February 19 to 26, 2007

Outfitter: Ranginui Hunting, Mark Brough

website

On the recommendation of Top Predator of this forum, I booked with Mark Brough for a NZ hunt. Overall, I was very happy with the hunt and quite excited about visiting NZ. I will return! Mark was very professional, great company and good value for the price of his hunt.

I flew direct from LA to Auckland via Air New Zealand. Opted to spend another $2000 to upgrade to “Premium Economyâ€. Pretty much not worth it, exactly the same seats as economy, with extra leg room, and business class meals. Business Class looked nice! I only brought a carry-on, to learn upon arrival at LAX that Air NZ restricts passengers to ONE carry-on weighing 7 kgs. Yikes! They let me slide and I did not have to check my bag, which weighed about 12 kgs.

Fairly uneventful flight, service on the ground and in the air was fine. We arrived in Auckland at 5:30 am. I was to rent a rifle, so I did not go through firearms clearance, but overall the passport control/customs was very efficient, and I think the firearms issue would be easy.

Mark’s wife, Felicity picked me up and we have a leisurely 3 and a half hour drive to “Kings Countryâ€, about in the middle of North Island. Mark is a farmer who hunts on his cattle/sheep farm, and has acess to about 10,000 acres of forest nursery land (privately owned) next door to him.

Their “lodge†is about a 10 minute drive into the property, set on a hill overlooking several valleys. No electricity, but comfortable.

The first day we hunted feral goats. Not for the faint hearted. Goats are considered pests, especially on the forestry land, where they eat the young saplings. There are scads of them, and they are not hunted much and very dumb. In general, our plan was to hike or cruise around on ATVs and spot them, then empty the magazine, pass the rifle and collect another, empty that magazine…you get the picture. Here is a photo of me with a goat- please note the blood on my leg- the territory was very rough. Logging “pathsâ€, lots of blackberry and other thorns that tore me up.




The next morning we were up and hiking to spot stag. Really, really steep hills. Basically everything was pretty much straight up, or straight down. I used Mark’s .243, and we spotted 3 stag in a wallow. The shot was from about 150 yards above them. Really beautiful animals.

Here is a photo of Mark with the stag



I sort of blundered on my equipment choices. I brought my Courtney Selous boots from Africa hunts, which were way too soft and flexible, so I slipped a lot on the steep terrain. Just before the above photo with the stag, I totally crunched my knee and it caused me a lots of problems on the trip.


I also brought some compact binos, because I thought the hunting would be in much thicker stuff, but next time I will bring larger binos with a larger field of view.

We also got a sika just out of velvet, and a management fallow. Both we very fun hunts. Also took a fallow hind for meat. The fallow photo shows the exit wound on my first shot, which was quartering...we chased him around abot because the shot apparently did not hit any vitals. The second, killing shot entrance is also shown on the shoulder. This "stalk" almost killed me- we spotted him way up high, and I basically sprinted up the hillside, bent over, darting from cover to cover, for a LONG ways, before I got the next shot. I had the rifle slung across my back, and was prety much crawling uphill, using hands to climb, to get to a place where we had a shot.






Here is a shot of a stag we basically walked up on. He saw us and pretty much kept on with what he was doing. Had this experience several times, the stag were not too skittish.



Top Predator came to stay, and we had a nice time becoming acquainted. He is a big man and he lives to hunt. He and I went to the forestry land for goats, got a few, but saw some red hinds. I blew an easy shot on a hind because when I cycled a round into the borrowed rifle, it fed two. Top Predator was filming, expecting to see the hind fall, instead he recorded me saying #### the rifle is jammed! We chased them, and like a real trooper, he followed me up a hill the was only climbed on feet and hands through very thick stuff…but we never spotted them again.

Overall, I had a GREAT time!! I really do look forward to returning and have another hunt booked for the roar in late April. This hunt was by far the most physically demanding I have been on. I told Mark I liked to walk, and we did. He did say he liked walking too, but that most of his clients prefer to ride and or sit and spot and stalk. So one can have it either way, depending on your physcal condition.

Thanks to Mark Brough and Top Predator for the hospitality and friendship!

A cool early morning photo from the lodge



Same direction photo at sunset

Glad you enjoyed yourself,it was good to meet and hunt with another AR member.

For those members thinking,i bet the rifle that jamed was pushfeed,well you are right

magic,
nice to see you had a good trip, hope the knee ends up ok.
i know the experence as i was there late last year, thou i didnt score quite the trophys you got it was a wonderful experence and i meet many genuinely nice people.
good work
greg

Good on ya 404WJ, I recognize those pine woods!

I'm the other Yank that Top Predator brought out for feral goats and you are correct sir, you won't find a nicer guy than James to hunt with.

I get the priviledge of hosting James this May when he comes through California on his way to Canada. We're going to chase some ground squirrels up here in the wilds of Bakersfield.