Returned yesterday from New Caledonia after a Rusa hunt with Adrian Skok.
Good flight in economy with Aircalin from Auckland, 2 hrs 45 min. Business class didn't look worth the extra money.
Met at the airport by my guide Phillip, a Canadian wildlife researcher. We stood around getting a bit worried for 15 minutes before he turned up as we did not have an address where we were going or a phone number.
We had been to New Caledonia before for a holiday and loved it so my wife came along this time despite not being in good health. This was probably a mistake as Adrian runs a serious hunt and she would have been better left at a nice hotel on the beach in Noumea. If yor partner is fit and active and enjoys the hunt it would be different. The accommodation was at a lodge near Bourail, and we shared a chalet with the other hunters who were guided by Adrian. They were an American, Adam and his 13 year old daughter, Lala.
Adam is a very experienced hunter who has taken a huge range of species all over the world. Lala has also packed a lot of hunting into her recent years. The only problem with the accomodation was that we had to share a bathroom and toilet with the the others, but everyone was tolerant. The main lodge, where we had dinner a few nights was 150m up a dirt road from the chalet. They charge you US $100 for a staff tip at the end!
Adrian has a large number of properties he can hunt over but most of my time was spent on a huge ranch about 45 minutes north of the lodge. This was a hilly property running down to the coast with open cattle pastures between belts of bush along the water courses which were generally dry.
Hunting started immediatly you left the main road as there were always deer visible straight away. I had been told about the huge numbers of deer but had no real appreciation of it. I just wanted a nice representative Rusa stag and on the first morning, after looking at perhaps 20 fully mature stags as well as dozens of smaller ones we saw what I thought was a nice old stag with battered antlers. After a relatively easy stalk I leant on a bank and flattened him with a 130 grain .270 from a camp rifle. He raised his head again so I put another through his neck to be absolutely sure.
We took him back to the ranch where there was a skinning shed, took off the cape and head and hung the carcass in the chiller for the landowner. They get so much venison that old stags are used for pig food. A great deal of time is spent on this hunt on trophy preperation which in Africa would be done by a skinner or in NZ by a local taxidermist. You take your trophies home on the plane with you so they must be ready for Biosecurity inspection. Skulls must bleached and antlers cleaned of all dirt and velvet. Capes must be cleaned and salted.
In the evening we sat on the dge of a big flat grass field and watched over 200 deer emerge to feed. Some of the stags were roaring, especially a non-typical stag with a drop tine and a twisted antler. I wanted to shoot him but Phillip persuaded me not to finish my hunt for two stags on the first day. We didn't know that Adrian had spare stags on quota. I should have overuled my guide and taken him because we never saw that stag again.
That first morning Lala missed a nice stag but the next morning she got a better one than mine and while I was having a sleep on the grass after lunch I was woken by a shot nearby. A very old stag appeared just below the ranch and Adam had shot it.
Hunting on a different property the following day Lala shot a great stag that made my first one look silly. Very heavy and 36 1/2 inches long and wide and flaring at the top. She shot it through the front leg and her Dad finished it with a Texas heart shot.
We hunted another property near Bourail that was very different terrain, steep mountains covered in scatterd scrub into which stags disappeared, never to be seen again. This was much more challenging hunting, with some really big deer and you could easily see why they got to grow old. You either waited at the valley bottom for a stag to come down within range and appear in a clearing or you went up after them. This was tough on my antique legs and heart and a waste of time with so many hinds scattered over the faces. Once one spooks they all go, and keep runing until the entire valley is vacated. Like most deer, you can take risks with their eyes and ears but not with their noses.
Back to the main ranch and just driving up the dirt road we saw a bunch of stags about 150m away. One glance at a very wide and heavy stag and I said, "I'll shoot that one!"
We parked the truck and stalked to a small rise but the saw two dogs chasing hinds and fawns across our front. Of course the stags were gone but we passed through a water-course and saw them in the open the other side. A short stalk and a pause to make sure which was the right one in a group of half a dozen very nice deer, then an easy shot off-hand at 50m.
Fortunately he dropped on the spot in an easy place to drive the truck up to. Compared to Lala's whopper, this one was more uneven with one top broken off but he still averaged 36 1/2 inches in length, a bit less massive and a more typical shape. His cape was too bare and damaged to bother with.
This was really only a 4 day hunt, the fifth day was for final trophy preperation and a visit to the beach to trap some mud crabs.
The Americans love turkey hunting and there a mobs of feral turkeys everwhere but it costs US$450 to shoot one. Adam and Lala both took one. I would have shot one if I was paid to.
There are quite a few feral pigs about but the landowners don't like you shooting them.
The hunting itself was generally very easy, with so many deer it was more a question of finding a real trophy head amongst so many nice stags.
On my return to Auckland, despite all the trouble taken in cleaning and salting the cape they still seized it for fumigation so I will have to go back up to Auckland to collect it. They let the antlers through.
In conclusion, this was a well-run hunt in an outstanding area and I should have been a lot more selective in choosing my first stag.

Good write up mate. Any pictures?

I don't think it would be too easy getting a raw cape into Australia.

quote:

Originally posted by Bakes:
Good write up mate. Any pictures?

I don't think it would be too easy getting a raw cape into Australia.

Bakes...I should think that as long as the cape was fleshed and all blood and meat removed, then salted heavily, that they would allow it in. Could be wrong, but over here in Canada where they are worried about CWD being transported around, that would make a cape acceptable for import.

If not, a big gnarly old Rusa stag done up in a European mount looks very cool.

I don't think that flies here mate. Our only taxidermist that used to radiate raw skins no longer does it.

Some photo's from The Pom...enjoy

Nice!

Excellent! I must look into hunting there.

Very cool. I thought the deer hunting had gone through a bit of a low point over there, but sounds like its looking good again now.

Superb!!
Just been hunting them back on the North Island.Sounds like i definitely need to go to New Caledonia

SWS. Better brace yourself! This hunt is priced for the American Market. There are cheaper outfits but you get what you pay for. When I was younger and less affluent I booked the cheapest overseas hunts. I was more accustomed to being paid to hunt than paying. It went against the grain to follow a guide. Sometimes I got nothing or only mediocre trophies.
Now I hunt less often, pay for the best and get the results. Rusa antlers always seem to look much smaller on the ground than they do on the hoof.
The first Rusa stag I shot was with a .22 after my 14 year old stepson caught it with his bare hands but that is another story!

Thank you The Pom,
I'd often paid for hunting with guides in Europe before we emigrated down here 7 years ago.
I had a really bad fall tahr hunting, and in order to get spousal permission to hunt again, I'm only allowed to go with a guide.. fortunately made a good (ish) recovery and these days tend to do three or four guided hunts a year. I hunt less then i used to, spend more but enjoy the company of a guide when i hunt. Been fortunate enough to finish off all of the NZ deer species (minus wapiti) guided and now looking at the rest of the Australasian ones... water buff in two weeks, then axis in March and banteng next september

quote:

Originally posted by sws:
Thank you The Pom,
I'd often paid for hunting with guides in Europe before we emigrated down here 7 years ago.
I had a really bad fall tahr hunting, and in order to get spousal permission to hunt again, I'm only allowed to go with a guide.. fortunately made a good (ish) recovery and these days tend to do three or four guided hunts a year. I hunt less then i used to, spend more but enjoy the company of a guide when i hunt. Been fortunate enough to finish off all of the NZ deer species (minus wapiti) guided and now looking at the rest of the Australasian ones... water buff in two weeks, then axis in March and banteng next september

I see some good hunting reports in your future....