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Well I've booked to shoot a Red stag in the North Island of NZ starting 4th April, 2011 near Taihape.

In no way is this going to be a fair dinkum hard yakka (hard work) hunt, but I do have to make some major improvements in my level of fitness. I'm not going to try to emulate the physical feats of Cinghale or other hunters his age either. It will be driving around on quad bikes and glassing for mature stags that wander out of the Ruahine ranges looking for hinds. Think of it as an 'old farts' shoot.

My Tony Small built 7x57 gets the nod with Sierra 140 SptBt's and Zeiss 2.5-10x42 #8 reticle.

I have most of the gear together for this. Knee high gatters, new water proof calf length boots c/- work, pure wool socks, wool thermal underwear, Ridgeline Roar jacket etc... but have no idea what to wear/get for pants ?

Any help appreciated.

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Tophet,

I hunted North Island for red stag in 1993, I think it was the first week of May. The roar would be around when you are hunting I think (?).

If you're hunting farmlands (?) near the ranges for stags coming out looking for hinds, it is similar to what I did. We hunted the country in between the ranges and a deer farm. The scent of the hinds brought stags out and that was what we were looking for.

Gear was simple. Clothes were just hunting boots, some green track pants, or polar fleece pants. Cotton shirt, wool jumper, and a goretex/cotton coat. Don't think I wore long underwear and no gaitors. Gaitors might keep one dryer though.

We just glassed the valleys and hills from a lookout hill and after two or three days spotted a nice stag. A mad run along the valley bottom, through a forest then up on a ridge and the stag was in a small gully. He took off slowly but was stopped by a 150 gr Nosler Partition angled from behind into the heart from my .30-06. A nice twelve pointer.

Saw some other deer prior to this one of course, but nothing worth approaching.



North Island Red

The stag was moved by quad bike off the steep slope to a better spot for the photo.

Good luck on your hunt.