# Sika deer hunt: Kaimanawa Forest Park NZ



## ross_scott (Jun 26, 2009)

Yesterday morning was a lovely crisp winter morning so myself and a couple of good freinds from another hunting forum decided to head out for the day in search of the elusive Sika deer. These little critters are very cunning and know how to play hide and seek very well. we went into hunt a well hidden valley with some extremely steep contour which lead into a creek head, in this area we sighted 2-3 deer but we were not able to get a clear shot at any of them. further down the spur we were hunting on our way down to the creek which was or targeted crossing point to hunt our way up another spur and back onto the main track we had one of these little Jappers squeal at us, so we stopped and glassed around with binoculars and one on the scope with rifle cocked and ready to go. we waited around for 5 minutes we could hear the deer moving around in order to avoid us and a bullet. After waiting we proceeded to head across the creek with a quick stop for a break and to load up our canteens with fresh mountain water and then proceeded up the next spur and back on to the main forest trail on our way up we encountered fresh deer deposits and antler gouges in the ground so we had one close by so we proceeded with caution only for the wind to change direction and the deer got our scent so he was off. By this time it was coming to the end of the day and we headed out of the forest and made our way home. Unfortunately we never got a shot off but was good to find a few deer even though they were not in a position where a clear shot could be taken by us.
I have posted up a video for you all to have a look at even though there is no deer footage as we did not have time to get the camera out without making any noise and we were in an area where you had to be on the ball as one wrong footing could have resulted in disaster please forgive my flipping off at the camera as I was not in the right mood to be filmed due to just completing climb up a rather steep and rugged piece of terrain but there is a funny commentary to go with it courtesy of one of my buddies


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