SANTOFT

Arranged with a hunting buddy to pick me up at 12pm. Off into the bush at 7am and spent the next few hours looking for these elusive deer.

At about 10.30am I saw my first Sambar deer for the weekend, one ear and a nose. I could not get a clear shot. Saw nothing else. Was telling my hunting buddy about my bad luck. He thought he would have one last try.

While Wayne was away, I got out of my hunting clothes and had a cup of tea. Then put my rifle away in the back of the truck, ammo in bum bag, got in the cab and was eating an apple about 30mins after Wayne had gone.

A bloody great big hind appeared on the road not 40 feet away from the truck. It looked at me and winked. I leapt out, but by the time I got to the back of the truck it had crossed the road and gone. But it was good to see.

True story -

Arthur Rendell

TANGIMOANA

I had Tangimoana 3 for the weekend. Got on the block pretty early. The SDMF contact had recommended I concentrate on a long patch of young pines bordering on the Landcorp farms so I could "catch the deer as they entered/left the grass". Well the "grass" on the overgrazed Landcorp farm can't have even been one cm long, while the grass among the young pines was lush by comparison. Can't imagine why any deer would want to go onto the farm!

I put up a couple of animals nearly under my feet, by the time my heart restarted, I decided they were sheep. And so it proved to be that all I could find were sheep and had to conclude that the forest wasn't holding many Sambar on my weekend. I found better sign 3 weeks ago on my recce in this area. Some sign about, but many pines per Sambar deer to be sure. Sunday afternoon I came back but the constant howl of 2 stroke motorbikes severely reduced my pleasure in the environment. Saw a couple of cock pheasants.

For my Saturday afternoon hunt I went to my Bulls block were I'd got the big fellow back in '95. No sign of people this time fortunately and a pleasant place. Immediately got onto a stag wallow and thrashed bushes, so that got the enthusiasm up, but I couldn't find any animals, although the wind was pretty hard. Sign not too bad overall, but I've always found this a very hard block to find the critters on.

Next morning I was up early up Turakina Valley. My luck had really changed. I'd seen a great video two weeks earlier taken by a hunting guide. The video was up Wanganui way and a huge gorse valley which they sat and watched all day. The guide commented that the Sambar are not necessarily nocturnal if not under too much pressure, and could be seen at any time. They shot a good stag mid afternoon, after seeing about 20 animals, which he got on tape. Anyway the moral of the story, if you can't see them at the moment it doesn't mean there aren't a few around. My Turakina block is similar gorse, but smaller.

Not long after settling in with my 15X binos I spotted a Sambar fawn, which I watched for probably half an hour from about 400m. It seemed to be alone and moved a fair way. I can report that they sure like to eat flowering gorse, as well as the kind of grass the sheep can only dream about getting in to! I then went to check another gully and spotted a fallow hind, which I got a couple of photos of. Was a fawny colour. Then back to check out the main block.

Didn't take long to spot a Sambar spiker, so watched him for more than 1/2 an hour. Not making any attempt to hide himself as he fed on the clearings at 9am! He was already a solid animal and quite black. After he fed into the gorse, I waited. Then spotted a small Sambar fawn right out on the neighbouring farm block with the sheep. Mum had to be near and eventually found (parts of) her in the gorse. After about 20 minutes she suddenly fed right out into the middle of a big open grass area, together with another smaller hind. They were in the wide open for at least 25 minutes and gave me an awesome chance to watch the 3 of them go about their normal routine. They seem to get on fine with sheep, feeding within 4 metres of each other. I watched the Sambar fawn go up to twin lambs and stand with their noses only 30cm apart for about 20 seconds. A real pleasure for me. Since I didn't need the venison too badly (and who knew what else was about to pop up) I left them all. I left at about 11 .30am not having seen any more deer for about an hour.

So a good time, not often I get to study 6 wild deer in a morning, especially 5 Sambar. I think my expensive binoculars were worth every penny, you could see the animal's expressions even.

Anyway no big trophy this year, but I always knew it'd be tough to beat the Sambar trophies I've got. I admit to myself the fun is in the trying and the less you shoot, the more you see...

HARAKEKE BLOCK

Started the day early, good weather, light breeze. 3 cars, 2 bikes and a man with a dog went past. After a couple of hours of sneaking around the sand dunes I decided to head inland for something to eat. Sat down to lunch and forgot about hunting for a minute. A deer walked past and headed cautiously down the slope ( 30 yards away ). Dropped lunch, stood up and shot. The deer took off and alerted the two other unseen deer following. I mistakenly shot a 2nd deer thinking it was the wounded one. Both deer were reds ( hind and spiker ) in very good condition.

Many thanks to the Foundation and Dave Garner for his help on the day. I certainly learned a lot and appreciate the effort you guys go to for this hunting. Still no Sambar seen. Maybe next year. A memorable day all the same.

Mike Harper

"BAT FLATTERY" SANTOFT

Saturday, all ready to go at 6 o'clock. At about 7.30 had a shot at a 4 point stag and it was a clean miss. I was really disappointed. I thought I had blown my only chance of bagging a Sambar. On Sunday saw a hind or should I say she saw me first. Too quick to get a shot off.

Sunday afternoon packed up ready to leave before our last hunt. About 4.30 saw 6 point stag and hind. Managed to shoot the stag. The stag was no more than 50 metres from the road. Went back to get the Hilux and my mate had left the headlights on, one flat battery.

My mate cell-phoned the monitor to check our deer in and asked the monitor to bring a set of jumper leads to start the Hilux. After the monitor checked our deer we got out of the block about 10.30pm then back to Lower Hutt. Hunting into the wind plus zigzagging worked a treat. The debarking damage was bad. They seem to go for the pines that are pruned and about 6 inches in diameter. This hunting trip was a once in a life time.

G.Black