Thread: Do long range hunters stay home during the roar?

As we head in to the roar I understand all the deer go bush. If this is the case long range shooting must not be available. Is this right and do the long long range hunters simply wait until after the roar or have an alternative rifle and resign to bush bashing?

All the stags we shot last roar on the tops where at 300yards +
Roared out into the open
Still like two get up close and personal in the bush for a few.
But the options from above the stags are much better, also no chance of mistaken identity when the stags come out two you


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As the once-a-year hunters charge off into the bush roaring and bellowing, lighting massive campfires, yahooing at night with a couple of beers, shooting anything that moves, they disturb the deer and they move out onto the open areas for the long range shooters to ping off.

Awesome. That's the type of answers I like to hear.

Its bit of both man. Its great to have a set up that is great for tops but is handy enough to work in the creeks / bush aswel. Heavy bonded bullets will do a huge amount of damage. Just make sure your not going to loose it because your bullet exploded on impact.

Weekends and only a couple of hours from a road end can be a scary place to be in.

Two years ago an 18 point stag on the coast at 265m. Not long range, but not 30m either. Seen a far on the tops, along way from any bush in past years during the roar.

Just a change of projectile to something more suited for closer up. Like a partition, accubond or interbond.

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Originally Posted by johnino

As we head in to the roar I understand all the deer go bush. If this is the case long range shooting must not be available. Is this right and do the long long range hunters simply wait until after the roar or have an alternative rifle and resign to bush bashing?

Bush bashing is what you use to do behind the bike shed in the younger days.its called bush stalking and by having a rig that can shoot from 0 to 500yds you can do both long range and
stalking in more than a few places in NZ.good luck and enjoy it, not every hunter is out there to kill you and were not all yahoo's either

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Originally Posted by johnino

As we head in to the roar I understand all the deer go bush. If this is the case long range shooting must not be available. Is this right and do the long long range hunters simply wait until after the roar or have an alternative rifle and resign to bush bashing?

If you hunt with a mate and you both hang out each others arse in the bush, then take one rifle for the long range and one for the tight stuff...its all about team work when hunting stags. Be familiar with both rifles so you can swap when needed.

Originally Posted by Spook

As the once-a-year hunters charge off into the bush roaring and bellowing, lighting massive campfires, yahooing at night with a couple of beers, shooting anything that moves, they disturb the deer and they move out onto the open areas for the long range shooters to ping off.

Love the description!, lived in the Nth for a while (only because forced by work) , refused to hunt anywhere near road ends or popular hut/hunting areas for pretty much as you poked at, too many desperate nervous triggers fingers up there as they escape to the "wild" desperately shoot at anything that twitches in the hope they can bring back a "body" to prove to their associate office dwellers they are "mighty outdoorsman hunter", maybe we in the South are lucky we get out enough to look animals over and decide if we shoot or not.......................

Ive got one rifle that does both jobs. I can be bush hunting one minute then 2 steps later be looking over farm country or tussock.
If I had 2 options I would always choose the wrong one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg6abyIeRrY

This shows tops being successful

Place where I go for the roar it's difficult to stalk them in the bush because the winds all over the show so we always end up going to the tops and try and roar them out of the bush - quite difficult as they're pretty reluctant to move in some cases but it's also proven quite successful. Hopefully this year will be no different.

This thread actually reminds me, can we get a facepalm smiley please admins?

Awesome video. Certainly gets me keen to get out there.

Originally Posted by sAsLEX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg6abyIeRrY

This shows tops being successful

If you'd asked me two years ago I would have said all my own personal stags shot in the roar were within 30m max! But last year I shot one roaring his arse off at 435m and it's one of my favourite hunts ever... So I'm sold on having a rifle and doing the prep work to enable a longer shot if required.

Kj