Big weigh-in at contest

An impressive haul of deer, wild boars, rabbits and turkeys were weighed in at the OngaTiko Hunting and Fishing Club’s first Gallagher Big Game Challenge earlier this month.

Around 100 people packed into the carpark of the club’s major sponsor, the Tikokino Hotel, for the weigh-in and prizegiving held on Sunday May 19 at the end of the threeday hunting competition.

The club had run a teams-ofthree competition for hunters the past two years. But the decision this year to host a big game competition open to individual senior and junior hunters had paid dividends, said club secretary and competition organiser Jo Harris, with 53 adult and 44 juniors taking part.

“The first year we had 26 entries, and fewer than 20 in the second year, so this year was a great success with 17 deer weighed in, with all three species featuring — red, fallow and sika — and 15 boars. There weren’t any massive record breakers, but two hunters that said they had heads that were worthy of mounting,” she said.

There were no hunting boundaries, but there was a 25km minimum weight limit for boars, and all animals had to be caught between Thursday 5pm and the cut-off time of 2.30pm at Sunday’s weigh-in to be in the running for the major prizes, she said.

All junior hunters who entered the competition — which had categories for rabbit, hare, possum and turkey — also received a prize, she said.

“We had a rack there for the juniors and it was completely full — they did amazingly well. There were some incredibly healthy looking turkeys.”

Ms Harris said five people who attended the prizegiving had since joined the club. The club had already come up with some new ideas on how to build the hunting competition for next year, while new sponsors had already asked to come on board, she said.

■ Big Game Challenge results: Red Stag: 1st Jordan Hamilton 92kg Fallow: 1st Mark Turner 56kg Sika: 1st Brendan Edmonds 59.5kg Best Head: Pat Kennedy Average weight Stag: Duncan Rose 63.5kg

Boar: 1st Sean Taylor 78.5kg

Best Jaw: Neil Scott

Average Boar: Ritchie Welch 45kg.