New Zealand mounts

Some of the New Zealand mounts. Last will be the Himalayan Tahr.

Red Stag

Fallow Deer

Paradise Ducks (Hen with white head). About the size of snow geese.

Very Cool, Great mounts and Congrats

Those mounts are awesome!

–Whitey

congrats on the trophies!

Great Mounts

Cool!

Very cool mounts and thanks for sharing!

Really like those stag antlers! Thanks for sharing!

ruger2506…. NICE MOUNTS I would need a bigger house… it won’t stop me from trying though Congrats again on some great animals

Those are Awsome. Maybe someday after the wedding I’ll be able to save for one.

Awesome mounts and congrats agian on your trophies and a trip of a lifetime!

those are awesome wade congrats

The Fallow deer come from NZ as well? Cool looking deer

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The Fallow deer come from NZ as well? Cool looking deer

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Yes, these mounts are from NZ. I”m still waiting on the Tahr shoulder mount. He’s from there as well.

Congrats on some great looking mounts with some great looking New Zealand animals! Thanks for sharing!

Very cool!

Ruger, do they ship them back to the US for the taxidermy work or do they do them over there and ship the finished product to you?

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Ruger, do they ship them back to the US for the taxidermy work or do they do them over there and ship the finished product to you?

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This is a response I posted on another forum.

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HookJaw Wrote:
great pics, I remember the story of the hunt, and those pics. very nice love the Red Stag, they turned out awesone, pretty cool birds and the fallow is awesome too! where they mounted here in the states? what was the procedure for shipping if so.

congrats an what was an awesome lifetime experience. What caliber did you use on the stag and fallow?

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They were crated and sent back to MN via a import broker out of Chicago. The broker did all of the coordination with the outfitter and taxidermy guy that prepped the capes in NZ, the gov’t (customs) regarding importing animal tissue, and my taxidermist. The three of us had all our animals crated together to save monies. I think it was about $400 a piece ($1200) to ship all the animals back. That included the $150 for the broker. Well worth it in my opinion. We had some friends who wanted to save the $150 and do it themselves. We got our stuff back in 1/4 the time and with 0 headaches. Our friends had a lot of headaches.

I used an 8MM Mag on the stag and a 7MM STW on the fallow. Much more gun than I need for both. However I have them and like shooting things with them. The 8MM Mag made short work of the Tahr as well.

The stag is awesome! Great looking animal.

Not to derail the thread, but every time I see WADE’s avatar, I crack up. LOL

Mike

very sweet mounts!

Jami

Very nice mounts……..Did you score the red stag, my guess is 320 to 350SCI.

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Very nice mounts……..Did you score the red stag, my guess is 320 to 350SCI.

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Thanks, the stag scored 323 SCI

I unofficially scored the fallow. If I remember correctly it was 163 and some change.

Thanks………I was gonna say 322

Nice animals, did you take them on a single trip, if so how long was your hunt….A few details would be great.

Sure, not a problem. I was looking on-line to where I’d told the story but I couldn’t find it.

We started the trip flying out of Duluth, MN around 9 AM. After a couple short lay overs and a lot of flying. We landed in Christchurch NZ 34 hours later. I can’t explain how happy I was to be done with that part of our journey.

Once in NZ, we spent a couple days touring the City of Christchurch and immediate areas. We needed to be up in the mountians at camp in 3 days. NZ is a beautiful country. I highly suggest visiting there. However I’ve talked with people who’ve spend a month there and they tell me that wasn’t enough time.

As you can imagine, the first days at camp were filled with anticipation. We spent a lot of time meeting the guides and camp staff. The head cook, Pete’ was a riot. WE got to know him quite well. NZ has it’s own culture that I found very interesting. So Pete’ took the time to educate me. He had some interest in northern United States as well, so we discussed that a fair bit.

The hunting was all spot and stalk, which I love, so first morning we set off to do some glassing. True to par, we stumbled across the biggest Fallow deer of the hunt first thing on the first morning. We let him walk and never saw him again. It was simply amazing looking over those mountains. Game everywhere.

That afternoon we found a Red Stag that my father simply had to have. So we spent the next 4 hours getting into position. He made a great stalk and got into 160 yards.

The next two days were spent glassing for stag and dealing with adverse weather. We had some party members get stranded by a blizzard and a broken axle up at 10,500 feet. While the storm was bad down by us at 7,500, it was basically life threatening up at 10,500. One of our guides had to go up and help get them off the mountain.

Once things settled down, we came across a stag that my buddy wanted. His stalk was a challenging on that we had to repeat 3 times as the wind would change and bust us. Eventually he made a decent shot and his bull was found hung up in a bush about 100 feet above the canyon floor. That was a real challenge getting him taken apart and off the mountain.

On our way out that evening, a Arapawa Ram that my buddy wanted jump up from under a bush and ran about 50 yards. Stopping to look back was his big mistake.

The next afternoon we found the stag I wanted. It was a simple stalk in the lower hills. We got into position and I made a nice 140 yard shot.

We were excited to harvest my stag, especially since the next morning we had a date with a Tahr on top of the mountain. That hunt was simply exhilarating and scary all at once. I’m to fat and out of shape for rock climbing. While I worked hard and lost 60 pounds for this hunt. Rock climbing and traversing shale fields 2000+ above the basin is not for the out of shape or faint of heart. However I’m proud to say I did it, I survived it, and my buddy and I harvested our Tahr up there. Now we had to go process them and get them off the mountain. That was more work then getting up there and getting them. Walking down hill with an animal on your back is HARD WORK.

The next day my buddy and I really wanted to harvest some Paradise Ducks. So we hit a mountain lake and set up a blind. The ducks were there, but didn’t cooperate. We managed 2 drake pass shooting. Paradise ducks pair up and go to the fields in pairs to eat green grass shouts.

I had to belly crawl through a moist (not wet) creek bed to get within 20 yards of a feeding pair. I jumped up and took them both on the wing. It was very exciting.

With all those species harvested. I still hadn’t found that big Fallow yet and we had 1 day left. So we searched and searched and searched some more. With 3 hours left in the last afternoon, I caught something that seemed unusual on the hillside across from where we were glassing. I got out the spotting scope and low and behold was my Fallow. No wait, it’s just his little brother. So after much mental deliberation, I decided he was an outstanding Fallow despite him not being as big as the BIG guy we saw the first morning.

Once I decided to take him, the hunt was one. About 1/2 way up the ravine, the wind gusted and switched. Both the guide and I looked with disgust as we realized where our scent was going. So we both jumped up and ran up the ravine as fast as we could. The Fallow jumped up and trotted up and gave me a 160 yard broadside shot. He stopped to look back. I couldn’t get my breathing under control and he busted again. The next time he stopped, I settled the cross hairs on his shoulder, pulled the trigger and heard “Oh S**t, you missed.” As the Fallow ran further and stopped a 3rd time, I took a deep breath, held lower than I felt comfortable with (but thought I needed to) and squeezed the trigger. Much to my excitement, he fell where he stood.

That evening there was good food, good drinks, great friends and awesome stories. The next morning some of us boarded a plane for home. Some got a call from their company and were told they’d be staying in NZ for month cause their office had some work for them since they were there. And the rest flew on to Australia for another week of vacation.

All in all we were in NZ for 12 days. Eight of which were spent hunting.

It was a great experience. Except for the fact that when we landed in Duluth, we realized that the person who dropped off Dad’s truck had locked the keys in the ignition. SO after all that at 11 PM in Duluth, we waited for a lock smith. Then managed to smack a deer with the truck (twice) on the way home. We hit the deer, threw it into a semi, who threw it back into us. Dad’s NEW truck did not appreciate that.

Still a great experience.

WOW. fun read / great recap!! I think that one will go on my bucket list.

WOW great mounts I hope to be able to hunt N.Z some day

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WOW great mounts I hope to be able to hunt N.Z some day

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Thanks. I could say the same about your monster whitetail in his avatar. All the exotic species on my wall, there is not a whitetail to accompany them, YET.

Key word…”YET”…hope you get a big whitetail to addd to a shrine I think any animal would be happy to be part of..Thanks I cant wait to get my deer back from the taxidermist…the only other mounts i have are ducks a swan and russian boar