NZ Hunter

By the time you read this the roar will be well underway! We’re about to head in on a West Coast Red stag mission, a little early yet but hopefully we can find a big old stag going walkabout checking what hinds are where before he settles down to the serious business of passing on his genes. The East Coast is copping a lot more rain so hopefully the West Coast will stay fine and cloud free – clag being the perennial problem of a “Coast” hunter even when it’s not raining! And for the waterfowlers, we’re in the run down to the duck season, only a month to go. I was in the Canterbury region over the two weekends NC F&G ran their trial “Summer Duck” season this year, and…

HI GREG Can you please advise a sensible minimum barrel length for a 308 when fitted with a DPT suppressor. Objective is to produce a compact, light and handy bush rifle. Scope is a Swarovski 3-9 x 36. Ammunition will likely be handloads. I have a choice of projectiles: 125gn GMX, 150gn SST, 150gn Speer Grand Slam and 150gn Nosler Accubonds. Powder choices are W748 and Varget, primers Federal 210s. THANKS, BRUCE HI BRUCE I’d go with a 16” barrel and the 125gn GMXs. We use 130gn TTSXs in our 16” 308 BushPigs, and get about 2900 to 2940fps. Either of those powders should work, but 748 would be best as you might struggle to fit enough Varget/2208 in. We use 2206H and H335, CHEERS, GREG HI GREG 1. What kind of tripod are you using for your…

Once the fence line was finished and Tom had left the building site for the day, the Dunedin lads hooned up the South Island to my place. We hatched a plan over some beers, then got an early start straight into four wheel drive mode, river crossings, boulder moving and general low box muntery. There were plenty of other 4WDs out in the Alps for the long weekend, so we were soon onto plan “B” (if not further down the alphabet). By late morning we had only just shouldered packs but set sight on a few animals – three hinds grazing the edge of a scree slope. We split up, ensuring radio contact for the afternoon, each of us bush stalking a terrace and glassing up the faces. Although together we…

2021 was also different, in that there were four of us – not the usual Josh and I, or me solo. Josh (‘Ricky Baker’), Isaac (‘Big O’) and Liam (Twigs), Ridge (my trusty mutt), and I (‘Muffin Man’). The plan was to head into a new area for us - one where Isaac had shot a very promising, but very young stag, on one of our earlier trips. The time arrived: 11:50pm. I left the farm and reached the Waikato at 7.30am, to meet up with Ricky and Twigs, then on to Taupo to collect ‘Big O’, to head for the beautiful Kaimanawas. With packs on we walked in and, just after dark, had to scramble down a wee bank to get down to the creek. Ricky, Muffin and Twigs all…

With Covid giving the great Southern bulls another year in the Fiordland mountains to grow, and our Aussie brothers not likely to enter, we all agreed to throw our old hats into the ring. We needed to put together a team of six experienced and gnarly mountain men, but a look around the room soon showed we were clean out! Just three old, crusty demons that hunted the Kawakas! Once we got over that small hurdle names were thrown back and forth before Dave penciled in his farming mate Greg, and I vouched for ‘Mark the Hammer’. We needed one more for this team of six and she was right under my nose! Little Red’s hand shot up faster than an Electron Rocket clearing the launch pad at the thought of…

After an action packed second morning, roaring up three separate bulls, we managed to navigate our way around Gorges two and three, which is not something you would chose to attempt in wet weather if you value self-preservation. The scenery around every corner was mind blowing - deep crystal-clear swimming holes, cascading five metre waterfalls which were tame right now but would be a different beast when the inevitable Fiordland heavens opened up. We had set out goals to reach the large swamp by the end of day two and after a lot of sweat and a good seven hours hard grind, the bush started to lighten up through the gaps in the beautiful beech trees, and with the late afternoon sun open river flats appeared. This is where we were going…