THE NORTH CANTERBURY HUNTING COMPETITION

This competition was held on Matariki weekend, 24th-26th June
One of the main organizers that I had been dealing with, Matt Bailey had been keeping me up to date with how things were progressing leading up to this competition. It was looking to be the biggest Ridgeline Judged competition to date in new Zealand. With 659 adult and 250 junior entries.

Matt and his team had managed to get over $24000 worth of prizes. One of the main spot prize being a Pulsar Axion Thermal Handheld Monocular worth $3,399. To win one of the Major Spot Prizes all you had to do was enter, even if you weren’t at the weigh in you could still win. Their main sponsor was River To Rangers.

They had a large tame boar (Bunn) on the back of a ute where people could try and guess his weight.

Before the competition even started they had to lengthen out the weigh in time to start 1 hour earlier 12pm-3pm from 1-3pm.  An Early Bird prize for hunters weighing animals before 1.30pm was added. This turned out to be a good move, as at most competitions the majority of hunters turn up to weigh in, in the last hour.

Matt had a good team of helpers on the day with a well thought out traffic plan. There were two sets of cattle scales, one for weighing Pigs and the other for weighing deer. There was also a table set up for the kids to weigh in there animals, run by Libby Ryan and Renee Crossley.

When the vehicles turned up we had Darren Thomas handing out the Tags for the hunters to put there names on and have the Tags on the front leg of their animals before they reached the weigh station. Darren did an exceptional job. Once the animals reached the scales Matt Simmons and myself  Bill Westwood, Scrutineered each animal.Making sure all offal was removed before being weighed.

Weighing and recording the Boars was Janice Westwood and Stratty on one set of scales. 

Weighing the Deer on the other scales was Sam and Jo Moriarty.  Sophie Simmons helping out where needed. A special mention for Sophie as she has been a big part of our judging team for a few years now. Five weeks ago Sophie had a baby and still wanted to be at the weigh in helping out!

Lifting the animals off the vehicles onto the scales,  off the scales onto side by sides, and off at the racks: Jonny dingle, Lindsay Harradine, Pete and Steven Chick, Dan Pemberton, Simon Macadam, Craig Armstrong, Jimmy Butters, Corey Lambeth. The quads were driven by Jim Lossington and Shelly Beams. Simon Clark was operating the small digger to help lift the heavy animals up onto the rails.

At twelve noon there were already a couple of trucks with animals so we started the weigh in. From this point on we did not get a break as the truck loads of animals just kept coming. I can recall two utes with tandem trailers completely loaded with animals and one of these hunters said they were from the North Island. The line of hunters wagons just kept getting longer and the last truck pulled up at 2.59pm away back in the distance. From 3pm on we started putting the animals straight back onto the hunters utes once they were weighed as we were running out of room. At 4pm we finally weighed the last animal.

Even though the last animal had been weighed our judging team still had work to do. The ladies had to work out the order of the prizes, while us guys had to measure up the best pig tusks and best and ugliest deer head.

I was completely blown away to see that we had weighed in 461 animals, 172 deer and 289 Pigs in  that 4 hours. That’s one animal every 32 seconds!

When the results were tallied up the average weight had 3 Pigs the exact same weight so it came down to the first weighed in, with the other two getting the above and below.

In the junior section there were
117 Possums
125 Hares 🐇
62 Rabbits 🐰
32 Mallards 🦆
61 Parries 🐥
15 RATS 🐀
15 Geese

This competition has set a new bench mark for Hunting Competitions in New Zealand. Motivated people getting good sponsorship and good advertising.

The proceeds from this Competition are going to the Rotherham Community Pool and the Rotherham School. Matt and his team have done an amazing job.

Results
Heaviest boar
1st Hamish Linton  173.5 lb
2nd Alex Walker       165.5lb
3rd Hamish Cameron 164.5lb
Heaviest sow
1st Tex Knight          150.5
2nd Amber Harrison 135.5lb
Best tusks Hamish Linton 22 3/8
Average weight pig Aaran Eaton 101lb
One above Jack Tyler 101
One below Steve Cherminshre 101
Heaviest Stag Beau Armstrong 313 lb
2nd Charlie Hough 298 lb
3rd Luke Shanks 286 lb
Heaviest hind James Maxwell 202 lb
2nd Ryan Hodgkins 199 lb
Average weight deer Angus Mckenzie 183 lb
One above Thomas Calder 184 lb
One below Jack Dunlea 182 lb
Best Stag head David Orpwood
Ugliest Stag head Jordie Menzies

Junior section
Average weight boar Harper Pemberton 70.2 lb
Average weight deer Fergus Butters 152 lb
Mallard
1stCharlee Watson  2.56
2nd Ryder Absalom 1.53
3rd Richie Hazeldine 1.48
Parrie
1st Quinn Brown 2.18
2nd Mitch Mckenzie 2.17
3rd Artie Murray 2.15
Rat
1st Ethan Clark 0.338
2nd Hugh Shand 0.336
Goose
1st Charlie Watson 5.15
2nd Maddy Carr 4.99
3rd Sam Dunlea 4.99
Possum
1st Florence Newman  5.24
2nd Baxter Pratt 4.88
3rd Lee Harrison 4.66
Hare
1st Evie Grace 4.21
2nd Brody Clark 4.095
3rd Paul Chick 4.085
Rabbit
1st Sam Houston 2.28
2nd Gus Teutenberg 2.19
3rd Sophie Maxwell 2.17