NZ Hunter

It is with great sorrow we say goodbye to one of our longest term writer and friend, Matt Winter. Matt's incredible photography and wide knowledge of all things outdoors - whether birds, plants or animals - has kept us all entertained for many years: Till we meet again Matt. Tribute on page 4. There's been a fair bit of pretty rough weather and snow in the last couple of months. A lot of the tahr ballot blocks were empty this year as hunters couldn't get in due to the weather conditions. We're still out there battling away with the camera trying to get a big old Red stag from the wild Country on film before they drop their antlers, but due to the usual curse Of the camera, mishaps like guests…

HI GUYS I have a dumb question. Weare putting suppressors on our rifles, mine is a 270 Rem, and my wife's is a 243 Win. After talking To the gunsmith, he has suggested that we fit the same calibre suppressor to each rifle, for safety (in case we switch them around by mistake:), and I can understand his thoughts on this. So my question is, will the larger diameter hole of the 270 suppressor diminish its effectiveness when used on the 243 (we are fitting DPT Magnums on both); The gunsmith thinks that the magnum Will workso well on the 243 that the larger hole will not be an issue. I would just like a second opinion from someone, with knowledge. Love the show, if we can't watch we record it religiously. Two oldies who think…

Matt was an amazing talent in all the activities that he pursued. Everything he did was all selftaught. A lot of the pursuits were passed on and taught to many people. From fly fishing for trout, snapper and kingfish, rifle hunting, graduating to using a bow and arrow, to free dive and spear fishing, whitewater kayaking, trials riding and just instilling in people the love and appreciation of the outdoors, have all been activities and passions he loved over many years. Matt's more recent passion was photography. Again, self-taught, he spent many hours researching to hone his skills from behind the camera. The patience and skills he used for many years for hunting etc, he applied to an even greater extent as a photographer. He would spend hours at times in a…

“Yeap, sounds like a plan” Jake replied, as he always does. So, we both put our names in the hat for the ballot for the following year. 2020 closed with all sorts of epic alpine adventures done and dusted. At the start of the new year, the Fallow ballot was drawn and we had been allotted a desirable block for mid-May. We would catch the tail end of the rut. As it drew closer, we were feeling excited about spending five days chasing Fallow after hunting Reds around the Canterbury hills for two weeks the previous month. It's a great time of year to be a hunter - Reds going late March into April, then the Fallow rut, followed by the chamois rut in May then a bit of tahr interest from…

Eventually an opportunity arose for an early May hunt into a place that neither of us had ever visited but had spent countless hours studying promising catchments on topo maps. In the lead up there was a lot of banter as to what calibre Luke's first stag would be. Eventually a meeting invite was sent to confirm the date of the hunt entitled “Luke's 15 Pointer” - we figured we had to be “realistic” as there are not many even heads out there. We set out from Christchurch and camped overnight on the river flat at the first deep river crossing. Thinking the weather window looked to be a beauty we slept outside under the truck's awning. All was bliss until 4am when the rain came in sideways, waking us up and…

Our focus for this edition was to work up some loads to cover all of the scenarios readers are likely to encounter with the rifle as it comes, at 20”. When we cut the barrel down (how far that will be is yet to be determined) we'll attempt to find a satisfactory subsonic load if possible. With a shorter barrel it's easier to achieve consistent subsonic velocities so we'll wait until we lop 200fps worth off the front end! Before we started on the load development there was some housework to maximize its accuracy. The two stage HACT (Howa Actuator Controlled Trigger) trigger is crisp enough as it is, but that pull is too heavy for our applications. Lighter trigger weights will make a world of difference to your accuracy. If you pull…