You can't eat antlers!

This year my roar plan was to head down into Fiordland National Park over the Easter break for 4 days of hunting with my son and anotuer forum member and two of his kids. Plenty of prep work involved to make sure we’d be comfortable while camping and in an effort to avoid traffic and find a decent camping spot I gave my son a day off school for some EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom). We made good time, even allowing with a pie and hot chip stop at Mossburn. The campsite was set up fairly quickly and even managed an evening fish before the others arrived.

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Next morning everyone was up before daybreak, and off we all trudged for the day’s hunting - splitting ways after about an hour or so as five sets of boots was a bit noisy in the bush. I headed up the ridge with my son towards where I have shot/seen deer in the past with the others headed east to explore a few creek systems.

There was not much in the way of stags roaring , but we did hear a a couple stags moaning every now and then. I used the quiet times to show my son what to look for in the bush like hoof prints, droppings, rubbings and generally taking time to appreciate being out in the bush. While no deer were seen or able to be stalked, we did get barked at and heard a few roars throughout the day so counted the day as a success.

Any guesses as to what this is?
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We were lucky to find a morepork pellet (regurgitated fur and bones that cannot be digested).

Back at camp, after a catch up over beef and bacon burgers from the bbq it was a tired crew who wasted no time in falling asleep.

Next morning we all headed off in another direction again before splitting up and hunting in separate areas. I took Mitch up the trail further and planned on hunting a plateau off the main walking track. On arrival we found that area was full of crown fern almost as high as my son. My job was to snowplow a path through the matted leaves to make Mitch’s travels easier. Spirits picked up after about 500m of crown ferns were finally navigated and the bush opened up to moss and beech trees.

A quick check of the wind and we make a plan to head towards a pole thicket that to me looked like a place a deer would be. So we sat down and had a snack and started to formulate a plan on what to do next. This trip I gave Mitch the AJ caller and explained what sound each button makes. As there was no roaring being heard today, a basic moan was chosen. Almost instantly from behind the thicket there is a moan in reply. Now twigs are snapping and a stag is walking to out right behind the vegetation. I get a glimpse of the stags back, but most of it is obscured by vegetation. No clear shot to be taken, and he moves off. We couldn’t get close to him, but used the caller to good effect and kept him interested for about 10mins before it all went quiet.

Off we went with the slight breeze in out face to some new areas of the plateau. More crown fern, then more openings. A twig snap and we glimpse a hind in the distance for a split second. On we go, and thankfully the crown fern is getting thinner. We get barked at, so I reply with a fawn call. Barked at again, another call from me and the deer is interested and we can hear it moving behind the vegetation, we see a hind pass quickly through a gap before hiding again. I let mitch push the hind call button and the next 5 or so minutes we are in a in depth conversation with the deer over the weather or some such thing. Eventually it goes quiet and we’ve had out fun so we move on in the direction of home.

We get barked at once more about half an hour later by another deer before descending from the plateau and into an open grassland/manuka area. Happy to be out in the light, we successfully navigate the manuka maze before us and find out way to the road back to camp. Back at camp its another catch up, and feed the masses. The others coming across more pig sig than deer.

Next morning it’s Easter Sunday and what do you know? The Easter Bunny arrived! Mitch was happy to receive some eggs in his boots and everyone got some more eggs around the BBQ table. It’s amazing the Easter Bunny knows where we were camping!

It’s a slower start to the morning, with a few tired bodies. Just Mitch and I were off hunting today as the others had a prior event to attend to for the day. We head out around 10am from camp to the plateau we were on the day before. This time we head the other direction along another walking track. Mitch handled the 5km walk in really well, and even found an Easter egg on the trail! What luck!

Lots of fantails about, so Mitch spent a bit of taking pictures his favorite bird.
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Along the way there was more stag rubbings, but nothing would was heard or would respond to out calls.
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Around 12:30 we have reached the point where I planned to hunt, just at a the top of a creek head, that would allow us to have a relatively smooth walk towards a ridge I wanted to hunt up. More crown fern, but after about 30 minutes we have almost made it to the ridge I wanted to get to. We get a whiff of deer now, so something has been here very recently. There is really fresh sign on the edge of the creek system, but we can’t see or hear anything, so after a waiting a few minutes we push up towards the ridge as nothing is around anymore. Packs off now, and its snack time in preparation for the hunt to begin in earnest.

With nothing roaring, I let Mitch send off a basic stag moan on the caller. Instantly from almost where we have walked up from, Mitch hears some twigs snapping. I’m in overdrive now. Where is the wind coming from, I check the thread attached to my suppressor - its heading down the ridge towards the noise. Bugger we are at risk of being winded. I quickly tell Mitch to stay put on the ridge with the caller, while I head back down about 10 metres to close the gap and I’ll give him hand signals as to what button to push. One finger raised in the air to signals a basic moan, and a low moan comes from the speaker, more snapping twigs, its coming in. I see movement, and confirm it’s a deer, but cannot see any antler as it walked through a gap only to be obscured by more vegetation. It’s quiet now, and I’m straining trying to find the deer, but nothing is seen. Time seems to have slowed down. My rifle is shouldered now, and I'm straining to make out where the deer is. I raise my trigger finger in the air so Mitch knows to let out a basic moan. The deer moves again and starts to skirt back around some vegetation, I see it now, take a shot just behind the front right shoulder. I feel confident of hit. It disappears from view, and another deer exists the bush to the right about 20 metres and disappears towards some crown fern. I take a moment to think and assess what has happened. I empty the case from the rifle and make sure the bolt closed on an empty chamber for safety.

All is silent now. During the previous days hunting I had told Mitch that if I fire a shot, he should be quiet (and not ask questions straight away) and to listen out for deer movement as they do not always drop on the spot, so any clue as to where they may have moved to is great to know. He remembers and is silent. I motion for him to bring his pack then mine down to me while I stand still with eyes fixed to where I fired so I don’t lose that reference point. I quickly take a picture of the spot where the deer briefly stood with my phone and we make a plan to approach where the deer stood.

Looking down the hill to where the deer stood a split second too long to be healthy.
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I am conscious of the dense vegetation and that it may be challenging to find the deer, so I get Mitch to walk down towards where the deer stood so we can look for sign of a hit. The deer cannot be too far. As I start to move down the hill, there is movement not far from where I saw the second deer depart after the shot. Mitch is told to stand still while I figure this out as it doesn’t make sense that that would still be a deer hanging around so close, so I carefully approach in that direction. The thick crown fern does not help matters at all. I now see a deer stand up and fall down again. Turns out that the second departing deer was actually the deer I shot heading slightly down hill to the right. Ok, time to slow thing down. I get Mitch to stay still and tell him we’ll wait a bit longer before approaching. After a few minutes I carefully approach and get to within a few metres of where the deer was last seen, nothing. Then up it stumbles, I raise my rifle and aim for the neck presenting itself 4m from me. CLICK!. No round chambered for safety! I quickly chamber a round and fire. It’s down. Not the stag we were after or thought we called in, but a nice fat hind!


Rifle unloaded, and made safe and we approach the deer watching its last involuntary leg movements. The pressure I put on myself to shoot a deer in the bush with my son is off. Mitch is keen to get cracking on the butchery, but as we were only about 100m from the main track there was no rush. We plan things out, drag the deer to an easier spot to butcher and have something to eat and enjoy the moment.

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Fist bumps were given and photos were taken, I take time to show how to butcher the deer. The shot hit further back than I thought and did not exit with the projectile sitting just between the opposite side behind the shoulder. It would have made tracking the deer almost impossible with no blood trail.

Recovered 150gr hornady interlock. (127.5gr retained weight).
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All legs, back steaks and the tenderloins were intact and untouched so were removed and left to cool down. I got into the chest cavity and showed Mitch the lungs and heart. Never having eaten heart before we took that as well, as why not. With everything cooled down we re-arranged out packs so Mitch took the bulky light gear and I took everything but the Mitch was keen to help out and carry back steaks and the heart.

A quick walk through to the track, and off went trekked for camp. The walk back was great. Heavy pack for me, but it didn’t seem too bad. More pictures taken of random birds and fungus broke up the walk. Oh, the Easter Bunny left another egg for Mitch to find closer to the end of the trail – what a bonus!

Some sort of mushroom or toadstool (imitating a tomato!)
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Two happy hunters returned to camp that evening. We cooked up the heart, for dinner and were both surprised at how nice it was.

The last morning we headed out before dawn and went back to our first days hunting area. We headed off ok and managed to navigate the swamp and climb to the hunting area well enough. Almost at the top we were greeted by a visit by a morepork. It flew in, landed and then flew away after about a minute – all without a sound.
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At the top of the plateau we come across two deer in the dark that milled around breaking twigs about 50 metres from us. Mitch saw an eye in reflecting in his headtorch light. but they departed on daylight unseen. With time running out before out agreed noon rendezvous back at camp again for the campsite pack up, we managed to sneak in to about 100m of a roaring stag before it went quiet, so made our way back to camp.

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It was not quite the roaring red stag action I had hoped for Mitch at the beginning of the trip as it just a bit too early in the roar, but we saw a few deer, got to try out our calling techniques, and learnt to walk a bit quieter. In the end we walked about 28 kms over 4 days. As is tradition, all deer meet is shared out 50:50 so everyone got meat to take home to their families.

Tomorrow morning I'm making some biltong, boerewors and mince from the meat we have harvested. We are making plans to get out again soon, and hopefully this time we'll find something with antlers!

great learning time had by all...and hind tastes better than smelly old stag anyway .

bloody good

It’s the experience that counts and by all accounts you had a good successful hunt well done.

Nice write up and photos,thanks.An experience yr son wont forget.

Excellent post, well done to Dad and Mitch. Lifelong memories.

Cracking write up and photos. Cool area and well done on creating memories.

Great write up thanks, wish my dad could have done that for me 40 odd years ago.

That recovered projectile says to me ," don't change a thing,working perfectly". It's expanded beautifully,can't ask for more than that.

Really enjoyable read. What a great hunt. Good for you guys, and thanks.

Well done.

that young fella did not seem to stop smiling so well done

WD Much rather have a hind , better eating imo
The red knob is probably a young Amanita mushroom, probably A. muscaris without the white bits they sometimes have. They can get about 30cm across, deadly or debatably hallucinogenic. Attachment 247489

Greta write up. Lifetime memoires for both of you.

Good story and photos! Full respect for taking your son out on a mission.

What an epic mission for the young feller! Awesome stuff. When I was his age I would have been dragging my feet after the first few k's...