounds and checking it was still zeroed - but found another Tikka waiting on arrival with an insistence it should be used. It was an old LSA55 and wore a fixed IOR 4x32 scope. I was given 3 rounds and told that should be plenty….and being too polite to decline, the 284 stayed in the ute. I hadn’t realised there was the odd Fallow in this part of the country and a keen and very capable local guy took me up the hill and pointed a few out with Binos on a neighbouring property as we climbed. We reached the bush edge with a boundary to the Tararuas where deer and goats had been coming out into the grass to feed.



We hunted down the bush edge for about 2hrs glassing as we went, but nothing showed and it was looking like a blank evening when just on sunset I spotted movement and the Binos showed two Fallow does grabbing some grass in the last of the sun.
Creeping closer I lay down my daypack for a rest, and ranged the deer at 200yrds and hoped the Tikka 243 was sighted in. The Fallow was actually quite small in the 4x scope not being a big deer. The lower deer stood side on and I sent a 100gr at its shoulder. It wobbled around so my local guide gave it another and down she went. The other one climbed up and stood side on so boom - thwack and other one was down also.



Now it was getting dark and we had a long walk out with torches so it was back legs and back streaks off and head torch on….arriving back a bit late at 10.30pm, but very happy for a successful quick hunt and venison in the fridge. The only one that wasn’t happy was the Tikka 284…..

Good company, a good hunt, and another great part of NZ to find the odd animal