Hunting
Dylan ’ s first buck
by Garth Johnson , Auckland branch
This is a story not only about a successful hunt but also a few observations from my more than 20 years ’ hunting in the Woodhill Forest , and as a Committee member with the Woodhill Fallow Management Committee .
I always have a restless night before a hunting trip . I try and visualise how best to hunt an area in the forecast weather conditions and the terrain within the block . This trip , however , I wasn ’ t even going to carry a rifle : I would be a guide of sorts .
My 14-year-old son Dylan and I were heading up to Woodhill for a day ’ s hunting on a ballot block . I ’ d already had a hunt a few weeks earlier but a friend of mine , Peter , had won a ballot and had offered Dylan an opportunity to hunt as one of his companions . I had hunted with Peter in previous years but he had been unsuccessful , so this time I offered to help guide him to get his first fallow deer .
A 4 am wake-up is not what most teenagers like on the weekend but Dylan didn ’ t grumble and after a quick breakfast we drove the hour and a quarter to Woodhill . I like to arrive in the dark and walk into my block to be where I want to be hunting at the critical time when the
Ideal fallow habitat at Woodhill . Young pines in the foreground provide a popular feeding ground , close to cover and sleeping areas in the thicker pines at left .
deer are on the move . It ’ s also a good time to be slowly stalking through the pines or glassing from a vantage point , as the light is changing . Fallow at Woodhill are reasonably wary , which is not surprising as around 750 hunters pass through the blocks each ballot season . It has been my observation over the past 20 years that the deer are very active at first light , when they move from their feeding areas ( sand dunes , farmland and areas of recently planted or recently cut-over pines ) to their sleeping areas , which are generally blocks of thick , un-thinned pines . The reverse happens just on dark … most of the time .
We met up with Peter and his brother Ian at the car park and walked into the hunting block . Peter had drawn one of the coastal blocks that had a large area of 2 – 3-year old pines plus a large area that was
Dylan on the dunes . Deer are unlikely to be out in this open country in the middle of the day … but you never know …
8 NZ Hunting & Wildlife 196 - Autumn 2017