Headed down to a mates in Lake Hawea last weekend for a hunt. After a bit of a drive we parked up and headed in getting ready for my first hunt in almost 6 months so dreading the climb to camp. Handled the climb with a decent sized back much better than I thought which was a good start then set up camp quicksmart so we could wander to check lookouts. Initially spotted a deer at 880yds so made note and moved to another lookout around 4:30pm then spotted our first tahr within 10 minutes then the mob miraculously appeared(amazing how they just appear). Had a bit of a look through the mob and picked out the 2 biggest bulls through the binos and spotter then slowly got into a better shooting spot and to try knock off another 20-30yds. Plan was to wait for them to feed onto some grass above a slip so I could shoot and it roll down plus be a bit closer again but by 6:30~ it hadn't happened and they seemed content on their patch of grass. My mate ranged them at 570yds so I setup the 708 and dialled in the swaro then got as comfy as I could while doing some dry fires. Few minutes passed and I had the cross hairs on the crease, told my friend I was ready to fire and pulled the trigger when ready...DISASTER! As I squeezed I off I watched him start to take a step and it was too late. Shot hit further back then I liked but he only ran 10m then turned and slowly walked back to a bush(before I could find him again in the scope and get a shot away). I was sure I had hit him in the liver so knew if he didn't get bumped and decided to stay put he should expire quick enough. Plan was hatched to do the recovery in the morning as was a gnarly spot so I stayed on the spotter and kept watching incase he decided to get up. At about 8:30 I caught a glimpse of his horns so was very confident we would get him. Next morning we got up and decided to pack up camp so we didn't have to climb all the way back up after the recovery and do it then which turned out to be a great idea! Recovery was near enough vertical in places, full of matagouri and bluffs which was very exciting for this north island bush basher but found my bull right where I thought he would be. Got some pics and then beheaded him and threw his body down a shoot towards the slip as there was no way we could get him out the way we came. Unfortunately he was malting so didn't get the cape but think I will be back in winter for another crack! Butchery session was fruitful so loaded up my meat shelf and slowly trekked out to the car and managed to have a relaxing following day before flying home and back to work.Bit of a long winded story for an average bull but happy enough and gotta start somewhere. Bull went 10.5" and was about 5 years old(will double check)
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