El Nino is back! That’s what I said last issue, but it hasn’t eventuated just yet, with more wet weather affecting the East Coast and we’ve gone from dust back to mud again. Oh well, there’s been the odd fine weather window here and there in most places for those of you who have been able to get in the hills.

The Sika Show was a resounding success – apart from the rugby Sunday morning - and there was a lot of great information and displays. Well done to Mike and John and everyone who contributed to making it a great event. And despite the election being over it was great to see National and Act still fronted at the Show. Now while we wait to see the exact makeup of the coalition (at the time of going to print), I feel pretty confident we are going to be able to make some good gains for conservation and hunting over the next few years. Money is going to be tight and we need to empower and support sensible community initiatives like those examples from the Fiordland Wapiti, Sika and Tahr Foundations to help our indigenous species while also providing quality hunting opportunities. Hopefully now the election is over unrealistic ideological groups will take the opportunity to try and work with the game animal sector instead of attacking it at every opportunity, and refusing to accept the extremely good work already being done out there. Hunters and conservationists need to learn to work together better.

To achieve this end hunters MUST step up to the plate with sensible game animal management. There are way too many deer out there in some places, and hunters must do their bit to get those numbers down where they can. And this means targeting the females – the breeding unit. The GAC is doing so much to educate and promote proper game animal management, but I am continually appalled by the bad examples being set by those in the various forms of hunting media. The TV and YouTube shows who continually target the males while filming and leaving large numbers of females need to start acting responsibly. Over and over we see the same people shooting endless 3 to 5 year old stags/bucks/bulls etc, the very animals that must be left to mature, and making no effort to take any hinds/does/nannies.  We’ve even seen shooting a spiker calling it animal management when there were plenty of hinds and does also filmed that could have been shot. Shooting a spiker instead of taking a hind is the very worst example of animal management possible. He is years away from showing his potential, is not going to do any breeding in the near future and certainly will never give birth to more deer! There is never any excuse to take a spiker over a hind even for a meat animal. They are the lowest in the pecking order, and will almost always be in the worst condition of any animal in the herd, and a hind – even if pregnant right up until the day she drops her fawn – is almost always a better eating animal. If the hinds are skinny, the spiker will be skinnier, and there are obviously way too many deer. 

By all means target truly mature trophies while taking out some females, but if you already have a shed full, think again about whether you really need yet another set of antlers/horns similar to what you have already shot. We are going to have to manage our game animal numbers down to significantly lower levels for both their benefit and ours, and the habitat they live in. Skinny deer in a poor quality landscape are no good for anyone, and just provide ammunition for those who oppose the existence of game animals. Once we get animal numbers down into a sensible balance with their natural environment, this smaller herd is going to have a smaller harvestable surplus to share amongst us all, but at least that surplus will be top quality animals – whether for meat or trophies. So do your bit for the future of the herd and hunting (even if for some reason you say you don’t care about what the Greenies say) - and shoot some females! And those influencers out there, please do your bit by leading by example! As Cam Speedy so eloquently says – “Save a Bro, shoot the doe!”

Right, lecture over. Hopefully a few of you did better in the Wapiti and Roar ballots than we did. Still, there are plenty of opportunities out there if you are prepared to walk a bit in the free for all country. Missing out gives you the perfect excuse to go look somewhere new that might just turn up trumps!

In this issue:

• The Infamous La Perouse Part 2, a behind-the-scenes look at the NZ Hunter expedition into the Cook
• Roar Redemption – three great stags in two hunts by Jason van Beers
• So you want to be a professional hunter? Part three, Culling, by Jason Hart
• You’ll Know it When you See it – the quest for an 11 inch chamois by Ryan McNab
• Mike Spray’s series ‘Things a hunter must know’ – Part Five, Trip Preparation
• Packrafting the Poulter by Mitch Thorn
• Ashton Smith – Summer Chamois
• Turn The Corner – a mental health project by Cam Mckay and Glen Thurston
• Gerald Telford’s Tahr Foundation update
• A summary of the GAC’s new ‘Better Hunting’ web platform
• Next up in the Remote Huts series by Andrew Buglass is Prices Hut in the Whitcombe Valley
• More spectacular artwork by Francesco Formisano accompanies the latest species overview by Gwyn Thurlow and the NZDA – Wapiti
• Bighorn Sheep hunting in Alberta by Archie Landals
• ‘It’s Been a While” – goose hunting with Corey Carston
• So You Want to Smoke? Part 3 – by Richard Hingston

Test Fires: We evaluate...

• Garmin Alpha 300i and T20/TT25 Collars
• Fenix HT18 Spotlight
• Points South 6-person Tipi Tent and Stove
• Swarovski Pocket and Curio Binoculars
• Tatonka Modulus Pack
• Pard TD32 Multi Riflescope