Red Stag Hunting New Zealand - Trophy Red Stag Hunt NZ

Red Stag Hunting in New Zealand with Ample Hunting is a must, Great game is available along with excellent accommodation and guides. If your planning a red stag hunt or stay in New Zealand Contact Us today! Ample Hunting is a honest and reliable hunting outfit in Gisborne New Zealand, with a 100% success record to date!

My Fathers stag shot in the early sixties, mounted 40 years later.

This is the first trophy Red stag shot on our property. Taken by my Father in the early 1960's it was a good representative for era and location. Red deer then had not long been in our county this particular stag would have definitely been a descendant of deer sourced from the great English parks Warnham, Woburn and Invermark which were first liberated approximately 100 miles south east in 1885.

Perfect deer habitat sanctuary boarded by good feed.

We also offer wilderness hunts for a real wild backcountry experience with incredible scenery.

Both Fallow and Red deer thrive in what is perfect habitat on our property, we have many sanctuaries lowfenced to prevent sheep and cattle entering "deer only sacred ground". We seldom hunt inside these areas so they know they are safe there. Our property has a lot of open grazing country and it's the sanctuaries fringes where we concentrate most of our hunts.

Two big Red stags on the fringe of their sanctuary.

We have adopted the phrase "observe more hunt less for more success", finding out exactly the movements on a creature of habit can ultimately save a lot of time and anguish, my job of doing this before each and every trophy hunt I take seriously, to get a hunter into the zone on day one or two of his/her hunt where I expect an animal to surface is the norm.

Observe more, hunt less for more success.

About seventy percent of all our stag hunts are an afternoon hunt following a morning "look". An early afternoon stalk to a hide or patch of cover within the hunters maximum preferred shooting distance from where I expect the animal to show works well, waiting it out, getting a comfortable shooting platform sorted well in advance, it is usual that success follows.

RIFLES, CALIBERS, MARKSMANSHIP RED STAG HUNTING.

A great deal has been argued over the years about rifle calibers, which shoots better, kills better and is most practical. We steer clear of such conversations and don't like to tell people what they should hunt with. More often than not it's the "nut behind the butt" that kills a big stag with one well placed shot, I have witnessed incredible results with small bore calibers (like .223) simply because the hunter was very confident with the shot and placed it perfectly, we do recommend any caliber .260 or bigger and reiterate the option of using one of our rifles, they are set up well and are all entirely adequate for the game pursued here.

Ample Hunting has plenty to offer rifle wise.

Amplehunting facilities include a good riflerange less than a mile from the lodge.

Ample Hunting offers a good selection of firearms for those whom want to travel light, sadly firearms are getting harder to travel with internationally.

Our favorite caliber for all big game in New Zealand is the seven Mill. magnum, we have several births on our gun rack chambered in the Remington short action ultra mag., hard hitting, flat shooting and accurate they suit our situations very well. A session on our well equipped rifle range is encouraged before the hunt.

We have the option of using suppressors on all our rifles, imagine an all up weight of eight pounds the noise of a .22 rimfire (no hearing protection required) and the recoil of a .223 shooting becomes a real pleasure.

All success, a stag down taken with my favourite rifle one of the suppressed 7ml. Short action ultra mags.

HUNTER TRANSPORT

It is our aim that while hunting Red stags(infact all game with us) that we reach our hunting areas comfortably and safely, our late model Yamaha Rhino and Polaris Ranger serve this purpose well, good for bringing big trophy animals home too!!.

RED STAG SHOT PLACEMENT.

Here a Red stag standing broadside offers quite a large target (imagine a size between a Mule deer and an Elk).

We have replicated this on our rifle range with a life-size steel stag where when the right area is hit a nice ding comes back down the valley.

This gives hunters all the confidence they need to go hunt a big stag.

Steve Morris nails a Gold Medal Red Stag.

HUNTING STORY-ONE LUCKY STAG.

This is an incredible hard luck story for Tim Shanks, this was a management hunt, all that have seen this clip have said, "the stag should have died". The bullet went in pretty much the right spot perhaps slightly back a bit but with a .308 at 110 yards we were pretty confident he had secured his first Red. Please note this is a very rare situation.

Late February 2009 Tim drops this stag with what I thought was a good shot--the stag recovered and got over a three foot high fenceback into the bush. We sat and reviewed the shot on the camera's viewfinder waiting ten minutes before confidently wandering down to where we expected an expired stag, with no blood trail we were soon blaming projectiles,Tims rifle etc. we never found the stag even a week later by smell. We couldn't believe it.

Incredibly in early April some six weeks later while on a recce. mission armed only with my video camera I caught Tim's stag working hinds over and rutting hard. Tim and I couldn't believe this stag was alive and without a trace of injury but comparing the footage from February the antler configuration was a perfect match no two stags are identical.

Tim and I were out there several days later but the stag was gone pushed out by a much bigger, older master.

The following month I was out looking for some venison for the freezer. It was early morning before dawn when I snuck up one of the leading ridges toward the bush edge. I came to the top and peered over the last bit of cover and there soaking up the first of the morning's sun stood Tim's stag. I got down dropped the bipod and ranged the animal at 202 yards, lining up both shoulders square on I wanted to make this shot count. I squeezed the trigger and the Kimber Montana 7ml--08 barked, the shot hit true and down went the stag, I re-chambered another round only to see the stag rise again and disappear down toward the bush.

I think my words were "you've gotta be kidding me stag"

I estimate that stag would have been hit with around 2113 foot pounds of energy as the SST 139 grain would have been doing somewhere around 2600 feet per second.

I wandered up still with mutterings of wonder when I found the deceased animal only several yards down a bank

I called Tim and he was pretty slick on getting back out there with me to help make the recovery and document the hunt on camera.

The video tells the rest of the story, upon autopsy there was very little internal damage, a well healed fractured rib and some scar tissue was it, had that bullet gone an inch any otherway it would been a dead stag for sure..

Finally the red stag is down - this animal weighed 159 kgs ( 350lbs) and was classified as being a cull animal due to lacking width between main beams.

The Stag ended up in a tricky spot for recovery, thanks for the help Tim!

Steve Morris on day one of his hunting adventure with Ample Hunting. The rifle used was a H&K .223 Steve managed to shoot about 11 goats with one spot and stalk.

Ample Hunting offers a unique experience to get your rifle eye in, there are large numbers of feral goats in our area, we believe there is no better way to practice marksmanship before the hunt than to go shoot a dozen of these critters, target shooting is fine but when the heart is pumping accuracy can be compromised. We offer sessions shooting these on day one of your adventure it is great fun, shots range from 50 to 400 yards.