The right rifle caliber for hunting in New Zealand is wide open, that is like asking what kind of truck do you like to drive, or beer do you drink. New Zealand Safaris tested the latest Christensen Arms Ridgeline out for the 2019 season in 7mm mag using Hornady hand loaded 175g ELD-X.
We typically shoot at distances between 200-400 yards depending on clients confidence, animals, weather, ect. These longer shots are more taken on our free ranging and wild animals such as Red Stag, Tahr, Chamois, Sambar Stag and Fallow Buck. Red Stag, Tahr and Sambar Stag are extremely heavy boned with thick hides especially the Tahr so suitable rifle caliber for hunting in New Zealand must be able to deliver the energy down range with precision accuracy for fatal shot placement.
We now have more demand from clients to use our rifles so lighter in weight has become more important, as we also have a bipod on the front of the rifle and often suppressors to take recoil and reduce the noise. All of our hunting is on private land so we like to manage the habitat for the game to help get our clients onto those older mature animals. Obviously that is unique to our private land properties, you will not find that on government land where animals are constantly getting shot at or from above by way of helicopters.
We used the Christensen Arms Ridgeline rifle on one hunt that included 3 animals in winter so all the coats were heavy. The longest shot was a free ranging Chamois, or mountain Antelope. These are by no means heavy skinned but very small in size with an up hill shot at 370 yards the Hornady Bullets held together perfectly and the shot was fatal instantly and made very little damage to the hide.
The Tahr also was 365 yards as the hunter had confidence in this rifle and we had zero wind, on a cooler winter morning we were shooting across from one ridge to another. Although the animal ran out of sight it fell some 60 yards behind the ridge with the bullet lodging out the outer side just under the heavy skin.
The Red Stag was 320 yards and in an opening of heavy timber. With light weight rifles like the Ridgeline you can move about more freely as every pound counts on mountain hunts. The quartering shot went in behind the front shoulder and exited on the inside front should, the stag stood briefly with a second shot as insurance it was over.
After using a variety of bullets such as Berger, Barnes and sSwift I have found the latest Hornady 175g projectiles to be well suited all round for our game. This was the first Christensen Arms rifle we have owned and we’re very impressed with its performance. Topped with a Huskemaw Optics Dial Scope this is a great fit for our New Zealand Safaris clients.