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Introduction and a roar story - success
I’m an on and off long-term lurker of this forum and thought that I should join up too seeing as the stories, advice and encouragement that is shared on here is truely commendable !
Originally from the West Coast of the South Island, I now live in Canterbury and love chasing deer, chamois and tahr. The go to hunting buddy is the trusty Weimaraner deer dog named Tikka. The go to rifle is… well, no prizes for guessing the rifle! Its chambered in 300WM for the longer distance alpine country that Canterbury has to offer. Also shoot with a suppressed Ruger 7.62x39 (quieter for the dogs sake) in some of the close quarters areas.
Here’s a wee story about an outing in the hills during the roar 2024;
Mid-Week and midmorning the Hilux is loaded up with the rifle, boots, pack, a bit of tucker, one hell of an excited dog and a cheeky celebratory beer, ya know, just in case! The area we were heading into is relatively close and probably sees its fair share of hunting pressure. As most of you will know, sitting in the hills is better than sitting on the couch though!
It was a ripper of a day as we headed off from the ute, walking alongside a fellow hunter who I’d run into at the road end. His was the only other vehicle there and he’d had the exact same idea as me but oh well, the areas definitely big enough for two. As we walked along the river bed, we hatched a plan that both parties were happy with ( making sure there were to be no shots fired toward one another and setting a ‘boundary’ somewhere in the middle of our chosen locations ).
Myself and the two Tikkas set off up a side stream as we farewelled the other hunter who carried on along the river bed a fair bit further. It wasn’t too much later and we were clambering up a fairly rough rocky scree before busting out in some scrubby clearings. Almost immediately the dogs eyes lit up and even I could smell the deer!
First things first, camp was set up for the night then we slowly poked our noses around the clearings nearby. While there was a bit of fresh sigh about, and Tikka was confidently on a trail, I decided to retreat to camp and hunker down for a couple of hours as to not disturb the place too much before the golden hours.
A couple of hours before dark we were perched up above some clearings, just watching and waiting. The wait didn’t take very long at all. There’s a stag! He was probably about 500m away and bee lining towards us. Half the distance was closed while we just sat and waited. The stag laid down right in the open and proceeded to just chill out. A quick investigation with the binos revealed a pretty nice looking, symmetrical 10. But he was still young looking.. Bugger. He’s safe for now.
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A really blurry photo of the 10 making his way towards us.
As light faded, the roaring started. And geez did it go off! There was roaring coming from every direction. I couldn’t help but get involved in it and amazingly, one at a time, multiple stags stepped out into the open for assessment. They were all pretty small or young so not what we were after at this stage. This was by far the most roaring I have ever experienced in doc land so we loitered around the clearings until well after dark. Observing, getting as close as possible and giving a couple of young, dumb ones a good fright once they were close enough.
That night was spent snacking and prematurely cracking into the celebratory beer while listening to an awesome display of roaring from the tent and hearing deer running off through the scrub only metres away. There wasn’t much sleep to be had that night and I’m pretty sure that it’s the widest eyed I’ve ever seen the dog - it was his first roar trip after all.
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Wide eyes taking it all in from the tent.
First thing the next morning, sitting outside the tent having a coffee, the decision was made; If there’s no monster around now, an ugly stag is in trouble (everyone seems to love venison mince and the current supply is getting a bit low). This was our last chance before heading home.
Only the one stag was seen with a couple of hinds (the only ones seen this trip). He wasn’t a trophy, but he was old enough and ugly enough that I wasn’t going to stress after shooting him. Once the dog got the chance to do a bit of stealthy, stalking training, the distance was reduced to about 100m and the 300Win Mag made short work of putting him down. We found him dead as a doorknob - he wasn’t hard to find but but a very proud Tikka still clearly thought it was all thanks to him !
It was only about a 10 minute stroll back to the tent to ditch unnecessary gear, grab a second coffee and proceed to head over to the stag for a photoshoot and a butchery session. Coffee 2 was still warm when we reached the stag. What a result!
Camp was packed up, meat stuffed in and the walk back to the ute was straightforward, uneventful and heavy (the pack was a touch over 60kg upon weighing it at home). No trophy stag this time but regardless, it has to be the coolest experience I’ve had during the roar to date.
Sorry for the long winded write up. I found it tricky to sum up such an awesome trip into the mountains.
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Doesn't look like it here, but this is a photo of a heap of venison mince.
Keep up the good work with your stories, advice and encouragement. Its super entertaining, sheds such a positive light on hunting and must make life a lot easier for people looking to get into armed tramping. I’ll be back for more!
