Thread: A little goat hunt

I went out this morning at 6.30 for a goat hunt. It was cold but clear, promising a beautiful day once the fog had burned off.

This is my second goat hunt. The previous one was unsuccessful but I knew there were goats in there. I've also done about 5 deer hunts and 2 pig hunts, one of which I've posted about before. But no animals in my freezer yet.

I headed along a popular DOC track for 20 minutes then along a little side trail. 2 hours later I had found fresh sign, a really good place to wait, and dug in.

Problem.

I keep thinking I can hear goats but The cicadas are so loud I can't tell for sure.

I eventually give up and head back to the car, cutting a trail to the new spot I've discovered.

1.30pm. I'm at the car putting the rifle away and hear bleating. I turn around and look up the slope and see several goats not 50m from the carpark, on what looks like a dirt road partway up the hill. I check the app, and the road heads into private land about 150m from the track. No point chasing them along it , I'll have to lie in wait for them if they work their way uphill.

The rules in the area are not to hunt within 200m of the track so I plunge into the bush looking for a way to sneak up on them.

130m off the track but only 100m from the carpark I spook a different mob of goats: 5 or so. They take off uphill, but parallel to the track. No point following them so I head back for my original objective.

150m or so off the track on the map but probably around 200m imcluding elevation I hear bleating from below. The mob I saw are on the move as I'd hoped. I press on, slowly now , and the bush has opened up into kawakawa and mahoe mostly, with little understorey. Perfect.

I hide behind a kawakawa bush and wait.
Then disaster! They've stopped moving uphill and are now coming towards me along the side of the hill. If I shoot them from where I am I'll be shooting through open bush towards a carpark full of people!

They're close so I wait, hoping they change direction so there's a backstop.

No such luck. A couple of minutes later a good size nanny walks around my kawakawa bush. She sees me and freezes just 1m away.

I quickly put the rifle down and lunge, catching her by the horns. She tries to bolt, and pulls me off balance. I keep my grip and fall down the slope, landing awkwardly and pinning her against the tree.

I somehow manage to twist her head around and hear a crack as her neck breaks. She goes limp and I see the rest of the goats disappearing into the trees. My first animal, and I didn't even shoot her!

Everything but the last 2 paragraphs actually happened today. Oh, what might have been!

Identify your target beyond all doubt because you never miss (right?) and I'll be missed.

Great yarn. Next time maybe.

Bunji would be proud...if youve ever actually tried to wring neck of goat you would realise its just not going to happen...
keep at it and like loosing your cherry,eventually it will happen for you.also consider just waiting them out,5minutes before dark or 5 minutes after daybreak that carpark will be empty.....it probably will be at other times of week too...put your thinking cap on.

Well done on thinking it through and doing the right thing. Too many don't. Plus one for trying to wring a goats neck. You'd have to be pumping a lot of iron. On the other hand I never shoot a domestic meat goat or sheep. Always put it on the ground on its side, your knee firmly behind the front leg with your off-hand under the chin pulling hard back on the neck to expose the throat. Using a sharp pointy knife, insert the point at just below the ear under the jaw-line, push through to the other side with the edge facing outwards and in a single second movement pull hard back on the chin to the shoulder while whipping the knife through the neck to completely sever the throat. You get the jugular, cut the resistant tendons/tissue and break the neck in one move. Keep holding the chin while your knee pins the body until bled out and kicking subsides. then step back. Its a very humane and quick kill. Never saw the knife into the throat. It is too slow, the edge can be hampered by wool and tough skin. Sawing in is a rough way to kill an animal. Pushing through and out is very quick. breaking the neck in the same movement breaks the spinal cord and feeling. Obviously in the bush you have to have your animal under full control and the correct knife on your belt in easy reach. Good luck that that. In the yard you stand astride the animal, hand under chin, back it into a wall holding against its natural surge forward to lift the front feet off the ground. It is now rendered powerless. Then use your strong hand to reach under and taking the off-side front leg tip the animal gently but quickly onto the ground pinning it with your knee, holding it under the chin. Then proceed as above. Others may do it differently but that's how I was taught and how I have done it for nigh on 55 years. Never caught a wild one tho. A good killing knife is a butchers boning knife. A skinning blade is next to useless and will always tempt you to saw inwards. Finally, a goat's neck is far harder to break than a sheep's.

Jhon..its been frowned upon if not outright illegal to do that for 10 or more years now.....house muttons n dog tuckers are all shot first now,home kill is the same.
and yes I did it that way too and agree its plurry quick and humaine.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Jhon..its been frowned upon if not outright illegal to do that for 10 or more years now.....house muttons n dog tuckers are all shot first now,home kill is the same.
and yes I did it that way too and agree its plurry quick and humaine.

If nobody knows is it illegal....?

I understood it to be be " cut jugular, bleed for 8 seconds then break neck".....

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That's ok
It didn't happen because no picture
Isn't that the deal ?

Originally Posted by akaroa1

That's ok
It didn't happen because no picture
Isn't that the deal ?

Here's a picture I took after they all ran away. That definitely happened...

Identify your target beyond all doubt because you never miss (right?) and I'll be missed.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Jhon..its been frowned upon if not outright illegal to do that for 10 or more years now.....house muttons n dog tuckers are all shot first now,home kill is the same.
and yes I did it that way too and agree its plurry quick and humaine.

But it's still ok to stick pigs? Is it different when hunting?

It's all moot because I didn't think to grab it. I could have clubbed it, but that would have ruined my suppressor and annoyed the goat.

Identify your target beyond all doubt because you never miss (right?) and I'll be missed.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Jhon..its been frowned upon if not outright illegal to do that for 10 or more years now.....house muttons n dog tuckers are all shot first now,home kill is the same.
and yes I did it that way too and agree its plurry quick and humaine.

Some knowledge should never be lost. And have you ever seen someone try to shoot a sheep first and get it wrong...? But yeah, I hear ya

Originally Posted by Jhon

Some knowledge should never be lost. And have you ever seen someone try to shoot a sheep first and get it wrong...? But yeah, I hear ya

guilty as charged your honour.
stupid part of new way/law is not supposed to snap neck and cut cord...now that is DUMB.... that ends all communication from head to body...but some plurry Karen wrote the new rules because we all sentiant beings..or some such bollocks.

Awesome er - twist there at the end! Nice story! That's what keeps us going back!

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

guilty as charged your honour.
stupid part of new way/law is not supposed to snap neck and cut cord...now that is DUMB.... that ends all communication from head to body...but some plurry Karen wrote the new rules because we all sentiant beings..or some such bollocks.

Yeah, indeed. I hope anyone who reads the above who hasn't done it the "old humane way" and thinks it thru trys it at least once perhaps with some guidance, just so they really know the difference.

And by the way, can someone tell me exactly, exactly, the Halal method?

Originally Posted by Jhon

Yeah, indeed. I hope anyone who reads the above who hasn't done it the "old humane way" and thinks it thru trys it at least once perhaps with some guidance, just so they really know the difference.

And by the way, can someone tell me exactly, exactly, the Halal method?

The halal method as practiced in NZ still has a mandatory stun. It's more acceptable these days, but stunning used to be incompatible with halal.

Identify your target beyond all doubt because you never miss (right?) and I'll be missed.

Haha a good read you had me going there at the end! Have caught young kids but not a full grown goat.