# Hunting > The Magazine >  Camp meat saga, baby animals, hares, and a couple bulls...

## The Claw

So tui_man2 (tm2) and I had been talking about doing some sort of hunting trip since earlier in the year when I had him lighten up my 6.5x47L...

The time finally rolled around on Tuesday night when we got to meet face to face for the first time... I also had my brother in tow, Blair, who had also had a rifle built by tm2, so it was introductions all round then down to the business of hunting  :Wink: 

We headed off early Wednesday morning to James Scotts place for a heli taxi into spot X, 7:30am saw us standing looking at a pile of hunting gear and weaponary, and watching our ride disappear over the ridge. We quickly set up camp and made a plan for the day. tm2 headed upstream while Blair and I headed in the opposite direction (no reflection of our impressions of tm2... :XD:  ). A last minute decision to chuck my coat it proved to be a great one, as what started out as a beautiful West Coast morning turned out into a sleeting, windy, claggy afternoon... We did see plenty of animals though including several promising Bulls and a couple Chamois. It really clagged in at about 5pm, just as we spotted a bull 450m below us feeding out of the creek... Back at camp, tm2 reported that he had shot a blind chamois and camp meat number one... Unfortunately camp meat number 1 ended up falling into a watery, and unrecoverable spot...

Thursday morning dawned fine again and we quickly spotted camp meat number 2... By the time we had set up for the shot (830m) the tahr had beded down in scrub. It was decided that Blair should do some drop verification on a rock that happened to be next to the tahrs hidey hole. 2 shots didn't seem to worry it, but after I lobbed one in with the Lunatic it decided it was time to find somewhere else to sleep... It decided to stop for one last look before disappearing over the ridge, but I wasn't up to it and missed high... Fail #2 for camp meat... A plan for the day was hatched. We all headed back in the direction of the Tahr that Blair & I had seen the previous day. I decided to take the Lunatic for a stroll... The weather turned out to be a carbon copy of the previous day, i.e. SHIT... Camp meat # 3 appeared, but was left for a while just in case something bigger and better appeared. Just as it began to clag in again the Tahr began to feed out from the scrub onto feed slopes, a couple in particular looked quite good through the spotting scope in between the clag rolling through. They fed into 470m on a big rock slab and the decision was made to take a shot. I lined up on one, and Blair on the other. The Lunatic did the business on him (tm2 will put up a video I think) but unfortunately the other one jumped forward just as Blair fired so he missed. Camp Meat #3 was last seen gapping it way up into the clag and bluffs... It was getting late, so we left the bull for a recovery mission the next morning. On the way back to camp we spied some hares, so Blair finally got to blood his rifle on an animal and I shot one at about 340m with the Lunatic just for good measure...



Friday weather wasn't a carbon copy of Thursday, it was worse... Camp Meat #4 appeared in the form of a young (that's being a bit generous ah tm2?) chamois, 160m away, didn't stand a chance against the 6.5WSM. Finally we had some camp meat (so we thought). Since it was in the opposite direction of the way we were going, and it was cold and generally miserable, we left it for recovery later in the day. Now it was off to recover my bull. We finally got to where it had fallen the prior evening to find that it had disappeared! Luckily it was located about 80m down the rock slope in a creek, just before it would have dropped off into the never never... tm2 got to it first, his first words were, holy shit, the bases are huge on this thing... Out with the tape and to my surprise it measured 14"! with 9 1/8" bases... To say I was happy was an understatement!!!



 

A quick jaunt around the hill (after sorting out my bull) saw us onto more bulls, one of which fed down the slope over the river and then across and up towards us! Between the freezing rain, clag, and wind, Blair managed a great shot on the bull front on at 450m. Amaxed it big time!. A huge bodied bull, but only measured 11" unfortunately. At least we had some back steaks now. Now the fun began... It seemed that the best route back to camp was to head down and recover Blairs bull then follow the river home. How wrong we were... Thick shitty scrub, slippery rocks and steep climbs followed by equally steep descents were the order of the trip home. My bull head seemed to catch every bit of shit on the way home which didn't impress me one bit! We finally broke out onto the flats were camp was located and bee lined it to Camp Meat #4. To our great surprise it was badly fly blown and covered in fly eggs... :Pissed Off: 

Saturday was shitty rain and snow day... Blair & I stayed at camp, but tm2 decided to go harass some tahr we had spotted downstream and over the river. I think from the tone of his voice on the 2 way he was regretting his decision to leave the warmth of camp, but then minutes later we heard WW3 starting... Some meat to take out we were thinking... 9 nannies/kids down, but not a single one fell into a recoverable position... :Pissed Off:  tm2 arrived back at camp about an hour later, thoroughly soaked (not sure if the rain/snow, or the river swim was the main cause of this... :Grin:  ) which signalled the end of our hunting for the trip.

Heli Taxi J.S. picked us up this morning and returned us to civilisation (I guess you can call the West Coat that?  :Yaeh Am Not Durnk:  )

Was an awesome trip, great to put a face to a name, and I think a few more trips will be in order.  :Thumbsup:

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## geezejonesy

awesome   fkn simply  awesome   :Thumbsup:

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## Rushy

Brilliant TC.  Well done

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## veitnamcam

Cheers for the write up Claw :Thumbsup:  awesome bull :Cool:

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## Smiddy

That things a tank ant it, well done

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## Wildman

Solid Bull:-)

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## username

Jealous much!!!

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## hamstring

Congrats on that bull.He's a ripper.

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## leathel

Great read and NICE bull Sam  :Grin:

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## tui_man2

Was mint trip cheers guys,  good to put faces to names an there will be more I'm sure.

That bull looks bigger in person as well she's a cracker alright the size of the bases made it not look as long,  was just as well it got measured on the ground :Grin: 

An that pop from that hare was impressive as it just got blown apart :Cool: 

sent from my Samsung s3 using tapatalk 2

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## JoshC

Nice one Sam.

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## Dreamer

Awsome bull Sam,good stuff  :Have A Nice Day:

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## jakewire

Nice animal and a great yarn. :Have A Nice Day:

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## Tahr

Yup, great bull. When I first started hunting Tahr a 10" trophy is what we all aimed for. The heli-hunters were creaming them. Circa 1989. Then I got a 12.5" bull and thought I had died and gone to heaven. Now 10" bulls are ho-hum and 12.5" are common enough.  14" - WOW! Well done.

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## The Claw

Cheers guys, I'm stoked with the head, definitely going on the wall...

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

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## distant stalker

Nice animal!!
Also nice to see the tough task of sorting out the tough little ones was been shared around too....lol

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## outdoorlad

Great bull Sam, well done!

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## veitnamcam

More pics and vid, Pull finger Abe!

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## tui_man2

> Nice animal!!
> Also nice to see the tough task of sorting out the tough little ones was been shared around too....lol


I think I took the name of the baby killer off someone else lol I would have put more down but I had to have 1 bullet for the walk home :rolleyes: but after the dip I don't think the gun would have been safe to fire an the amount of water I tipped out of the suppressor an dried it on the fire:p

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## puku

Good write up Claw, and what an awesome Bull!!  They are certainly hiding in the scrub a

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## veitnamcam

> I think I took the name of the baby killer off someone else lol I would have put more down but I had to have 1 bullet for the walk home :rolleyes:* but after the dip* I don't think the gun would have been safe to fire an the amount of water I tipped out of the suppressor an dried it on the fire:p
> 
> sent from my Samsung s3 using tapatalk 2


Becoming a habit?

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## tui_man2

> Becoming a habit?


It is im all for the shorter way home an it didnt look that bad...... just found a hole that took the breath away..........................
Some more pics to add to *The Claws*

















Few photos look fuzzy it was just the weather............................. an the camera fogged up oops me
thar vids 101 - YouTube

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## Tahr

Nice bit of vid. Good shot too.

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## The Claw

Cheers for putting those up tui_man2.

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## veitnamcam

Cheers tuiman2 :Cool:

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## Rushy

Great photo's. I gotta do that some day.

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## Dreamer

Good pics and video Abe  :Have A Nice Day: ,gezz you can't beat horsepower and a big pill  :Thumbsup:  that just sacked him  :Cool:

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## muzr257

Youv cocked up now Abe - Sam will expect an even bigger one next time :Have A Nice Day: 
AHH Sam you are supposed to use a knife to remove back steaks not a lunatic - did some-one forget to tell you :OSMILEY:

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## muzr257

Neck shot?

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## tui_man2

I don't think much stand a chance against that rocket launcher :Grin:  she's a bit of gear.

An Blair's 1 got blown off its feet also from his 7saum an was a huge body on it the amax went it it's chest from front on an come out at its nut sack:rolleyes:

The old camp meat just never really played game,  Blair's bull was like eating rubber. . ... . . .

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## tui_man2

> Youv cocked up now Abe - Sam will expect an even bigger one next time
> AHH Sam you are supposed to use a knife to remove back steaks not a lunatic - did some-one forget to tell you


I think we will be going back as their showed some promise . .. . . . . . . . .  :Wink: 

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## The Claw

Just on front edge of onside shoulder and out through middle of offside shoulder. Was a reasonably gusting wind blowing left to right up the gut they were in so it did hit a little forward of where I was aiming (I didn't dial for wind). Ideally it would have hit about 6-7cm further back on the on side, but when it is hitting with 4,920 foot pound of force at that range he was going down... (considering an average 7mm RM with amax's has about 3,400 foot pound at the muzzle...)  :Cool:

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## muzr257

U energy skite you!

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## The Claw

> U energy skite you!


 :Thumbsup:

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## Steve338

Congrats Sam, that's a cracker bull.

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## yogi

Well done! Got to be happy with that trip and what a great trophy. :Thumbsup:

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## Normie

Nice bull Sam. He's a monster. Looks like a fun trip, thanks for the write up.

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## The Claw

A couple of photos of the head (semi) cleaned up next to a 12" bull I shot in May...

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## craigc

Well done fulla. That 338 certainly packs a punch.

Were the Thar deaf or just quite a distance away? You seemed to be yelling at each other (did you have plugs in your ears?).  :Have A Nice Day:

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## The Claw

Yep, ear plugs in...  :Grin: 

They were 470m away and we had a strong wind blowing left to right so they wouldn't hear us. Sounds a lot louder on the video than we were too though...

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## Dreamer

Man he carries the mass all the way to the tips thats for sure  :Cool:

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## muzr257

Must have been photoshopped i reckon! :Wink:  :Thumbsup: 
Send him up to me for a look - im sure when i send it back it is only a 10 inch like Blair reckoned lol
Jealous - Me? :Grin: 
Better than anything I have ever seen on the hoof.

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## The Claw

> im sure when i send it back it is only a 10 inch like Blair reckoned lol


Just to quantify this... After I shot the bull both tui_man2 and I thought he was a big 12', maybe 13' at the outside due to the way he carries a lot of mass made his horns look shorter than they actually were. Blair thought he was a 10" bull, only because he missed the other one with him (which now in hindsight was probably a solid 12.5"-13" bull)...

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## gadgetman

That photo of the pointy bits is impressive. Well done! Has Blair stopped kicking himself yet?

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## puku

Thats bloody impressive, makes the 12" look tiny

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## JoshC

Neck shot Sam?? Show off  :Thumbsup:

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## The Claw

Haha, yeah I probably should have taken more care with the wind read and dialed 2-3 clicks left for wind... If I had realised just how big he was I would have been much more anal about wind adjustment. Still, he went down good, and it still bust his onside leg and completely smashed the offside shoulder, so he wasn't going far...

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## Malhunting

NIce head indeed, D/S would be 46 1/4 if it is even Gold medal NZDA standard

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## 199p

Nice shot mate. Was great to see the video

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