Thread: The week that was roar 2023.....

Well I have been in the hills for the last week on the tops at the front of Lees Valley, things are changing on the private block I have hunted for the last few years, this years roar is likely the last time I will hunt the roar in its current layout.
We have been lucky enough to have access to a bock that has 4x4 access to the tops that holds a decent population of red deer and I have spent the last few years getting to know the movement of the animals and where best to locate animals that are not too much work to recover whole (either by winch and snatch block with a couple hundred feet of rope or by shooting them above or not far below the 4x4 track near saddles.
I have been extremely blessed to learn on such a block, everything from open tussock tops to scrubby gorse infested guts.
Anyway I have had the last week up there with a few close friends, I will update later when the celebratory beers have worn off.
In the next 12 months the block I hunt will be planted out in pines so no doubt things will change so I wanted to document this years roar and make it special, unfortunately no monster stags were taken but I was fortunate enough to stalk in on 2 ripper stags unfortunately unable to seal the deal, but also managed to get 2 mates onto pb 10 pointers and we managed 3 stags for the freezer whilst being fortunate enough to watch and let walk over 15 red hind hinds. I fill you all in soon enough but it's been an epic week I wouldn't change for anything.

Pity it's going to pines, shooters will be in there to search and destroy sooner or later. Seen that exact thing happening today, what a waste and shouldn't be allowed, the pines or the meat wastage.

Not my land, not my choice.....I am at peace with it

Intresting @dannyb I wouldn't have thought if planting their iv spent some bloody cold nights in that valley their and have a ripper stag shot not far from their on the public land wont give exact location but next time I'm down south I'll reach out for a yarn sounds like out local stomping grounds all but over lap hope it was a goodie and look forward to reading the full report

It was a great week, some lifelong memories made. Definitely have a few yarns to tell.

Are they closing it up Danny? Takes a few years for pines to grow, so could still be opportunities to get some meat out of there if not a good stag.

I was thinking along similar lines....the ywont want deer in there so may just welcome your continueing hunting as long as you switch attention to shooting all you can...goats too if are in area.
might be silver lining if you can work it right.plenty of big stags have come out of mature pine forests too.there are always still native gullies hidden away in shitty spots for them to live/feed in.

Originally Posted by Mathias

Are they closing it up Danny? Takes a few years for pines to grow, so could still be opportunities to get some meat out of there if not a good stag.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

I was thinking along similar lines....the ywont want deer in there so may just welcome your continueing hunting as long as you switch attention to shooting all you can...goats too if are in area.
might be silver lining if you can work it right.plenty of big stags have come out of mature pine forests too.there are always still native gullies hidden away in shitty spots for them to live/feed in.

Thanks guys, unsure what the future holds. Granted I'll keep shooting as long as I'm allowed, have always been a meat hunter so generally shoot as many as I can, and give away to friends and family anything not used to feed my own family. I'd like to keep this thread about my week up there this roar if possible, just want to document my memories rather than focus on what may or may not happen in the future.

WELL THEN, hurry up and get typing and poking up photos..... no worries for you to split thread off/up LOL.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

WELL THEN, hurry up and get typing and poking up photos..... no worries for you to split thread off/up LOL.

Working on it, just catching up with family and domestic chores. No need to split thread i won't be discussing the block or it's management.

get with the programme mate...they are no longer called domestic chores...they are things on the honeydo list...as in honey do this,honey do that..... geeze you will be wearing makeup and frilly apron, doing the ironing next!!!!
NO we do not need THOSE photos...metal scarring ,some things can not be unseen.

Well, after booking my allotted week nearly 12 month ago on a popular local runoff block. The 24th of May rolled around after what seemed like an eternity.
I had invited 2 close friends to come and join me for a week of 4wding, hunting, mateship.....and hopefully a few roaring red stags with a bit of luck. Although the local farm stags had been roaring for a week or so we knew we might be a little early for the wild stags but the week we had was what was available so we just had to make the best of it. The block I have been hunting for the last 4 years gets hunted fairly heavily but has a reasonable population of red deer that pass through from thd local adjoining doc blocks.
I've built up a fairly decent amount of local knowledge on where to find deer on this block and despite a lot of hunting pressure my strike rate is pretty good.
The block is a mix of lower open faces with native scub and open tussock tops with 4x4 access right up to the tops which has enabled us to camp on the tops with a few creature comforts
I was late morning by the time we rolled up the narrow and steep switch backs in 2 trucks grinding our way to the open tussock country in 4-lo. After breaking out on the top we trundled along the ridgeline to where I thought we could make camp a nice relatively flat saddle with stunning views to Mt Oxford on one side and only 100m walk to where we would concentrate our efforts for the first few days.
The goal of this trip was always red roaring stags and for me I had decided I would shoot last to let my friends have a crack at a unique opportunity.
We set up camp erecting tents, folding chairs, unpacking and organizing food, water and a little webber baby q for cooking main meals (creature comforts).




View to Mt Oxford

By the time we were all organized we had a late lunch/ supper then waited for late afternoon sun to settle down a bit, it was a bright clear sunny day and even high up on the tops it was very warm.
As the afternoon sun got lower in the sky we decided to get our binos and rifles and head around to a face I shot my first proper stag on a few years ago now.
We sat down went over a few saftey rules (1 of our group was a new hunter) then got to the task of glassing, I showed the lads where I shot my stag a few years ago and gave them a bit of a heads up as to likely spots deer would emerge from.
The wind was very light but right in our faces giving us confidence that nothing would see or smell us from our concealed glassing spot.


Face we glassed for the evening

It was literally within 30 seconds of putting glass to eyes my very good friend Ant urgently whispers "deer" my binos immediately scanned over to where he was looking and sure enough right where I had shot my stag previously 4 hinds had emerged from the scrub with a stag not far behind them. We had heard no roaring yet but that was no suprise with the warm weather and slightly early start date of our trip.
We watched the hinds feeding then working there way accross the face, all the way the stag a few steps behind stopping to sniff where the hinds had peed and occasionally having a bit of a feed too. He definitely was interested but not in full rut by any means.
The hinds stopped at an area of particularly lush looking grass and seemed happy feeding and playing 1 hind was quite large and very pale in colour, 2 others were slightly smaller and very orange with the last hind clearly a yearling. The stag was a young but even 10 point but definitely not the dominant stag for the area knowing stags I have seen here in the past.
I said to Ant get ready to shoot, he chambered a round whilst I ranged the stag so Ant could work out how much to dial, my good friend Ant has in the past competed in long range competition and is very competent with his 7mm rem mag finnlight.
The range pinged back at 420 yards Ant made his adjustments and sent the 180gn eldm on its way, thwack !!!! I watched the hit which was tucked just behind the front leg follwed by the delayed thud of the shot, a perfectly placed shot resulting in a bang flop. We watched as the hinds scattered then re grouped and made for the bushline.....right that's the easy part now we need to figure out gutting and how we will retrieve the stag, by now it was about 6:30-6:40pm we had les than an hour tops before sunset and maybe an hour and a half before complete darkness......

We discussed options as the light would fade fairly quickly and decided the best course of action would be to get over there gut the stag and then go back in the cool of first light to retrieve him whole if possible. Fortunately there is a track just below the ridgeline if you look close in the pic from my previous post, we grabbed head torches and a knife and drove around the head of the valley to the opposite face.
Again referencing the pic from my previous post if you follow the track from right to left you can see the track splits into 2, 1 track leading up and 1 leading down. Where the track splits is a gut that is reasonably open and steep but easy terrain to access the faces below the scrub line. Sadly my back has been playing up to the point I almost flagged the trip, sciatica pins and needles and the inability to sit up from laying on my back without rolling over. So I waited at the track with the truck whilst Ant and my other friend Lee followed the gut down and then dissappeared below the scrub line to gut the stag, take a couple pics and prop his gut cavity open with a stick to allow good airflow so it would cool down. The temp was dropping fast as was the light so we were confident the deer would be fine where it was till morning propped open just inside the scrub so it would be shaded from the morning sun. Just as the light was almost gone I could hear and see Ant and Lee making there way back up the gut towards me. Lee had a new appreciation for hills and walking in tussocks and was a little concerned how we would get the deer out whole at first light.....I had a cunning plan I hatched whilst waiting for the lads to return....


where's Wally ? Can you spot the lads walking down to gut the stag in the fading light ?



Ant with his pb stag prior to gutting duties in the fading light

We headed back to camp happy to have anchored a stag and precious meat on the first day, the wind was picking up and the temp dropping so we took shelter between the 2 trucks and had a feed of bbq chicken shredded and filled into some fresh crusty baguettes with loads of Ants home made chilli sauce, mayo, slaw, swiss cheese and pickled habeneros washed down with a couple Pan head superchargers, in the dark we could see multiple lights on Mt Oxford and heard the odd very distant roar. After a bit of banter we all hit the hay knowing we would be up early tomorrow.
The night was windy and rainy so sleep was a bit broken, I also had trouble getting comfortable with my crook back but got enough sleep by the time the tent started to brighten with the early morning sun, the wind had settled down and the bellbirds were signalling time to get up have a feed and get to work.
I woke the lads, put the jet boil on and had a quick glass around drinking my coffee whilst bacon butties were prepared on the webber.
Once we were all fed and coffeed I discussed my cunning plan with the lads. In my truck I keep a substantial length of rope and a snatch block I pre posed we set up my truck in front of Ants with the snatch block on my recovery point the pay out the winch cable through the snatch block then add the rope to the end of the winch cable to allow us a couple hundred meters or so of deer winching without the need to lump the stag up on our backs.
Everyone understood and we set off in the fresh early morning light to enact the recovery, Lee and Ant payed out the winch cable and then the rope to the bottom of the gut and then dissappeared around a corner. The stag was only just below the scrub line and between the pair of them they had to drag him about 30m to enable a straight line winch pull with a couple resets to pay the winch cable out again. The plan worked like a charm and in about 30 minutes the stag was up at the track where we lifted it and secured it on top of the spare tire on the back of my truck.



We then drove out of the block and dropped the stag off to the chiller for processing later. Planning to return to camp in time for an evening hunt.

Tbc, more to come later.....