Thread: First Old Codgers Tahr Hunt

After probably close to 20 years of talking about going for a Tahr hunt ,an old hunting mate and I both turned 65 this year, so we need to stop talking and get our ass into gear. So after asking for some advice a plan was put together and off we went.Attachment 264262
After two days on the road from the Waikato we arrived at Station Air at Mesopotamia Station, a short flight in and we were at our new home for the next 5 days.Attachment 264261Attachment 264263
following great advice from @Bos we headed out for our first hunt, climb up behind the hut and sidle downstream, I have to admit the hills were a little steep for a couple of pensioners, but we found a great glassing place and flopped down to watch the faces. Despite the fact we had every weather condition covered we didn’t take sunscreen and ended up getting sunburnt. After a few hours glassing it was around 7pm, I decided I needed to stretch, I stood up and bloody hell there are some Tahr around 130 metres away, so after settling down behind the rifle and 1 shot there was a Tahr that didn’t depart with his mates. Shortly after there were a couple of very young Tahr reappeared looking very bewildered,but they were safe from us. After removing the back steaks we headed back to the hut.

Day 2 we saw plenty of Tahr but nothing within range, of both the rifles or our old legs,

I was amazed at how these animals just seem to appear, one minute there is none and next they are there, spent a lot of hours watching them,
Although we spent a lot of time glassing the other side of stream we never saw any animals until day 3, we watched 2 young bulls travel down from up high almost to the creek bed, we were just hatching a plan to go intercept them we they appeared on the ridge line just above us, with just occasional glimpses of there heads as they popped over to check where we were there, not giving an opportunity for a shot.

Managed a very poor photo with a cheap phone but they blend in with the tussock.
Day 4 dawned with fresh snow all around the hut, and a wind chill below zero,

We headed out for a hunt, spent slot of time sheltering from the sleet and rain, in the end gave up, went back to the hut for a while to light a fire, we had flown in a bag of barbeque coal,later in the afternoon we headed out for an evening hunt but were interrupted by two trampers, this was an interesting experience, young female aussies, light trekking as they call it, they had to cross the stream to get to the hut so by the time they arrived at the hut we had the fire going.these two were frozen, they had no cooker, 1 dehydrated meal between them but no way to heat the water until we offered the use of my cooker, they had no tea or coffee but did have some energy bars, so we offered them and they gratefully accepted a large block of chocolate, soup, coffee and tea, they had sleeping bags rated at -2C, they slept basically inches from the fire to keep warm. I think they were taking a hell of a risk and intended walking 26 kilometres the next day to the road end,
Day 5, dawned a beautiful morning and it was pack up and get ready for the ride out, the chopper ride out was worth the cost alone.
We learned a lot such as, get more range time in before going and be comfortable shooting to 400 metres, we had too much of some gear , probably clothes, had enough food for 2 weeks so a little over the top.
Next year we will fly to Christchurch and rent a car rather than drive down.
It was a fantastic experience,, would have seen probably 60 to 80 Tahr, but seeing them and shooting them are very different.
Thanks again to all those people that offered advice, it helped make this one hell of an excursion.

What a great hunt and you are never to old to do it, you may have Taylor your hunt suit that’s all. Those Aussie girls were taking a major risk in those conditions , hopefully they learned a lesson, and they were lucky you shared food with them.
Well done on your first tahr.

looks like you had a great successful trip. that hut looks like it has a lot of history. The tourists sounded like they could of got themselves in a lot of trouble, bloody lucky the river was crossable, there has been a lot of snow melt lately.

Wonder if those girls had a PLB? Sounds like they needed their heads knocked together

Great stuff
That is a choice looking old hut too

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Yes the Aussie girls had a gps and PLB, where we were was part of the Te Aroroa trail, interesting enough they asked us had we seen any helicopters in the area as supposedly there had been 7 rescues in the last 4 days.
We actually didn’t hunt across the river as we deemed it too high for us to cross safely.

Very nice ti see you younger types out chasin Thar..you'll be back no doubt.
Great report too...

Well done men. If you can cross the river safely theres a power of country to hunt. Plenty of animals but not to many big bulls. Now and again there are a few deer floating around the river flats as well.
Now you've got a taste for it, Im sure youll be back.

Any idea as to what happened to the little bridge that was just down from the hut?

According to MP, DOC removed it because removal was cheaper than getting an engineer to certify the safety rating.
I would have thought that a pic of 12 cows and a horse and rider standing on it would have been certification enough, but apparently not.

Very nice write up and pics..thanks for sharing. Congratulations on your tahr as well. It’s good to see old guys out there getting after it!

Thanks for writer up and nice photos.400yds is very doable with some range practice.Nothing wrong with taking 2 weeks food,3 or 4 day snow storm can drop in there any time.Pack of cards is handy if snowed in.Iv meet a few of those walkers doing the length of NZ,my evening meal at home would last them a week.Most of the older trampers well prepared,younger ones like you meet live on bugger all.Don't even carry a box of match's to light a fire.
What's good about that hut,nobody can drive to it.Not like the Macaulay hut which must get 2000 trucks a year to it door.

You wouldn't be far off there Trout, when I first started going into the MaCaulay there was a good chance you'd have the place to yourself. Now days....the place is chokka. I can't help but wonder just how many do actually put some money or gold coins in the honesty tube. I think the trust does incredibly well to keep the firewood topped up and the gas bottles full all at their own expense. We're bloody lucky to have the open use of the MaCaulay as the trust could lock it down anytime they wanted to but knowing todays delinquents there would just be break ins and/or vandalism.

That is way cool. A mate and I are lining up to to the same thing next spring. 400 is doable, just need to test yourself against a cardboard box first

Awesome write up. I'll be 62 in Feb and a dream of mine is to take a bull tahr with my 1916 .303. It wouldn't have to be a trophy to keep me happy' just a representative bull, but mostly just for the experiemce