Hunt Report, New Zealand, May 2011
Hunting Outfitter – Peel Forrest Safaris, Bert and Pennie How.
Hunting guides – Bert How, Toby How
Rifles used :
Ruger M77 Hawkeye in .270 Winchester, shooting Nosler 150 gr. Partition hand loads
Ruger M77 Hawkeye Predator in .223 Remington, shooting Nosler 55 gr. Soft point hand loads.

Game sought – Himalayan Tahr, bull and nanny, South Pacific wild goat, varmints to include possums, hares, rabbits and wallabies.

Game taken – Himalayan Tahr, bull. Red deer, stag. Red deer, hind. Miscellaneous hares, rabbits, possums, wallabies and paradise shelduck.

Other game seen – Fallow deer, wild sheep and misc other birds.

This was a hunt a long time in coming. The package hunt was booked in January of 2010 while attending an outdoor show at the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup, WA. I met a representatives from a booking company called Sunspots International and working with Rodney Smith came up with a hunt that would be interesting, get me a few chances at animals I have not hunted before and at reasonable cost. While many other animals are available in New Zealand, I chose to go for the uniqueness of the Tahr bull trophy as the main focus of this hunt. Additional I would be doing my hunting on foot, no helicopters were used in going after any animals I would shoot, nor were helicopters used to access any hunting areas.
The trip started with a flight from Seattle, WA to Los Angeles on Alaska Airlines. Both the airlines and TSA especially, were pains to deal with, but with patience I got thru that. From LA it’s onward with the 12 hour flight on Air New Zealand. This flight was part of my package cost and while I may have got a cheaper fare, I was also on a restricted ticket which limited options for changing or upgrading. Not that there will be a planned next trip to NZ again, if there is I’ll book my own flights to avoid this restricted crap. Once I arrive in Auckland, its connection time and in country processing and all that goes with it. Also have to do the firearms permit business here, pretty easy, especially compared to Africa. Big difference is that here I have to pay a fee, $25.00 NZD for the permit. My travel company also faxed ahead gun information, but half of that was wrong on the form I saw at the New Zealand police office in the Auckland airport where gun permitting takes place. Errors included gun serial numbers wrong and name misspelled. The local cop was smart and used common sense(rare concept these days) and he gets the right information from the guns themselves and my passport. Most things were pretty easy, but in all I stood in or waited in 11 different lines to make my domestic connection to Christchurch.
On arrival in Christchurch, Pennie How was on hand to pick me up and we quickly get on the road to their lodge. On the drive questions flow both ways and much information was exchanged. I also find out that another hunter is also there at the lodge and for the first two days or so I will be guided by their son, Toby How. After arriving at the lodge and shown my quarters, Toby gives me some time to get settled and then we are off to do some gun sighting in and then out for the rest of the afternoon to see if aTahr can be found. After a couple of quick shots thru the rifles and some minor adjustments we are off. We drive about 15-20 minutes north from the lodge and I see for the first time how steep these mountains are. We are going to spend this afternoon around the flanks of Mt. Peel looking for the Tahr. The weather is great, sun shining in a cloudless sky and not to hot as we drive about half way up the hill of choice. Low growing scrub and tussocks of sharp grasses cover these hills here. In the end I would only have to climb the upper reaches of this steep hill twice. The day ends with a sighting of a lone bull close to the ridge top, and with not light fading fast we leave him for the night.
The next day sees us back at this same spot, and in the predawn darkness we drive up to parking area used last night and start climbing. An up and up it goes, pretty dang steep. Toby scampers up like a rabbit, while I slowly and deliberately plod upwards. Getting to a good glassing spot we start looking for the intended game. Soon enough Toby spots a bull Tahr and I too finally see. We think this is the same bull as yesterday, but this time he is lower down on the opposite slope. The bull beds in some brush and all we can see is his black face and then only because we watched as he bedded down. A waiting game begins and we spend the next 3.5 hours waiting for him to stand for a shot. We are within about 190 yards (Toby’s range finder reading) of the bull, and it will be a downhill shot if and when I get a chance to shoot. After a couple of false starts, the bull finally stands completely up, by now its noontime and the day has warmed up nicely. Once this bull stood, there was only time for a quick shot as he started to move off away from us onto some scree (loose rocks in the cuts on the hill) slopes. After I fire, I lose sight of the bull and Toby tells me to load again and shoot as soon as he stops running. It’s amazing how that bull was able to run so fast downhill in the loose scree(shale). Once he stops, I fire a second time, by now an even steeper downhill and further away shot. Can’t tell the results of that shot either, and as I get ready for shot number 3, Toby tells me he’s hit and falling down. Talk about exciting! Now getting to this down bull on that loose scree slope is going to be interesting. We finally get there, like 45 minutes later and on the way down I took a couple of slips and falls on the slope, finding out just how sharp that Spanish grass was. I got my first animal down and now don’t have to climb up that dang hill again. I also learned how to walk or slide down in the scree rocks, almost like downhill skiing, but the fall could be much worse if I lost my footing. Reaching the Tahr, we check it out and Toby tells me it’s a good one, at least 12 inches with a beautiful blonde mane. After pictures are taken, Toby skins it out for a full mount and we pack up and head back to the vehicle. The climb out or over was relatively good, we were on the approximate same level as the vehicle so side hilled over to it. Sounds easy, and better than climbing up the hill, but still took me 45 minutes with a couple more slips and falls and handfuls of the sharp grass in the process. Later on at the lodge, after Bert has come back with his hunter, he measured the Tahr bull’s horns with a tape and its better than we thought, at just over 13 inches on each horn. During the Tahr’s fall on the hill a few chips were knocked of the ridge that is on the top of the horns, but I’m ecstatic over this first fine New Zealand trophy. After some horse trading with Bert, the next animal I will hunt will be a red stag. This will take place about a 90 minute drive south of the lodge in some tamer country, or at least I think. We won’t do that until the next afternoon.
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Early the next afternoon we drive off from the lodge and head close to the town of Wiamete for the stag hunting. In the truck today are Bert, his son Toby and myself. After arriving on this next station or farm we begin by glassing some of the scrub on the lower hillsides and it doesn’t take long to spot some stags. Since they are all partially hidden by some brush, it’s hard to get a good assessment of trophy quality or size so after a few minutes Bert thinks it’s time to move on. This is as much as a scouting trip today as a shooting day. The lower parts of this station are not as steep but it doesn’t take much and the hills start to get taller and steeper. Again the hillside is covered in various grasses, shrubs and other bushes. Where water has run downhill over time, gullies have formed and additional vegetation has grown up and making seeing animals more challenging. Bert has also secured permission to shoot some red deer hinds or females for meat for himself and he will let me shoot one or more of these if the opportunity presents itself. As we slowly drive up the rough dirt road we all constantly look for additional game. We do see some wild sheep down in one canyon, but since they are not on the list, we only watch for a few minutes before moving on. After several hours of hunting we finally spot some red deer hinds that are uphill from us and within reasonable gun range and hatch a plan to shoot at these. This works well and after some shooting we each have a hind on the ground. Toby is sent uphill and administers a final shot on one of the hinds that was hit but got into one of the brush choked stream beds. Eventually he reaches each dead hind in turn, field dresses each one and then by hooking all three together brings them down the hillside to the road bed. Bert and I go back and get the truck and then we drive to where Toby is with the hinds and we get them all loaded into the truck. Once the deer are loaded, we drive to the end of this dirt road, maybe a mile from where we loaded the deer and here we will look for some wallabies. Walking down a point we come to a place with a clear view down two adjoining gullies and the hillside that are above the gullies. It doesn’t take Bert long to spot the first wallaby, directly across from us and slightly downhill. I get ready for the shot by making a rest using Bert’s pack laid across a bush and from a sitting position fire a shot and now I have my first wallaby. Noting the spot it fell in the brush we continue looking for more of these animals. Again this a pest species in New Zealand and shooting of wallabies is not controlled except for gaining permission to shoot them on private land. Spending 30 or so minutes here I end up shooting a total of 4 wallabies.


Toby retrieves the first wallaby I shot and with twilight approaching and Bert wanting to check out some other areas for stags before full darkness is upon us we return to the truck and start driving back down off this set of hills. On the way down we do stop and spot several more small groups of stags. Reaching the lower levels of this farm we depart and start the drive back to the lodge. Bert’s plan now is to return in the morning and be in place on the lower slopes before daylight tomorrow.
The next morning we depart the lodge and soon enough are in fact in place on the lower reaches of yesterday afternoon’s hunting area. It doesn’t take Bert long to start seeing animals and with enough coaching and guidance I too see these stags. Since I have never hunted red stags before they all look big to me, but Bert wants to make sure I get a good one and is no rush to stalk and shoot the first one(s) we see. Soon Bert sees more stags on another ridge and with his spotting scope studies these animals for a bit and then declares we need to get closer so he can get a better look. Crossing across a creek and working our way thru several meadows we slowly close the distance to these animals. Finding a deer trail we slowly climb up onto the same ridge these stags are on and carefully stalk closer and closer. Using the brush as cover we get within about 200 yards of this group of 8 or 9 stags, I never do really see them all and Bert again breaks out his spotting scope and carefully looks over all the stags. Declaring there is a shooter in this group, Bert tells me to get myself into a prone shooting position and be ready. Again using his pack and a convenient bush I get ready and we watch these stags for the next half hour or so as trophy evaluation continue. Finally Bert is satisfied as to which animal I should shoot and final preparations are made before I take the shot. Since I am prone for this shot I see the effects thru my riflescope of the first hit on the stag. While the shot rolls the stag onto his side, he quickly gains his feet and I fire a second shot, again a hit. Reaction this time is not as dramatic and the stag gets in behind a bush and so I have to wait for it to clear the brush before I can shoot again. During this wait Bert and I confer and make sure we are both looking at the same already hit animal to make sure I don’t shoot another animal by mistake as some of this group is still milling about, not quite sure as to what is going on. After a few seconds the wounded stag clears the brush and I fire my third and final shot and at the impact of the bullet, the stag collapse to the ground. We stand and watch for several minutes to be the stag doesn’t move again and then finally walk over to it and I have my second and last big game trophy animal in New Zealand. Now its picture time, caping and final retrieval back to the truck. This turns out to be an incredible animal in my view; the stag had a total of 17 points, 8 on one side and 9 on the other with the upper points in the typical crown formation of red stags.


Bert walks back to the truck and finds a way to drive within about 50 yards of where the stag fell and thus easing the load out of the stag. While this farm we are on also does livestock farming, we were able to hunt this stag in the rough areas outside of the fenced livestock pastures. After loading the stag we again start the drive back to the hunting lodge and get back in the early afternoon and spend the rest of the day tagging my trophies and generally taking it easy.
With the two large animals taken I spend the next few days relaxing, helping Bert with some farm chores, doing some shopping and getting in a few more nights of possum hunting.



On the departure day from the lodge, Bert drives me to Christchurch and we drop my trophies off at a taxidermist for preparation for shipment to the USA. Here I am told by Andrew Holt, who owns this taxidermy business that they should be able to process my raw trophies quickly (I am not having anything mounted in New Zealand) and I can expect them to arrive in Seattle in about 6 weeks. If that time line comes to pass, that means I will have my trophies back from this New Zealand hunt before my trophies from my September 2010 Africa hunt which still have not shipped. While I had also hoped to do some sightseeing in downtown Christchurch, that doesn’t pan out due to the central city still being shutdown as result of the earthquake several months ago. Finally it was time to leave and I start the long journey home. After arriving in Los Angeles after the long 12 hour overseas flight I spend a couple of days visiting family in the local LA area and finally return home on June 1.

Super stag, mate. Weidmannsheil!

- mike

A good report of your hunt.
That "Spaniard" is the worst shit growing over there and I too copped it good haha.

Excellent report! Congratulations!

What can you tell us about bullet parameters & performance of the 150 gr. partition?

Thanks and best wishes,

friar

These were my own handloads using Winchester brass, Winchester large rifle primer and 48 gr. of Hodgdon's H414 powder. Don't know the velocity as I don't have a chrony. Rifle sighted in 2 " high at 100 yards.

On the Tahr, I connected with one shot (of 2 taken). Bullet entered mid way up on right rear ham, animal was slight quartering away to right and turned even more as I fired the first shot. Bullet WAS recovered during skinning process, we found it just under the skin on the left front shoulder. Pretty much classic partition performence, peeled back to partion and lost all of front lead with a copper "petal" still intact on left side of bullet. Base of bullet behind partition was also deformed some. Remaining weight of recovered bullet was 93.5 grs.

On the red deer stag, I fired a total of 3 rounds, all hits and all pass thrus with no bullets recovered. The .270 might have been a little light in caliber for the stag, but initially on this trip a stag was not on the list to hunt, and once I added that (thru some horse trading with outfitter) I used the rifle and load combo I had with me. Three rounds used to anchor the stag as I followed my Africa philosophy in that if the animal is still moving I keep shooting. Bullets are cheap, trophy fees and lost animals not so cheap.

Willi

Great hunt and trophies. That thar is a real beauty. There are many hunters in NZ who have hunted tahr many times and are yet to shoot a 12" animal!

Andrew is a real character. I have hunted with him some years ago in Stewart island. He does part time taxidermy work in the US.

Thanks Bisonhunter1,

The reason I asked was that I shot a midlin' moose in Ontario a few years ago. I was shooting 150 gr. A-frames from my .270 (59gr. RL22). The bullet performed very well, but I had a little pause when I recovered the bullet and considered how small the frontal area of the pill was.

Of course, the A-frame sheds less of the front than the partition, and I'm not sure which I'd prefer?

In my mind, the .270 is starting to approach the light end of bullets for elk/moose/reds. With bullets like the partitions, A-frames, accubonds, etc. penetration is not really an issue, but I sometimes would like to think of more fragmentation/greater width to the wound channel.

In the end, it probably doesn't matter - just shoot in the right place and wait a little bit!

friar