Thread: Recent activity in the Central North Island

This trip was a continuation of the last, culling reds from a recovering farm that has been let go, and thinning out the fallow in the lower country. It's a mix of meat hunting and straight culling - it's hard to get your head around the amount of killing after a while, especially when you know the animal won't be used. There's complex reasons as to why we were largely culling to waste, don't bother challenging it cos I won't go there! The pig population is thriving, most deer carcasses were gone within two days, and on one occasion a deer I dropped at 8am was gone by 7pm.

The nature of the terrain is such that there's a lot of 400-600m shooting. It's been good to get into this and it's become pretty much the norm for me now. There's plenty of close up action too, and I had great fun on the goats with @shooternz's cast lead .308 subsonics.

Here's some video of some of the shots taken, and photos of some of the game. I struggled a bit with the filming as animals rarely stay put for long, and I missed some good action which was a bit frustrating! The camera also had an incredibly annoying habit of shutting down due to "flat batteries" right at the critical moment, despite it indicating full power and the batteries being new. It's going to be replaced.

It's been good to get into the fallow, such good eating.







As usual, no mercy was shown towards the goat.





Here's some victims of the subsonic .308... goats and rabbits. The rabbit carcasses are as clean as a whistle.





This mob of goats were taken with the trusty old .243 Win, seven shots for seven goats at 270-300m, and a bloody hot suppressor.



This young red spiker was typical of the bush animals - scrawny and not great condition. There's way too many deer in the bush and there's just nothing left in the understory, completely barren. So out onto the farms they go, where they meet the likes of me unfortunately.



The lower country reds that have been living on the farm for a while are in generally better condition and decent meat animals.



Some videos of the highlights. I've got more stuff that I'll add in time.