Day hunt with some of the local lads.
had a trip organised with a few lads, heading up to skippers canyon on a balloted block.
the target for today was goats, with good numbers reported. red deer and chamois being a remote possibility.
we headed up early, with the drive in being a big eye opener.
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there is sections of the road that has hundreds of meters of shear drop off the side. no guard rails, muddy, single lane dirt track, made to supply the mining community back in the 1890's.
if your driving there, take your time and use good mud terrain tyres on a high clearance 4wd. you will be fine.
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the mining community, of course is long gone but a lot of the old buildings still remain and are well kept and open to the public.
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I am constantly amazed that there is buildings and structures all over New Zealand open and accessed by the public and they are well kept, and treated with respect.
I am sure the same buildings, huts, camp sites and monuments would, unfortunately have long been destroyed by some drongo back in Australia.
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we drove in and no sooner had we arrived Ryan yelled "there's a goat!"
"that's no goat." I replied as I quickly thumbed a round into the Ruger.
he ran up and away from us on a section of rocky and grass covered hill and just before cresting the hill and disappearing, he made the mistake of turning for a look back.
I don't get many opportunity's like that and I took full advantage. as I took a sight picture he seemed a good representative Chamois.
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approximately 9 inches, not going to win many awards, but a nice cape and a line on the bucket list ticked. fortunately he fell in a spot that made recovery possible and we were able to recover him whole.
that spurred the boys into action and a few headed into the valley as I tidied up the chamois. most of the party pushed their way up and picked up a number of goats.
I moved in behind them and ascended the southern hill where I came across a mob of four goats who moved down the hillside in front of me and settled down to feeding and enjoying the warm sun.
I sat and watched them for over an hour as I knew two of the hunting party were behind me and were coming my way, it would give them an opportunity to shoot a goat and I could enjoy the show.
you are about to have a very bad day.......
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Lance moved into position above them and then descended onto their position.
I didn't even need to back him up as he took all four goats with four shots.
we gutted them and decided to make our way back to the car for lunch and a drink.
lunch bbq, was a nice spread of wild pork sausages and goat back steaks
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after a late lunch we moved onto some open country and spotted a large billy perched on a rock face a 465 yards.
with every one watching, I dialled the Nightforce scope up and sent a 165 grain Accubond his way with fatal consequences.
the stunned silence as the billy dropped stone dead off the rock, told me that the boys probably had not seen much long range shooting before. never the less I was a little chuffed.
we headed out and hit the bitumen, the sore legs, feet and muscles didn't seem as sore as we drove home and had a good laugh recalling the days events. a good supply of goat meat, with the billies used for dog tucker and a Chamois, that I couldn't have shared with a better bunch of blokes. What a great day!
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I got the cape off and I will send the head in to get a shoulder mount done, I am sure there's a spot I can stick it.
Blacks would be proud, I hope!
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I am looking forward to trying the back steaks tonight for dinner. Chamois is reported to be very nice!
Greg
