Chasing Red Stag in New Zealand Is a Deer Hunter’s Dream.
STARTING TO HUFF AND SWEAT, I was ready for my first break of the climb when we saw a tremendous stag effortlessly gliding up the ridge high above us. We only had a brief look, but it was enough. My hunting partner Brett Flaugher, guide Marcus Eccles, and I quickly bailed around the edge of the ridge and rushed for the valley on the other side to try and cut the stag off.
When we got there, the stag wasn’t in any of the open areas of ferns and tussocks, so keeping the wind in our favor, we poked into the gullies and ravines lining the drainage, glassing into the many fingers of timber and head-high brush. After about an hour of slow and methodical hunting, we decided to climb back over the ridge, thinking that perhaps the stag had never climbed over the top. But first, we paused to glass one more time.
“There he is,” Eccles said. We all sank to the ground and zeroed in on the stag, 300 yards across the valley, walking through a thick tangle of brush, his massive spread of antlers busting through the vegetation.
We had stopped on a rocky point with good cover and a superb view of the valley. I rested my rifle solidly on my pack and lay prone, and found the stag in my scope just as he bedded down and disappeared. Only the dark tines of his massive crown were visible over the brush.
There was nothing to do but look at one another and shrug. Trying to get the stag to stand would probably send him crashing away with no chance for a shot. And when a big-game animal beds, it can be up again in a few minutes—or hours. We knew we were probably in for a long wait, but what we didn’t know was that this hunt would end in a way none of us expected.
Deer Paradise
Denne historien er fra December 2016-utgaven av Field & Stream.
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Denne historien er fra December 2016-utgaven av Field & Stream.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
LIVING THE DREAM
After the author arrives in Maine’s fabled North Woods with a moose tag in his pocket, an adventure he’s been wanting to take his entire hunting life, reality sets in, and he learns a valuable lesson: Be careful what you wish for
Get the Drift
How to make an accurate windage call under pressure
First Sit
An icebreaker outing in a pristine spot produces the rut hunt of a lifetime
A Local Haunt
The author finds a sense of place in an overlooked creek, close to home
A Hop and a Pump
Jump-shooting rabbits with classic upland guns is about as good a time as you can have in the outdoors
Welcome TO camp
Is there any place better than a good hunting camp? It has everything: great food, games and pranks, and of course, hunting. Shoot, we don’t even mind going to camp for grueling work days in the summer. Here, our contributors share their favorite stories, traditions, and lessons learned from camps they’ve shared. So come on in and join us. The door’s open.
THE DEERSLAYERS
Before you even claim a bunk, you need to eyeball the hardware your buddies have brought. In the process, you’ll see that the guns at deer camp are changing. What was walnut and blued steel may now be Kevlar and carbon fiber. The 10 rifles featured here aren’t your father’s deer guns. They’re today’s new camp classics
THE JOURNEY TO PIKE'S PEAK
Last summer, the author and three friends ventured off the grid to a remote fish camp in Canada. They hoped for great fishing, but what they experienced was truly something else
Stage Directions
When early-season whitetails vanish from open feeding areas, follow this woods-edge ambush plan
Rookie Season
A pup’s first year, from preseason training to fall’s big show
