Big Game Hunting New Zealand Jul/Aug 2015 | Page 8

only ventured out a few steps. Several minutes
past before I realised that some of the branches
were moving on the bush edge. Hang on, that’s
not a branch, it’s the tips of some antlers! I
got the camera on the spot and caught just a
glimpse as the hind walked back into the cover
taking her boyfriend with her. A glimpse was all
we needed to get the blood pumping; this stag
had a lot of points!

We focused on the sound of the grasses
moving and suddenly a mob of little wild
pigs popped out. They kept coming towards
our dead tree until they were only a few meters
away, then caught our scent and bolted in a
mad dash back around the spur. We hoped the
scoffing spooked pigs wouldn’t upset the deer
and blow our stalk and it seemed like it was a
now or never situation for us.

The afternoon breeze was still rising and the
deer were out of view so we had a perfect
opportunity to quickly close the gap and
that’s exactly what we did. We could hear the
stag roaring regularly as we raced down the
open ground on the spur and took cover behind
a fallen tree to set up an ambush. Our plan was
that the deer would climb up through the beech
and pop out just below us, but after 10 minutes
of not even hearing the stag we started to think
that might not happen. Then some funny noises
from beside us in the long grass caught our
attention. Had the stag got around below us and
was he now walking right on top of us about to
catch our scent?

We broke away from the hide and followed
the pig path around the face. As we moved
around we started to hear the stag again.
Yes he was still there! It was amazing how
we couldn’t hear anything around the ridge
considering he was only 200 meters away. We
had no cover now, completely exposed so we
walked forward very slowly with eyes scanning
for any movement. The hind popped up 50
meters below, she was half pie on to us and
started stomping around look