Thread: Successful chamois hunt

Id also like to say a thank you to 7mmsaum and buzzman as you can see the scopes we purchased off you guys are being but though there paces and they are performing excellently. Also to 300shortmag the rifle I bought off you has been awesome also.
For obvious reasons i will leave out names of the location but if you've been there you'll recognize the photos obviously.

Dad, my brother and myself set off up the river up a track that was pretty questionable in places but managed to power to the hut it a smidge under three hours which was pleasant as the sign said five hours so we were pretty happy when we rocked uo at the hut in just under three. Completed the standard procedure of checking out the hut book to see how other hunters had been getting on with the signs being promising with a few chamois seen. Several comments had been made on the way in on how good the country looked for chamois so It didn't take long for us to whip out the binos and have a good look around. Nothing was spotted but being mid day things were getting hot. A plan was made to head up behind the hut and suss out the area with a bit more elevation. With the hut being up high it was only a mere 40min trudge to the tussock with a sweat trail following us up the hill. Some glassing was done once we reached the tussock to no avail. We then sidled round the corner into a promising looking valley that was just screaming chamois. We were glassing for a solid 15min and the growing concern of the lack of animals was silently amounting inside the three of us. The silence was then broken when dad exclaimed that there was a chamois down below us mooching around in the scrub on its own, surely a buck. The camera or our spotting scope as its used by us was hastily removed from my pack and a clicked a couple of snaps he was definitely a buck and had alright hooks.

The decision was made that he warranted a ground inspection so with it being more shot we prepared the stalk and slipped into a gutter behind us and crept down to the creek that ran dpwn the valley and then we sidled across to the rock that we arranged would put us into comfortable shooting range. We poked our heads over the rock and he was nowhere to be seen. We scanned for a moment until dad pointed "There" as he steeped out of the scrub about 90m away, a bread and butter shot and i slipped a 270 bullet into the base of his neck which rolled him over and he had no further opinion. We scrambled our way down to him and i rolled the tape over his horns which were a bit on the light side. 8.75inch it read. My second mature buck so I was very pleased with it.


it was still only 2pm and it was starting to cool down a bit so we guessed the animals were going to start moving about. No that we had established that they were hanging lower than we had expected we now knew where to look and the exact colour we were looking for. In the next hour we managed to pick up 8 chamois scattered across the otherside of the valley. So that was tomorrow sorted. Now that it was really a more animal friendly temperature we pushed back into one of the gullies we had previously been in but only spotted a further one more chamois again on the otherside of the valley. We then pushed down into the bush and made our way back to the hut to get dinner on and have an early night.

5am rolled around and much to the disgust of all of us there was fog down to the bush line however we continued to get ready as we hoped it wasn't too thick and that when the katabatic wind changes it will lift. We pushed our way up tp the tussock line only to be met with a thick alpine scrub band which we managed to push our way into a clear bit and out of. Whilst we were waiting for my brother to catch uo i said to dad " Don't people say that they spend 5 hours pushing through this stuff."
"Yes" he replied
"Eh, im bloody well sick of it and its only been 10 bloody minutes."
Once my brother caught up we did some glassing and spied two chamois across the valley from us that were safe to live another day. We then took off to find a better vantage spot for glassing on this side of the valley. We had not gone 10 meters when dad whispered "chamois" we crept back into gut and snuck up to a knob about 100m below the chamois and popped our heads over and my brother looked through his scope only to see it was a curious yearling disappointingly but cool to snap some pics.

We then left the yearling alone and sidled around the face to a nice gulley where we saw a chamois heading the previous afternoon. It was a very promising looking gully but no animals were to be seen. We then climbed up and cut around above ourselves through some nice gutters. The going was slow clambering through the steep gutters but it was prime chamois country. We were about to round onto the ridge where we had a good view into the area where we saw a handful of chamois yesterday when our train of thoughts was broken by my brother hissing "chamois,chamois". Our guns where quickly whipped from our packs and with it being my brothers shot he let a shot go from the shoulder at roughly 30m as the buck stood and watched us. A solid hit to the chest with a follow up just to make sure. We walked up and ran the tape over him with him measuring 9inches with solid bases.

With our goals of the trip to get me and my brother a buck each we just walked around the corner to have morning tea and a glass into some big country. We spotted a family group of chamois from the previous day and called it in and arrived back at the hut at 11:45.

Having planned to stay that night and head out the next morning but with no further reason to stick around and our ambitions of the hunt satisifed and daylight to burn we decided to head out. We packed up our gear and ploughed back to the carpark absolutely knackered but happy with such a successful day and a bit out in the back country.

Great looking country bet your old man was happy with his boys getting a nice buck each , iv always wanted to get a decent buck definitely on the todo list.

Well done guys.

Fantastic, thanks for sharing!

Great result guys and an even better report....well done

Cheers guys

Awesome!!

cool

Great Hunt for you both in some real nice country, well done.

Excellent photos! Thanks for your story.

Great pictures and congratulations to you all on your Animals!
Thanks for taking the time to write us the report.

Glad you guys enjoyed it

thanks for sharing - great photos.