tonight, on the 22nd of march i have heard a few wild stags roaring down in the wairarapa area. just a short note really. im fairly sure its going to be one hell of a roar this year due to the dry conditions. by the first of april i expect stags to be roaring well in the tararuas and ruahines

Everything seems to be 2-3 weeks early. Quite mixed up seasonal conditions this year. Shot a Tahr today that had a cape that looked like a May Colour. Blonde tips and dark body. I've been hearing roars from the wild stags for the past two weeks. The farm stuff has been going for a month.
Weather patterns seem a bit stuffed up all round the world.
Mild, late, early, wet, dry, cold etc etc. Depending on where you are. Germany has just had it's first snow for the winter. etc etc

i remember hearing one last year roar on the 20th.

maybe the south island is a bit earlier than the north? they deffinately start at different times in different places thats for sure

Things are craanking up here in Wanaka as well. Figures crossed its shaping up to be a classic roar.
Perfect hunting at the moment as the stgas are all beginning to wonder about with lust and fight all over there faces. Strating to work the hinds, and roaring very well in the evenings.
Very warm still in the middle of the day with good hunting over the wallows and bedding areas. We have some good trophies coming off the hill.
Very busy with bow hunters at the moment, as its perfect bowhunting conditions, once the stags get the hinds sorted the bow hunting will get very difficult, but the rifle hunters if they are patient will get some great oppotunities.
Life is good. Get out there everybody, hunt hard and hunt smart.

heres a question for your more experienced stag hunters.

generally speaking, is the bigger antlered stag the one who sits on his roaring pad roaring back at you and not moving off it, or the one who roars at you and comes up for a fight?

i had this situation in the same gully tonight. one stag didnt want to move off his roaring pad which is just a little flat on a face in the scrub, while another stag roared at me a few times before charging up underneath me and stopped at about 5m away (no BS he really was only 5m away) i never got a look at him as there was a fair bit of cover around so unsure of the head he had. he was only there for about 20 seconds before he decided it was a bad idea to walk out into the open and he bolted.

Fallow have started, heard my first croak tonight.

The one that doesnt move but lets the "young bucks" take the lead (as in bullets) is probably the bigger one. A real old master stag will often hardly roar and let the others give the show away to protect him.

The trick is getting past his "wingmen" and I dont have the answer!

Jeeezus... You guy's gotta quit talking about this stuff,, I'd give my right nu* to get over there for a Stag/Tahr hunt..

quote:

Originally posted by MopaneMike:
Jeeezus... You guy's gotta quit talking about this stuff,, I'd give my right nu* to get over there for a Stag/Tahr hunt..

Get on a plane and make happen

I leave wed. morning....oh this is going to be fun!
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by TOP_PREDATOR:

quote:

Originally posted by MopaneMike:
Jeeezus... You guy's gotta quit talking about this stuff,, I'd give my right nu* to get over there for a Stag/Tahr hunt..

Get on a plane and make happen

The plane I can handle.. It's everything after that = $$$$$$$

skb, we leave on Friday... you take the first one that steps out and leave the second one for me!

I'm hunting for 5 days.....I'm not taking the first one unless he is extraordinary. I can hardly sleep.
Steve

Gidday Guys,

I've just spent the last three days up the Harper and didn't hear a peep, not a sound.

The wallows have all been well used and t6he pads are chewed up but the stags are all very quiet.

This is in my red hot roar possie and for the first time in months I have gone out and not seen a deer.

You fellas are having all the luck. Must be an April fool thing for me.

I will pop out again on Wednesday and have another look. Will try not to get the truck bellied on a rock in the river thios time though.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

Hamish, its almost full moon and in my experience makes it easier for the deer to move around at night and do their thing while we are all sleeping. Another week it will be getting darker at night as we approach new moon on 17th.

Reckon they will start singing about then.

Hope so, I cant get to my favourite spot until then.

Gidday Vince,

I wish the full moon was the problem but I'm sure we were just too soon.

We spent until 3am sunday morning getting the surf off a bloody great rock in the middle of the river so no noise going on then.

I'm hoping that this week things will kick off as I'm off on wednesday to try again. I haven't checked the phase of the moon then but hopefully it won't be as light at night as this last weekend.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

wednesday will be lighter. its a full moon tonight (tuesday) but dont worry im sure itll be clouded over wherever you are tomorrow. it doesnt look like it will be much of a weekend either! which is a pain im meant to be doing my serious hunting thursday evening till saturday evening! i dont like getting wet and cold *kicks the sky*


when the hinds are on heat the stags will be roaring (hunting pressure permitting), which is mainly dictated by the length of the day. no surprise the roar roughly the same time every year. condition also has a lot to do with it. a fat hind will come on earlier than a skinier one. too skinny and they probably wont come on heat or get in fawn.

it also seems some areas are earlier than others.
and at the start of the roar when they dont roar so often and they dont seem to roar as loud, it can be easy to miss a roar or two especially with a little bit of wind about

I leave this afternoon. The bags are packed and the cartridges are loaded. I'm very excited. I'm hunting for 5 days on sheep station near queenstown and hope to use my new falling block. This should be fun!!! Pictures to follow.
Steve

We would love to see your pics.

What are you hunting? You are right in middle of roar season which should be fun if there are any Red deer there.

Gidday Guys,

Bugger, I had the truck all loaded and ready to go and as the WOF has expired I thought I will get it done at the garage on the way.

Wouldn,t you know it, buggered wheel bearings so the old girl is on blocks at the moment while I wait for a mate to drop around some more grease and gasket sealer for the hubs.

Just as well though because the useless prick that did the job last time didn't put any grease in the right hand one. That would have made a very expensive mess.

I might get out this afternoon if it all goes back together well.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

Well I`m in Christchurch N.Z now, and been looking around gun shops while i got a couple of days to kill, and what I seen so far, great people and lovely place,look forward to hunting over here in next few mnths.

I can only say that I wish I was there with you men. Hunting red stags in NZ sounds like a true adventure to me.

I would like to say, in true Yank fahion, Whoooo Hoooo! Damn that was fun. I just took two great animals, completley fair chase and free range. A great experience to be sure. A lovely 6x7 Red Stag...boy is he nice, and a great 18 point Fallow. If any of you are interested in a great free range fair chase hunt, let me know and I will forward your info along. Pictures to follow upon my return. This is one mighty fine country.
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by skb:
I would like to say, in true Yank fahion, Whoooo Hoooo! Damn that was fun. I just took two great animals, completley fair chase and free range. A great experience to be sure. A lovely 6x7 Red Stag...boy is he nice, and a great 18 point Fallow. If any of you are interested in a great free range fair chase hunt, let me know and I will forward your info along. Pictures to follow upon my return. This is one mighty fine country.
Steve

beauty a 6X7 would love to see pics! I actually got a 6x7 last year, private land but all free range and fair chase. just picked the head up today from the taxidermist it looks real good!

pics as promised. Heres my Fallow too.

I'm pretty damn happy. I took a small chamois too, I did the Red stag and Fallow with a guide. The Chamois on my own. All animals taken free range and completely fair chase. A very nice trip to say the least, I'm one happy guy.
Steve

Nice one Steve,i really like that Red stag.

Can you tell us who the guide was???

skb
All animals taken free range and completely fair chase.


WAIDMANNSHEIL

thats a good looking red stag, good heavy antlers with decent tine length, plus thats a brillient fallow buck to go with it! congrats mate

skb
Where did you hunt ( Outfitter ) this fine Red Stag.

Gentlemen,
Thank You for your fine comments. My guide on this trip was David Musgrave of South Pacific Hunters. I was very happy with both him and his wife Ann. Great service, home made food, and David is a great guide who works very hard to get you the best animal possible. If you want to know more let me know.
Steve

I know its opening weekend for the ducks, but i couldn't help but go for a deer hunt. went out this morning (sunday) hope to catch something out in the open country grazing where I normally see sign and have shot a couple in my there, after seeing nothing in there walked up to the top of the hill, looked down and heres a beauty 10pointer grazing about 400yards away. Knowing the area well (its a sheep and beef farm with 1100 acres of bush not all together tho!) he was in a hollow on a major ridge on his own. i narrowed the gap to 50 yards and one well placed shot dropped him in his tracks.

im very pleased, he weighed in at 103kg, thats 226 pounds. head and hocks off aswell as gutted.

Hey Paul, well done mate!

Any chance of posting a pic?

Unfortunately I missed hunting the roar this year due to last minute business commitments, glad to hear of someones success!

Anyone else get anything? Hamish? Top Predator? Muzza?

I didnt chase any reds but I did get a large bodies fallow with even but mediocre antlers a couple of weekends ago. Fallow in the areas we hunt tend to have crap heads anyway so trophy potential is limited.

i had a fairly action packed roar this year
it was spent hunting public land in 3 locations through out the north island

the first week of the roar was spent in the raukumaras looking for a big boy
the stags were roaring 24/7 in there and there was a bit of action with a number of smaller stags passed up to grow bigger
the bush was very tight and blooy hard work

this one looked ok on the hoof as he charged in but not so big on the ground







it was a good hunt and a spot i'll be going back to

then it was onto the uerwaras for the next week

this area had crap scrubby heads so i had a bit of a shoot out

















the line up from week two's hunt



all in all it was a great red roar with plenty of action


It was back home for a couple of days to clean up and repack for leg 3 of the roar
after the japs
This hunt was with my mate Alf again from the first hunt and a mate of his Mike from western Australia
This was an area I was looking forward to hunting a good mix of scrub/native
and tops to hunt
Only bummer was the stags had gone off the boil by the time we got there and
I hardly heard any hee haw roaring and never heard one single call at all

We were dropped 6km down river from where we were meant to be so it turned
a simple walk up a spir to the tops into a very big walk
We got to see a lot of country but it soon became apparent to me that this
sitting on your arse glassing bush edges and clay pans was boring me shitless
and wasn’t for me
We saw plenty of deer and the reds were roaring well in here but I hadn’t come
to shoot reds this trip so didn’t even go after any of them even though they
should be shot out to stop the x breading
but during the roar when hunting jap stags isn't the time to be doing it
The jap stags were keeping there heads low and not very vocal at all
(seems to be the story from most I have spoken to)
We saw deer every day and i passed up a lot of shots on small stags and hind but it would have to rate as one of the worst jap roars I’ve had

base camp


the first night out and 30min into the hunt the first meat deer fell


some of the country














sun set in the kaimanawas


i spoted 3 sika out on the tops from 1.3km away with my new binos
not being into this long range shooting stuff i wanting to make a bit of sport out
of it i stalked into 20m from them and could hear them pulling the grass from the ground
i stood up to take the pic and the camera came up with card full :
so i missed out on a good close up pic as they ran off a bit before stoping to work out what just happened



we coped a few good frost and still the stags didn't roar so it gose to prove that theroy
is full of shit


there was plenty of rutting sign about even if the stags kept very quiet




a bit more meat later in the week



Alf caught up with a bung antlered stag on the tops out feeding





another pic of japs on the tops





All in all it was a great months hunting with shit loads of action and a good number of
stags getting knocked over so I can’t really complain to much it sure beats working I guess
but it sure was a roar of two halves with the reds going mad and the japs not making a sound

Can’t wait until next roar only 11 months to go

Gidday Vince,

Sorry mate nothing to report. I have only been out one weekend this year and didn't hear a thing.

I have been too busy getting my trap lines sorted (still not catching properly yet) and getting ready for duckshooting.

I hope to be heading down to Haast next week chasing the coons (I still need bloody money dammit) but will be able to get a crack at some deer while I'm down there. They are not the biggest heads but it will be good to put some time in on deer instead of spending all my time chasing possums ($$$$$).

Happy Hunting

Hamish