Back from New Zealand, pic heavy thread. What a hunt!

[BiG Boar]

Well after leaving New Zealand on Friday at 4:45pm I arrived in Vancouver at 3:30pm the same day. Get to redo that one hour in life. Though on the way their I missed a monday all together. The flight is only 13 hours. Not too bad. I have done farther drives to go for a hunt in northern BC.

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The Tahr hunt was absolutley awsome, hiked up some huge mountains, just like our stone sheep hunting here. Glassed a mob of them one night and as the next day looked clear, we found them in the morning and them planned the climb/stalk. Halfway up the mountain we were busted, but I got a shot off at around 500 yards, at a huge angle. Hoped to have dropped him, but when we got up there, there was some hair and not a speck of blood. They of course had all ran a lot furthur up the mountain. So we pressed on after them and of course I didnt have a range finder. 500-700 yard shot 45 degree angle again. This time he dropped and then started running like a madman down the mountain, away from me. We pursued again, and peeking over the edge, as he ran down a gully, we spoted 3 feeding below us. I pulled out the spotting scope, and looked for blood, as we were following a heavy trail. No blood on any of them. We dropped in after them and as we went over the next ledge saw one hobbling below us, bleeding. Thats our boy, whipped the gun off my shoulder, jacked my second last shell in, grabbed the bi-pod and my finger must have touched the trigger. Stupid mistake, heat of the moment, and I sent a bullet over into another mountain. Have one shot left, and he was 30 yards below us, he took his final step, presented a shoulder between two ferns and down he rolled....and rolled....and rolled....luckily it was in a foot and a half of snow. He was down for the count. And a very beautiful bull at that. Recovered one of the handloaded TSX's. Will have to wiegh it in. The scariest part about the whole thing was the descent. Going down the mountain a different way then we had went up was a bit challenging, it was getting dark soon, and there was cliff after cliff to negotiate. Over the whole days hunt it was 10 hours of slogging it. I can see why people do the helicopter assist. However I am glad I did it the hard way.

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Also did a Arapawa ram, was an outstanding hunt, after missing the first two shots because my guide was ranging in meters and I was shooting in yards, and he didnt tell me that. We re stalked in even closer to about 30 yards, came over the top of a hill, with the wind in our face and dropped him good. Beautiful trophy.


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Also, did some hare hunting. The TSX 180 grains were outstanding again.

Video taped all the hunts, and hope to put something together on youtube soon, however I am in the middle of preping for my grizzly hunt.

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[Bighorn hunter]

Where's the story on the stag? Looks like you had a great time. well done and thanks for posting

[buckguy]

Nice looking animals, congrats. Looks like lots of fun and a lot of hard work.

[BiG Boar]

Blast, in putting together this car wreck some would call a post, the stag story got totally deleted.

Here goes. shortened version

After listening to the ROAR for 3 days, following a few calls, and spotting tonnes of great stags, I finally decided on an animal. They are fairly territorial and stay in a 1 km radius usually. It was hilly country and the hiking was hard. First thing on the 3rd morning I spot my stag, nice and even fronts, red colored cape, and mass like I had not yet seen. 1 300 win mag pill and he was down, a second to end his grief. What a beauty of a stag, and just as he went down the snow started. Didnt stop untill it was 15 inches deep.

I would highly recomend New Zealand hunting. It was a lot of fun, and it was a beautiful country.

[whitetailsheds]

What an absolute beautiful trophy that stag is!! Love those dark horns and ivory tips on him. Thanks for posting. Beautiful country!

[gamehunter6o]

Good one Bigbore. Now you have a taste of NZ, you'll be back. Try bush hunting Sika deer in the central North Island if you really want fun.

[kennyj]

Wow! Thats an awesome red deer.Thar and sheep are nice too.Great photos
and story.Looks like you had a blast and earned those animals.
kenny

[Wild Images]

Very nice Stag, good luck with the Griz

[Steeleco]

Trip of a lifetime Dave, sadly not mine, LOL!! Congrats on a very successful hunt.

[bearass]

Congrats on the stag,sounds like the hunt of a life time.