Back from our Tahr hunt 26th May to 2nd June in the Jacobs Tahr block which I was allocated after winning it in the ballot draw (well I won a block last year but an error saw DOC failing to allocate to me so I had first choice of a block and week this year without having to go in the ballot draw).

Myself, two sons and two of their friends, two chopper lifts by the long time and very experienced pilot, James Scott, to get us and all our gear in, and out. No huts, just tents and a tarpaulin for a kitchen. My boys did make up a little potbelly fire to take in and it was certainly a game changer for battling the snow and bitterly cold conditions we had. Basically in the middle of the Southern Alps, campsite at 730m above sea level but harsh conditions and not for the faint hearted. Got sun into camp around 1.30pm each fine day and set at foot of valley so nice to warm up but once down the cold chilled you to the bone. Had good gear and managed to sleep warm most of the time. I garked up one shin but still mobile and a bit of field surgery with a small Gerber on some staph sores that turned a bit septic on the oldest boys knee.

No hunters got into the block the week before as conditions too bad so we had a block that had had a small respite. Big bulls mostly all still way way up high and out of reach but quite a few smaller ones offered opportunities to get great skins and hundreds of nannies and young seen in the bush and mountain scrub, many also feeding up with the big bulls.

Downed and retrieved 6 bulls and several nannies for skins and meat, wounded and lost larger bull and missed a couple of others. Fantastic to just observe the tahr in their natural environment, they obviously do not suffer from vertigo but they make you feel ill just watching where they get to so easily and how they move about and feed on seemingly sheer rock faces venturing right to the very edge of huge drops to nibble at some little alpine vegetation.

Over a foot of fresh snow at the campsite on arrival and a bit more that night but then 6 fine days for hunting. Up at daylight on last day to pack up gear ready for chopper, 4 hours in freezing temperatures and sun still not risen on camp before chopper arrived.

My younger sons friend got his new Tikka 7mm Rem Mag the day before we left to drive the five hours south to the chopper base so zeroed it in on the way down. Older sons friend also had a 7mm Rem Mag and myself and boys had our 7mm-08s.
Boys using my Hornady 139gr SST handloads at 2900fps, I used 150gr Rem Corelok reloads at 2700fps, one Rem Mag with Winchester 160gr Expedition Big Game factory ammo at 2950fps and not sure what other 7mm Rem Mag was using.
One SST bullet recovered under the skin of one bull Tahr, penetrated part of gut and through shoulder. Ranges fairly long at 200 metres plus, range finders used to help but Tahr are damn hard to put down even if hit through the shoulders they come down hill at high speed and once in the scrub or bush with nannies around whistling their alarm, impossible to stalk and find.

Bloody hard but good week of hunting, at 67 I'm finding the knees are not as good as they used to be especially when hunting in snow covered rough stuff but I guess I'm still up for it again, maybe!!!!

Our kitchen setup on arrival

View across valley from camp

Few tahr shot in this area close to camp

Down valley from camp

Head of valley from camp

Early morning glassing for bulls

One of our tents

Our tent setup

Life saver

Head of valley on fine day

Across from camp, sun coming up behind razor back

About to venture up valley

Waterfall creek up from camp

I climbed up in snow filled creeks centre picture chasing a bull

Keeping a watch up creek before sun up

One friend climbed up head of scrub fan under rock faces after a big bull

Much nicer once sun up

Boys hunted up to waterfalls and under cliffs

My little Marlin 7mm-08 on the lookout

Older son cleaning up bull tahr skin shot earlier in morning

139gr SST bullet recovered from bull

Resting up in sun while cleaning skin

Youngest son with first bull tahr

Good skin for the floor

Another rug

One of the meat nannies

Packed up waiting for chopper lift out

Well done
great pics
last year's kerfuffle is well in the past now.

Awesome! Can’t even imagine the cold and dangers and hardships there!

Eagle
Congrats on your hunt success. You are all good, hard Kiwi men doing it in those circumstances. Proper hunting.
I dont know if it's just your photos but I am interested in cape colour of the bulls. They seem dark. Perhaps darker than some I've seen and hunted on the eastern side of the divide. Or maybe just an age / time of year factor. What are your thoughts ? I know capes get more bleached towards Spring. Cheers.

quote:

Originally posted by 30.06king:
Eagle
Congrats on your hunt success. You are all good, hard Kiwi men doing it in those circumstances. Proper hunting.
I dont know if it's just your photos but I am interested in cape colour of the bulls. They seem dark. Perhaps darker than some I've seen and hunted on the eastern side of the divide. Or maybe just an age / time of year factor. What are your thoughts ? I know capes get more bleached towards Spring. Cheers.

Traditionally bull Tahr have dark coats with 'bleached' manes or collars but it seems to vary depending on where they spend much of their time. Scrub bulls seem much darker than those living on the high open mountains which probably stands to reason in that sunlight at that altitude will have considerable bleaching effect.
In saying that some of the big bulls we observed everyday high up on the inaccessible open tops looked like big yaks with black coats down to the snow. we often remarked when looking through our binos or the high zoom camera one of our party had, that they looked like big black bears.
I haven't seen too many bulls on the Eastern side but with the country much more open and higher sunshine hours I imagine the bulls there will tend to have lighter coats than their West Coast cousins.
Thanks for the compliment but this is one kiwi man who is finding the 'hard' bit starting to take it's toll. That sort of country under those conditions is a young fit mans game, even then the boys arrived back in camp some days absolutely knackered from scrambling around in the steep terrain and scrub.

My older boy commented early on that even just to be in that country and observe the Tahr in their habitat was worth gold and of course there is always the hope that one of the big boys will come close enough for a shot, long as it may be.

Well done, Eagle! It looks like I had it easy when I used to go over. I had all the lightweight camping gear but never had to use it because there was always a warm hut, so warm I hardly ever got into my specky sleeping bag.

I admire your persistence at 67. Though my knees are still usually OK, I'd had enough of the steep walk ups by 63.

quote:

Originally posted by sambarman338:
Well done, Eagle! It looks like I had it easy when I used to go over. I had all the lightweight camping gear but never had to use it because there was always a warm hut, so warm I hardly ever got into my specky sleeping bag.

I admire your persistence at 67. Though my knees are still usually OK, I'd had enough of the steep walk ups by 63.

The up hill stuff is usually okay for me albeit much slower progress than when younger, it's coming down that is harder, just don't have the same balance and knee strength so I'm all hands and bum easing my way down more often than not.
Cold and cramped tent conditions are not good for aging joints either.

Never mind, back to a warm house and comfy bed again now and all that 'hardship' dimming in my memory. Got back into reading your book again now Sambarman, like your writing style and good stuff in there.

.

Congrats. Great report and pictures. What a wonderful adventure with your lads.

Thanks for sharing.

Bucket list - NZ tahr.

Cheers

.

Very nice, beautiful country.

A mate of mine also got a bull last week.

Awesome! Its hard to exaggerate how hard and testing those conditions are to hunt in. Because of the mountains proximity to the pacific ocean, you don't just deal with snow, but wet snow and that is ten times harder to stay warm in.
I reckon the cape colour comes down to genetics as well as bleaching. Some bulls you see are much more golden despite living and in the same country with black bulls.

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:
The up hill stuff is usually okay for me albeit much slower progress than when younger, it's coming down that is harder, just don't have the same balance and knee strength so I'm all hands and bum easing my way down more often than not.
Cold and cramped tent conditions are not good for aging joints either.

Never mind, back to a warm house and comfy bed again now and all that 'hardship' dimming in my memory. Got back into reading your book again now Sambarman, like your writing style and good stuff in there.

Over on 'the East Coast' where I hunted the last couple of times, getting down was mostly skiing down shingle slides, though I did employ a sitting glissade one day to get out of a tight spot. It still took me about three hours, though, and several nights it was 9pm before I got back to the huts.

Thanks for your kind words about the book. As you've probably gleaned, I don't claim it is a masterful treatise on optics, just a journey to understanding.

Did yours include a six-page update in the back? I keep finding out new stuff such as about Burris's Posi-Lock and its possible use by Nightforce. One AR correspondent fires more than 100 shots from both his .338 and .416 magnums on an average day at the range and claims to have wrecked three scopes with Posi-Lock. Though Nikon scopes lack any third-screw equivalent that I know of, he says that they make the toughest scopes. That was news to me because I'd had an unfortunate experience with mine that I must now put down to a bump on the large objective levering the mounts out of whack.

Mighty rugged area.
Glad you all got your game.
Well earned it looks like.

George

Nice, looked a bit on the chilli side

Great photos! Thanks for posting.

How did it work with DOC giving you the pick of the blocks? How was your 2017 ballot messed up?

quote:

Originally posted by anotherkiwi:
Great photos! Thanks for posting.

How did it work with DOC giving you the pick of the blocks? How was your 2017 ballot messed up?

Back in November 2016 after the applications closed I was notified by DOC that I had been successful and they held the (Adams 3)Lower Poerua block for me and a permit would be issued on return of my confirmation of acceptance and completion of the party details. This was done and acknowledged by return email, I thought nothing more and waited for the permit. By March I had not received one so got back in contact and DOC were very apologetic and said that their system slipped up and they failed to allocate the block to me and it went to someone else.
Among the options offered were; the refund of my application fee, a couple of other blocks with spare weeks, or first choice of block and week for 2018. As the offered alternate blocks were wrong timing for us I chose the latter. This was confirmed as allocated for June 2018 so all good.

The ballot for 2017 was the first time it all had to be done online so as usual things often do go wrong with new systems. DOC were great and We were happy with outcome.

Thanks for the reply. I sure hope Doc make a mistake with my application next year haha that’s one awesome deal you got.

Thanks for the hunting report and for bringing back a lot of fond memories.

I absolutely take my hat off to you Sir, regardless of your age !!

I still vividly remember the hardship, cold and wet and am glad I got my Tahr hunting done in my 30's.