Hearing that whistle of a Sika hind is an all too common occurrence for anyone that's spent time in New Zealands Central North Island bush. Busted!.... Maybe?? It usually means they can tell something ain't right. They may have seen your UV reflection through the forest (see Can deer see Blaze Orange blog) If they haven't smelt you they will usually creep around you to try and "cut your wind" or get downwind of you to work out if you have 2 legs or 4. If they think 2, you'll likely hear each squeal a little more distant as they move slowly, creeping out of your life, forever ..read more

Firstly, Im not a deer vision specialist. However, the way deer see has always fascinated me. I'm the guy that buys every sort of new tech, toy or camo pattern to give me the edge on those sneaky critters. But I think I may have been wasting my money! Most of the research has been done on Whitetail deer however Sika Fellow and Red deer are thought to be similar. What you've gotta understand is that deer don't see what we see or how we see. They've evolved to see best in the low light of Feeding time, dawn and dusk. The rest of the day there vision isn't that great. They see blurry blobs!  ..read more

This is a yarn about co-founder Jarrod's second Tahr rut hunt, a follow on from the previous yarn. The weather forecast was looking good for the bois a few days prior to them loading their gear into James Scotts 500 and leaving the normal world behind for a few days. Joining Jarrod was his good mate Jase who is defiantly not shy when it comes to a rowdy mission. Saturday rolled around which was the first day of their Tahr ballot block, the weather forecast still remained a ripper, it was looking like 5 days of bluebird weather. The lads had a block in the Landsborough river that th ..read more

  The start of winter brings with it high levels of anticipation, chasing rutting bull Tahr and Chamois. Jarrod was lucky enough to sneak two winter Tahr hunts in, both down on the West Coast. The first trip was in early May. He was invited in by some good lads Jack and Maddo. With not much snow around, it made for pretty good hunting conditions. He flew into one of the Tahr ballot blocks with Fox/Franz Heli. If you guys are after any information on flying into the West Coast, talk to these guys. They know the area like the back of their hand. With five days of planned hunting and the f ..read more

  I get a few questions regarding what forecast provider I use when planning trips, so we will dive into what works for us in this yarn. It is by no means a one size fits all, but it works for us. Sometimes trips are planned that far in advanced that they go ahead regardless of the weather. But those weekend missions or trips where you a flexible on dates, getting the weather right is key.   As we all know, the weather is forever unpredictable in New Zealand's backcountry, especially as you dive further south. We tend to only take forecasts seriously around 3 days out from headin ..read more

     Just a brief one from our team!!     We all know what late March and early April mean. Its time to chase some Red stags, and if you're lucky, for Wap Bulls.   The excitement is usually pretty high around my house this time, but this year is the next level. We all know what happened last year, but with low venison prices reducing the heli hunting pressure coupled with stags possibly getting an extra year of growth. This one is shaping up to be a ripper. Not to mention that the long-range forecast is looking pretty sharp at the end of March at the time of writ ..read more

Jarrod heads out armed only with his camera, checking out some potentially nice stags for the roar. If the last stag video didn't get you flared up this one surely will! Enjoy, Cheers from the BL Team ..read more

Here is a video of Co-Founder Jarrod and team member Alex chasing some big red stags back in 2018, this should get the froth levels up for the roar that is drawing closer! Enjoy, Cheers from the BL Team ..read more

We put our feelers out to you Legends about what content you want to see and this was a topic that came up, so we listened. It's a fine balance between weight and performance when it comes to nutrition. It's a fair bit easier on the fly in trips to bring what you eat on a normal day, but the walk in trips provide challenges around this. We wont cover the fly in missions, as that is pretty straight forward.         If you're just going for an overnight mission, your options are a bit wider. On 3+ day hunts, freeze dried and dehydrated meals have changed the game from the s ..read more

The froth levels are usually pretty high around this time of the year. Starting with a good stint of time off around the Christmas and New Year period, which then spills over into February and March (and we all know what happens in March) but there are some great  opportunities for scouting out those spots for the roar during the summer months. Long days make for an epic chance for adventure whilst checking out those spots that have been on your radar for the roar. Personally, I really enjoy late February for hunting. It's the first occasion you start to see the epic sight of those ..read more