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Hunting >> Hunting in Australia, NZ & the South Pacific

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Chasseur
.375 member


Reged: 18/11/03
Posts: 771
Loc: Hunting classic Indian game!
Waterfowling and Stalking on the South Island
      #263865 - 20/04/15 05:45 AM

Recently, my dad and I got to fulfill some long-term dreams taking a trip to New Zealand. Many decades ago my dad thought long (as a young and single man) and hard about relocating to New Zealand and tramp about the Southern Alps. Luckily for me he didn't do it but he never got to see the Southern Island. I've wanted to stalk red stag and shoot Paradise ducks there for many a year. With both of us having a little more income and my dad still being spry we didn't we should put of the trip any longer.

I am a free-range hunter, so I was not interested in helicopters or high-wire fences so I decided to go with James Gray. We didn't have much time for the trip so we went with a couple of days of late summer pest-control waterfowl shooting and then a couple of days free-range red stag stalking on some local farms. We were in North Canterbury agricultural area. I brought my vintage guns, my post-war French Seytre 12 bore, and my Alex Henry 500bpe for the stags.

It was a compromise hunt, a little late for the birds, a little early for the stag. So the ducks were hard to find and so were the stag.

Out duck shooting in the paddocks:













Unfortunately, we didn't see the huge flights of Paras until after the season closed...


--------------------
In regards to action he should devote himself to hunting...
-Machiavelli



Edited by Chasseur (20/04/15 11:18 AM)


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Chasseur
.375 member


Reged: 18/11/03
Posts: 771
Loc: Hunting classic Indian game!
Re: Waterfowling and Stalking on the South Island [Re: Chasseur]
      #263866 - 20/04/15 05:55 AM

Even more than the ducks it was hard to stalk the stag. It was hot and the area in question had been suffering through a drought.

We worked the bush, and also waited out at last light on farm fields. Lots of hinds, but good stags were in short supply...









The bush hunting was hard hot work...

Even took the motorbike up the river with no success...






We shot a couple of possums but no stag. But that is how free-range hunting goes.

After the hunt we toured Christchurch for a day, I was surprised by how the devastation of the earth quakes was still so present.

Also, got to indulge in quality beer, meat pies and sausage, which is always good

Wonderful country and I'd go back again one day.

--------------------
In regards to action he should devote himself to hunting...
-Machiavelli



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Bidgee
.375 member


Reged: 08/04/15
Posts: 711
Loc: Northern Rivers, NSW
Re: Waterfowling and Stalking on the South Island [Re: Chasseur]
      #263890 - 20/04/15 10:25 AM

Sounds like top trip with your dad even though you didn't get a stag.

How did the 500bpe handle the possums? Was a follow up shot needed?



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Chasseur
.375 member


Reged: 18/11/03
Posts: 771
Loc: Hunting classic Indian game!
Re: Waterfowling and Stalking on the South Island [Re: Bidgee]
      #263893 - 20/04/15 11:22 AM

Oh those required the stopping power of a 308 with a moderator

Great time with my dad making our respective boyhood dreams come true.

--------------------
In regards to action he should devote himself to hunting...
-Machiavelli



Edited by Chasseur (20/04/15 11:23 AM)


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DarylS
.700 member


Reged: 10/08/05
Posts: 27022
Loc: Beautiful British Columbia, Ca...
Re: Waterfowling and Stalking on the South Island [Re: Chasseur]
      #263923 - 21/04/15 02:03 AM

Chasseur - glad you got to make the hunt, showing it and telling us about it. Sometimes we don't get everything we plan for - it happens to everyone sometime - the hunt is the most important part of hunting, just as it happened for you.

--------------------
Daryl


"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V


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stug
.275 member


Reged: 20/08/14
Posts: 69
Loc: Canterbury, New Zealand
Re: Waterfowling and Stalking on the South Island [Re: DarylS]
      #263994 - 22/04/15 02:09 PM

You wouldn't have been too far from where I live. Now you've had a taste you'll have to come back at a better time of year.
My recent hunt for stags ended up the same aas yours, but my possum must have been bigger as it required a 286gr projectile from my 9.3x62!

Edited by stug (22/04/15 02:10 PM)


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