Thread: Camp meat saga, baby animals, hares, and a couple bulls...

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

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... ). 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...

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... 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... ) 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? )

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

awesome fkn simply awesome

Brilliant TC. Well done

Cheers for the write up Claw awesome bull

That things a tank ant it, well done

Solid Bull:-)

Jealous much!!!

Congrats on that bull.He's a ripper.

Great read and NICE bull Sam

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

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

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Nice one Sam.

Awsome bull Sam,good stuff

Nice animal and a great yarn.

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.

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

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