Pre roar reccy trip

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17-02-2014, 10:41 AM
JoshC

Pre roar reccy trip

Scotty and I did a bit of a mish into a public land block over the weekend, in search of a decent stag prior to the roar. Neither of us had visited the area, but it looked ok on Google earth.

After a late night arrival on Friday and a short sleep, we were in prime hunting country at daybreak Saturday, and within minutes of glassing had spotted our first deer for the weekend. After watching the hind and its little one for a while we spotted a group of five deer, one of which was a mature stag. This got the adrenalin pumping as we closed the gap to within half a km to get a better look. He lacked a bit up top, but had good lower tines and nice spread. Not big enough for us, maybe for someone else, but ideally needed another couple of years. As soon as the sun hit the slopes he was feeding on he slinked back into the cover of the bush.

Over the weekend we had planned to hunt two catchments, aiming to hunt our way in through some good looking country. We initially climbed high quickly to use katabatic winds to our advantage, as a couple of hours after sunrise the breeze had switched to an uphill pull. Our plan was to use one main ridge as an entry into the first head basin, focussing on beech filled guts and gullies down each side and across the steep gorges.

We hunted our way in to the head basin, seeing the odd animal as we travelled inland, and we arrived at our planned camp spot about midday. This gave us enough time to hunt into a third catchment to have a quick look before dark.

Over the course of the trip we covered about 20kms, most of it with packs on, hunted three separate catchments and saw enough animals to keep most hunters happy. While we never found a mature/trophy sized stag, we did take a few photos. Most were from a fair way off as we did not want to get into close proximity with the animals we were glassing and risk scenting the valleys up. Instead we opted to spend time looking into likely spots from afar, hoping to catch a big boy in the open and plan a stalk from there. In the end we never fired a shot and left the area undisturbed

Here's a few photos;

First deer for a trip, hind and young one;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps34620590.jpg

Group of four spikers and a maturing stag;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...psd8743886.jpg

By mid morning, most deer we'd seen were sunning themselves;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...psc669c9a3.jpg

The odd chamois was spotted in the head of the valley;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps091e1278.jpg

Plus one cheeky buck that hung around our camp valley most of the day;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps81afdd03.jpg

If we were hunting Chamois, he'd have been worth shooting as was 9.5 plus easily, except we were after stags;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...psacd798e5.jpg

In the 3rd catchment we hunted we were treated to a group of fallow, the buck was ok, but still looked soft. So we didn't disturb them at all;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps402afd08.jpg

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps9cd60879.jpg

And finally, mother and daughter caught me unawares by wandering up the ridge below me while I was glassing across the valley. They had me pinned down for quite a while until I waited till both were sleeping and snuck out of view!

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps3d8ea94b.jpg

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps70d33607.jpg

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...pscff08bd0.jpg

With temps hitting the high 20's yesterday avo it was two pretty pooped boys that waddled back into sight of the truck ;D

All in all, a pretty good trip. Sure has potential to produce a decent stag, so we will return another time for another look-see.

Cheers
Josh :)
17-02-2014, 10:47 AM
Dundee

Cool pics.
17-02-2014, 10:56 AM
Terminator

Thanks for posting good luck for the roar.
17-02-2014, 11:37 AM
Scouser

Great recce there Josh, all the best with a stag mate!
17-02-2014, 11:42 AM
StrikerNZ

Fantastic. You sure know where to find the good country.
17-02-2014, 11:45 AM
Dundee

How close were you to get those last three pics? You must have a good zoom on that camera.
17-02-2014, 12:00 PM
JoshC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dundee

How close were you to get those last three pics? You must have a good zoom on that camera.

In the last 3 photos they appeared about 150m away and I ended up taking a couple less than 50m away when they had bedded down.

We had to belly crawl past them to reach our glassing point further down the ridge, in doing so successfully those two deer stayed in their gully feeding until dark with us only a couple of hundred metres away the whole time.

Most of the animals I photographed were 400m plus, mainly because we didn't want to upset any of them in fear of spooking a mature stag that may have been in the vicinity.

By staying well away and out of sight of the small groups, and letting them do their thing, a more wise mature animal is far more likely to show it self if one is around.
17-02-2014, 12:32 PM
Dino

Well done, great photos and hope you can catch up with a big buggar in the hard.

Nice to see a healthy couple of catchments, just need to do the yards to find them...then not shoot the shit out of them.

The way you treat the resource is a credit to you and your hunting mates.

Cheers

Dino
17-02-2014, 06:27 PM
Malhunting

Nice work fellas, next time i will come just wont do a full week Water blasting prior.
Scotty must of been chomping at the bit to shoot that Cham Buck.
17-02-2014, 07:02 PM
greghud

nice work!
i would have been tempted to wean that hind and stick the fawn into the fridge.
heheheehehehe
just had another look, it was a little scrawny. but still!
greg
17-02-2014, 07:43 PM
JoshC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malhunting

Nice work fellas, next time i will come just wont do a full week Water blasting prior.
Scotty must of been chomping at the bit to shoot that Cham Buck.

The thought briefly crossed our minds, he wasn't bad, but we were there to shoot chamois and disturb the valley,
17-02-2014, 07:45 PM
JoshC

Pre roar reccy trip

Quote:

Originally Posted by greghud

nice work!
i would have been tempted to wean that hind and stick the fawn into the fridge.
heheheehehehe
just had another look, it was a little scrawny. but still!
greg

Haha, you wouldn't have been tempted if you'd seen where they were and the bloody big hill you'd have to lug it back over to the truck!

There's far easier places to get meat, so it was a good stag or nothing.
17-02-2014, 07:55 PM
Lentil

Fantastic pics Josh. Thanks for posting them.
17-02-2014, 08:01 PM
Gibo

Wicked photos Josh and primo looking hills :thumbsup: Must be a biggun in there somewhere :D
17-02-2014, 08:51 PM
sako75

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Big effort in those temps :cool:
18-02-2014, 09:36 PM
moonhunt

Mint
20-02-2014, 09:34 PM
The Claw

Nice Josh, but where are the wide angle scenery photos with identifying landmarks... Disappointing... :P
20-02-2014, 10:09 PM
phillipgr

Fantastic. Looks like an area to return to.

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2
20-02-2014, 10:18 PM
Dundee

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillipgr

Fantastic. Looks like an area to return to.

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2

Where are you tonight wanderer?:D
20-02-2014, 10:46 PM
Nibblet

What camera and lens were you using for those photos?
20-02-2014, 11:38 PM
phillipgr

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dundee

Where are you tonight wanderer?:D

Te Anau, bus to Chch tomorrow then fly out. 11 hour bus ride, it.s gonna suck!

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2
21-02-2014, 08:13 AM
Dundee

That is one slow bus:D
22-02-2014, 11:05 PM
JoshC

Pre roar reccy trip

Hahah
23-02-2014, 08:20 AM
FRST

Great to see so many animals in one trip, awesome to get so close too, good skills Josh.
23-02-2014, 08:37 AM
Neckshot

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoshC

Scotty and I did a bit of a mish into a public land block over the weekend, in search of a decent stag prior to the roar. Neither of us had visited the area, but it looked ok on Google earth.

After a late night arrival on Friday and a short sleep, we were in prime hunting country at daybreak Saturday, and within minutes of glassing had spotted our first deer for the weekend. After watching the hind and its little one for a while we spotted a group of five deer, one of which was a mature stag. This got the adrenalin pumping as we closed the gap to within half a km to get a better look. He lacked a bit up top, but had good lower tines and nice spread. Not big enough for us, maybe for someone else, but ideally needed another couple of years. As soon as the sun hit the slopes he was feeding on he slinked back into the cover of the bush.

Over the weekend we had planned to hunt two catchments, aiming to hunt our way in through some good looking country. We initially climbed high quickly to use katabatic winds to our advantage, as a couple of hours after sunrise the breeze had switched to an uphill pull. Our plan was to use one main ridge as an entry into the first head basin, focussing on beech filled guts and gullies down each side and across the steep gorges.

We hunted our way in to the head basin, seeing the odd animal as we travelled inland, and we arrived at our planned camp spot about midday. This gave us enough time to hunt into a third catchment to have a quick look before dark.

Over the course of the trip we covered about 20kms, most of it with packs on, hunted three separate catchments and saw enough animals to keep most hunters happy. While we never found a mature/trophy sized stag, we did take a few photos. Most were from a fair way off as we did not want to get into close proximity with the animals we were glassing and risk scenting the valleys up. Instead we opted to spend time looking into likely spots from afar, hoping to catch a big boy in the open and plan a stalk from there. In the end we never fired a shot and left the area undisturbed

Here's a few photos;

First deer for a trip, hind and young one;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps34620590.jpg

Group of four spikers and a maturing stag;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...psd8743886.jpg

By mid morning, most deer we'd seen were sunning themselves;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...psc669c9a3.jpg

The odd chamois was spotted in the head of the valley;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps091e1278.jpg

Plus one cheeky buck that hung around our camp valley most of the day;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps81afdd03.jpg

If we were hunting Chamois, he'd have been worth shooting as was 9.5 plus easily, except we were after stags;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...psacd798e5.jpg

In the 3rd catchment we hunted we were treated to a group of fallow, the buck was ok, but still looked soft. So we didn't disturb them at all;

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps402afd08.jpg

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps9cd60879.jpg

And finally, mother and daughter caught me unawares by wandering up the ridge below me while I was glassing across the valley. They had me pinned down for quite a while until I waited till both were sleeping and snuck out of view!

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps3d8ea94b.jpg

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps70d33607.jpg

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...pscff08bd0.jpg

With temps hitting the high 20's yesterday avo it was two pretty pooped boys that waddled back into sight of the truck ;D

All in all, a pretty good trip. Sure has potential to produce a decent stag, so we will return another time for another look-see.

Cheers
Josh :)

Awsome report,I think you are going to have a bloody good roar.