After some substantial time away overseas a good mate and I headed out to get some goats for the pot and thin out a few numbers prior to the farmer planting Manuka this summer.
It was wet and the ground was slippery but there were plenty to be seen in the gorse filled gully. We headed up to teh top with the quad and with a little help from diff lock made it up tha muddy track. Numbers were in the hundreds with a couple of good mobs in the 30-40 mark. From our vantage point we spied two young goats sheltering under a gorse and snuck into 15m, Paul had his brand new Win 94 30-30 @<u><a href="http://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co.nz/member.php?u=222" target="_blank">199p</a></u> :thumbsup: and I grabbed the camera.
https://youtu.be/8blYynfNe9w
Attachment 58951
Two good neck shots and plenty of tucker for a curry!
While Paul dressed the goats I spotted a a young nanny and it's two lambs from this year 189m away (Thanks @toch for the Zeiss Victory RF:thumbsup:) I got into a good seated position and the Sportco SMLE .303-25 spoke. Three more for the pot! Those 87gr Hornady SP sure do the damage from the old girl.
Attachment 58950
After dressing the animals out we headed to the entrance to the valley to walk in. All the noise had spooked a good mob towards out entry point and we dropped the quad. Stalking up the stream we were compromised and Paul stumbled into 3 x Billy Goats at 30m, I heard the 30-30 Bark and spotted Paul giving chase. Meeting up after plenty of swearing wading through head high gorse I spotted the two Billy's he had shot. One was a good shoulder shot dropping the big boy who stumbled off a bluff, The other was a 'Texas Heart Shot' stem to stern, no exit and winding up in the lungs. That 30-30 does pack a punch!
Attachment 58952
Both Billy Goats went 22".
As we crested a small ridge I spotted the third Billy from Pauls group feeding on a face. I set up the camera and got behind the 12" barreled .223 Tikka T3 (it's the wife's).
At 154m the 55gr Hornady over 26.3gr of Belmont Action Rifle struck low neck and sacked him, passing straight through.
https://youtu.be/YYfJMZcAyYg
After locating him and missing another in the stream at 40m (Paul wasn't used to the 30-30 and it was shooting high) we headed out to the quad.
Attachment 58953
Another great day in NZ doing what we love! Bloody great way to get back into it too!
Cheers.
