We are running a special shooting event on the Sunday morning of Labour weekend for the Tauranga Social Climbers who are raising funds for the NZ Mental Health Foundation.

The event is open to the public and specifically catering for non-licenced shooters so is a good opportunity for anyone who wants to try shooting for the first time.

The event will run from 9am to 12pm on Sunday 23^rd October 2016.

Firearms, ammo and training will be provided.

Download the On Target Flier for more information or check out the Tauranga Social Climbers facebook page

 

Many years ago I had an excellent deer / bird dog by the name of Chip. He came from a very long line of champion Labrador retriever / hunters, traceable right back to his ancestors in England. I named him Chip because his pedigree gave him a string of names, none of which was short and sharp like the name Chip!

He was one of those dogs that only needed to be shown something once and was away, just one of those naturals. Before he was one year old, his first duck shooting season was spent retrieving many ducks where he had to leap off a 1.5 metre clay bank, retrieve a duck and swim downstream to a point about 30 metres away and carry the bird back to the maimai. That day he retrieved over 30 ducks for 3 shooters. Not only that, but we watched him dive for 2 ducks that he had difficulty catching on the surface of the water. He also had a very soft mouth as several of the ducks were still alive when he returned. I knew at this stage that I was onto a winner, but really discovered this years later when trying to train a replacement. Before this he had not even scented a duck but had some practice on sticks.

That same winter I started him on deer and discovered very quickly that I had better believe him when he indicated an animal. Normally he was very quiet but once he had scented a deer or pig, he snuffled and snorted louder than an old sow. After several attempts to quieten the noisy b….r, I realised that the deer and pigs would hang around for a look because they had never heard anything quite like this before (I think). In the end I shot and recovered more animals with Chip and his noisiness than I ever had done before or since. No wounded animals escaped while I had him. The longest tracking of a wounded animal with Chip was (measured) 1 ½ miles.

When Chip was in his hey-day, we were out hunting one day and I was caught short. Fortunately in the bush I hunted, there were plenty of Rangiora leaves available. If you use enough of them, your fingers won’t go through. Always an advantage when there is no water handy!

Not long after depositing a land mine, we managed to nail a hind. As usual Chip had his substantial tid-bit of meat while I was gutting the animal. At this stage I got a substantial whiff of the said land mine and thought “b….r I must have deposited some on my clothing”. Gutting completed, I then stripped off most of my clothing but could find nothing – it must have been my imagination.

We, that is, I, proceeded to drag the animal out to the road – about ½ an hour away. Upon reaching the road, I sat down and had a spell and again gave Chip another tid-bit. Holy crap, again I could smell the land mine. I stripped off all of my clothes this time and after an exhaustive search, could not find any trace of said land mine. Chip then sat down next to me for his usual scratch on the ear. Holy crap I could smell said land mine strongly and discovered it well smeared across his shoulder. He could only have rolled in it when I wasn’t looking!

“You dirty b…..d” was my response, “get the hell out of here”. It must be remembered that there was no water for miles, so apart from using leaves to rub him down, there was nothing more to be done. The smell of the land mine remained.

After putting the carcase on the trailer, Chip waited at the passenger door of the car, expecting to be let into his usual spot. “Oh no you don’t you dirty b…..d, you ride in the trailer today”. I tied him on so that he couldn’t get off and drove to Jim’s place, a mate who had a dairy farm on my way home.

Upon arrival at Jim’s place, he said “nice hind – what’s Chip on the trailer for?” he knew that I always carried him in the car.

So I proceeded to tell him about the land mine! He roared with laughter and spluttered something about the owner of the land mine was probably dead by now and had “met himself coming back!” Now I not only had a dirty b…..d but a cheeky b…..d!

Next step was to clean Chip up. I untied him from the trailer and ordered him to follow me to the cow shed, where I was going to give him a good hose down. Alas, he noted some ducks on Jim’s settlement cow s..t pond and proceeded to chase them. Eventually he returned and received the hosing down that he deserved. The cow s..t was no match for the land mine as it still permeated the air.

Back to being tied on the trailer and another smart comment from Jim as we headed home. Whereupon Chip was smothered in almost neat Dettol.

That fixed “the dirty b…..d!”

Lesson learnt: “Always bury your land mines or you could meet yourself coming back!”

Dave Bragg

I’m sure most of you will be aware of the pending 1080 drops in the Central North Island by OSPRI to reduce the risk of TB. This will no doubt have an effect on our hunting opportunities for the future in these areas and will do nothing to improve most hunter’s opinion of DOC. Perhaps it’s time for the farming community to take responsibility for the disease that is developed by their cattle and treat the problem at the source. Greg Duley’s editorial in the latest NZ Hunter makes good reading and states that OSPRI have no up to date information on TB vectors in the proposed areas to be poisoned and that is their justification for the 1080 drops. Go figure!!! The Game Animal Council have voiced their concerns in the same magazine and have been in discussion with the minister but I would be surprised if there was a change to the intended program.

The Hunting & Wildlife mag is out so please let me know if you have not got your copy and we will follow up with National office.

A small note in regard to range use especially on public days when Range Officers are in attendance. The Range Officers give up their Sunday to allow members and the public to shoot on our range and we should be very thankful that they do this freely. Please respect their authority as they are tasked with running the range in accordance with our range rules and standing orders.

For this month’s branch night we will have Tahr trip photos etc. Could the hunters that participated in last year’s trip please bring you photos or videos thanks.

Hope you have all had a successful roar and we will see at the branch night.

Clyde

A reminder of the conditions of entry

All members must be financial both at the time of taking the trophy or photo and at the time of entry to the competition. Financial means that subscription monies are in the hands of the Treasurer and have been receipted.

All A.H.T. trophies must have been taken under fair chase rules and not have been paid for. They need to be presented in a clean and non-smelly condition. Skulls must be whole and can only have the brain cavity opened below the atlanto-occipital joint where the skull joins the spine. The lamdoidal ridge at the back of the skull must be intact. On Sika, Red and Wapiti heads the nasal bone must be complete and intact for measuring skull.

Entries in both the A.H.T. and Photographic competitions are limited to 3 per category excepting the sequence section which is from 3 to 10 photos to tell a story.

Photo Categories:

A	Game Animals	Live and not in captivity
B1	Birds	Live and not in captivity
B1	Birds	Live and not in captivity
B2	Mammals	Live and not in captivity
B3	Insects, reptiles and amphibians	Live and not in captivity
C	Scenic	Can have minor human activity
D	Flora	In natural setting
E	Human interests	Must show evidence of human activity Can be fireplaces, trophies, etc.
F	Sequence	3 to 10 photos telling a story
G	Trail cameras	Photos from set cameras

Videos and DVDs:

A	Hunting
B	Wildlife
C	Training

Photo sizes can be either 6×4 or 7×5.

A tip: 7×5 presents better particularly in the National Competitions.

All trophies in both A.H.T. and photographic are to be taken in New Zealand only and not from any moving conveyance i.e. car, boat, aeroplane or helicopter.The BOP NZDA competitions run from measuring night to measuring night, usually the third Tuesday in May. The National competition goes from 1st June to 31st May leaving a couple of weeks gap. If you shoot a worthy trophy in this period it can only qualify for this years competition. Get in touch with us quickly.

The date has been set for this years Tahr Hunt – leave Tauranga Sat 29th October and return on Sunday 6th November. At this stage I would think the costs would be similar to last year. (Approx total cost $650 to $750 per person). I will be calling a meeting sometime in August to finalise areas and numbers but will advise dates in July newsletter. Be in early to advise your preference of blocks/area and who is part of your team. Alternatively I can arrange areas and parties if you prefer. It is best to advise by email if possible or give me call.

Stan Lowe
lowe2147@gmail.com
Phone 07 868 4515

Just a reminder that the Hunts Course is coming up and running through August with 6 nightly sessions and 3 weekends. Ideal for beginners or anybody wishing to brush up on their skills. Dates and cost yet to be finalised.

For further information please contact:
Keith Theobald
0276 935 445
keiththeobald@xtra.co.nz

I am off down south for a couple of weeks hunting, so I check my emails before I go. There is one from NZDA letting me know the latest 1080 programme for the Kaimanawas area. It turns out that the Clements Rd area through to Jap Creek and the Kaipo are all in the drop zone. This is unbelievable, as these are all areas of easy access to the recreational hunters and with the roar coming up it makes no sense to me. I thought the new game animal council would maybe sort out some of this DOC nonsense. Well, I live in hope, but I’m not holding my breath on this one. So I scrub the emails, jump in the car and head down South for a look around, and a hunt with a well known North Canterbury NZDA member, Terry.

We get the food, permits and gear sorted and next morning head up past Lake Coleridge to the area we would hunt. We had to go through a private station, so collected the key on the way up and signed in our intentions, and finally got to the valley we were to hunt. Using the Polaris we got a long way up the valley and tramped the last half hour to the hut that was to be our base for the next 5 days. It was big country with extensive bush areas between the very steep rock and scree slopes. It was also very dry country for most of the year and you can take up to half a day just getting in or out of an area. Number one item for a hunter is a rifle that can shoot over a fair distance and number two is definitely a very good pair of binoculars as you use t hem a whole lot in this type of hunting. The first afternoon we climbed to a high tussock basin that Terry sometimes hunts. About an hour before dark we spied a lone hind nervously feeding out on a long strip of tussock. We watched her for a while until she suddenly ran for cover. That behaviour told me a lot about the shooting pressure in this area.

Day 2

Next morning we are away in the dark to cross the main valley to hunt an area of high tussock, benches and guts that run up well past the bushline. At daybreak we hear a chopper hunting up the top of the valley and over into the Cass Saddle area. He hunted for about 1 ½ hours all up. It took us about 2 hours to climb up to our lookout point. We glassed for most of the morning and the only animals we saw w ere a nice conditioned hind with a runner, so we left them alone. 2pm we headed back to camp for a feed and a rest. That evening we crossed the main river to some low bush terraces where Terry has 2 trail cameras set. We repositioned them to a wallow that he knew about, put some clean chips in and reset the gear. There were not a lot of deer photos on the chips we took out, so it was disappointing really. 1 ½ hours before dark the chopper was back in the area working, so any game around had not got much of a chance at all. As an aside, I was told by a chopper shooter that most of the game shot by them goes into pet food, deer included and it’s been this way for some time. I find this to be both stupid and disappointing. Once again, has the game council any value here?

Day 3

It is still dark as we head down the main valley for about an hour, then climb a very steep bush ridge on the true left of the valley. Because it was a sharp ridge, we could glass either side as we climbed. There was very little deer sign, but up on the mid terraces there was a fair bit of pig sign. About 2/3rds of the way up to the tussock tops we dropped into a sharp bush saddle to service a couple of trail cameras that Terry had located there. What a great place for trail cameras, green grass, moist, mossy fern areas and obviously a main access trail to the next side valley. Sadly, not much deer movement, a few shots of a hind with a runner and night shots of a nice looking 10 pt stag. We had a bite to eat after checking the cameras, then continued on up the ridge to the end of the bush and onto the tussock. We saw 4 young pigs come out of a gut and head back down to the bush. On closer inspection we found water in that gut, hence the reason for the pigs being up that high. We spent the d ay hunting and glassing a vast area of prime deer and chamois country, travelled over a tussock saddle and down to the main valley via a different ridge system. Ten hours on the hoof, great country but we did not see any deer or chamois at all. But I am just thankful that I can still so this stuff, and yes I am looking forward to a feed when I get back to the hut tonight.

Day 4

We went back up the valley for 45 minutes and climbed up into a bush terrace as it slowly got light enough to see into the bush, a nd worked our way to an open area that Terry knew about. As we got to the bush edge and sidled up to a small mossy bench, there about 150 metres away was a very nice 8 pt stag feeding. So I quickly set the rifle up, loaded and set the sights onto the shoul der of the stag. I had the sights on 9 power and it all looked good to me. Terry took a couple of photos and said “Go for it,” but he does not need the meat. Terry used the flash, so the stag is now looking at us. What a nice stag, good condition, good head with very long tynes, a very testing time for a hunter. But I told Sharon I would only pull the trigger if it was something special. So I opened the bolt, removed the bullet and watched the stag wander back into the bush. I just hope that it is a good trophy someday and not petfood for some moggy. We continued on up a small shingle gut and worked our way around a waterfall and into another open tussock area. That led us to a small saddle and into a tributary creek which we hunted. We set one last camera and headed up the main valley floor and back to camp with only the lone stag sighting for the day’s hunt.

Day 5

It’s the last day. We took the Polaris one hour down the main valley for a hunt. At daylight we glassed the likely areas and saw a couple of hinds in the scrub, but a long way off, so no photographs. So it was back to the hut and we packed our gear and cleaned up. It was back down the main valley to return the key to the station. On the way down the river we met 3 pig hunters and 6 dogs intending to camp up the valley for 3 days. ½ hour later we met up with a local guy with dogs intending to hunt the same area. I don’t like the pigs chances much with all those dogs in one area. When we retruned the key, the manager’s wife told us that the helicopter activity was now regular and that they had recently been poaching the station land when the mist was low in the valleys. As we drove out to the front country, it was with mixed feelings. Firstly, a great hunting trip with a good mate, and it is always good to look at new country. But I was saddened by the reduction of game animals in this area. They just can’t thrive with the kind of hunting pressure they are subject to at present.

Dave Sorenson
March 2016