Just booked a hunt for New Zealand. I have to figure out the details but next May or June. Hunting Tahr, Chamois and Stag. I might get a couple other critters liek those goats and sheep as well if I don't upgrade the stag. It is free range hunting as well which is nice. Tahr is going to be the highlight for me.
I also plan on a side trip to Australia. My parents are living in Perth for 2 more years and we are going for a visit with the kids and my wife. Then I plan on taking my wife over with me to New Zealand. I'm pumped!!. It will be pretty wild hiking some of those mountain critters.

This and my hunt in Zim in August will make it a year I am going to look forward to!

Hello - and welcome.

If you venture down south (we're in Invercargill) I hope you can visit on us.

I'm not a guide (far from it) but if you want to get your legs pumped and eye in I'll take you for a goat shoot, they're what you might call "mountain varmits" and I can assure you that round Queenstown the hill are plenty steep enough to improve your heart rate !

PM me if it pans out.

Cheers - Foster

Thanks Tentman.
I ended up booking with these guys http://www.asjhunting.com/
A little pricey I think but it all sounds very promising and I am sure it will be a good hunt

I hope your trip go's well. Just checked out the link to your guides and I see they offer helihunting. Please insist on not doing this, it robs you of an experience and ruins the Thar resurce for kiwi hunters. The management they speak of is nothing more than spin and the bull Thar on public land is in trouble because of Helihunting.
you have every right to insist on a trophy bull by ethical means, don't let them con you int smething less.
Cheers
SP

When chasing tahr & other game, make sure you get your guide to stop and collect a wallaby.

Bro, if you are heading near East Cape, we can have you so ass deep in Deer, Goats, Turkeys, Peacocks, Rabbits and Hares like you wouldn't believe. Few of my target shooting buddies regularly bomb mobs of Goats out passed a grand.... Me, I prefer up close and personal in the forests with a silent .22lr..

Hey guys, thanks for the info. I am a young 35 year old and I have killed 7 bighorn rams here in Alberta and have also done a Dall sheep hunt in the territories. I live for mountain hiking and sheep hunting. It is my passion. I don't have any interest in shooting my critters out of a helicopter but I would like to take a flight around some of the area and see what it is like to fly around and spot the critters and see the country with my wife.

I am open to any suggestions of what to do while there as well and what options there are for other hunts. To be honest I do not know what is available there. My business partner hooked up this whole thing as I did not plan on hunting NZ for a few years and it came up all of a sudden and I am just tagging along on his trip.

I would like to shoot a Tahr, chamois , stag and a fallow deer. Not sure but maybe a goat or a sheep as well if money is not to tight.

I think NZ is a very nice place to visit and I am looking forward to it

A bull Tahr is one of the most impressive trophies one can have, IMHO. Have a great trip.

Good luck...New Zealand is a blast! Tahr are definitely an awesome trophy although chamois are the species I definitely underestimated.

Just curious what you meant by upgrading your stag?

Stu will give you a good hunt. He will foot hunt your tahr and chamois.Like all of us that guide down here just make sure you ask the right questions and you'll get the hunt and experience you are after. Enjoy.

The more it scores the more the cost.
A lot of places charge by the size as you know already. Usually it is for the pen raised animals it seems but these are not as far as I am aware. They have one of the largest free range areas to hunt.
Here is the website. http://www.asjhunting.com/

Ya, I knew that was the case inside the fences but wasn't aware they did it on the free range stuff....learn something every day. When we were over there it was just one price for a free-range stag, regardless of size...luckily for me...lol

What are the price breakdowns?

I think more expensive than a lot of places. I send you some info in a PM.

K...I was just curious how they broke the prices down on the free-range stags. Basically what scores they used for different price breaks.

You need to be aware that a "free-range" stag on privately owned land run in conjunction with a behind-the-wire operation will likely have been inside the wire for most of its life , and was shoo-ed out the gate the day before you arrived.

Very few of those massive heads are wild born and raised at all. Just one of those small details they may have omitted on their website....

I am not saying this is the case here , but there is a fair possibility it may be .

Lucky Boy!

I wish I could manage to take a New Zealand trip as well: Visiting my brother (who actualy lives near Wellington) and making some hunts there as well... The problem why I did not booked yet is just the need of money and time ...

Hope You will have a good time there!

Klaus

quote:

Originally posted by muzza:
You need to be aware that a "free-range" stag on privately owned land run in conjunction with a behind-the-wire operation will likely have been inside the wire for most of its life , and was shoo-ed out the gate the day before you arrived.

Very few of those massive heads are wild born and raised at all. Just one of those small details they may have omitted on their website....

I am not saying this is the case here , but there is a fair possibility it may be .

You are right. I asked a few more questions about the free range stuff. From what I have learned is that the biggest stag on a free roam area would score up to about 320" Anything over would most likely have to be hunted out of a fenced area. So as it looks my stag will score under 320".lololol
Personally I would rather shoot a smaller stag free range than some 450" monster out of a pen.
I'm looking forward to it. Sheephunterab has had a few other sugestions for some fun there as well. I am open to any ideas while I am there. My wife needs to do a few things as I don't think she will want to hunt with me the whole time. My friends wife is going so the gals will have to do a little touring as well.
It should be fun.

Well done nube. Those are the answers I was hoping you would get.
Sheephunterab was with me last year hunting.
Enjoy your hunt.

How is the hunting the end of June? It is later than I want but the kids are out of school around that time and I am dropping them off at Grandma and Grandpas in Australia on the way.

Also how long is the flight from Australia to NZ? I heard 8 hours more. I thought that was a bit much but I don't know.

2 1/2 to 3hrs depending on where you are flying from. Talk to Stu. I'd suggest you fly direct into Queenstown from either melbourne,Sydney or Brisbane,all depends where the grand parents are.
Theres some onerous paper work involved in transiting a firearm thru Australia. Borrow one from Stu. Junes OK great for Tahr and chamois, well past the stag rut. Start of our winter.
Talk to Stu.

That is kind of what I thought. My parents are in Perth. Stu had said that it was tough to get guns through Australia so I think i will borrow a rifle.

Good on you for asking the questions nube. Wasnt wanting to alarm you , just forewarn you...

Perth to Auckland is about 8 hours - its further from Perth to Melbourne than it is from Melbourne to Auckland, but some airlines fly direct. Probably not much time differance to Christchurch either.

Western Australia has about the toughest gunlaws the other States arent a lot better if you are visiting. Its easier to hire or borrow a firearm ,then you dont have th etravel and storage hassles.

Have a great trip.