Featured in NZ Hunter Magazine

Falling asleep in the Kaimanawas to the sound of single calling Sika stags is what most of us Sika hunters dream about. This night in particular we could hear them going very well in the distance and plans were hatched, as we lay in our sleeping bags, to go after them morning.

It was the Sika rut 2023, mid April to be exact and Jed and I had made plans a while back to chase roaring Sika stags together .

It was the 3^rd night of our trip and as we lay in our bags listening to the chorus of Sika stags roaring their hearts out as we chatted about the great times we have spent chasing them in the roars gone by.  Jed and i have been hunting Sika together for 20 plus years and as Jed now lives 5 hours drive from me it was great to be on a hunt together for the next week. Unbeknown to us the next few days would be one for the memory bank.

When dawn broke the next morning and we were already 20min from camp. We had planned to check out some benches and rolling country toward where we had heard the stags roaring the night before and basically see what happens from there. The stags had gone quiet but the bush was fairly good under foot making for easy stalking.

Hunting through the mature beech forest for most of the morning we came across our fair share of sign with a few scrapes and plenty of prints around the general area we thought the stags were roaring the night previous but they had moved on. All all we caught glimpse of for the morning was a hind and yearling departing at a rate of knots. All was quiet with only the odd territory call breaking the silence in the distance to see out morning.

By early afternoon we were on a familiar ridge that was nice and open, manuka scattered in patches on the sides and with the slight breeze in our face we slowly picking our way down stopping every 50m to let out a mew or single call. We were trying our luck to see if we could get a stag to reply or make one ghost in for a look as they do. With no luck and the ridge being super dry under foot we decided to drop the boots off, tie them to our packs and stalk in socks the rest of the way. This way we find it gives us more of an advantage, anything you can do you gain a slight advantage is surely going to be a benefit. Hunting in socks is awesome for bush stalking and a very effective way to hunt in summer too.   

Towards the end of the ridge, we came up to a game camera that I had set a month back and as I took my day bag off to check the camera we heard a faint single call from what seemed to be about 300m away down the ridge. I looked at Jed and with hand signals, we agreed to move over toward a drop-off on the edge of the manuka and listen as this stag might have just started up being mid-afternoon.

We sat 1m apart so we could still communicate well and listened for the next 30 minutes in dead silence. With two and a half hours of daylight left we knew if he roared again, we would have a chance of sneaking in on him before dark.

Out to my left, I heard what sounded like a quiet mew from a stag but as I was not sure I looked at Jed, he was facing me by now and had heard the noise too but shrugged his shoulders as he was also not sure, maybe it was a bird?  One minute later we heard it again, it was one hundred percent a Sika stag mew and he was moving closer. We already had ourselves in good position, sitting leaning against trees to break our silhouette and the rifles at the ready, I let out a quiet mew facing away from the stag to make him think we were further away.

He replied instantly with a loud and long mew only 30-40 meters away, I looked at Jed and knew instantly he was pretty pumped to have a stag close by as I was, man he was making some noise, this is what we were here for right? Over the next 5 minutes I mewed at the stag and he answered immediately every time and he was slowly getting closer. I whispered to Jed that he must be following a hind and that’s why he was staying put and not racing in to check out the intruder. Not long after Jed saw a deer, he could see the hind feeding slowing through the manuka out in front of us and slightly to the left, and then he saw the stag! He looked through his scope but could only see parts of the antler and his arse at times so lowed his rifle again waiting for him to present a shot.

The wind was still in our face and with the drop off two meters behind us the only way he could come to us was across the front of us or so we thought. I kept mewing every few minutes and he answered back every time straight away and slowly they got closer, he was starting to show a bit of anger in his replies.

I gave one more mew facing away and he replied out to my hard left, he was 15m away on the edge of the bank and he was coming! I could see length and one big top as he pushed through the manuka and then paused to look around. He was mostly obscured by the thick manuka but I managed to get a bead on the base of his neck and fired a 150g corelokt at him. “You sacked him, mate,” Jed said as I dropped the empty casing out of my 308. We waited a minute or so just in case he got up but he was going nowhere. Walking over to where he was lying, we could tell he was a big animal.  Laying at our feet was one of the biggest bodied Sika stags I had ever seen, he had super long antlers with both antlers measuring over 30 inches long and a very cool mature stag indeed.

Below is a game camera pic of the stag 2 weeks before he was shot only 200m from the camera. (disregard the dates on the camera.)

We shook hands and proceeded to take a fair few photo’s before hanging him up for collection the next day as by now it was starting to get dark. With the light fading we headed the hour back to camp for some long-awaited hot food and the comfort of our sleeping bags.

The next day was rather uneventful with little roaring heard around us. We headed back to recover the meat from the stag we shot the previous evening and man was he fat, it was everywhere while boning him out. We took our time with a good load of venison back to camp also taking the head skin too he had a very nice thick and gingery cape.

That night the stags started up again on dark and they were in full force, we could hear they had moved a bit more north and further away, and again as we retired into our sleeping bags that night the sound of roaring sika stags rocked us to sleep.  Getting up for piss at 5am I could hear the stags still going so the billy was put on while we got out of the scratcher and gathered our gear for a daylight raid on the roaring stags. Leaving our fly camp as the first light broke, we could see the day was going to be overcast with light drizzle coming down as we cut the distance toward the stags, perfect stalking conditions.

The stags seemed to be moving away from us during the time it took to get in range. We could hear two prominent single calling stags and the odd lesser one making noise on the outskirts. We snuck in slowly once we caught up to them making every meter count like it was the last. We scanned the area in front of us for any other deer that would bust the intruders sneaking in.  The stags were going as good as you will ever get, single calling over top of each other and making a right time of it. We parked up on the edge of a open-ish area, we had one stag calling directly in front of us at 40m and the other slightly to the right at the same distance. I said to Jed we need to go right and close in on the right hand stag as the wind was coming from the left so we needed to use that to our advantage and try catch a glimpse of the right hand one. 

We moved in one calculated step at a time navigating around a few downed trees from the Cyclone and crossed a small gully. Upon exiting the other side Jed said “Don’t move I can see a stag coming”. I froze on the spot as I couldn’t see him,  5 seconds later a long young 6 pointer came face to face with us as we stood motionless. He looked at us and we hoped he wouldn’t squeal and let everyone know the raiding party was close by, Luckily he slipped away not making a sound. During that time the two main stags were still going for it, we crept onto a small spur and parked up behind a fallen tree.

One of the stags was infront just out of sight in a small depression single calling and mewing while he moved back and forth. I caught caught glimpse of the stag’s tops and said to Jed he is a good one mate. It was Jed’s shot so we set him up with a good view from behind the fallen tree but the stag was still playing hard to get due to the angle.  We mewed at him and he would single call back to us every time while as he marched around his little area. We could see no other animals and were not sure why he wouldn’t come out to give us a look ideally at his shoulder or neck.

I said to Jed I would move back 15-20 meters and mew facing away as if to make it sound like I had moved back and hopefully he would think I was leaving and come out of his hiding spot and take a step into view for Jed.

I snuck back to where I was still in view of Jed up the hill in front of me and let a mew out. He answered but sounded like he was still in the same spot. I waited a few minutes then gave another mew and bugger me if he didn’t step out from behind a tree 15 meters from me, I looked at Jed and he was still looking to where the stag had been a few minutes ago so knowing he couldn’t see the stag and the stag was staring straight at me I lifted my 308 and fired into the stag’s shoulder dropping him on the spot.

Feeling bad that I had shot Jed’s stag I explained what had happened and he understood and said that he definitely couldn’t see him and we both agreed he would have taken off if I had not shot him. Walking up to him I could see he had big tops, 8 nice points and he was a very nice Sika stag. It had been an exhilarating hunt with some of the best Sika roaring I had encountered in my 25 years chasing the little buggers.  This stag was smaller than the first one body-wise but in great condition overall and full of the classic sika spots on his coat. Another photo session was undertaken, we then we took the head off and hung him for collection a couple of days later.

Getting back to camp we cracked a couple of beers we had been saving and enjoyed the evening with a small fire roaring to cook our dinner on.  The next few days were fairly windy while we searched the beech forest and manuka edges in search of a stag for Jed. We managed to get in close to 2 more roaring stags but they went quiet on us as they do so we came up short on sealing the deal. All in all our 2023 Sika Rut was a warm and windy one with the stags roar well for us on the limited days we had to attack them. We came me away with 2 mature stags and felt very lucky to have found some good roaring action. Bring on 2024, Surely it's Jed’s turn?