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Woke a bit stiff and sore this morning and lay there smiling remembering the last three days. The planing for this trip started about 6 weeks ago when a friend who had been in europe for 8 months emailed to say that he was returning to Aukland and would fly down so we could have a hunt before he went off to work in the mines in western Australia. It was going to be easier for him not to worry about bringing his rifles with him so the few in my sfae would do for both of us.
I met up with him in Cromwell at mid day and after getting set up in the camp ground we went out to an archard belonging to a friend of his. ( We had both been building in this general area of NZ for a few years some time back which is how we met up) The orchard was just starting to produce but not at a comercial level for this year so we carried the 22LR and 12G through the trees and while a high wind meant the rabbits were not out and about we dod get a couple of large bags of apricots. We went out for a few hours onto a vineyard we used to shoot on and got 15 rabbits that we cleaned and left for the owner and his Dutch house guests. They were going to make serve them for a dinner party the following night.
The following morning we headed into the hills hoping to get onto goats and stopped for a look at an old musterers hut on the way for a look. It was quite dilapidated but had bunks for 8 crammed inside with a 6ftx4ft clear floor space between. It was only for sleeping.





I had heard a month or two back that there were a mob of goats seen close to but we glassed for a while and saw no sign. We carried on to an area that has produced on a number of occasions over the years and after a bit of a steep climb down into the start of the bluffs we spotted a half dozen animals 300yds away.

The black spot just to the top of the bright rock about centre of pic is the first goat, is on 5 times zoom



and the result of Gareth taking the first shot with my 7x57 which I had put the qd scope on as he is not as used to the apertures and it was a lasered 253yds so he loaded some of the GS Custom bullets ( I always carry a few for such instances but rest of the 7x57 ammo was my soft nosed cast bullet)but the shot was still made a bit tricky by the up dratfs in the gullies and ridges between us and the goats. I was carrying my 404 with 350gn GC at 1400fps over 21.5gn Red Dot so it was a bit far for me.

This is the pic without zoom.



What happened next will be remembered often over the years. Goats came from everywhere and a mob of about thirty boiled out of the rocks where the first one died and went downhill and we thought we had lost them for the day, so we were trying to work out whether we would try to work our way through the bluffs to collect it when the mob came up the gully we were overlooking and the bombup began. I will say that any other time we have been out that 7 rounds has been the maximum we have ever fired so I had only taken 15 for the 7x57 (5x 120gn GS Custom bullet at 3235fps and 10 165gn softnosed cast bullets at 2415fps) and 10 for the 404. We got 21 of the goats and then everything stopped and there was no more sound of departing goats, that is live ones getting AWAY from there and the odd dead one falling over bluffs and crashing away down hill.
We started the sometimes difficult task of recovery and took the back legs and backstraps from 8 or 9 which gave us both about 80-90 lbs each to carry out.

This is a looking back down at some we have just finished with.





This is what a 50/50 350gn 404 at 1400fps will do to an animal



We continued to dress out the animals and some we had to go some way down to retrieve, like this small one.



It was another of the small ones like this that make very tender eating.



Gareth after checking whether one we had seen go over the edge had stopped where it could be retrieved or not. It haden't so we climbed round a bit further for some more.


I took the first load up and looked back to where Gareth was just finishing up on his last one.



When we were dressing them out on the hill we had left the leg skins on although Gareth had boned out the legs he took to save weight on the climb out so we stopped at a creek on the way down the hill to skin and wash them

This is the legs both bonned and on the bone with back straps including one young one that was taken from the loin back on the bone May not look as much as there actually is.



Because Gareth was flying out to go home then on the AU these all went home to my freezer.

I will have a bit of refinishing to do on my stocks as the Matagouri (a spiky bush) and spaniard,( a very spiky plant) had been hard on them with quite a few scratches as we worked our way through some of the dense patches.

On the way down off the hill in the truck we found a large patch of beautifully fresh mushrooms so that was tea taken care of.

The following morning we woke to a day of shower and very high winds but we decided to have a walk onto the hills of one of the other properties we shoot for rabbits but the wind was keeping them mostly tucked away out of sight so numbers seen were fewer than expected and quite fleeting although we did get an even dozen from the lower reaches before deciding to call it a day and head back to the camp. There were two other vineyards that back onto the hills we had been invited to shoot on but with the weather the way it was and the bag already taken we were more than satisfied with the few days we had had. I dropped Gareth off at another friend who would take him to the airport for his trip home and away.

All in all a very pleasant few days with a good friend and memories to treasure.

Looks like you and your friend made a hell of a memory.

Got the makings there for a few nice goat curry's mate.

Good job in nice surroundings... it never occurred to me that a 404 would work well bombing goats in the mountains .

CONGRATULATIONS THANKS FOR SHARING.JUAN