Thread: First time Tahr hunt

Last year before I went overseas for work, myself @Pop Shot and Matt sat down and had a yarn about chasing some Tahr. After a bit of research we chose an area and started putting plans in process and acquiring leave passes in advance from the wives. Time flew by I was back home and everyone had had a good Christmas and were ready to go. So on the Ferry we went and proceeded to drive all the way down to South Westland.

Day 1 Saw us reach the hut around mid day, as we took our time glassing and enjoying the scenery. Shortly after arriving another chap arrived called Nigel so, we got talking and he gave us some very valuable pointers that would help us out later on. He also confirmed our map recces of the areas were pretty good and that our likely spots for Tahr were pretty much bang on so that was definitely a confidence boost. So off we went as a Trio to the "Tui faces" to have a look around, the flats we stalked through screamed deer with plenty of feed around. We parted ways at the creek junction with myself and Jono head for the "shooting rock" and Matt stalking the creek. after a short we slog we were in position and pretty much as soon as we lifted our binos we spotted Tahr, awesome our first animals seen for the trip a group of about 10 nannys and kids. We sat and watched them until last light then caught back up with Matt who had seen a young red but no Tahr.




Day 2 dawned and brought with it rain which would stick around more or less for the rest of the week typical coast aye. We again went to the same areas and saw more Tahr, This Time myself and Matt heading to the shooting rock and Jono staying close to camp. A solo Nanny was spotted so I set up the rifle and dialed it in, range was TBR of 360 shooting on an up hill angle of 26 degrees. I squeezed off the shot and down she went awesome my first Tahr. The excitement was soon replaced with disappointed as we both realized the the animal had fallen into an unrecoverable location, bugger! Subsequently some more Tahr popped out into a location we thought we would definitely get to so it was Matt's turn to set up for the shot, this time the range was getting out there at 570 so we did all our calculations and Matt released the shot Bang went the rifle and I could see through the binos a clean miss low and right of the animal bugger! we said as they trotted off int the scrub, must have been a bad wind call.

Day 3 We decided to head towards Lame Duck however, the weather had other ideas and we decided to head back to the hut feeling a bit defeated. The Rain really came in and we remained in the hut for the remainder of the night.




Day 4 saw more consistent rain and saw all of us including Nigel remain in the hut for the most of the day apart from a small morning excursion with no luck for myself but a young stag for Nigel. We spent most of the day talking smack and swapping stories, turns out Nigel is good mates with one of my old school mates and regularly hunts with him, small world huh.

Day 5 was much the same with all of us splitting up to cover a bit more ground, with no luck in the morning. Meeting back up at the hut for lunch we all had a chat and came up with our evening plans. Nigel was kind enough to ask if any of us would like to go for a hunt with him so I said yes and we were promptly off towards his meat animal spot. Once we got there he got me to go point, stalking our way carefully up the creek to some rocky faces and slips on the other side of the river. There was heaps of sign around which was very promising and all of the stories he had told me about the spot were encouraging also. Soon enough a Tahr was spotted and the stalk was on, working our way up through the bush and rocks I heard a hiss from behind with a finger pointing to a nanny 70yds away, I just checked that spot too! I quickly got set up placed the crosshairs on her shoulder and the .270 spoke. A good solid hit she was down yess! we made our way through the rocks and ongaonga to the animal got a few snaps and butchered the animal. We continued on and about 30 minutes later another on was spotted which Nigel quickly shot from a hasty rest over his bag, what a successful afternoon. We quickly headed back as the rain had set in and we wanted to be able to get back across the river. We soon arrived back at the hut before dark with big grins and a bit of a story to tell.




Old Faithful getting the job done


Day 6 Saw the rain lift slightly enabling us to head out, Jono stayed close to the hut whilst Matt and I headed further a field. As we stalked around the river flats Matt noticed something which I did not, I didn't realize this and was being a bit of a noisy bugger, off crashed a deer, sorry mate! the look on Matt's face said it all. We continued on and soon spotted another hind across the river with no fawn at hoof, she feed out of sight whilst trying to get a shot, so we sprinted about 400m to the next opening and fortunately she was still there. Matt promptly set up fired and dropped her on the spot nice one mate! We quickly headed to the cable way, to see if we could cross the creek on the other side of the river. We decide it wasn't worth the risk and that he would recover her the next morning after the river and creek had dropped.




Day 6 our last day was Jono's final chance for an animal, we raced off to the shooting rock with Jono commenting "I bet there will be a Bull down low" lets bloody hope so! as we were climbing up to our spot I saw a bit of movement and sure enough there was a Tahr down low in a easily recoverable location, once Jono heard this we were pretty much sprinting up to the rock huffing and puffing away. Out came the binos and sure enough it was a young Bull Tahr, "you tin arse bastard" I said as we watched him and got ready for the shot. An easy shot at 190yds saw him down only running about 30yds, a typical lung shot awesome congrats mate! Off we went down the ridge across the creek and up the faces to retrieve his Bull. after the obligatory photo's and butchering we were off to camp to pack our gear for the walk out.

Matt's deer from the night before





It was a great trip with good mates we saw a total of 9 deer and over 60 Tahr for the trip. Everyone took home an animal and a great experience plus a lot of new tricks and Knowledge for future hunts. It also never ceases to amaze me how many good buggers are out there, Nigel being one of them. He helped us out big time on this hunt and if we could have bought him a few of th souths finest gold medal ale we would, cheers mate we will definitely be back!

Good stuff, looks like a great trip.

Great trip, great yarn.

Fantastic. Great stuff. The west coast gets you, look out

Thanks for writing that up too


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Great Photos and write up . That is a magic spot there I remember walking in there a few years ago. you will be already planning the next mission im sure .

I'm picking the Nigel was Nigel J****n.
He can climb pretty bloody fast when he wants to.
If it is him he's shot some very serious bulls in that area with a number of 15" ones.
I got a 14 3/4" bull in there myself and have taken a few others over 13".

Cheers guy's, really was a good week, next will be chamois or after Bulls in their winter coat.

Originally Posted by akaroa1

I'm picking the Nigel was Nigel J****n.
He can climb pretty bloody fast when he wants to.
If it is him he's shot some very serious bulls in that area with a number of 15" ones.
I got a 14 3/4" bull in there myself and have taken a few others over 13".

Yes @akaroa1 that's him mate, yeah he said he'd taken a few from there.

Awesome trip guys, great photos and trip report......

Great Trip and read, even despite the weather not playing ball you guys still got out amongst the animals, well done.

Been a few years since I was there but it’s a nice place for sure.
Well done fellas.

I've only ever looked down into there from up the top but it looked like primo country.

Well done lads.

I believe that place to be Nigel's 2nd home


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@Tahr we were thinking the same thing looking up whilst we glassed and watched Tahr from the hut.

Originally Posted by Smiddy

I believe that place to be Nigel's 2nd home


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Haha yeah, his name was in the book a few times and he knew the place like the back of his hand.

Well written mate! Absolute ripper of a trip!

Yeah great stuff guys