Thread: Pre plague lockdown roar

Hi yah all it’s been a while.


It all started as the annual pre roar recon trip and take all the luxuries of a fly in trip. Being a recon trip I took the 300 Blackout and 250 rounds of ammo mostly for goat culling and the deer that needs thinning out.
It was only 30 minutes after landing before we seen the first deer. The dog and I had some awesome stalking and close encounters on the deer. We culled a truck load of goats 172 all up mostly with subsonics. If I had another 200 rounds goat ammo I would of used it. A lot of goat in there considering the helicopter had been culling in there two weeks prior to us going in.

One of the better stalking moments was this 8 point stag up high with 4 hind 50m back behind him, it started 600m away belly crawling to 80m in between matagouri and tawane bushes, then 3 hours latter the stag was bedded down with only his head and neck showing. With nowhere to go I roared to get him to stand up but no luck other than alerting the hind to my position. So I dropped the bolt down and put the red dot on his neck and down he went. What a relief and a drawn out process just to get a deer.

Seen plenty of deer but no big boys and no bey tines out of all the stags we seen.

The most amount of stags stalked in one day was 7 but we covered some area to do it. Plenty of roaring in the dark and morning till 8:30am. The dog was on fire this trip going from deer to deer and straight onto the next.
I should of taken more photos than I did but I don’t take my phone with me all the time.
In the end I came out with 3 rounds and 100kg of bone out meat.



The next 4 day trip it’s time to do some long range with the 338 edge.
This time in a different area the stags are roaring all day at times. I roared up some stags to come out onto the edge of clearings after been hold up in some thick native bush on the other side of the gully 300m to 700m away. It’s a total extreme from using the 300 blackout running subs to a 338 edge using the hammer of Thor 285gr ELD and just smashing the stags to the ground.
We even had a couple of stags come right to us only meters away from roaring up stags on the other side of the gully’s.
All and all it was a pretty decent trip away before the plague lockdown.

338 edge @ 355m


338 edge got this big 8 pointer at 682m quartering on he tumbled 15m into the bush.



338 edge just smashed this small 8 pointer



Some long range clearings



Bush stalking with a happy hound



Hiding out of the mid day sun.



Clear sky’s big country



A sneaky stag that tried to evade us.



Open hunting area



The hound listening to a lunch time stag roaring.



Head shot hind



Another head shot hind



The mutant stag shot on the run 111m away with a instant stop hilar shot. We actually had 3 stags on the go when this one run out on the other side of a wee gully.



A tired hound dog.




I look forward to this lockdown to be over so I can carry on where I left off.

Stay safe be safe.

Good stuff, not many take 250rnds on a hunting trip, and use them!

That's a good lot of shooting, well done they must be quite thick on the ground in the area you hunt. Nice looking country.

Nice write up thanks

Good lot of cull stags and goats.

There’s going to be a lot more animals after this.

Awesome report @tikka. Remind me, what projectile care you running the the 300, I’ve just switched to the Lehigh projectile but haven’t shot at an animal with it yet. I had ok success with the sub-x projectiles but a few animals needed a second shot and I recon the maximum killing range is around 150 yards with them.
It’s awesome to see a recreational hunter shooting so many goats and deer, they need controlling. I was disappointed that we didn’t shoot any goats when we were last down your way.
Thanks for that.

I’m running the Lehigh 168gr controlled fracturing for the deer only and 208gr ELD’s on goats, then there’s Nosler 125gr BT supersonics for both.
124m was the farthest shot on a deer for that trip mostly because I put on the red dot on for fast goat action instead of the 2.5-10 power dail up scope I normally use.
With this rig I can blast away all day on goats and not disturb the deer, it’s bloody hard trying to stalk onto deer with goats snorting so I just drill them with a subsonic or two and the deer quickly settle down if they hear a goat scream, they just think it’s a billy giving a nanny a hard time.

Thanks for a great report,nice photos.Your dogs looks like a good keen hunter too.Nice bit of country up there,keep up the hunting.

Great photos and report... I love the 'open hunting area' & 'Long range clearings' photo's for some reason, probably because it looks like fantastic country and the sort of place we'd all love to be at the end of this 'Lockdown'!

Choice report. Love that top of the south country, really appealing to my style of hunting. Looking forward to a wander there in May.

Great story thanks. Really enjoyed that. Is your dog a pure visla and what sort of red dot are you using?

Yes he’s a purebred and the red dot is a Aimpoint comp m4.

Great story,good to see I’m not the only one who runs a red dot on a deer rifle these days..

Originally Posted by tikka

Yes he’s a purebred and the red dot is a Aimpoint comp m4.

Nice one. I use an Aimpoint Micro H1 a lot. Love it. Your visla looks and sounds great. One of the good ones. I bet he is sneaky close in?

@tikka mate what is the doggos coat he has on?

https://www.d-fa.com/collections/toa...ing-dog-jacket

I only put it on him around camp or really cold windy days in the high country tussock glassing animals it rolls up into its own pocket.