Thread: Public land deer - 53 years ago.

I remember pack horses in the Urewwera's - they'd bugger the hillside tracks.
I remember one that had fallen in a hole and there were three blokes trying to dig it out, then five of us - and we couldn't get that horse out. The bloke shot it in the end ......... and that's another memory.
Two days later I walked into the wrong watershed and spent two days wondering where I was. Nearly got stepped on by a deer that shied when it realised I was there - moved sideways of the track after that and went back to sleep in my survival blanket.

Knew about the Caples - never got there.

Originally Posted by SF90

Forgot - the longest 'carry' I ever did was 8 hours, just got stubborn with that one and it did require some recuperation.

I shot a 130 pounder (dressed) a couple of years ago and couldn't get it off the ground. Thought - "Shit, that's a heavy bugger."
Got it out whole with a bit of help and got a shock when it only went that heavy ..............
"I swear, I used to be able to carry one of those."
"In your last life ............. was it ?"
"Yeah."

Nother thing - if you got known as a 'meat hunter' people would trash your car - and I even got bailed up on a river flat while carrying .........
"You selling that ?"
"Nope."
"I think you're selling."
"Well, fuck you then."

It could get a bit hostile back then - depending on where you were. It was also hard yakka and really only romantic in retrospect ...........
I don't shoot much these days - I still carry a gun in the bush because being 'out there' never wore off, but the last 7 deer I saw in the bush I just never pulled the trigger on ............ I think those earlier days fucked me for that ........... something did.

Yes. The local NZDA branch were agin it and I got a cold shoulder from the older blokes.

NZDA members can still be like that now. Only joined up a few years ago as one of the forestry companies wanted the insurance cover ,even though my own public liability insurance is better, to tick their boxes. When you mention the numbers shot,one responce is "that's not ethical hunting". Well it is and it's something that needs to be done. Fair enough some people haven't got the aptitude for it, but ce la vie.
And yes, what you carried out in younger days comes back and bites you in the arse.

I still like the. 222 story with the deer on the slip, Ruahines? Where you mate said it was to far for his .270 and you shot it and found your .222 shot went in the ear and you found the bullet on its tongue.

Clements Road was the place to be if you wanted to see a 'congregation of meat hunters'.
First deer I shot up there I sold at the cool store at the old Rangitaiki pub. Looked in the book and saw all the deer were being shot by Barry Crump - so I also became Barry Crump.
You'd walk in that pub and there'd be Barry's all over the place .........
"How's it going Barry ?"
"Things are great, hows Barry ?"
"Shot himself in the foot."
"Bugga."

That pub closed down in 1969, I got a little flag with the date on it, then it burned down - and some years later I worked with the bloke who built the new one up the road.

There were some interesting people would pass through that place.

I went that way last year on a trip with the local NZDS and it's changed a lot. They pulled down all the mill houses and I couldn't even find where the mill had been - was like they'd never been there.

Originally Posted by nor-west

I still like the. 222 story with the deer on the slip, Ruahines? Where you mate said it was to far for his .270 and you shot it and found your .222 shot went in the ear and you found the bullet on its tongue.

Thats true. Ruahines. The bullet went exactly into its ear hole, but we never found the bullet. Not sure where the story finding it on its tongue came from. It was around 400 yards. The last time I went past that slip was 13 January, 2017. I was 69. There was a deer on it and I pretended not to see it and walked straight past. Its a steep one.
I did get one near the Mangoira saddle though, and that was the last deer I shot in the Ruahines. Maybe I might get back up there this summer, I want to.

Here's that last one.



My little camp


And the slip that I shot the deer in the ear with my .222 on...
Interestingly it was a 9 pointer and because we were meat hunting I biffed the head into the scrub, but for those days it was pretty good (Orua rats we called them).

How my father taught me, folding the back skin (back steaks also) through the hind legs and pinning with the tail….makes a comfortable carry.

Many life lessons learnt, like persistence, appreciation….. and the list goes on.

Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Thats true. Ruahines. The bullet went exactly into its ear hole, but we never found the bullet. Not sure where the story finding it on its tongue came from. It was around 400 yards. The last time I went past that slip was 13 January, 2017. I was 69. There was a deer on it and I pretended not to see it and walked straight past. Its a steep one.
I did get one near the Mangoira saddle though, and that was the last deer I shot in the Ruahines. Maybe I might get back up there this summer, I want to.

Here's that last one.

Attachment 213796

My little camp
Attachment 213797

And the slip that I shot the deer in the ear with my .222 on...
Interestingly it was a 9 pointer and because we were meat hunting I biffed the head into the scrub, but for those days it was pretty good (Orua rats we called them).

Attachment 213798

It's surprising where those trebly pills can end up.A had a bomb up in the Poulter one evening on a mob in fairly open country where I could only reduce the range belly crawl fashion down to about 2 hundy yards before running out of cover.Seven in &one up up of Hornady 55grn in my Sako.
Opened up and got 2 ,then as the mob started to string on afterburners the range soon started to stretch the barrel.Mentally counting down to the last round,what the hell,a pig n a poke,so Kentucky windage ,2 deer high & 3 deer forward & squeezed off.One thousand and one... ,one thousand and two.. and she falls over.Getting over to it I thought it would be a case of finishing off with the knike,but nope stone dead. Because I was intreaged to know how she was so unlucky to run into that tiny bit of metal lobbed in the dusk @ perhaps 550 yards?? I quicky found the spent projectile.It had slipped between two ribs untouched and was buried in the heart basically as new.Because I'm such a skin flint I kept it thinking I could reload it leading to a warped case of two deer with one shot! Photo is the recovered projectile showing minor spiral distortion and rifling witness marks against a std 55 grn pill

Originally Posted by Stag

How my father taught me, folding the back skin (back steaks also) through the hind legs and pinning with the tail….makes a comfortable carry.

Many life lessons learnt, like persistence, appreciation….. and the list goes on.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. Yes the back steaks are still attached to the pin bones and folded down through the bum cavity. The skin keeps them clean.

Originally Posted by SF90

Clements Road was the place to be if you wanted to see a 'congregation of meat hunters'.
First deer I shot up there I sold at the cool store at the old Rangitaiki pub. Looked in the book and saw all the deer were being shot by Barry Crump - so I also became Barry Crump.
You'd walk in that pub and there'd be Barry's all over the place .........
"How's it going Barry ?"
"Things are great, hows Barry ?"
"Shot himself in the foot."
"Bugga."

That pub closed down in 1969, I got a little flag with the date on it, then it burned down - and some years later I worked with the bloke who built the new one up the road.

There were some interesting people would pass through that place.

I went that way last year on a trip with the local NZDS and it's changed a lot. They pulled down all the mill houses and I couldn't even find where the mill had been - was like they'd never been there.

I worked on Wainui Trust just down the road. In trees now.
He used to make drink concoctions called "how's your father". Would drink them with the Lochinvar shepherds. Killers (of me and the pay packet).

Originally Posted by Finnwolf

53 years ago I shot my first deer too!
And used a 222 but it was a Sako.

Great memories eh. I had shot a few ( 12 maybe) before the deer in the pics but they were the first ones I sold.

Yeah, for some reason we thought the 222 was magic

I remember the Lochinvar blokes but the Wainui Trust doesn't ring a bell.
There was another station there, can't remember its name - but very well known. It was just to the south of Clements Road and I think was owned by the Mormon's back then, and that got spotlighted a lot. If they caught you on there they smashed your gun, gave you a hiding and threw you over the boundary fence.
I never went on there, but I do remember spotting to the north of the mill one night. It was all low scrubby shit in there and tussock with a lot of flat bottom gulleys and there were deer down in them, mobs of them.
Got lost that night, so I built a small mountain of scrub and tussock as tall as I was and crawled in the middle of it. I was never warm but I did manage to get some sleep and in the morning I crawled out to find a hell of a frost.

I was camped in one of the mill houses and they were proper houses with rooms and still in pretty good nick with beds, tables, chairs, coalranges, pots, pans and cutlery and the communal 'shitter' was a tin hut with a chimney vent thirty yards away.
My neighbour (Albert Mitchell) would spot me sneaking out to the shitter, give me a minute ot two to get settled - then put a bullet through the vent. He always did it, found it tremendously funny - and I'd sit there scrunched down low as I could on the throne as that vent wasn't all that high.
I got on pretty good with Albert, he was twenty years older than me and knew a hell of a lot more, but he could be scary sometimes. He had forearms like Popeye and I saw him pull a knife on a bloke at the pub and he got crowned with a beer jug real quick.
Then he saw a squirrel which I found funny, and that made him angry - threatened to put a bullet in me if he spotted me in the bush ........... and I wasn't entirely sure if he would, or wouldn't.
Was in the pub one day and one of the Barry's mentioned he'd heard about it ............
"What're you gonna do ?"
"Dunno ?"
"I'd bugger off if I was you, he's a bit loose,"

So, a couple of days later I buggered off ..............

Then a few months later I went back - was sort of a 'more-ish' place ..............

And Albert was still there .........

Originally Posted by SF90

I remember the Lochinvar blokes but the Wainui Trust doesn't ring a bell.
There was another station there, can't remember its name - but very well known. It was just to the south of Clements Road and I think was owned by the Mormon's back then, and that got spotlighted a lot. If they caught you on there they smashed your gun, gave you a hiding and threw you over the boundary fence.
I never went on there, but I do remember spotting to the north of the mill one night. It was all low scrubby shit in there and tussock with a lot of flat bottom gulleys and there were deer down in them, mobs of them.
Got lost that night, so I built a small mountain of scrub and tussock as tall as I was and crawled in the middle of it. I was never warm but I did manage to get some sleep and in the morning I crawled out to find a hell of a frost.

I was camped in one of the mill houses and they were proper houses with rooms and still in pretty good nick with beds, tables, chairs, coalranges, pots, pans and cutlery and the communal 'shitter' was a tin hut with a chimney vent thirty yards away.
My neighbour (Albert Mitchell) would spot me sneaking out to the shitter, give me a minute ot two to get settled - then put a bullet through the vent. He always did it, found it tremendously funny - and I'd sit there scrunched down low as I could on the throne as that vent wasn't all that high.
I got on pretty good with Albert, he was twenty years older than me and knew a hell of a lot more, but he could be scary sometimes. He had forearms like Popeye and I saw him pull a knife on a bloke at the pub and he got crowned with a beer jug real quick.
Then he saw a squirrel which I found funny, and that made him angry - threatened to put a bullet in me if he spotted me in the bush ........... and I wasn't entirely sure if he would, or wouldn't.
Was in the pub one day and one of the Barry's mentioned he'd heard about it ............
"What're you gonna do ?"
"Dunno ?"
"I'd bugger off if I was you, he's a bit loose,"

So, a couple of days later I buggered off ..............

Then a few months later I went back - was sort of a 'more-ish' place ..............

And Albert was still there .........

Poronui

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Originally Posted by SF90

I remember the Lochinvar blokes but the Wainui Trust doesn't ring a bell.
There was another station there, can't remember its name - but very well known. It was just to the south of Clements Road and I think was owned by the Mormon's back then, and that got spotlighted a lot. If they caught you on there they smashed your gun, gave you a hiding and threw you over the boundary fence.
I never went on there, but I do remember spotting to the north of the mill one night. It was all low scrubby shit in there and tussock with a lot of flat bottom gulleys and there were deer down in them, mobs of them.
Got lost that night, so I built a small mountain of scrub and tussock as tall as I was and crawled in the middle of it. I was never warm but I did manage to get some sleep and in the morning I crawled out to find a hell of a frost.

I was camped in one of the mill houses and they were proper houses with rooms and still in pretty good nick with beds, tables, chairs, coalranges, pots, pans and cutlery and the communal 'shitter' was a tin hut with a chimney vent thirty yards away.
My neighbour (Albert Mitchell) would spot me sneaking out to the shitter, give me a minute ot two to get settled - then put a bullet through the vent. He always did it, found it tremendously funny - and I'd sit there scrunched down low as I could on the throne as that vent wasn't all that high.
I got on pretty good with Albert, he was twenty years older than me and knew a hell of a lot more, but he could be scary sometimes. He had forearms like Popeye and I saw him pull a knife on a bloke at the pub and he got crowned with a beer jug real quick.
Then he saw a squirrel which I found funny, and that made him angry - threatened to put a bullet in me if he spotted me in the bush ........... and I wasn't entirely sure if he would, or wouldn't.
Was in the pub one day and one of the Barry's mentioned he'd heard about it ............
"What're you gonna do ?"
"Dunno ?"
"I'd bugger off if I was you, he's a bit loose,"

So, a couple of days later I buggered off ..............

Then a few months later I went back - was sort of a 'more-ish' place ..............

And Albert was still there .........

Owned by Joe Collins parents.

Yep - Poronui

And I don't know if Joe Collins rings a bell or not ................. ?

And yep - it does ring a bell - and I don't know why ?