Syracuse.com - Trip of a lifetime to Zealand includes a trophy red stag

[HuntingNY-News]

“He stepped out at 200 yards and gave me a broadside shot,” Kiselica said. “The 300 Weatherby did the job, and I got the trophy of a lifetime.”

Submitted photo

The story behind Joe Kiselica’s trophy red stag began with his daughter’s seventh-grade school project.

“When my daughter, Erin, was working on a school project, she had to pick a country to plan a trip to and she chose New Zealand,” he said. “After all the research, my wife, Amy, and I thought what a great trip that would make. So, for our 25th anniversary, we decided to go. Erin is now 23 years old and graduating from college.”

Kiselica, 49, president of the Arrow Fence Company in Baldwinsville, said with a little research of his own, he discovered that New Zealand is a great place to go if you want to hunt trophy-sized red stag.

The red stag, native to Europe and a close relative of the Rocky Mountain elk, is among the largest members of the deer family. They were first introduced to New Zealand by wealthy Europeans for hunting purposes in the 1850s.

“After convincing Amy that our trip should include hunting for a red stag, we set aside four days of our three-week adventure for a hunt,” he said.

Kiselica said that on the second day of the hunt, his guide noted a big buck nearly a mile away through a spotting scope.

“By the time we made it over to where we saw the stag, he was gone,” he said. “We glassed the area, made a move to the next valley, and spotted him again. Still too far to make a shot, we played the wind and stalked around the stag as he went into some thick cover.”

Time was running out. There was only about 20 minutes of legal shooting light left in the day.

“He stepped out at 200 yards and gave me a broadside shot,” Kiselica said. “The 300 Weatherby did the job, and I got the trophy of a lifetime.”

He said the outfitter, Shane Quinn Alpine Hunting, estimated the stag to be about 500 pounds and very old, due to the wear of his teeth. He had 34 scoreable points and the outfitter scored him at 480 3/8.

Kiselica said this past week the head and cape are being shipped to a Chicago taxidermist and will eventually end up at his office. The meat was donated to a food pantry in New Zealand.

“The trip of a lifetime ended up with the stag of a lifetime,” he said.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog