Hunting Down Under and Over One in New Zealand

My husband and I just returned from a hunting safari in New Zealand with John Scurr Hunting Tours. We began our hunting adventure among the foothills of Mount Maude just outside of the beautiful city of Wanaka. It was there where we met our guide and professional hunter Duncan Stewart, who I came to realize is part mountain goat himself!

We spent our first day glassing for red deer stags as they came into full rut and began roaring to show their dominance. Chills went up my spine the first time I watched a nice stag throw his head forward and roar as if he were personally announcing his presence to me. It was at that point I really wanted to harvest one, not too big but with a nice symmetrical rack that would fit in my house and allow me to enjoy it the rest of my life.

We spent a couple of days looking for the one I felt was mine. On day two as we stalked alongside a small creek going up a mountain and around a bend, we saw a nice fallow deer browsing about 120 yards in front of us. He had not seen us, and with Scurr at my side I took a shot using a 300-win mag and 180 grain Norma bullet. I was successful and harvested the first of our trophies. I had never seen a fallow deer until this day and was in awe at how beautiful its antlers and coat were. Stewart retrieved my trophy for me, and I was super glad we were not on top of one of the many steep inclines that surrounded us.

The following day, we started our trek back up the mountain from the lowlands, but before we really got started, we spotted a small group of arapawa rams grazing in a clearing about halfway up the mountainside. We quickly altered our plan and went around a raised ravine, hoping to come up alongside them for a better look and much closer shot.

I had just recently learned of these feral sheep and my husband really wanted to harvest one. As we trekked about halfway around a ravine that we were using to hide our movements, we came upon two bedded red stags. I had seen one of them the day before and had mentioned to Scurr and Stewart that I would take it if I ever got a shot. Well, my wish came true. There he was about 150 yards in front of us, standing broadside looking back at me.

I quickly set the 300-win mag on a Primos shooting stick and made a good shot on him. He jumped and started up the hill before stopping, falling back and rolling down to where he was originally bedded. Stewart set him up for pictures before caping and quartering him and carrying him back to our side-by-side. Again, I was glad we weren’t on one of the many steep mountain sides where we had been seeing many other red stags roaring.

I was on cloud nine now, having harvested my first two trophies while my husband, Greg, was still looking for the one he wanted.

We took a day off from hunting to try our luck at fishing the Clutha River for brown and rainbow trout. All I can say is WOW. We caught several but no real monsters, even though we saw plenty of monsters following our lures back. We just couldn’t land one.

Two days later and after Greg had harvested the red stag he was looking for, we were back at Mount Maude looking for those arapawa rams that we had seen earlier. Again, as we entered the lowlands approaching the foothills of the mountain, we saw our rams there in the bottoms grazing. We stealthily stalked within 75 yards of the one I wanted to take when Stewart set up the shooting sticks for me. I carefully laid a 6.5 Creedmoor on it to take my shot.

This ram was facing me head-on and looking directly at me. It should’ve been an easy shot for me, but somehow, I missed. He and the other three rams in his group took off up the mountain. We wasted no time going after them. We took our side-by-side up the backside of the mountain in hopes of catching them in a clearing as they traversed to the top.

I couldn’t understand how I missed that shot. But later I reviewed the video my husband took and saw my shot go through the wool on the left side of the ram, not hitting his body at all. I had grossly miscalculated the true size of the sheep. All that wool made him look three times bigger than he was.

We got to the clearing where Stewart expected them to cross, and sure enough, there they were. I took another shot at him, at this point a little over 300 yards, with that 6.5 Creedmoor and this time I hit him. It seemed to be a good hit, and Stewart felt he was mortally wounded. However, he was still going up that mountain side.

Once we got to the top, we saw him again still standing, and I took one more shot from a little over 200 yards and hit him again. This time he went off into a thick cover that graced the top of the mountain. We gave him about 20 minutes to expire before Stewart started into the thick cover and down the steep slope where he thought he would be.

Sure enough, Stewart found him and saw that he had broken the tip off one of his horns during his last descent down the mountainside. Stewart backtracked up the steep slope from his fall about 15 meters or more and found the tip of his horn, which had broken off during his fall. Ducan carried him up that steep slope so we could get pictures and properly field dress him. This is why I say Stewart must be part mountain goat himself!

My adventure with John Scurr Hunting far exceeded my expectations. I assured them we would be back even though it’ll be a few years from now due to the other hunts that we have booked, but I am already looking forward to seeing them all again. Besides, I’m wanting to get back there to do a little duck hunting as well as some upland bird hunting that I did not realize was available to me. –  Tricia Jones