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TOP JOBS

By STEVE KNIGHT
Outdoor Writer

It isn't unusual to run into another hunter from the Tyler area in Llano, Uvalde or Mason.

On New Zealand's South Island, well that is another story.

As Tyler's Allen Findley and Johnny Hill were flying into Christchurch several weeks ago, Tyler surgeons Paul Detwiler and Dennis Spence were leaving. Although the hunters didn't meet, nor have they ever met, their paths crossed at least once. That was with a monster red stag that Spence didn't shoot while bowhunting and Hill did a week later with his rifle, a hunt featured in the Tyler Paper May 18.

All of the hunters booked their trips through South Pacific Safaris. South Pacific operates out of Kaikoura, a town on the island's east coast between Christchurch and Picton. The hunts were conducted on a mountainous 4,000-acre private ranch. The rugged terrain is home to the stag, Himalayn tahr, fallow deer, chamois and wild pigs.

Although they prefer to hunt with bows, Detwiler and Spence grudgingly resorted to a rifle to take tahr and chamois in a time-saving move.

On the third day of a six-day hunt the two were back on the mountain with bows in hand in search of red stag, a member of the deer family that resembles an American elk.

"Closing the distance to rifle range was possible every time we spotted a suitable stag, but getting within bow range, 50 yards or less, was quite a different story," Spence said.

The hunters and their guides employed a spot and stalk method similar to what they would use for elk or mule deer in North America. On several occasions they would get within shooting range only to have the stalk foiled by a shifting wind.

Eventually Detwiler was able to work to within 45 yards of a bedded stag before taking a shot down the mountain. The bull was rough scored with more than 400 inches of antlers.

After two days of unsuccessful hunting, Spence got his chance on the final day of their trip.

"Finally, two huge stags were spotted in an area we could approach from below. The wind was favorable, and with the stags grazing uphill, we got into position for a 30-yard shot," Spence recalled.

When he finally got his shot, Spence took a 380-plus inch bull. The other was the stag Hill was to shoot just days later.