Thread: Tahr Ballot Period 6 2016

Just a quick report as im going to try throw a video together when I get the time. We flew in with Glacier Helicopters for the 6th period on Saturday (4th June), James Scott had called in a few favours as we were originally booked to fly with him, as we always do on the coast, I must admit as much as I love the experience of flying in a 500 it was nice having the extra legroom in the Squirrel!


We set up camp and the lads decided to head off up into the cold white stuff to have a look around, I decided to stay at camp and make a few improvements as im having some trouble with my knee and wanted to take it easy this trip. Allthough the campsite was bloody freezing and never got the sun, we had a really neat setup with a big Gazebo/tent/thing setup and our little tents setup inside it with plenty of room for communal living, we even had my trusty little $10 pocket AM radio so managed to listen to the Warriors giving the Reds a thrashing as we had tea on Saturday night.
The boys spotted a few animals while they were out, and I spotted a bull from camp, although he was quite a way off and was right up in a big bluff system, he was holding nannies so I thought he might be worth closer inspection the next day.

Bull I spotted from camp

The next day I was keen to get out on the hill and try get in a better position to check out the bull I saw the day before, we climbed up on the snow and although we could get reasonably close to where he was holding his nannies, we were quite exposed so he wasn't going to show himself with us where we were, we had some lunch on the snow and decided to drop back down to a ridge that was getting the sun in the afternoon so we could warm up and watch from there.

Finally after a few hours he popped out and started grazing on the little patches of herbs dotted among the snow on his his big rock-spire, I really had to decide if he was worth taking and it was difficult using only binos and the cameras, a spotting scope is definitely on the to-buy list, he moved like he had some age and I estimated he had to be at least 12', I wasn't after the biggest bull but didn't want to shoot a young bull that could be someone elses 12+ in a few years.
We couldn't really move any closer than where we were without him spotting us either so after a while I made the decision I would take him, and it had to be from where we were.
I set up for the shot and dialled up the VX6 for 600 yards and 3mph of wind, made adjustments for the slight angle and the temperature and altitude (shit I love Strelok!) and waited for him to move around further onto the face, I wanted to be sure that if he dropped he would end up in a recoverable place as where he was there were all sorts of things he could have got hung up on.
Finally he had moved into a position where if he fell, he would (hopefully) slide far enough down into the valley that he would be recoverable, I lined him up mid shoulder, calmed my breathing, and touched off the shot, a solid thud confirmed the hit and he took a few steps as he tried to run downhill then he started tumbling and went out of sight.
I watched the video we had been taking and confirmed a good solid hit right where I wanted it.
We had a quick scout around but he had hopefully gone right down into the bottom of the valley and we were running out of daylight and didn't want to get caught out up in the snow after dark so we headed back to camp and I decided to go look for him the next day.
Next day the boys headed off for a hunt up into another catchment and I headed out to look for my bull, I eventually spotted him through the binos, he hadn't quite slid all the way down but I thought I shouldn't have much trouble getting him from where he was, I shot off up the valley and began the short climb up to where he was.

I got to him and confirmed he was over 12' but didn't think he would go 13, a nice representative bull and he had a very nice winter coat.
Somehow in my excitement to get to him I had hopped, leaped, and bounded my way up a short nasty climb that was fraught with danger and had slippery ice everywhere, and getting down was a bit of a different story, at one stage I had to just sit and think and it literally took me about 45minutes to think about what my next move was going to be, something to be aware of I suppose!
I managed to push him down the slope in front of me and eventually got to a little hollow where I could skin him.

I was really happy with my shot as I had put it exactly where I wanted and was impressed that the 150gr VLD being pushed at 3070 from my 85 Finnlight in 270wsm had infact passed right through and smashed both shoulders, below is the exit wound, complete with a little bit of the bullet jacket, very impressive performance I thought


So there we go, I wont let on too much more as want to put a video together, it was a good few days away with good company and I have come away from the trip feeling really happy with my shooting and my gear as I now know that the total package just works well.

Bull went 12.5, not a monster by any means but Im happy with him and another nice skin too!

nice one, good effort

choice, looks like a good base camp set up.

well done on the bull

Bloody well done.

Deadly

Awesome Ryan, top effort!!

Awesome, cheers for posting. Basecamp looks like heaven.

Ryan, always good to see a .270 doing the busseniss... 😀

Good stuff

Thanks for this,very inspiring.
MARK

Great stuff mate, we had a mint week away last week in tahr country too. Video and report to come over the next few days. There was a time here in NZ when a 12+ inch bull was considered to be massive, so there's nothing wrong with a mature bull over 12 that's for sure.

Great pics and well done.
When I started Tahr hunting back in the day, anything over 10" was considered a trophy. My best to date is 12.25" after chasing them for 45 years. So you have got me beat.
I'm nearly buggered but I think there is still enough life left in the old boy for a couple of more attempts. Your report was inspiring.

great report, looking forward to the video

Tents in a tent, awesome!