Roaring Red Stags – Josh Lloyd

Kids look forward to christmas and I look forward to the roar. All year long.

Due to work commitments I could only do weekend trips this year so Kane, Eden and I (DVD film crew) made plans when we could to get away and film some red roaring action. The first two trips proved frutiless with some close encounters and a couple of missed opportunities but no really good footage and no stags on the deck. We knew we really only had one more weekend when the stags would be roaring well so it was all on for Easter.

Day 1 I spent the night by myself in the Ruahines getting hailed and rained on. I managed to see a couple stags fighting but they had small heads, looked very heavy and I was a long way from the car so they were safe from me.

That new hunters element blaze really sticks out even in super low light conditions:

Day 2 I dragged myself out of the Ruahines and off to see Kane and Eden. It was great to see them and have a good feed of hot food. Even better young Eden had managed to score a very nice 13point stag that morning so we were officially on the board for the roar of 2013.

Day 3 dawned windy – not ideal for roar hunting.

I warily made my way from camp down a scrubby bush edge toward one of my favourite spots (a spot i had heard a stag roaring last time I was here). Just past daylight I heard an unmistakable 4 shots ring out from nearby. POACHERS. I ran to the nearest highpoint to get a good look at what was going on and saw 3 hinds run across the clearing I was making my way towards. I set the rifle up really fast hoping a stag would follow them and sure enough he did. A quick roar from me spun him around giving me a good target to aim at even though he was quite a long way away. I set up the cameras, ranged him and dialled the scope in as he stood with his head high trying to pick out the intruder he had just heard. The shot felt good and he was down – you beauty.

It took an age to get down to where he was and I was pretty happy to find a pretty little 12 pointer on the ground.

2 nice stags in one weekend and all on film – we were stoked.

The following weekend I was back in the Ruahines with the wife – doing it tough:

This time no stag was to be safe as we wanted some close-up gopro footage of a stag being shot for the DVD. He wasn’t a monster by any means but it was a cool hunt:

The cocky who’s land I crossed to get into the park reckoned there were a few pigs around but I’d be buggered if I could find one:

That’s the red roar done for us so focus now turns to sika and then fallow.

Cheers