Finally got a few minutes to sit down an write a quick breifing of how the hunt went when i was in the Southern Alps for 2 weeks just prior to the Red deer Roar period.
Unfortunatly i didnt put in for ROAR ballot blocks this year so i was relying on hunting public land "open hunting" areas, which there is quite a few, but also quite a few hunters---- such is public land hunting.
Since a while ago i noticed a group of Hinds which were always living out of one big side creek with some forest, they were often up in the head basin but would come down low from time to time.
i'll leave the Red Deer there, its a story for another day - however the plan was to stay put in the Valley with the Hinds in the build up the Roar.........
I was in there this particular week and had glassed some Tahr far away previously, keeping in mind this Valley was becoming a favourite of mine... i'd been in there on a few Trips in the past few weeks, spending 5 and up to 10 days at a time in there!
it was a beaut Valley with a DoC Hut about 7km up stream - i had a season pass for the Huts so i would often call it home mid week when tramper(hikers) traffic was low, an i would move out for the weekends.
it was a bit of a middle house also, between the Deer and the Tahr 'up the back'.
The week bought some rain an with it came several Foggy mornings which lasted until lunch time and really lowered my hunting time, i was starting to get anoyed with it when i had climbed quite high to fly camp out above the bush line to glass for deer, thats when i seen the tahr feeding well up in the rocky country an at times moving down into the scrub band, however by the time the evening came it was too much of a mission to cut down through the gulleys over to their face, especially coming back in head torch...
I had enough an went down to the Hut- where i ran into a Lady an she mentioned some heavy rain coming in 2 days time, which is forecast to last 2 solid days--
I thought that is too long for me to sit in the hut and that i would back out to my vehicle , head to town, run a few errands so i could spend the final two weeks of my allocated time allowance before returning back to Aus for family pre arranged priorities.
I stashed what food an items i didnt need but would later need under a tree beside the river- noodles, flat bread, gas can, museli bars water bottle etc.
skip the shopping and re gather of essentials- but worth a mention taking 20 packets of 2 minute noodles back in
3 days later i returned and walked in-
i decided I needed to make 2 food stashes , the one i left at the top of the Valley and one at the Camp where i watched the Hinds from every other day..
this was a great idea as it allowed a fairly light travel up stream on the days i didnt want to watch deer feeding mornings an afternoons, I told myself on the last trip in that I would target the Tahr i seen up the back as a priority.
So i went straight up there and made a half way camp once i made the bush line, i then stalked across the face the next morning so as i had plenty of time incase it took longer than expected- which it did. i'd missed the 'trail' an kept above the bush line... it was quite rocky an scrubby but i ran into a Spiker Red- wallowing and got some close photos from 30meters away.
I eventually got to the other side and tried to find a flat spot to set up the tent to no avail, so i climbed up to a small knob an began glassing for the evening.
You wouldnt believe but after an hour A Tahr was spotted fairly low on the other side of the valley- about 800m away direct-
I thought that one was worth a Stalk an to take the moment incase of Fog the following morning!
The tahr looked like it might walk across the scree slope an feed on some tussock toward my location, which ment i could of perhaps had a 300m shot on it- however of course it fed the other way an dropped over the small ridge where i couldnt see..
i had to go down cross the creek an slowly make my way up an infront of the Animal, which i did slowly as initially i had a hour an a half of light left... i could only get short glimpses in between the tall tussock of the animal an it made things difficult, so i had to eventually get on the scree slope/open country an head up almost directly toward it, luckily it was busy feeding an was none the wiser-
eventually from 160meters i had a good enough standing rest on a rock / boulder, in the fading light - too low for camera use- i sent a 130gr Hornady whatetail toward the animal, i shot directly over its back and it jumped up and ran around in a half circle before stopping breifly to look around at WTF that was, Boom- WACK was the response.. it took a short run an went down.
I got to the animal in the Dark to make sure it was dead an to know exactly where it was, i took some quick photos then an there but descended back to the creek an set up my tent on a flat spot- Absolutely chuffed with the evenings proceedings.....
a sleep in was in order-
i got up to the bull the following morning and checked it right out- unaware at the time of just how 'big' it was, but i knew i had a mature animal on the ground!
the day time temps in the sun were fairly warm around 24 degrees or so with a biting UV drenched sun..
Once i did the whole photo shoot an took the skull and a backstrap for dinner i retreated to the tent to try beat the heat but failed so packed camp an got down into the bush line an spent the night there!
before heading back to the Hut for one night an then onto the Red Deer mission for the remained of the trip!
Some photos of my Trophy Bull, which is said to be the Halcyon days of the Big Horned Tahrs! prior to the Government culls in order this yr!
so i am wrapped-
The Valley in which the Hut was below- here i am at the Fly camp location... back hills where the Tahr were
looking somewhat back behind me, the hut would be down the bottom right near the grassy flats
my half way 'fly camp' just in the tree line
A Bull Tahr feeding "up the back"
My Bulls Horns - 13.25 X 13.5 inch long! 8-9 years old!
Trophy photos
Back at Camp- i found the Spike when i set up my Tent- can see the beaut Tahr Country behind me
PS-- that mossberg .270 gets it done!
Thanks for reading.
WhelanLad
Unfortunatly i didnt put in for ROAR ballot blocks this year so i was relying on hunting public land "open hunting" areas, which there is quite a few, but also quite a few hunters---- such is public land hunting.
Since a while ago i noticed a group of Hinds which were always living out of one big side creek with some forest, they were often up in the head basin but would come down low from time to time.
i'll leave the Red Deer there, its a story for another day - however the plan was to stay put in the Valley with the Hinds in the build up the Roar.........
I was in there this particular week and had glassed some Tahr far away previously, keeping in mind this Valley was becoming a favourite of mine... i'd been in there on a few Trips in the past few weeks, spending 5 and up to 10 days at a time in there!
it was a beaut Valley with a DoC Hut about 7km up stream - i had a season pass for the Huts so i would often call it home mid week when tramper(hikers) traffic was low, an i would move out for the weekends.
it was a bit of a middle house also, between the Deer and the Tahr 'up the back'.
The week bought some rain an with it came several Foggy mornings which lasted until lunch time and really lowered my hunting time, i was starting to get anoyed with it when i had climbed quite high to fly camp out above the bush line to glass for deer, thats when i seen the tahr feeding well up in the rocky country an at times moving down into the scrub band, however by the time the evening came it was too much of a mission to cut down through the gulleys over to their face, especially coming back in head torch...
I had enough an went down to the Hut- where i ran into a Lady an she mentioned some heavy rain coming in 2 days time, which is forecast to last 2 solid days--
I thought that is too long for me to sit in the hut and that i would back out to my vehicle , head to town, run a few errands so i could spend the final two weeks of my allocated time allowance before returning back to Aus for family pre arranged priorities.
I stashed what food an items i didnt need but would later need under a tree beside the river- noodles, flat bread, gas can, museli bars water bottle etc.
skip the shopping and re gather of essentials- but worth a mention taking 20 packets of 2 minute noodles back in
3 days later i returned and walked in-
i decided I needed to make 2 food stashes , the one i left at the top of the Valley and one at the Camp where i watched the Hinds from every other day..
this was a great idea as it allowed a fairly light travel up stream on the days i didnt want to watch deer feeding mornings an afternoons, I told myself on the last trip in that I would target the Tahr i seen up the back as a priority.
So i went straight up there and made a half way camp once i made the bush line, i then stalked across the face the next morning so as i had plenty of time incase it took longer than expected- which it did. i'd missed the 'trail' an kept above the bush line... it was quite rocky an scrubby but i ran into a Spiker Red- wallowing and got some close photos from 30meters away.
I eventually got to the other side and tried to find a flat spot to set up the tent to no avail, so i climbed up to a small knob an began glassing for the evening.
You wouldnt believe but after an hour A Tahr was spotted fairly low on the other side of the valley- about 800m away direct-
I thought that one was worth a Stalk an to take the moment incase of Fog the following morning!
The tahr looked like it might walk across the scree slope an feed on some tussock toward my location, which ment i could of perhaps had a 300m shot on it- however of course it fed the other way an dropped over the small ridge where i couldnt see..
i had to go down cross the creek an slowly make my way up an infront of the Animal, which i did slowly as initially i had a hour an a half of light left... i could only get short glimpses in between the tall tussock of the animal an it made things difficult, so i had to eventually get on the scree slope/open country an head up almost directly toward it, luckily it was busy feeding an was none the wiser-
eventually from 160meters i had a good enough standing rest on a rock / boulder, in the fading light - too low for camera use- i sent a 130gr Hornady whatetail toward the animal, i shot directly over its back and it jumped up and ran around in a half circle before stopping breifly to look around at WTF that was, Boom- WACK was the response.. it took a short run an went down.
I got to the animal in the Dark to make sure it was dead an to know exactly where it was, i took some quick photos then an there but descended back to the creek an set up my tent on a flat spot- Absolutely chuffed with the evenings proceedings.....
a sleep in was in order-
i got up to the bull the following morning and checked it right out- unaware at the time of just how 'big' it was, but i knew i had a mature animal on the ground!
the day time temps in the sun were fairly warm around 24 degrees or so with a biting UV drenched sun..
Once i did the whole photo shoot an took the skull and a backstrap for dinner i retreated to the tent to try beat the heat but failed so packed camp an got down into the bush line an spent the night there!
before heading back to the Hut for one night an then onto the Red Deer mission for the remained of the trip!
Some photos of my Trophy Bull, which is said to be the Halcyon days of the Big Horned Tahrs! prior to the Government culls in order this yr!
so i am wrapped-
The Valley in which the Hut was below- here i am at the Fly camp location... back hills where the Tahr were
looking somewhat back behind me, the hut would be down the bottom right near the grassy flats
my half way 'fly camp' just in the tree line
A Bull Tahr feeding "up the back"
My Bulls Horns - 13.25 X 13.5 inch long! 8-9 years old!
Trophy photos
Back at Camp- i found the Spike when i set up my Tent- can see the beaut Tahr Country behind me
PS-- that mossberg .270 gets it done!
Thanks for reading.
WhelanLad
