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A roar trip with a difference
We decided on a different approach to the roar hunt this year , #1 go in early before too much hunter activity in the hills & #2 look for area that should hold chamois as well as reds. Having shot plenty of stags in the past, including a couple of wall hangers, the focus went to chamois as I’ve never had much luck with these elusive creatures in the past. Probably because I was too intent on finding that big old 12. As the legs ain’t getting any younger it was decided this was the year to give chamois a crack.
Five days in big alpine country saw 7-8 chamois in total, most at long distances 700-1200+ metres,
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but this 9in buck came home after a lengthy stalk.
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First spotted at 7-800 yards away grazing his way around a bluff system on a spur and several hundred metres elevation from our position. We elected to sneak up a small side creek to a couple of big boulders that should provide a good shooting platform above the tussock & monkey scrub and reduce range to 4-500 yards. Having closed the gap the buck was still happily grazing his way up around the bluffs, sometimes choosing the gut to left & sometimes the right. Then the clag that had been hanging around the top peaks all morning decided to descend & the buck vanished into the mist. Unsure which side of the bluffs & which gut that he’d settle into we decided to move under cover of the clag up onto the main ridge where we’d get a clear view of both sides of the spur he was on when the mist cleared. Scrambling up a scree face to a small bench on the main ridge put us into a spot directly across from the bucks last known position on the spur opposite. Then the clag lifted. A little patch of tussock was the only cover as we sneaked a peak over the ridge & across the gully. Had he gone up, left or right ? The answer was none of the above. He’d bedded down at the base of the bluffs where we first saw him & was looking straight at us. No doubt alerted by movement on the ridge line. It was a scramble to belly crawl & get the 284 into shooting position. Finding him in the scope it was clear the buck was on high alert & about to gap it. Quartering towards me so put the cross hairs on front of leading shoulder & squeezed off, the 180 ELDM did the rest. He tumbled down the scree making for an easier recovery.
Stoked to have the chance to take a nice representative 9” buck for my first chamois.
The reds were not present in any numbers, only seeing 4 the whole trip. A spiker, a yearling hind up high in the tussock and a couple of young scrubby stags that ventured out on bush edge first or last light. Came across some gut bags on one clearing, so some recent waro activity had probably pushed them back into the bush proper.
