Howdy team. My first story in a longggg time here.
My roar this year was to be my first one giving it a real good crack in a few years with the last few roars taken up changing nappies and managing to only get out for a few short hunts.
This year I started early with lots of recon in my old haunts as well as some new ones. Google earth, pre-deployed game cameras, lots of leg work and plenty of talking with mates resulted in what you could only very loosely be called a 'plan' being locked in.
I got lucky in late January on a scouting trip in Te Urewera with a nice 12pt stag which to me is a real trophy for the area and the hunt that went with it.
My roar plan was to utilise weekends and add on an extra day or two to most. This meant I could cover lots of different spots, still get 4 or 5 weeks of good hunting trips across March/April and still keep on the good side of the boss at work and at home.
While targeting a mix of public and prviate land, there was one block in particular i had really high hopes for. It's a forestry block in Southern Hawke's Bay that i'm lucky to have access to. We've hunted goats in it for years and known there is the odd red and fallow deer around but only in very low numbers. I did however know there were exceptional bloodlines and the potential for something special was there. I set cameras and covered the ground and was very excited to see one monster stag on one of my cameras in velvet.
I hunted this block 15-20 times over a 6 month period leading into the roar to learn the area and would have only seen 2-3 deer in that entire time. But, i knew they were there.
My German friend helping me in the rain.
Again pre -roar (Feb), Art Deco weekend in the Bay saw me driving south in torrential rain. I got to the block with 2 hours light left and planned to stalk in the rain, check a camera and then stay the night in my truck for a hunt the next morning on an improving forecast.
On full sneaky mode I moved slowly down a ridge I had walked many times before and at the edge of site i saw the familiar colour of a deer through the rain. Raising my pocket binos to glass through the pines and gorse i saw antlers before he quickly stepped behind a tree and was gone. My heart was racing - i didnt see how big he was but this was the first stag i had seen in this block and i knew there had to be a good chance he was big.
Over the next 45 minutes i snuck as quietly as i could the 80metres or so to where i last saw him. Another 20 minutes and 50metres past that i finally caught another glimpse of him lying down and facing away from me in the rain amongst a small patch of very open eucalyptus. This was the most open part of the whole block and to see him in it in such persistent rain had me thinking i was seeing things.
Keeping my nerves was hard as i snuck another 10metres closer in order to get full visibility of him and a shooting option. Squeezing the trigger on the 7mm08 at the base of his huge neck he rolled onto his side and didnt move any further.
To say i was happy was an understatement. This was the culmnation of dozens of fruitless trips and energy put into this block and on a day when i honestly though i had no chance due to the rain.
It was late roar by the time i made it back to the block. I hadn't shot anything else over my several trips between my big February stag and now but had seen lots of roaring stags with a highlight being securing a 12 point stag for my Dad back in Te Urewera after a long hunt and passing up a few lesser animals.
Now late roar i didn't think my chances would be great but couldn't resist heading back to the block.
Rather than me explaing the story i'll paste below the email i sent a few mates the day after the trip that explains it all and still captures the excitement from me at the time:
Went for a quick hunt with just me and the dog last Saturday morning and f**k me sideways if there wasn’t a stag roaring his head off as soon as the sun came up. Did the big sneaky thing down to his part of the world to see if me or my hairy german lady friend (the dog) couldn’t f**k the whole thing up. Got in real close to the point I could feel the trees shake every time he roared. Me and pooch were doing our best impression of two retards trying to climb over top of each other on a hill covered in slippery shit, making heaps of noise and eventually spooked the stag but using all the power of my brain thought to give another roar and no-shit he came charging straight back in again. Boom goes the big gun, off goes the hairy mutt and there stands me watching the big stag stumble then cartwheel down the hill beside me with my dirty kraut dog hanging off its arse hole.
Got up to the stag and couldn’t believe it. My second monster stag from this block in 2 trips.
Enough to put a hard-on on a jelly fish!!
Cut me own hair quickly, chucked on some make up and took photos for the rest of the morning (sorry no nudes).
And yes both stags are being mounted and will sit very proudly on my wall.
Was a bloody good roar and pre-roar this year. Following the roar some normality has returned however and it appears the luck has well and truly run out. I've returned to the block several times and gone back to seeing nothing. And last week i missed a really big Jap stag from 60m (twice). But hey, that's hunting.
Hot barrels and bring on the roar of 2018.
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Got lucky (Read 2455 times)