Mackenzie Missions

After doing the hard yards on my last trip with my younger son, my older son was keen for a trip to Tekapo. He likes motorbikes but even mentioned some hunting. It was time for some easier hunting.

I ruined things a few years earlier when he said he wanted a hard adventure so I took him Thar hunting up the Jollie river and we slept in bivvy bags in the pouring rain……I took my old 30-06 for nostalgia and he scoped himself shooting a young bull steep uphill (more on this later). We came home wet, cold and tired. A lesson here for others to start slow, warm and easy with the young ones. He didn’t mention hunting for a long time after this.

Despite shooting a few Thar he hadn’t shot a deer so I lined up some access through a mate and off we went from CHCH airport down South. An easy 4WD into a scrubby gully and not 15min in he spotted movement in the riverbed. It was a young fallow stag moving off but didn’t appear spooked so we moved up to a better spot with an rest, and I ranged it at 200yrds. It was moving directly away but just before entering the bush stood side on and boomfa the Tikka 284 spat out the 162 ELDX. The stag ran back towards us and he reloaded and gave it another which made it wobble around and finally tip over. It’s nice when things go to plan. The ELDX did the business and they are just a bit solid for the smaller fallow deer. I don’t normally use a bipod for harder hunting but it certainly helps with accurate shooting when not saving on weight. A happy young fella.

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We checked it out and marked the spot to come back later. Further up the valley I spotted a yearling feeding on the opposite side so lined up by couldn’t get the bipod high enough so slotted it on my day pack for further elevation. Same as before with some wobbling around then tumbling down the hill. It was a small target and when I got it I realised it wasn’t much bigger than a wallaby….

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Later on we got a wallaby each and walked out in the dark to find the first deer and take off the meat. It was getting cold so I did a pretty rough butchering job and finished boning out the next day.

A few days later after some easy trips to look at Greta Stream (and seeing another NZ Falcon) and also 4WD crossing the Macauley (ok if you pick your way upstream of the crossing which is a bit washed out) and checking out the Godley (still big washout and river crossing after Lilybank making it almost impossible to drive up) we decided to head back for a Motorbike mission to a Wallaby hotspot. The old XL250 and DR200 were loaded up and away we went. The stomach muscles got a work out getting up some slippery tracks and trying to stay on the bike. One area required pushing (I’m not very good)
But eventually we reached the high tussock where the higher Wallaby populations seem to be.

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I had a 5 round mag for the Tikka 284 loaded up with 140gr Ballistic tips and at 3000fps they proved good wallaby medicine. The young fella went 5 for 5 and then it was my turn……until my final shot steeply down hill this time over the daypack (didn’t take bipod) cracked me in the head with the leupold and the 284 had revenge for being locked in the gun cabinet too long. A nice crescent cut is now above my right eye. In some places we would shoot 2 or 3 and another 2 or 3 would pop out of the tussock straight after.

I only had 14 rounds so saved a couple in case a deer appeared and later in the day riding out we spooked a small mob of hinds. I tried to shoot one with my motorbike helmet on but couldn’t get the scope close enough to see anything! Dismounting we stalked about 500m and managed to catch them again in a little gully.. They were almost impossible to see in the tall tussock but one stopped and I managed a standing shot and the 140 Ballistic tip dropped it instantly.

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A bit of slip sliding on the bike with back wheel locking up to finish, but we made it out with some good times, good meat and back to a warm fire this time instead of a bivvy bag !

It’s a recreation paradise the Mackenzie country

Couple of decent holes in that first one. Good trip

Those fallow bucks can take the shots ah.Tuff little buggers

That bike is just made for that country. If you were finding the going a bit difficult, a couple of easy things to make it a tad easier to control: lube the clutch cable regularly, and drop the front sprocket to a 12 toother.

I find I get the same results with 130 TTSX on fallow. A Berger 140 might go real well in that rifle on fallow and wallabies. 😀
I’ve just brought a Streamline Motorbike rack and plan to do some missions later this year.