Wapiti Hunting In New Zealand, by Greg Duley

[NZ Longranger]

Ballito,
Depends on whether you're flying in and planning on mainly working from the valley floor or not. A Sendero setup will work fine here, but is a little cumbersome and heavy if you're going to do some serious bluff work. We always take a heavy rifle for the long shots from lower down, but always have a light rifle like the Fatso along as well for climbing high and retrieving. Factory rifle wise a Tikka T3 in 7mm Mag or a Rem Titanium also in 7mm Mag or 7mm SAUM shooitng 160 AB's accurately would be my choice for the light rifle, but there are plenty of others.
What rifles do you have access to?
Greg

 

[Ballito]

Jeremy says you missed a few. Maybe you should use a :240 Gibbs!

 

[NZ Longranger]

Not sure what you mean?
Didn't miss any, 2 one shot kills at 847 and 775 yards.
He had a few hiccups on his tahr hunt a few weeks ago, but I wasn't there so can't comment.

 

[NZP]

mr duley, it amazes me how you always manage to get a block in fiordland while others try and try again without success. either you are very lucky or they are letting you have a block every year, i guess you have done alot for the wapiti in terms of getting the word out about them and getting the public to cull up the reds through your articles.

its good to see how the animals down there are really starting to throw back to the wapiti, but what the place really needs is a spell from trophy hunters for 5 years to let the biggest bulls breed. you would have to continue culling with the choppers of course, but i would imagine that if the blocks were left alone for a few years it would do wonders for the herd. but good luck on getting everyone to agree to that!

nice hunt btw. look forward to reading how your sons got on down there this year!

 

[foreign]

hey i was wondering if you hand feed the fatso. you said that the action was a short action but i was wondering how you get the length to seat the amax out to the lands with out having magazine feeding issues. cheers

 

[KIWI AL]

hi greg
thanks for helping me out a couple of months ago for your advice on making a custum 7saum chamber for my titanium.it wasnt easy to find a gunsmith who was keen to lengthen the mag but df maisly seems keen.
all he wanted to change was to have at least 3 thou neck clarence and tighten up the body a couple of thou on stardard.im gona use nolser 300 saum brass necked down and the only hicup is the cases are only 2.000"onced sized.
im cerntintly missing nz hunter(mags here in oz are dismal)any plans to put up another artical
thanks again
allan

 

[NZ Longranger]

Sorry guys, hadn't noticed your questions.
NZP, maybe I'm lucky, but I always put in only 2 man ballots which gives you a much greater chance of getting a block. Also, I personally haven't had that many ballots, but I get invited on others a lot. And when I dont get a ballot, I'll go just as a cameraman, which anybody can do but most aren't prepared to go without being able to take a rifle. The ballot is not rigged no matter what you might think.
Foreign, The 160 AB load fits in the magazine, but I single load the 162 A-Max load in for the long shots.
Allan, good luck, Dean Maisey seems a good guy. Yea, I'd love to find time to post some more stuff, but the mag keeps me so busy! That, hunting and rifle building of course!
Greg

 

[bigg_sexy1]

Elk are truely magnificant animals. I would love to hunt them in NZ, they sure seem to grow bigg there!

 

[Aussie LRH]

Great write up Greg, one day soon I hope to be venturing those Fiordland hills in search of Wapiti myself. Quick question are you still running the Leupold mk4 or the Z5 with that custom BT?

Antony Cave

 

[NZ Longranger]

Antony,
Fatso has a March 2.5-25 on it now.
Greg

 

[dust]

Picked up a copy of NZ Hunting while in Auckland, and found an article about the fatso, but as I am not a reloader, didn't read it. Did see an article about budget semi-autos, and hope to crack that open this week.