Semi-Live New Zealand

[JRL]

Beautiful animals. That blood picture is wild. I'm red/green colorblind, and it even jumps out at me!

[Chad C]

What a trip! Congrats on some fine critters!


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[Raypo]

I leave in about an hour. My bags are packed and I’m just awaiting that time. A little bitter sweet. I was hunting a sika all the way till this morning. He just wouldn’t come into bow range. Either way- awesome trip. Alpine is very impressive!
!

[Raypo]

Monday (Day 4) - Elk day! In the last couple of days we have glassed up an elk that fits the bill. So, in the morning we head out in hopes of getting with bow range of the beast. Luckily we found him very quickly and started to devise a plan of attack. The elk was nestled on the side of the mountain buried in some very thick brush. Perfect- for an over the top stalk. It took us a good 30 minutes of hiking to get within an area in which we last saw him. We felt is getting were within 50-60 yards but given the thick brush, we decided to lay low and wait the beast out. After a few hours we the elk peeled out of the bottom about 200 yards directly below us. This resulted in a couple of hours of cat and mouse. Rather than completely spooning him out of the area we decided to pull out and give it another go in the afternoon.

The afternoon hunt didn’t really differ that much than the morning. After a couple of hours we glassed up the bull, devised a plan, and made a stalk. Nearly identical to the morning hunt, the bull was next seen in a mud hole down in a bottom. As we were nestled halfway up the mountain we used the higher ground in attempt to cut off the bull, as it was obvious were he was going. After hauling at a near jog we entered into an opening only seeing the backend of a bull going over the ridge a half mile or so from where we expected him to be. Luckily after a little more glassing we noticed it wasn’t the same bull. This meant the only other place the bull could be was in a small 1/2 acre of thickets directly below us (20 yards or so). The patch of thickets was crazy thick and nearly straight down a 20-30 foot ridge below us. As were above the thickets, in the wide open, we just waited to hear the bull move. It wasn’t long and we saw him working his way out of the thickets. Nearly shooting straight down and a shoot-to distance of 16 yards, I let an arrow fly. The arrow obviously hit the mark with blood instantly spilling from the elks mouth. After about 20 feet he piled up and the beast was down.

[Raypo]

Tuesday (Day 5)- Today was mostly glassing with the hopes of seeing a nice sika and was very interested in an older sika. My goodness it was windy, with gust over 40mph. Not much luck on this day. We did however spot our targeted sika.

Wednesday (Day 6) - A lot of the same from the prior day with most of the day being windy. We did attempt a few spot and stalks on a couple different sika but too many eyes.

Thursday (Day 7) - We made the decision to draw blood today with whatever comes within bow range or looks appealing. We started the day off in attempting to get within bow range with the same old sika buck- no luck. Smart little deer! After we blew this stalk we ran across a nice stag that was midway up a mountain just sunning on a rock face. Over the next couple of minutes we designed our strategy to get within bow range. This mountain was mostly grass, very steep, and with the occasional rock ledge. The grass was tall enough that we could low crawl right through it, pretty much unnoticed. This stalk was most certainly exciting as the stag was just directly above us and the mountain was so steep that would often slide 10-15 feet down before I could stop myself. Once we finally reached the rock ledge we climbed the 20 foot cliff side and poked over the top to notice the stag was 27 yards. Once I finally was able to figure out my strategy I poked over the top and the stag stood facing me. At 27 yards I buried an arrow right in his chest. Blood instantly started to poor and he ran about 30-40 yards before losing his balance and rolling all the way down the mountain, finally stopping into the creek (see picture). Very cool hunt and awesome day.

[Raypo]

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[Raypo]

Just some scores:
Stag #1: 471
Elk: 378
Stag #2: 370

[PYBUCK]

1219 inches of antler is super impressive. Congrats

[rladner]

Nice. Have a safe trip home Ray and thanks for taking us along

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[TildenHunter]

Congratulations. 3 gorgeous trophies.


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[bps3040]

Congrats! Awesome


A wise man’s heart inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left.
Ecclesiastes 10:2

[junkmanhunter]

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Congrats

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[MarkV]

Love the stags but the mass on that elk is unreal. Congrats on an epic trip

[Raypo]

A 4 hour and drive and it’s all over. That flight sucks!

[A Click]

That is one hell of a trip!! On my bucket list!