The Hossack Station - Where some of New Zealand's finest wild and free big game hunting can be found

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Wild Boar Hunting at the Hossack

Craig Boddington with a Sika Stag

The Hossack Station is some of the best and most beautiful country I have had the pleasure to hunt.

After losing my confidence from a bad experience some years back, my beautiful wife chose to shout me a guided management hunt on The Hossack Station for my birthday. In all my years of hunting I had never taken a boar in the wild with a rifle without the help of dogs, I am a very fussy meat shooter and not after a trophy so a plan was made with John and Peter and they really went out of their way to make anything possible for me.

Arriving at the Station just after dawn, John had us packed up and ready to get down to business within minutes. It was within less than an hour and John had us onto the pigs and in position to take an easy shot. I pulled the shot and instead of a clean head shot I managed a clean miss. This did not do my confidence any good and I did not pull the rifle up again that day in spite of the countless opportunities John was able present me with to shoot quality wild deer on the station. The day was filled with watching wild game in countless numbers in the most amazing country I have hunted.

John was concerned that I had not taken any animals and offered to take me into the game park or even give me a load of game meat from their own freezer. We had had the most amazing day in the most amazing place and I was happy to leave The Hossack with a smile on my face and some new friendships had been made. Little did John or Peter know at the time but they had sparked up an old flame in me and I was already planning the next trip...

Within days of leaving The Hossack I had been in touch with John and booked the second hunt 3 weeks later.

We arrived shortly after first light on a drizzly Saturday morning with a good forecast for clearing weather. Now that we had all met before and knew each other, this trip was set to be some serious fun and hunting. John had us packed up and in the truck heading to where he and Peter had taken photos within 20m of a troupe of wild pigs just the day before.

As we were nearing the location we got out of the vehicle and quietly stalked up the track. The closer we got, the heavier the rain started coming down until a gale southerly with hail and snow was driving in our faces and visibility was down to 50m. John was determined to keep going but I was not going to put everyone through that so I pulled the pin and headed back to the homestead to dry off.

John and Peter put on a fantastic spread, lit the fire and we all sat around having a great time talking of past hunting and things to come.

The weather cleared in the afternoon and we were off up the river towards the Middle Hut. On the way we saw a pig having a good time in a clearing up the hill. John was keen to get me onto it so up the hill we stalked until we reached the clearing to find the pig had long gone for no good reason?

We made our way up river to the Middle Hut where my wife Lee and I would be staying for the night. This hut is pure luxury nestled into the native bush with an outdoor bath and a long drop toilet. We filled the bath and heated it with a fire underneath and while my wife soaked in the most luxurious of surroundings miles away from civilization, I headed up hill to get onto some game. The weather had driven the game well into the bush and nothing was seen out eating in the fading light.

I woke at 4am and at first light I was out in the hills again serenaded by tui and bell-bird, but still no game was showing up.

John picked us up at 9.30 and we headed even further out the back country. The day was clear and warm but the game were being very elusive. We saw a few good deer but they were not easy to get onto and all of them had also seen us so we pushed on to try and get onto the pigs.

The further we went the fresher the sign was getting but we were still not seeing any animals. It was now 1pm on the second day of hunting and we had not seen an animal we could take. I could tell John was getting worried as it was never this hard to get onto the pigs and time was running out...

We drove the vehicle up a tussock top ridge-line and parked up to get the binoculars onto some of the fresh sign in hope of finding the pigs still out feeding. We could see for miles from where we were positioned but for miles there were still no pigs. I asked John if we could just walk over the next ridge and have a wee look down the far side. Peter and John took point and we quietly sidled round the face to the next small ridge just 100m away. As I was getting closer Peter stopped and hit the ground, signalling there was a pig just over the ridge! John quickly instructed me on exactly what I had to do if I was to have any chance of a shot at this pig as the wind was not in our favour. I slid quickly and silently to the brow of the ridge and sure enough just 80m away was a beautiful 150lb black boar out feeding in the sun. The Winchester 7mmWSM broke the silence and with a resounding thud I had finally fulfilled my lifetime dream of shooting a pig in the wild without dogs :-)

Smiles and cheers all round and after a lot of photos I told John to take us home.

We saw good deer that could easily be taken but the pigs were priority first. As we neared the homestead again I asked John if we could take a quick drive past the deer we had passed up just the day before. These deer were not at home but John offered to take me into the game park and see if we could find a nice management animal I could take for meat. I was reluctant to hold everyone up any longer so I said "just 5 minutes" if we see nothing we go home. Believe it or not, 5 minutes later we had a beautiful red spiker on the ground ready to take back to the chiller :-)

Thanks to John and Peter, hunting at The Hossack was the best weekend I have had in living memory. Venison and pork sausages will be in the freezer this week along with some prime cuts of venison. The Hossack made our dreams come true :-)

As I write this I have already booked "Round 3" and will be back with John and Peter at The Hossack again in 4 weeks... We are counting the days :-)

Phil and Lee Musson

 

 

 

 

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