had put the deer off feeding in the open. Alternatively, some fresh tyre tracks in the sand indicated that the block might have been spotlighted during the night. It was too cold to sit still so the three of us made our way slowly south, staying parallel with the coast and thoroughly glassing each area before moving through it. After two hours we still hadn’ t seen a single animal.
We walked slowly along a sand track with Peter in the lead, when suddenly in front of us a doe bounded out from under a toitoi bush, across the track and came to a stop side-on 25 metres away. Peter had a permit to shoot a doe and you wouldn’ t get an easier shot, so this was his big moment. Unfortunately, as he worked the bolt the cartridge wouldn’ t feed properly. He pulled the bolt back again, ejecting the round, and proceeded to pick it up and manually feed it into the action. Meanwhile the deer stood patiently looking at us, waiting to be shot, but it eventually got bored and trotted off. There’ s a lesson here for inexperienced hunters: you should know your rifle, know how the action works, practise dry-firing it – and, most of all, get lots of practice at the rifle range.
A doe in the toi tois on the edge of a sand track in the forest.( photo: Brian Witton).
“ You owe it to yourself and to the deer to make sure you know your rifle.”
Over many years doing patrols at Woodhill I have seen a lot of hunters – some good, and some not-so-good. A common theme is“ I missed a deer because my rifle wasn’ t sighted in” or“ I borrowed the rifle off a mate...” You owe it to yourself and to the deer( you don’ t want to wound them) to make sure you know your rifle and that it’ s shooting straight. Plus, of course, it costs time and money to hunt. The least you can do is go to the range and practise before hand.
Our party felt a sense of frustration all round but then continued our way slowly towards the southern end of the block.
In a westerly at Woodhill it can be a bit tricky getting the wind right when hunting below the sand dunes or beside a block of tall pines. The wind blows at right angles to the dunes and often you get a backdraft from the east as the wind forms a little rotor in the lee of the dunes. Sometimes in light winds the breeze is channelled down the firebreaks or access roads between blocks of mature pines. So even though you think you are hunting into the wind, it can be coming from a completely different direction.
Lunchtime found us on a small dune overlooking a large area of 3-year-old pines at the southern
We found these cast antlers almost side by side in the block
end of our block. The wind was still bitterly cold and Dylan and I huddled down and had a sleep in a small depression among the trees. For me there are generally only two times to hunt: early morning and late afternoon; but of course there will always be exceptions to the rule. The other big rule is always to hunt into the wind. So after a sleep and a bite to eat we discussed our plan for the afternoon hunt. There were two options: stay where we were and watch the area of young pines in case a deer started to feed out in the open, or walk back the 5 – 6 km to the north end of the block and hunt south into the wind again.
10 NZ Hunting & Wildlife 196- Autumn 2017