Thread: Trophies Memories and photos (heavy)

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

I'm still to put a big stag on the deck though I don't really target them so it may be a while, the first "stag" I shot was as a young fella and it was actually a spiker but I kept the head all the same, and the most decent stag I have shot was only an 8 pointer but he was old and beautifully even and I kept that too.
Since leaving home as a young fella, hunting took a back seat for a while whilst I was more interested in spending all my time and money on tits and wheels. Once I had settled down a bit in my early/mid 20s I took up hunting again and have focused almost entirely on chamois, almost by chance really as it was one hunt in particular where I was actually out looking for a deer and came across a large family group of chamois, I'm not sure why but my "young fella shoot-anything-that-moves" instinct was taken over by a great sense of curiosity and I decided to just watch, I was within 150 or so yards of the group of animals the whole time and found them fascinating to watch, eventually the old matriarch doe that was on watch got onto me and she whistled (that surprised me!) and quietly ushered the group a wee way further off, still in view of me, but the old girl disappeared up a gut where I couldn't see her, only to reappear directly above me on a rocky outcrop probably only 50 yards away, we stared each other down for a while and she stomped her feet a few times, whistled at me, crouched and peed a few times, all classic chamois behaviour I have seen many times since. I never ended up pulling the trigger on any of them despite never having shot or even seen one in the wild before but I'm glad I didn't it was such a great experience that has set me on the course I take with my hunting now days which is an insatiable thirst for watching and hunting chamois, it also really hit home at that moment that hunting is a whole other beast than just the act of putting an animal on the ground. I put my first buck on the deck a year or so after that experience and unbeknown to me at the time (I didn't really know what was considered a good chamois buck) he was actually a real ripper going 10 3/4" I have his head and have thought on and off about shooting a decent headskin to have him mounted, but then there's something special about him that makes me feel it wouldn't do him justice by mounting him with another animals headskin. I have continued to hunt chamois with rifle, camera, and the old memory bank and can't see myself ever growing tired of it.

@Ryan_Songhurst I totally agree with you. I only shoot 50% of what I see. I get a real buzz out of watching deer in the wild. I once watched a group of 13 deer in the Tararuas on a river flat, what an incredible experience it was as they slowly crept back to the bush line after jumping around with each other, and rare to see that many in a well hunted public area. I always tell people starting out hunting, Don't be in a hurry to pull the trigger if you want to learn an animals behavior. The first time I ever saw Chamois in the wild I couldn't pull the trigger, I was so amazed at their behavior I just wanted to watch them. And I still haven't shot a Chamois yet either, one day.