NZ Hunter

a word from the editor

We hope you’re all enjoying the new season’s TV Show episodes, Wednesday nights on TVNZ’s Duke. It’s been a trying season thanks to Covid, getting them all filmed and edited and to air but thankfully, judging by the feedback we’ve been getting, it looks like it’s been well worth the effort! By the time you read this the Wapiti ballots will be well underway and the Red roar will be kicking off everywhere as well. The guys from our main TV Show sponsor Continuous Group won the Wild Natives 1st period, and have asked one of us to show them around the block. As Willie’s still too busy editing this season’s episodes, I’ve got that privilege – it’s a tough job mate but someone’s gotta do it! As usual the weather…

suppressors and barrel lengths

HI GREG How short can I cut my 270 barrel if I want to run a can on it? I’ve heard some guys are shortening them down to 18”, and some even down to 16”? What are your thoughts on this? How will it affect accuracy, performance and how will a suppressor handle it? I don’t want to jeopardise any of these? CHEERS, DAVE HI DAVE That is a very good question which crops up frequently about many calibres, and I’ll answer what I can, and then we’ll go straight to the horse’s mouths so to speak for the rest of the answer! Firstly, accuracy wise, the shorter you make your barrel, the stiffer it will be and the theoretically more accurate it should be. This doesn’t always pan out though as the shorter your barrel…

sika roar with my boys

The sound of single calling Sika stags ring through our heads day in, day out leading into early April and the usual job lists for Dad are put on hold My two boys Conrad (12 years) and Jack (9 years) managed to talk Mum into a bit of extra time off school leading into the holidays. A plan was slowly hatched over many a night scouring endless maps. In our household we are lucky to have a great hill-time balance all year round, but the roar always brings something special to us all. This is backed up by my wife’s stories of us boys all calling Sika stags in our sleep. This year was slightly different to past Sika roars as I had had the call from Willie asking if Emil could…

teenage dreams

I read far too much, absorbing all the tales from the days of deer release through to the darkened days of chopper hunting. T. E Donne, Mac Curtis, Rex Forrester John Anderson, Gordon Atkinson, Charlie Shuttleworth and of course Bruce Banwell, by now there’s few NZ Hunting books I haven’t read. The black and white photos of gigantic Red deer in equally gigantic country fired my imagination something chronic, especially as a keen youngster just finding his feet in the alps. I’ve spent the best part of the last decade trying to tick off one of those goals, and in 2020, despite global pandemics and economic recession, the stars aligned and I came damn close to ticking both off. This is the story of the first stag – the Otago stag. This trip…

wild west

As a hunting guide before lock down, I’d never really had a decent chance at hunting a mature Red stag over on the coast. I’m definitely not the best bush hunter by anybody’s measure, so I was looking forward to the challenge. After many days (which seemed like years) stuck inside with lock down I decided to head up a beautiful West Coast river with my good friend Zane Collins and my dog Bud. We set sail two hours before dark and started our way up the river, a rifle in my hand and Zane with his bow I had been talking to the local farmer who had said that if we saw two wild bulls while we were up there, to shoot them as he was going to be putting…

the ice king

My best mate and partner in crime Martin (RUSKI) Pannins, and I were heading directly into the beas - the Southern Alps. We had travelled for 24 hours through the night from our warm Hawkes Bay, and as our eyes adjusted to the growing light, we realised just how much snow there was. But the clouds were no more - not one could be seen and it was a classic bluebird day in an alpine wonderland. At our first stop in Tekapo we checked in with good friend, and head of our South Island intelligence agency or ‘local’ for short, Tim Story. After an hour’s wind down and a catch up with Timmy, it was time to wind up again and carry on down towards Mt Cook and deep into the…