DEER STALKING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27345, 22 March 1950, Page 7

DEER STALKING

Parties From North For Te Anau PRIZE HEAD TAKEN Special to the Daily Times NELSON, Mar. 21. Two parties from Nelson and one from Blenheim have travelled south to Te Anau, where they intend to hunt wapiti and red deer. Although the wapiti country was closed to itinerant shooters two years ago because of indiscriminate slaughter, blocks of country are balloted for each season, and these men have been successful. Their areas will already have been shot over earlier this season. Messrs A. R. and M. Curtis will enter their block in lower Glaisnoch oh April 11, and their period will expire at the end of that month. The Blenheim couple, Messrs Smith and Bell, will try their luck in upper Glaisnoch. Messrs J. A. and N. McConochie have drawn the Narrows Creek block, and Messrs Selwyn, Irvine, and F. Deianey will hunt at Lugar Burn. Both areas have been stalked by members of the parties in other years, and each js known to contain a big bull. In June of last year Messrs S, Irvine, N. McConochie, and J. Shuttleworth covered the Narrows Creek area thoroughly, their quarry being an exceptionally fine bull wapiti Y with a large trophy head. They were unsuccessful, and this year’s party hopes to be more fortunate. However, word was received that a party which came out of Narrows Creek on March 14, after two weeks’ stay, was taking home this prize head, which is the heaviest wapiti specimen shot in New Zealand for many years and is comparable with the majority of trophies taken from the original American herds. The antlers carried 17 points with a length of 58 inches and a spread of 48 Inches. The successful stalker was Mr J. Lutterell, and he had been aware for some time that this large animal existed.