Hey Guys,
Just heard back that I have got myself a big game combo license for Montana this season and thought what better place to learn a bit more about the hunting culture in the states than here!
I'm a 23 Year old Kiwi that was born in Bozeman and lived with my parents who were running the Cliff Lake Lodge for the first year and a half of my life. From there I moved to the North Island of New Zealand and since then have go to College in the South Island and work as a Civil Engineer. From a young age I grew up hunting small game around our farm and had a little involvement in the odd big game trip for deer.
As of being in the South Island I have really caught the hunting bug bad and the mountains of the Southern Alps are my second home. I have hunted Chamois (an alpine Antelope) , Tahr (a Himalayan Mountain Goat), Fallow Deer, and Red Deer. My absolute favorite is Red Deer and I have been chasing a good mature Stag for a few years. We are very lucky in NZ in that we can hunt at any point in the year for any species on most of our public land (and any private you have access to). But this open season also means that game management is almost non existent so a lot of animals are shot young meaning mature animals are hard to come by. It is becoming more well known that in order for the older animals to be present these younger animals need to be left but we are a long way from this having a significant effect on the age class of our animals. It does however mean I can live on almost purely game meat by taking females in areas where populations are too high. We have the issue of high numbers leading to our government undertaking aerial culling from helicopters to control populations. As well as this Commercial Helicopter hunting is also allowed on most public land also which has a huge effect as their are almost no restrictions on takes so stags are targeted for their higher profit yield.
While we have our issues we are very lucky to have this public land hunting and hopefully we can continue to have this into the future.
I am about to fly over to Montana for the Month of June and then to BC where I will be working as a wrangler at an Outfitters for the Fall season. When I finish up late October I will be travelling back to Montana around the Bozeman area to try and fill my tag for an Elk and a Deer (preferably a Muley as I really love these critters after seeing them on a previous trip).
If anyone has any questions about New Zealand feel free to ask and glad to be here and maybe meet some of you on my travels.
Cheers,
Cam
Just heard back that I have got myself a big game combo license for Montana this season and thought what better place to learn a bit more about the hunting culture in the states than here!
I'm a 23 Year old Kiwi that was born in Bozeman and lived with my parents who were running the Cliff Lake Lodge for the first year and a half of my life. From there I moved to the North Island of New Zealand and since then have go to College in the South Island and work as a Civil Engineer. From a young age I grew up hunting small game around our farm and had a little involvement in the odd big game trip for deer.
As of being in the South Island I have really caught the hunting bug bad and the mountains of the Southern Alps are my second home. I have hunted Chamois (an alpine Antelope) , Tahr (a Himalayan Mountain Goat), Fallow Deer, and Red Deer. My absolute favorite is Red Deer and I have been chasing a good mature Stag for a few years. We are very lucky in NZ in that we can hunt at any point in the year for any species on most of our public land (and any private you have access to). But this open season also means that game management is almost non existent so a lot of animals are shot young meaning mature animals are hard to come by. It is becoming more well known that in order for the older animals to be present these younger animals need to be left but we are a long way from this having a significant effect on the age class of our animals. It does however mean I can live on almost purely game meat by taking females in areas where populations are too high. We have the issue of high numbers leading to our government undertaking aerial culling from helicopters to control populations. As well as this Commercial Helicopter hunting is also allowed on most public land also which has a huge effect as their are almost no restrictions on takes so stags are targeted for their higher profit yield.
While we have our issues we are very lucky to have this public land hunting and hopefully we can continue to have this into the future.
I am about to fly over to Montana for the Month of June and then to BC where I will be working as a wrangler at an Outfitters for the Fall season. When I finish up late October I will be travelling back to Montana around the Bozeman area to try and fill my tag for an Elk and a Deer (preferably a Muley as I really love these critters after seeing them on a previous trip).
If anyone has any questions about New Zealand feel free to ask and glad to be here and maybe meet some of you on my travels.
Cheers,
Cam
