1 Attachment(s)
Had A Week Off, Went For A Hunt, Got A First
6 weeks ago, I got called into the boss' office at 6.45am, on a Monday, never a good sign when I start work at 7am. The conversation went as follows, "You have too much leave owing and are taking 2 weeks off, no arguments." With 2 weeks at work before my enforced leave, I started to plan multiple trips over the fortnight, originally I planned 3 separate outings but due to the recent weather only manged one, but it was a good trip.
It was about this time last year where I had planned a 5 day expedition into an area I'd never been but was keen as mustard to get into, that all turned pear shaped when I put my back out pretty bloody badly and have subsequently spent the last 12 months recovering. Part of the recovery has been spent in the gym with a personal trainer, (yes I'm now one of those sad wankers and even drink protein shakes), not something I thought would ever happen. To give him his due, I've lost a few kgs, gained strength and my general fitness is probably the best it's been in a few years. However, nothing in the gym prepares you to strap a heavy pack on and walk up some big bloody hills for a few days.
After studying the area on maps and google earth, I had a rough plan of where I wanted to go over the course of 4 or 5 days and loaded the Amarok up and set out on the longest drive I've ever taken to get into a hunting area. OK, so 3 1/2 hours isn't the longest drive ever undertaken but as I said, was a record for me. Reaching the roads end I got out and admired the view, living in Queenstown, I'm lucky enough to see mountains every day but I still love them and always take my time to appreciate new ones and the valleys below. I kitted up started my walk to the first area I wanted to. I had to cross a river but luckily found a dry way across, I don't mind wet feet but prefer to keep them dry, especially at the start of a multi day trip. The first part of the walk was fairly easy going, DOC had been awfully kind and put a track in for me. On the maps it only went halfway to where I was heading but I was pleasantly surprised it went further than I thought and I found a nice campsite higher than I originally planned but had made good time thanks to the track.
After a bit of a struggle with the tent, for some reason I'd completely forgotten how to put it up, camp was set up and I set about having a hot feed and organising my pack so I only had the essentials for an evening hunt. I looked around from camp and decided to head up a ridge directly behind the tent for another couple hundred vertical metres and start to glass.
For the first couple of days on this hunt I had decided that my target was going to be Tahr. Now I've never hunted Tahr before and my knowledge of them and how to hunt them was let's just say limited. All I knew was I needed to get high and had accomplished that part. I spent the last 3 hours of light glassing the massive country around me wondering how the hell I was gonna see an animal amongst all the different types of terrain. There were scree slopes, tussock faces and beech forest. I realised it was going to be anything but easy. After spending an hour behind the binos I finally picked up some movement high up to my right and saw my first animals for the trip. A group of 5 Tahr. There were safe from me at least for the evening, far too far away, but I sat and watched them for a bit and came to the conclusion it was a nanny and juvenile group.
I glassed more country and concentrated on an area that on the map I was pretty keen to get into and was fairly confident would hold some animals. My eyes settled on a flat grassy area far off in the distance where the steep faces came down to a point. It took me a couple of moments to realise it but slap bang in the middle of this flat grassy area was a mob of Tahr. It was hard to determine just how many there were due to the distance and fading light, but when they started moving I counted 8 or 9. With my limited knowledge of Tahr I decided it was a group of bulls, none of them looked small and I couldn't see any what I would class as baby animals with them. What did surprise me was that they never stopped in one spot for very long and the distance they moved in the 25 minutes I watched them for was astonishing. It was at that point that it dawned on me that this might be a lot harder than I thought. With the light fading and nothing within anything close to shooting distance I made my way back to camp for a decent sleep.
Hunting at this time of year means long days and short nights. It was gone 10.30 by the time I got to bed and was a wake at 4.30 to have a coffee and some porridge and get my gear on before sun up. I climbed back up to the spot from last night and glassed and glassed and glassed but saw absolutely bugger all. After 2 hours I decided to return to camp and pack a day bag and head on up the valley to the area I spotted the bulls the previous night and this was where I wanted to focus my attention for the day. Thanks to already mentioned DOC track climbing up to the hanging valley was nowhere as bad as it could be. However, it still took a couple of hours and I probably lost a couple more kgs in sweat. The hanging valley that I arrived in was bloody huge. Steep sides of scree and tussock country with a river running through the middle past a boulder field that I spent a lot of time getting across. At the head of the valley was a glacier, the whole area was stunning and I spent a while just taking it all in.
I spent some time glassing but picked up nothing and when the clock ticked over to 12 I decided to have a rest for a couple of hours. I curled up in a very comfortable hollow which protected me from the wind and fell asleep for a couple of hours. When I woke up it was early afternoon and after spending another half hour glassing half arsed I knew it was far to early for anything to be moving, I did something I have never done while hunting before, I pulled a book out of my pack and started to read. I even made a coffee and had my cheese, crackers and salami lunch. I was rather content.
The time struck 4pm and I decided it might not be too long before animals started to move around, I put the book and food away and got my self back into hunting mode. My eyes covered a metric shit tonne of ground trying to find something, and eventually, bingo. Up ahead of me about 1km away was a group of 5 Tahr. It wasn't the big group of bulls that I had seen the night before, but it was animals in the area I thought they would be so I was happy I had done something right. However, it was also at this point the I realised I had no idea if I was going to be able to tell if any of them where good enough to shoot. I had already made my mind up that I would only shoot a bull if it was big enough. But trying to figure that part out was going to be difficult.
Luckily it was easy enough to close the gap, I had a boulder field between me and them which provided a lot of cover and with the wind in my favour it wasn't long before I was 700 yards away. The Tahr helped by feeding in my general direction so in effect the gap closed twice as quickly. I found a big rock to provide cover and slowly peered round it. They were oblivious to my presence and I felt confident I was not going to be seen. I pulled my super zoom camera out of my pack and started taking photos trying to decide what to do. Bloody hell it was tough, if the animals had all just stayed in one place and not moved, my life would have been a shit load easier, but the Tahr had other plans. Constantly moving behind one another and putting heads down to feed. I was beginning to get annoyed. Eventually I figured out that out of the 5 only 1 was possibly worth having a crack at, but I was still undecided, I had no idea if he was big enough.
Thankfully they kept feeding towards me and the one I interested in finally stood in one place long enough that I could look and decide what to do. "He's good enough" I whispered to myself and set about wondering what my next move was to be. They were still 450 yards away, realistically too far to shoot. I've only shot that far on a range and that was a long time ago. 350 yards was going to be my absolute max but it would nice if I could get it less. At this point the tahr decided that they wanted to bugger off up a gut to my left out of sight. This provided a dilemma, I didn't have much cover as I was at the edge of the boulder field and if they were going to keep moving at the pace they had been it wouldn't be long till the came out he other side. I sat where I was and made sure the rifle was all ready to go. I put my pack on top of a rock in front of me and got comfortable behind the .270 happy that when he appeared I could take a comfortable shot. I was there for 40 minutes. I have no idea what was in that gut but I'm guessing tahr eutopia as they took their bloody time coming out. I was almost about to head up the hill and look into the gut when they finally started to make their way over the top. Reaching the ridgleline the tahr did a swift right turn and head up the hill to a flat area above. The biggest of the lot leading the way. I followed him with scope and checked the range. 302 yards. "Here we go", I waited patiently for him to present a shot and finally he did. Side on, I settled the cross hairs, breathed out and squeezed the trigger. Nothing. I squeezed a bit more, still nothing. "What the fuck". It was then I realised the safety was still on. "Fuck me", by the time I flicked the safety off he had disappeared. I was less than impressed. All of the tahr trotted over a crest out of sight.
I was spewing. I couldn't believe what had just happened. "Sod it, move", I grabbed my gear and made a swift move up a mound that was in front of me hoping they would be somewhere behind it. I covered the ground quickly, just before reaching the top of the crest, i slowed down and just peered over. There they were, all 5 of them. Quick range check, bang on 200 yards. I set myself up again and got set this time making sure the safety was off. Between me and them was a gut with a river running through it. The big boy stood on top of a rock above the river below, he turned side on and stood there. This time .270 bullet flew down the barrel and through the 200 yards of air between us and struck him just behind the shoulder. I heard and thanks to the DPT suppressor saw it hit. He didn't go down straight away but wasn't going to go far. Stumbling in a circle I sent another his way. Blood was pouring out of his mouth and he was lying down. All of a sudden he stood bolt upright and fell of the rock to the river below. His mates made a hasty retreat gaining as much altitude as quickly as they could.
I sat down and took a deep breath, I couldn't believe it, from a proper cock up to a perfect shot. I checked the time. 8 o'clock. It had been two and a half hours since I had first spotted them, the adrenaline was flowing. I grabbed my pack, made sure the gun was safe, ironic I know and made my way over to where he lay. When i saw him I couldn't see his head, but my first thought was "fuck me he's huge, I've shot deer smaller". I was amazed at how big a body this thing had. When I got down to him and looked at his horns all my happy thoughts disappeared. They didn't look that long, had I shot the wrong one? My heart sank. I didn't even pull him out the river, I jumped out of the water and tore my pack apart looking for my tape measure. Of course it was buried at the bottom and the entire contents of my pack ended up strewn across the mountainside. I nearly slipped and fell downstream getting back to him, I had to know. I don't think I had ever been so nervous than that point, hands trembling I took a measurement of his right horn, then his left. I can't quite describe the noise that came out of me at that point, I think it was a cross between a wolf howl and a general woohoo. Needless to say the Keas that had started to gather made a swift exit.
12 inches. Both horns. Fuck yeah. It was then that it dawned on me I had to drag the bloody thing out the river, I couldn't leave it there. It was going to be a test for my back. Where he lay was not the easiest place to get him out, I dragged him downstream for 20 metres to a nice gentle slope and sweating like a gypsy with a mortgage finally got him onto the grass. I set about cutting the beast up. I removed the head but didn't take the cape for a few reasons. First, it wasn't in the best of condition, matted and bits missing, second I wanted to take as much meat as possible. Third I've never caped an animal before, fourth I was planning on being away for 3 more nights and wasn't sure whether or not it would be ok. Finally, the weather and darkness were closing in and I was quite far from camp and didn't want to be getting back in the dark as much head torch isn't that great. I removed all the meat from the back legs and the back stakes and strapped the head to my pack and started the walk back.
I didn't realise how far from camp I had travelled during the day, the gps said it was 6 kms in a straight line. I spent the next hour and a half boulder hopping and trying not to slide of the side of a mountain all the while racing the dark and the weather. The darkness won, I made it back to camp just on 10pm, luckily the last half hour was fairly easy going on a well marked track so my average torch was enough. I damn near collapsed when I reached my tent but the smile never left my face. I put the meat and head in the tussock down wind from me and sat out watching clouds roll in as I inhaled my dinner in under 60 seconds.
I fell asleep to the sound of light rain on the tent reliving the day over and over in my head. My last thought was one of content. I planned this whole trip on my own, had studied maps and decided where to go and found the tahr on my own without any help, had decided on an animal and shot it. I didn't ask anyone for any help or advice came away with what I was after, I was happy.
The next day the weather decided it didn't want to play ball, the rain was consistent, not overly heavy but it didn't let up. I decided to pack up camp and head back down to the main valley and headed up that way. I had wanted to head up another side valley but after spending the night bunkered down in a hut and no sign of the weather relenting I decided it was time to pull the pull and head home. I did spot a couple of deer on the walk out up high and made a mad dash uphill to try and bag one but again the weather wasn't helping. By the time I made it up to the clearing where I had last seen them the cloud would only let me see about 10 feet in front of me. I turned round and headed for the truck.
Having wanted to be out for 4 nights I still made 3, as always it's a little bit annoying not always getting to see every part I wanted but it just means I'll have to go back and I'm already starting to plan it.
