June 2017 New Zealand Hunt

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June 2017 New Zealand Hunt

June 2017 New Zealand Hunt
By Dr. Bob Peterson

Hunting red stag in New Zealand has always been on my bucket list. Recently I was looking at my emails and saw an auction hunt on the GSCO (Grand Slam Club Ovis) website. It was for a free-range Tahr hunt offered by Carla Lucas and New Zealand Trophy Hunting. I was fortunate to win the bid and my dream of hunting in New Zealand was starting to be realized.

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Im glad you enjoyed your time in NZ and I dont wish to take anything away from your experience but there is a couple of things I think people should know. Firstly the red stag you shot is not a wild stag. While you may not have seen any fences it is still a bred for purpose trophy animal on a private block of land kept for those with a large cheque book. Secondly flying around in a chopper to locate a chamois or tahr then stepping out to shoot it will not garner any respect at all from the NZ hunting fraternity. The ony people that could describe that as "hunting " will be the outfit taking your money.
There is a special opportunity in NZ to hunt tahr and chamois all year round on public land available to all but it takes high levels of fitness , skill and perseverance to get a decent trophy and that isn't what gives the trophy value?
I have no problem with anyone taking advantage of the easy option on paid trips on private land, sometimes with time constraints etc its a reasonable option but lets call it what it is.
 
I agree entirely with what yawn has said.
Good on Dr Bob for having a very enjoyable and successful trip to NZ but you cannot describe what he did as "free range" hunting.
Any Kiwi hunter will tell you that to obtain a trophy bull Tahr in the wild will take a huge amount of physical effort and the only roll a helicopter will ever play is getting you into the hills, and for those who can't afford that, it's walking.
Red stags of the size/quality shot by Dr Bob simply do not exist in the true wild state in New Zealand. Those sort of animals are bred and released on private property for the sole purpose of paid trophy hunting.
Like yawn, I do not wish to distract from Dr Bob's experience but people need to know that they cannot simply come to NZ and shoot trophy"s like that on public land. We do have an extraordinary wealth of hunting opportunity here where as we can hunt for numerous species 365 days a year for no cost but that requires great physical effort and no guaranteed result.
 
As as has been said above I think ol Dr Bob has been a bit fooled on this hunt. Unfortunately this happens alot with foreign hunters in NZ. No fault of his, only the misleading info provided by the guides/outfitters. There is no way that stag is a 'free range' animal. try and enter it in the record book and you will soon find out either it was in a fence you did not see(or choose to see) or that it was simply released before the hunter arrived to be shot. It is even more sad to see Dr Bob pushed into a 'heli hunt' or AATH. as he said this was not the hunt he expected nor should have gone on. AATH allows unrestricted access to out national parks where others cannot fly into for a foot hunt. It is also very unethical and common practice to 'herd' animals toward the hunter. This is in no way what mountain hunting in NZ or any country is about. It is true that foot hunts on public land are very challenging BUT we do REAL free range FOOT hunts for both Tahr and Chamois that nearly anyone can achieve. I have taken multiple hunters in their 70s and taken good quality animals on foot in real free range environments. Sad to see this false portrayal of the image of hunting in NZ, no offence to Dr Bob, its only the guides and outfitters that are responsible.
 
As stated above , I'm a Kiwi hunter and Dr Bobs experience is not free range. I'm glad he had a good time and took some nice animals but they are on private land and hunted by helicopter. Real free range NZ hunting requires leg work and a lot of fitness not to mention coming home empty handed sometimes. The guides might be over selling the experience calling it free range but good on Dr Bob for making the effort to come over and see a little bit of our countries unique hunting opportunities
 
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