Thread: no animals at piropiro......

So spent a few days in here (down nsunday back tuesday) as hoped the place was pretty much deserted with the end of school holidays and the weather wasnt too bad. Monday up early for an all day hunt walking the traĉk to our preferred hunting ground we ( me , mate and dog)found it rutted out by the quads and a few washouts from the rain couple of goat carcasses picked clean by the pigs. 4-5 km up the track cut into the bush, mate leads dog nxt and me a little further back . around 20m in mate stops and pulls up his rifle sqats and gestures back to me that he sees something in the thick stuff. I move closer as he whispers hind quarter a quick look thru my scope to verify , yup but no clean shot on offer. It cwas standing very still must have heard us but not yet scented us. I moved to th right to see if there was a clearer view. It bolted along with another one we didnt see still without offering a clean shot or chance to confirm stag or hind . I sat and waited mate and dog tracked, first time the dog has really tracked an animal so happy with that. After abou 15 min no shots and they had stopped (dog has tracking collar) I could hear a fawn behind me calling so figured they were hinds and decided to leave them and move on. Drop down into the river and over and up onto a plateau find a massive clearing bit of a graveyard bones everywhere old and recent mark it and decide to come camp this area another time. Sneak into another clearing can hear grunting in the thick shit not far sounded like a decent pig dog goes in to check it out mate follows while I wait just in case they flush it out. Nothing (not sure I want my little whippet/terrier taking on a big pig in the thick shit anyway) we move on climbing onto a ridge mate just about headbutts another huge deer before it bolts while he shake his head in disbelief. Heading back to camp ddog gets onto two little piglets catches one had it in her mouth about to give it the death shake it was squealing told her to drop it which she did (dont want her to get in this habit she might end up doing it to the wifes cats , if she finds and bails thats ok ) and it ran off squealing decided to move on quickly as mum might show up and be pretty angry. Head back to camp interesting day exciting day for the dog and happy with the decisions we made thru the day.

The title of your story is miss leading, there appears to be a few about just unlucky you didn't get a shot, maybe next time. Good write up and hunt.

Yea its a reflection of what a lot of people seem to think when they go there ride the roads on their quads in school holidays and weekends and wonder why they don't see anything...... and I guess technically I wasn't on the flats at least a 5k walk away. I know 25-30 years ago you could now you just have to put in the effort and the animals are there... and they are in good condition harder to hunt too so quiet they don't bark at you like the old days just quietly disappear into the shit.

Makes it more rewarding when you score one. If you are prepared to put in the hard yards you will be successful.

Originally Posted by Mooseman

Makes it more rewarding when you score one. If you are prepared to put in the hard yards you will be successful.

Totally agree

I have a pretty good idea where you went
I've been planning a trip back down to Piropiro, used to hunt there a bit about 20 years ago. I often used to find deer very close to the tracks, one handy little gully used as a winter yard-up area now has the Timber Trail through the bottom of it so doubt the deer still use that place! Good to hear some of the deer survived the 1080 drops.

Yea they did bulldoze a couple of good spots , angels rest was one of them. Let me know when your heading down could possibly confirm your fair idea