NEW ZEALAND: Red Stag Hunt With Kiwi Wilderness Safaris

Bhfs300

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I just finished my hunt with Peter at Kiwi Wilderness Safaris. When I left for New Zealand I knew the weather was saying that most of the time I would be there was about 80% chances of rain.
The four day I was there to hunt it rained all the time.
Now the hunt. I had every thing I owned to keep me dry. Peter made every effort to make my hunt a success. The first day we heard some roaring but didn't see any red stags. Day two would have been perfect if we were hunting for Fallow Deer. I watched a gold level one for about an hour as we were watching two sides of a valley. Animals were moving everywhere except Red Stags.
Later in the afternoon we had moved to a different location in the rain and several hinds came out of a stand of trees followed by a stag. He followed the hinds around roared a couple times but he was smaller than I was looking for so we just watched him as long as he was there and then headed in for the night.

Day three started off the same with rain. We headed up to a different spot and since it was just misting we started down a ridge looking at both sides for red deer. Several hinds came out of the brush and crossed over the top in front of us. We stopped to look for stags below us or across on the other side of the valley we were above.

Peter was looking down our side so I looked down the ridge in front of us and a great looking Stag came up on the top and started walking away from us. I tapped Peter and said "is that a good one?" and he said that is a monster. He was at the end of the ridge and instead of going down away from us he turned and started down the side we were looking at. Peter put shooting sticks up in front of me as we were sitting on the ground and said take a shot. The stag had stopped but was facing away from us. I told Peter that all I had was its butt and he said take a shot.

In the excitement we didn't range anything and my shot ended up about a foot down from where I was aiming. The stag stayed on our side and just went several feet down the hill and stopped so I took another shot but didn't seem to hit anything. The stag started to go down the hill kind of fast but stopped again just before going over an edge in the middle of our side of the valley. Another shot but know hit. The stag went out of sight. We got up and started down the hill below us to get past the bushes that were cutting off our view. That took some time but when I got past the brush I was looking over to the side the stag had been on and couldn't see anything. I heard Peter say there he is, so I said where and he said going up the other side. We sat down and I got the sticks again.

On the way down the hill Peter saw I had the gloves that I use during archer season on and said I should take them off they might be messing up my shooting.
The Stag stopped about 50 feet up the other side. I had Peter crank up the power on my scope as I had the stag in it. He said put the cross hairs on it back and that is where I was so I sent another shot go. The gloves might have been the problem since I nailed him and he tumbled about half the way down the hill into some of the larger bushes.

I could tell that his head was still moving around so thought I must have spined him.
We moved down the hill to a closer distance and then Peter went the rest of the way as I stayed there in case the stag got back up.
When he got to the stag he called to me to come down. We could tell the only part of the stag that was still moving was the head. His lower half was dead. I put in a lung shot and we let him die.
We pulled him out of the bush he ended up in and I saw how great a Red Stag that I had just got for a trophy was.
We pulled him down through the bushes he was stuck in and took pictures.
Here is one of the pictures of me and the Red Stag.
IMG_7055.JPG

More later.
Tom
 
Magnificent stag, wow!
 
Thats a nice one! Congrats
 
Wow! Beautiful! Congrats
 
Well done. I can't wait to take a trip just like this. I'm glad the rain didn't.....rain on your parade. I mean, it's just water. It's not even that wet!
 
I really enjoyed my hunt with Peter a few yrs ago. Our first day was rained out. The rain makes those hills very slick! Congrats on a beautiful red stag. Very nice bull. Thanks for sharing. Bruce
 
Wow!
 
Congrats Tom, a great stag !
 
Congrats on a bruiser of a stag.

R.
 
Congrats on a bruiser of a stag.

R.

New Zealand has incredible deer
That is a fantastic stag
Congratulations
Must get there across the ditch to NZ from Oz
one day
 
IMG_7162.JPG


Another look at the Red Stag and some numbers. He is an 11 x 13 and a pre dry total for him is 454 7/8, the bases are 11 and 11 1/8
IMG_7160.JPG

This is the hill he and Peter and I came down from. He was on the left side before it dropped off. We were about in the middle the picture below shows the trail better. After we got him field caped and the body gutted out, tenderloins in a bag to go with us Peter went back up the way we came down and I headed up the opposite side with the head.
IMG_7161.JPG

This picture is from the saddle on that side. There was a trail that Peter could drive to and pick me up.
This picture will let you see the path we saw him from on the top of the other side.

IMG_7058.JPG

This was something I wanted to do but slipping a couple times and having to get back up my 64 year old body was feeling it the next day.
More later when I get Peter's pictures into my phone. Might be a couple days till I get to my computer.
IMG_7049.JPG
IMG_7054.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Congratulations on a magnificent Stag.. Peter always gets it done ;)
 
Congrats on your impressive stag!

We're headed to NZ in June- can't wait!
 
Peter always gets it done ;)

I agree with that he is always on top of what we did next. He is also a good cook got to taste the Stag and Tahr. I don't always eat three squares a day at home.
Tom
 
Well I guess an African Hunting web sight must not be the place to tell a New Zealand hunting story.
Here is Day threes end. After the great morning with the Red Stag going down at between 230 and 250. We headed back to the cabin.
IMG_7072.JPG

We soaked the blood out of my cloth,(caring the head and antlers out of the canyon) and Peter's cloth (processing the carcas). Started a fire and worked on drying them out so we could head out and look for a Arapawa Ram the other animal on my list if we got the Red Stag early.
After drying cloth all day Peter's friend Ross came over to help us look for a Ram. We had Hors d'oeuvres made from the tenderloins from the Red Stag.
About 4:00 PM we headed out in full rain looking for an Arapawa Ram.
Scoping some hills we saw several ewe's walking along the side of a hill a couple hundred feet above us.
We walked along the edge of a pine tree section looking for them again. When we found them they had a good Ram mixed in with them looking for romance.
At a little more than two hundred yards the Ram was checking out the ewes for one in heat.
I laid in the grass and got the Ram in the cross hairs. Not sure why but put one over the top of him and he wasn't concerned tried again and put it through the heart. It was raining hard so pictures had rain drops on the lense but just showed how hard we worked.
IMG_7190.JPG


Took pictures and headed back to the cabin to toast one for such a great day!
IMG_7191.JPG


I would recommend Peter Chamberlain to anyone that want to get some real quality animals in New Zealand. He has been doing this since the 80's.

 
Glad you did not stick yourself on one of those tines when you were sliding down the hills.
Good effort.

I hate hunting in the rain. Good on you.
What an incredible countryside to hunt.

Thanks for the write up and congrats on your success.
 
Way to tough it out through the rain! Your stag was a monster- I'm hoping to find one in the 350-400 range while I'm over there.

I like the ram. My mom wants me to shoot her a black ram like that- I'm trying to convince her that she should do it herself!

Thanks for the report- I for one enjoy hearing reports from around the world, not just Africa. AH is my first stop for anything hunting related.
 
Glad you had a good time down here in NZ, you certainly got the worst of the weather that we have had for a while.
Nice trophies.
 

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