Thread: Hunting Report - Unpanned (Wellington)

hi fellow mates

Had been planning as usual but final response and friends taste changed my initial plan. I had planned for a deer hunt in the Aorangi's but last minute cancellation from a mate plus preference of my non hunting partner for goat meat made changes to my plans..

Since I am a newbie I was all this while been on day hunts only but this time I had planned and got organized for a camp hunt.. My mate and I left Lower hutt around 9am.. Reached to site 2 hours later. Before reaching the site we had to cross a water fort n unfortunately coz of the rain during the we, our car got stuck in the fort. Being a cloudy day with few occasional drizzle, no body was out along that road.. Waited for an hour before a 4x4 came along the same way who pulled us out..Waited for 2 hours as we had enough time to start our afternoon hunt.. Than tried again and this time we crossed the fort without being stuck...

Reached site and setup camp... had lunch and walked up the track.. from the likely locations to see game came a few meters head to head with a nanny n kid(male).. Kid was about max a month old.. the nanny took off in the bush but the kid trying to use his "GOAT Brain" hid behind a big tree.. i crawled up and got him by the legs.. The kids now growing up in my back yard as my daughters pet...lol

My mate who was with me became the carrier of this small billy.. i walked on.. After walking on for a while, told my firnd to rest up with the kid goat while I would walk up a gully to check out..

I walked up quite a distance and was feeling kinda tired.. Just about when I was making my mind to turn back a strong head wind brought a familiar odor.. I knew "This is IT".. got cautious with every step and loaded my magazine with 2 bullets. Just round the corner I spotted a huge billy.. Now was trying to get a stand to shot but to no luck couldn't find one.. Walked slightly up as the billy had moved from the position.. Now I could clearly see him and to my surprise there was not just one.. OMG all colors and shape.. Billies and Billies..

I couldn't find a base so took a free hand shot to the eldest billy.. after the boom i saw it move..shot at about 75m i thought i missed it.. Bolt released and reloaded.. BOOM.. on the cliff it goes.. down goes a midium billy and gets stuck..

i walk up trying to find a way to retrieve when I see that my first shot was actually the best I may have ever take.. A clean heart shot right on the chest.. I would say it was clearly a heart shot as I saw the heart completely split when I was skinning it..

The size and weight of this billy just made me leave the second one where it was..

Holding the horn I dragged it back to where I heard left him.. I had fired 2 shots of 6.5x55 but he heard nothing so you can guess the distance away I was from him..

after cleaning we walked back and spent the night at camp and came back home the next morning.,. Camping was just for the sake of feeling the experience as this was my first camp into the wild...



Attached some pics..















CHEERS