Thread: Another Quickie...

...settle fellas, not like that...

Went out for another quick hunt on Sunday in a local DOC block. Weather had being wet day before so knew ground underfoot was going to be better for any bush stalking.

Was a relatively quick walk on as wasn’t really worried about hunting in till getting closer to hot spot area and with the morning warming up a little.

Closer in spot a goat out on a grass clearing(as I was hoping). Ninja mode on , sneak down through the cover to get a better look n a bit closer. Not the size I was after, I rolled the dice to see if there was anything bigger around. There was a bigger nanny with a reasonable skin. Shuffled around a bit to get a better sighting position. Something alerted (wind was in my favour) it as it’s head popped up and it buggered of with the others following. I thought they might cross my path but must of made a beeline away from me under the cover. Oh well, you roll the dice, win some lose some.

I carried on further around where there’s more grassy clearings and was seeing sign in the grass but wasn’t sure if they were from what I’d spotted just before. There were places you see a fair distance but fog/mist would roll in and out so needed to get closer to see some of the area.

Walking along passing a small tongue of cover I spot a brown movement. Take a step back and left and was out of sight with the wind again in my favour. The brown was two youngish billies (2yr old ?) with nothing flash on top. Wasn’t worried I was after meat anyway. They were within 10-15 metres of me but with the scrub couldn’t quite get a clear shot. Shuffled around a bit but still no real clear from concealment shot. So I stepped out and lined up on a neck. Boom....’blarrrh’ a cry issued out. Uhh..? Didn’t think neck shots did that... Walked up quickly and saw one was very dead. The other had moved off still ‘blarrrhing’....bullet must if done a pass through the first one and hit the second one. Wasn’t planning on shooting two but needed to due the ethics follow it up and put out of misery..if possible. Went into bush edge to look for it. It saw me n took off. I dropped my pack frame n headed of after it. Couldn’t really make out where it had gone so used a combination of intuition and experience to make a best guess...it paid off. I had now eyes on it. I moved myself around to get a better shooting lane through the trees. Spotted him. Up with rifle , high lung shot, all I got, I’ll take it. Boom. Billy falls over and kicks it way down slope a bit. Walk over , it’s going nowhere.

The first bullet had gone through the neck n hit the second one in the arse causing it to make a ruckus. Took shoulders off n back legs.



Went back to first goat, retrieved pack frame, gutted it n tied it onto pack frame ready for carry out. Headed back out to car. It’s so much more comfortable carrying animals using a pack frame.

As I was walking back, I was composing in my head what sort of bullshit story I was going to write when whamo my left leg slid out, caught my toe of boot, bent it back ( thought I heard a ‘popping) sound and ended up on my right side...ohh shit I’m thinking...get back up onto my feet. Yep left knee n foot are a bit sore...ah well gotta keep going, ain’t no one gonna come in and get me.

Get back to car, albeit a bit slower than I anticipated. Get checked out by quack on Monday. Nothing broken but certainly hyper extended making it a bit tricky to operate a motorbike gear lever...so no work for a couple of days....


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Well done, hope you heal up quick. Good to see some North Island tahr being taken out 😉

Good stuff two for one shot. How do you find the meat of young billys to eat, not to gamey ? and are you using it in a curry etc

Majority of what shoot goes into pet food. Young nanny/billy into house meat occasionally. @Mooseman not really gamey. I tend to find the stink is on the skin. So long as you whip the cock, balls n glands out it doesn’t tend to smell


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Good job tracking down the wounded animal. Hope you heal quickly

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Good looking grass on those clearings you hunt. I'd be happy with grass like that in my paddocks.

Those clearings aren’t far from you and I’d say has being grazed by cattle in the past...judging by how much the understory has opened up...


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