Sometimes you return empty handed but the memories created with good mates while in the hills will not be forgotten. The following hints will hopefully help make your hunting trips better and help make them more productive.

Hundreds of Hints from our Waikato Deerstalker Monthly Newsletters:

September

With Google earth's recent photography you can pick up small clearings, slips and tracks and in some areas the tracks are overlaid in white on the ground view below.

You can print off the area you select or just mark the clearings or slips on your topo map.

Use the Google Earth controls to fly along the valleys and over the mountain ranges of the area you intend to hunt. Play with the controls and you can get brilliant views as if you are moving slowly along in a chopper or doing a low level flyover in a plane. Use the on screen control arrows to also swing around or zoom in and down or pull back for a higher over view.

August
Down sleeping bags are great but not if they get wet. Dacron is cheaper and retains loft better if it gets wet but is heavier and doesn't compress as much as a down bag.
One option is to have a lighter bag of each to get the best of both worlds. Two light sleeping bags, one of down and one of dacron, one tucked inside the other, can be as warm as one winter bag, but check the fill weight in each to compare them with winter bags.

Store your sleeping bags out of their compression bags for long term loft.

Waterproof tramping boots can retain any water that enters while crossing streams making them very heavy. Neoprene gaiters help keep some water out.

Cheap gaiters to stop debris dropping in your boots can be made by wrapping any material around the top of the boots and ankles and securing with insulation tape top and bottom. Wrap the tape right around and overlap well back onto itself to secure it properly.

Rubber Hiker boots can have small hot wire holes burned through the outer edge to eject a stream of water out again as you walk to lighten them up. Ideal when hunting with many stream crossings.

July

Be wary of burning plastics in open fires. It's even worse while you are cooking as the plastic soot and fumes will swirl over and into your pan and billy tainting your meal and brews.

Carry in a spare plastic rubbish bag to take your rubbish out again.

If you are travelling back home by car, stow your meat in the car boot rather than inside the cab. When the car is moving it is usually much cooler in the boot than it is on a sun struck rear seat.

June

Bury your stag's skinned head in the garden for three weeks to help get it cleaned it up. Add another couple of weeks if the skin is still attached.

Stags hold their antlers for some months after their rut is over and if shot now can be entered in next years competitions.

You can still find some sika stags roaring back at you in the Kaimanawas and Kawekas even through June to provide some great winter hunting.

May

If you have sighted an animal and closed your bolt but then fail to take your shot, remember to uncock your rifle.

Ensure your bolt is fully closed or you may just get a loud click and lose your game.

If you usually wear glasses / specs to see better, you don't take them off when hunting, do you? So if optics / telescopic sights enable you see better, use them to help identify your target.

When away from home your firearms are at risk of being stolen – even when locked in a seemingly secure approved cabinet. Make it appear someone is at home. Always ensure your mailbox is being cleared daily by your trusted neighbour or a friend. Plug in a timer that turns a light on and off at preset times each evening to foil those ever present observant thieves.

Your gun safe is a glaring advertisement to any opportunist thieves that there is likely to be a firearm within. Keep your bolts locked in a separate hidden area so if your rifles are stolen, they hopefully won't also locate the bolts.

April

If you are choppering in check out whether you can get a cheaper price by having some of your party waiting near a roadside closer to the destination. Instead of two trips you may be able to get a cheaper deal for a trip and a half.

You may be able to get more gear in plus a few luxuries by having a couple of the team fly in while a couple walk in with their rifles. Always have a nearby suitable alternative site chosen in case your first choice is already occupied.

Carried that deer carcass back to camp and now you want to wash all the blood off? Take in a solar shower and if the sun hasn't warmed it during the day, add a billy of hot water. Alternatively half fill with a billy of cold water from the stream and top up with a billy of hot water. Fling a cord over a suitable branch to hang it up a tree for a warm shower.

Don't leave the solar shower running the whole time or it will run out of water too soon. Turn it on to get wet, then turn off while you soap up all over. Turn on water again to rinse off. Can create a good laugh for your mates.

Always leave a dry set of clothes and socks at camp ready for your return after a days hunt, even if it means getting into damp clothes for hunting each morning.

Don't forget your roaring horn.

March

* Remember to raise your scope often to practise bringing the cross hairs right onto your target, be it a small fern or white branch or other clearly visible object. The more you do it the better you get.

* Early morning starts and hunting in wet conditions can mean moisture on your scope lens. Check that you can see thru your scope just before you leave camp and also at times during the day.

* Take a cord pull thru and a few pull thru patches with you in your waist bag in case you slip and dig your rifle barrel into the dirt when you are hunting. Never fire until it is cleared out.

A small piece of light insulation tape over the end of the barrel will help prevent small bits of debris and moisture getting into your bore and the thin tape will simply be obliterated when you fire.

Jan / Feb

With their developing joints and bones, children should only carry a third of their weight on their backs.

When you strike stinging nettle while walking stream tracks, do the decent thing and point it out to those behind you so they can avoid it, especially those new to the bush. Only a slight brushing against it is all it takes to be stung with the fine needles injecting a powerful venom.

Cooling down the stung area in a cold stream should help. Warming the area up around the fire that evening usually brings the stinging sensation out again.

Dock leaves or kawakawa leaves (Heart shaped leaves often found with a multitude of holes in them) are supposed to help ease the pain of the stings.

In severe cases, medical help should be sought and hospitalisation may be necessary for a few days.

December

Most people forget a high percentage of what they hear, especially if your destination is a place they have never heard of before, so the written word is a safe backup. Make sure you let someone know where you are going. Tell someone, but also write on the calendar the exact area where you are headed and also mark the day you intend to return.

Remember, the harder you exercise, the more vitamin C your body needs. Your body cannot store it and it is required for cellular repair. It is often overlooked when wanting to travel light.

Head in for a hunt after a cold southerly blast has passed over the ranges over night and the deer have had to shelter during that time. By mid afternoon next day after it has cleared up, hunger clouds their better judgment and deer will come out early to feed.

November

If you have carried a first aid kit on you for many years and never needed it, don't stop now as the time you leave it behind may be the very time you will need it.

Form a chopping block to act as a solid base to chop firewood on to help prevent cut firewood flicking up and hurtling at you or your mates. Wear boots when firewooding as injuries from axes and tomahawks have made up a sizeable chunk of chopper rescue efforts.

If you are hopelessly lost and need help, assist your rescuers by making signals. Continually feed a few green leaves to the flames to create more smoke. Have a pile of green leaves handy beside your fire to throw on extra if you hear an aircraft. The smoke can rise well above the bush canopy to attract searchers attention.

If lost, don't lie down out of sight in a sheltered spot without displaying some easily seen signals. Some signs such as bright coloured pieces of plastic hanging nearby or turned over silver fern fronds laid out to clearly indicate your position will help you be located by searchers.

If you do get into strife, a Personal Locator Beacon may get you much needed help in time. Save this website in your favourites www.406beaconhire.co.nz

OCTOBER

A good way to stop your ammo rattling.
Some new ammo packets come with the rounds slotted into rigid plastic strips. These plastic strips can fit neatly into some small canvas or fleece pouches and will prevent your extra ammo rattling as you move, yet rounds can be easily slipped out when you need them.

If you arrive in your vehicle at your camp site in the dark, a container of water can be very useful for a quick brew until you are able to suss out the water supply in the daylight.

A bag of dry firewood and kindling can likewise be handy when you arrive in the dark at your camp on cold winters night.

Always carry a tent or a tarp with you in case the hut is full.

SEPTEMBER

When climbing up to a high point, the trails uphill can all take you to the top, but when you are heading down again, there are many trails in many directions that could easily land you far from your starting point. When hunting up a side ridge to join a main ridge, check over your shoulder to take a good look at the junction so you can recognise where to turn off should you need to return that way.

If you are not familiar with an area, go as far as you are comfortable with that day but venture a little further on subsequent trips. You will eventually get to know your favourite area well and easily recognise where you are, so you are able to return to camp without a problem.

When two hunters temporarily separate to hunt the same area, the chances of being shot increase dramatically.

Police reports tell us that if someone gets shot, it is usually by a member of the same party. Be patient and follow the basic rules. Training saves lives.

Remember that even in remote areas with party members hunting in different sectors, someone from outside your party can appear totally unexpectedly – always identify your target. You cannot haul that bullet back after you have pulled the trigger.

AUGUST

* If you have a GPS with options of either 'latitude and longitude' or 'NZ map grid', then get it set on the map grid - this makes it easier for you to locate your position on the NZMS 260 1: 50,000 topographical maps. Grid lines are conveniently shown closer together at 1km (1000metres apart).

* Your computer allows you to print off topo maps of the area you want to hunt at much larger scales that are far easier to read when bush hunting.

* Ensure you get your maps laminated to avoid the computer printing inks streaking in wet conditions.

If you do use your GPS and the marks of latitude and longitude to help find your location, join the marks by drawing the lines across your map – before you get the map laminated.

July

Avoid being a target: do not wear white or very light coloured clothing or a white cap as it seems to appear to some careless individuals as the rear end of a deer. Keep yourself safe.

Similarly If you have grey or blond hair. For your safety it is best to cover it up with a camo or orange cap while hunting. There are camo face masks available on the market to cover up white beards.

When you shoot a deer you can dramatically increase your chances to shoot more by leaving the deer smell on you. Alternatively, hang a strip of the fresh deer hide on your belt to make you smell more like a deer.

Deer can see Ultra Violet light. It pays to use a plain soap or a sports wash on your hunting gear so you are less likely to be seen glowing with UV brighteners used in normal washing powders.

How do deer see?

Deer have tiny colour receptors in their eyes in the shape of cones that can pick up blues and greens and maybe browns but lack the extra cone that humans have which can pick up reds and oranges. The blaze orange that we see so brightly, deer would probably see as a light shade of greeny brown.

Deer also have receptors in the shape of rods that work well at night to give enough grey image to suit their nocturnal activities. A series of flat mirror like cells behind their retinas reflect any light back onto the retina again to hit the rods and cones a second time so in effect they use the same light twice to help see their way in the dark. It is this reflected light that shines right back at us from their eyes if you shine a spotlight on them. Their eyes also receive ultra violet light that ours don't due to ours naturally filtering the UV rays out. UV brighteners from washing powder on our hunting clothes are supposed to make them blatantly obvious to a deer.

June

Lighting a fire in damp conditions without paper:
Collect your wood, preferably from a standing dead tree. Place two short pieces of branch or small logs alongside each other 20 centimetres or so apart. O O as seen from end on.

Split some wood and use the driest piece to split again into dozens of kindling strips as thin as a pencil or thinner and a dozen or so of these strips in a line against one of the small logs. O\ O
Next line up another dozen strips to lean against the opposite small log with all these kindling strips just crossing at their bases to form x's, or OXO as seen from end on. This makes a raised dry bed for your fire.
Next light one end of a piece of rubber such as inner tube rubber about finger length and lay it on top of the bed formed by the kindling strips. Immediately begin laying the smaller slithers of wood criss-cross on top of the burning rubber and keep building it up by criss-crossing the remaining kindling strips of wood and progress to the larger pieces of collected wood for a great blaze.

* You can later add bigger branches to your fire Red Indian style. That is, place one end of the longer pieces of branch in the fire and periodically push them further into the fire as they burn.

* If you haven't an axe or tomahawk to split kindling, you can use a sheath knife to split some kindling by holding your knife handle tightly and with the blade positioned on the upper end of the wood to be split, you can then strike down the outer tip of your knife blade with a short hard piece of wood used as a club.

* Add a little extra boiling water to your dehydrated packet meal and when soaked, add some dehydrated potato flakes to suit. It can make the meal go a lot further and with a dob of butter make it taste much better.

Dehydrated potato has certainly advanced since the early days of Deb powder tasting more like a glue than potato. You now have a choice of Waitaki, Deb or Maggi, with Maggi doing a passable potato and pumpkin mix. These dehy mixes also make an easily prepared emergency food.

May

Stop often in the bush and look all around you. It is amazing how often you can see a deer when you are completely still to carefully scan the area and quietly listen.

Always keep your rifle within arms length.

If you are being watched by an animal you can still raise your rifle slowly to take your shot.

If you have to follow a blood trail, don't hesitate to backtrack a few times if you should lose the trail.

A wounded deer will usually run downhill.

A big stag with a heart shot has been known to run for a hundred metres before it drops. Keep looking.

April

A plastic poncho can prevent a lot of blood from dripping thru your shirt and down your back when carrying deer. Only good for short distances.

Keep a small spare knife in your day pack. Comes in handy when you have shot a deer and discover that you have left your best knife beside the campfire.

Don't rely on a GPS. Batteries have a tendency to go flat. Always carry a map and compass with you as well.

If your map is a computer printout from NZ TOPO online, get your print laminated. If it gets wet you will have a colourful psychedelic map that can be totally unreadable.

Make notes of all your trips and always take a few photos. You will never regret it.

March

If stag fever strikes when you are about to take aim at your first big stag, you could easily miss your target with a shaky standing shot. You don't want to spoil your chance. If you have time, a good solid tree rest or sitting shot will help steady your aim.

Unusual noises can send deer running immediately. Avoid scraping canvas or nylon sounds, loud zip noises and metallic clinking. Polar fleece can help keep your noise down as you push past foliage.

Use the rustling of breezes in the trees to cover your noise as you close in, or use tree roots and soft mosses where possible.

A deer that has seen you will often take three or four seconds to check you out before it runs.

Avoid jumping off the top of a log or down a bank to send a resounding thud for deer to pick up a hundred metres away.

When you load and aim but don't fire as your target has slipped from sight, ensure you lift that bolt again.

When you hit your animal and quickly slip another round into the breach 'just in case', don't forget to get your rifle into safe mode again.

Jan/feb

Hang your gutted animal to cool where air can circulate but out of the direct sunlight. Also ensure it is kept dry. Check the canals have been well cleared.

Cover with leafy branches or fern fronds if it helps to keep the sun off. Poked into the gut cavity, the leafy branches may also deter some flying insects from getting in if you don't have a meat bag.

Wide weave cloth such as muslin can allow blowflies to lay their eggs thru the weave where-ever it is touching the meat. Try to prevent the cloth from touching the carcass.

Blowies can also drop their eggs down thru the weave and onto your meat from above.

A hanging bag with a slightly tighter weave and those with a waterproof roof material offer good protection.

Dec

Before you head off check you have your most important gear. Rifle, knife, ammo, boots, sleeping bag, map and compass, survival gear and any medication you may require.

A nylon poncho with eyelets and cord on each corner can double as a shelter if caught out for the night.

Take some cord with you for stringing up your game or rigging up your shelter.

Marinade your venison overnight or at least for 4 hours. Lemon juice will help tenderise it and dark brewed soya sauce and a clove of garlic will add nicely to the flavour. Rice bran cooking oil is excellent - it also has a high smoke point. (Avoid canola oil)

Use a very hot pan for searing the outside of game meats to seal in the moisture and flavour.

Finger pressure will allow you to test the state of cooked meat. The less the meat yields to pressure the more it is cooked.

The period of time required for venison to turn from medium-rare to rock hard is remarkably brief.
Antlered game is best served medium-rare.

Nov

When camping out, take a small tarp or nylon sheet with eyelets on each corner to string up from two trees or tall poles on either side of the fire in case of rain. For larger groups a tarp on either side of the fire makes it a sturdier sheltered area in wet weather.

Leaving a narrow gap between the two sheets allows the smoke to escape easily.

Take a large plastic bag with you especially to carry out your rubbish. Food scraps will attract the vermin. If you don't eat it or burn it, then carry it back out.

The slogan used to be “Burn, bash and bury”, but is now “Pack it in, pack it out”.

Bone out any meat well away from the hut or camp. The next users will not appreciate smelling rotting meat which will also attract the blowflies, especially as the weather warms.

With trampers and children in some of the huts, keep your rifle safe. Slide it well
under your bunk when you are completing other tasks and keep your bolt and magazine separate and out of sight.

Prevention is better than cure. It would be somewhat disconcerting to return from the long drop to find an inquisitive kid working a round into the breech.

Oct

Want to bind a couple of poles together to help build a quick shelter? Try insulation tape - holds well as long as you wrap it round a few times and fix it back onto itself. You can also try it for quickly binding deer legs together for carrying.

Tomahawks can be worse than axes for injuries when chopping wood. Always wear boots and keep clear of glancing blows.

Extra care is needed when using axes or knives in the bush as help is often a long way away.

Keep a sharp edge on your cutting instruments. Blunt knife edges can be touched up remarkably well on a wet river stone if necessary.

Sept

* Want your vehicle to be safe while you are away hunting? Then chopper bases give an added measure of vehicle security while you fly into the bush rather than leaving your vehicle unattended at some remote road end. Good reason to chopper in, huh!

* Remember wind is the biggest killer. If you are caught out for the night, get off the open tops. Find a natural shelter before dark if you can or rig up a shelter amongst the more protective trees. Light a fire. That's why you always carry a lighter or matches and a piece of rubber inner tube to help get a fire going.

A short piece of candle placed above a small flame can help get the fire blazing, ( as will your paper permit in an emergency).

Red stags drop their antlers about the end of August, early September.

Aug

* Use the rifle range to get your rifle sighted in before the hunt. - sighting in when you are at your hunting ground tends to upset other hunters somewhat.

*Separating a short distance or 'spreading out' to hunt through bush area has often resulted in fatal disaster for one of the team. It is asking for trouble.

*If hunting together, only the designated hunter in front of the others should be prepared to take a shot. Other hunters could get a trifle upset if a bullet buzzed past their ears from an over eager beaver behind them.

July

Carry a small resealable plastic bag with you in your day pack to drop the deer heart into.

A large plastic bag and survival sheet can be handy for emergency overnight use if you get caught out.

Always carry a lighter or matches and some inner tube rubber for fire lighting in case you can't make it back to camp.

June

# Turn and look up in the bush behind you from time to time to reveal different views, grassy faces, slips or animals you couldn't see before.

# When hunting, don't jump down off logs or banks and land heavily with a resounding thump. The sound travels far. Tread lightly.

May

# Wear gaiters to prevent the twigs and grit getting down the top of your boots. Cuttings off old wetsuit legs can also do the trick.

# A thin strip of insulation tape can stop debris or mud getting in and blocking the tip of your barrel.

# Always save one set of dry clothes and socks for camp each evening, even if it means putting on damp clothes for the morning hunt.

April

The latest LED headlights can illuminate the way for a hundred metres or more.

Check you have your essentials with you before you head off: Rifle, bolt and ammo, knife, boots, map and compass, sleeping bag, and any medication you may need.

Don't rely solely on a GPS. They cannot always pick up satellite signals thru bush canopies and batteries have a tendency to go flat.

When you reach an area with good sign, stop often and carefully look all around and listen.

Remember to return your permits to show how hunters help manage the deer populations.