Just back from a trip to The Southern Alps - flew into the mountains from Fox Glacier with Methven, Canterbury Hunting Guide Tim Buma after a chamois .

Choppered into our base camp valley under the cloud that obscured most everything above our camp , and then watched as the cloud settled down lower and sat there all afternoon . Had a bit of a blunder about in the fog that afternoon , but in the limited visibility we may well have passed-by a bunch of animals and not known they were there . Awfull stumbly sort of country in good light , and really enjoyable when it is wet and foggy too .

Next morning was spent glassing the valley faces for chamois , located a small group on the top of the steepest bit - arent they always there ? - but closer inspection of the biggest one showed a broken horn , so that saved his bacon for another day . Would have gone about nine inches too , a good specimen with a really nice summer coat .


The decision was made to climb up to where we had seen the group and see what eventuated , so off we set . Basecamp was at about 980 metres asl and we picked our way up the steep boulder-strewn face towards the top , stopping so the unfit North Islander could catch his breathe whilst Tim glassed for animals . I have to say that I thought I was reasonably fit before , but have to reassess what "fit " means now ....

After some adventurous climbing through boulders and snowgrass , and scaling steep watercouses we eventually got up onto the lower levels of the ridge top . Large grassy areas with snowgrass and boulders. More glassing , nothing seen so onwards and upwards .


This shot is looking down the valley towards camp . Climbed about three hundred metres to here .

Tracked off across the slope through the shaley rocks , across large rockslides with interesting moving stones underfoot . Few patches of hard snow up here too .
Kept on up onto the top of the ridge between watersheds. Clambered over some huge boulders , tracked along through more hard snow , being carefull not to fall through at the edges where the snow had melted against the rocks . Found some very fresh chamois footprints so followed them on up into higher rocky bits . Couldnt find the owners tho ...

Located a huge boulder with good views of the surrounding countryside and sat and glassed for a fair while , to no avail so did what any other alpine hunter would do and had a sleep .
When we finally gave up snoozing ( Tim was trimming his toenails at one stage..) back to glassing . By now the cloud was billowing out of the Northern valley and piling into our valley , with some very dense foggy bits and other clear periods. Made for difficult glassing but still very scenic , and pretty warm too .About 1400 metres asl so sunburn was a possibility , as my legs remind me .

Not much joy with glassing so we shouldered our packs and were about to head off when I looked behind us over the edge and there were 2 chamois- mother and baby .They must have been camped under the rock we were on top of all the time !! They were unaware of us , at about forty metres away , and the nanny had a reasonable set of horns so a well placed shot with my borrowed Ruger M77 in 7mm-08 and the trophy was mine . The baby chamois wasnt remotely disturbed by the shot , kept on feeding so Tim suggested we see if we could get some photos cos you never get that close , so the next twenty minutes was spent filming the youngster and his yearling sibling who appeared as well . The older one was fairly flighty but the young one stayed close and we managed some pretty nice shots of both .





Eventually , as the cloud closed in around us , the babies left , and Tim proceeded to cape out the trophy nanny. I held legs and other bits as required but figured since Tim knew what he was doing that I should let do it . Thanks mate .Horns measured a tad over eight inches , tall but not much of a hook to them . Good enough for me tho , and if you dont think so then go get your own before you start comparing.....







On the way down again the cloud was closing in and making for some eery scenery. Sort of "Lord of the Rings " stuff.



These are all Tims photos - I had a wee mishap with my camera and fell on it which didnt do it any good - later in the trip .Have the images on memorycard , just need to extract them .

Since I had my representative specimen and didnt need to shoot the two small chamois we called it quits for the day and headed down into the fog . Two hours later back in camp we were able to call up the helicopter guy to lift us out next morning , which he did .

The day after we got back to Methven we went for a tahr hunt up in the headwaters of one of Canterburys braided river systems . Despite lots of climbing and glassing I have to say we didnt see a single tahr .But such is life.

Needless to say I will be back for another look , even wifey says she wants to shoot her own alpine trophy now so the hunting future looks ok in our household .

The chamois head and cape are presently at a South Island taxidermist awaiting treatment , a years waiting list before mine gets looked at.... This is pretty normal by all reports so I will have to be content with my photos and the recoverd 7mm projectile for a while yet .

Thanks to Tim and Vanessa at TrackersNZ for a great experience .

Chamois sure are special.

Great photos Muzza what bullet did you use?I am going to chase Chamois in may,im going to use 7mm mag thinking 120gr v-max as i do not want to blow big holes in the skin

T-P ,

I was using Tims Ruger M-77 in 7mm-08 so whatever PMC load is in soft point was what did the trick.

You need something that shoots flat to 250 metres, but like my case , you may not need that range . You find them where you find them .

Muzza

I'm guessing that chamois has a summer coat (?).

I thought it would be lighter for a summer coat vs a winter coat (?) Do you know the difference, if so please tell.

Thanks.

NitroX-

the chammy has an in-between coat - the true summer ones are quite light in colour. This one has a darker coat but hasnt lost the summer hair yet and got scraggy looking . I'm told they can look pretty scruffy as their coats change .

Several others we glassed had more summer colours. I like this colouration more than the summer ones , personally .

Muzza

Congratulations, vey nice Chamois


Cheers
/ JOHAN

quote:

Originally posted by muzza:
NitroX-

the chammy has an in-between coat - the true summer ones are quite light in colour. This one has a darker coat but hasnt lost the summer hair yet and got scraggy looking . I'm told they can look pretty scruffy as their coats change .

Several others we glassed had more summer colours. I like this colouration more than the summer ones , personally .

Thanks mate. Thought it looked "winterish" without knowing the exact differences but thought it might be too early for a winter coat. But you never know in the mountains.

Can any of our esteemed Kiwi chamois hunters post photos of the different coats? It would be much appreciated.

Posting more photos of chamois will cause me a distinct case of "chamoisitis" and encourage me onto the bike to 'fitten up'.

quote:

Posting more photos of chamois will cause me a distinct case of "chamoisitis" and encourage me onto the bike to 'fitten up'.

NitroX

Well, does that mean no stogies, less meat, more veggies and exercise?

You do really need help, bitten by the chammy bug

Cheers
/ JOHAN

quote:

Originally posted by JOHAN:
Well, does that mean no stogies, less meat, more veggies and exercise?

Vegetarian! No way. I've got 150 kgs of venison in the freezer to eat through. Some tasks are just too tough.

Exercise? I remember what that is! Damn.

Those Kiwi South Island mountains scare me.

Nice pictures!
Will the young chammy manage alone at that age?

Yes , the little guy ( or girl?) was weaned off mum so should do fine , and with an older sibling to assist should be fine . I would guess the baby was six months old or more .

If I was a total asshole ( quiet in the audience...) I could have shot all three but that isnt my style . Neither Tim nor I had a need for more than one trophy so the others get to fight another day.

muzza,

The rifle looks like it has a wood forend and a synthetic middle section. Is there something like tape on the forend or is it just my bad eyes? Great pictures and hunt, by the way.

Great picures and story!

I was at NZ back in 2001 to shoot he world benchrest chapionships and I had a glimse of the beauty ot the southern alps! I have to go back some day soon and do some hunting!!

Me and a Aussie mate did some rabbit hunting at a small island called Pepin island outside Nelson and we had a great time!

We whent on a small trip around the south island and we actually wisited Fox Glacier!

Stefan

Longbob-

The rifle is a Ruger M77 synthetic/ss with a neoprene camo sleeve over the fore-end to protect from scratches and dings .Since it belongs to Tim the hunting guide I guess it gets a fair amount of carrying so the sleeve is a good idea .

Stefan - how do our mountains compare to yours? You have more of them I suspect .

muzza.

Our mountains here in Sweden are hills compared to yours

We have a quite long mountainrange up north but the ice made it quite smooth and without any major peaks some 10 000 years ago

Stefan

Bullet was a nosler partition 139 gr.
Remington 7.08
Rifle is a Ruger M77 Ultralite. (6 Pounds all up) fitted with a Leupold 3-9. Not a bad all round rig for NZ conditions, and nice and light to carry for us old buggers.
Have taken most species of NZ Big game with this calibre.
Something with a bit more "Stretch" is preferable for the likes of Bull Tahr, where shots can be long (300-400 yards) on a big solid animal.
Must admit Muzza is not a bad shot under pressure, and did manage to shoot the right animal, and restrain from a bomb-up on the easy ones.
We had a great hunt in some awesome scenary. Saw 7 Chamois in a day and half hunting. Low cloud was a problem, but not a total spoiler.

G'day Muzza,
Nicely done! Great pics too! Makes me want to dust off the Ultralight 270, phone Tim, and book the flight. Oh, and work on the fittness!
Johan, try to move on from this thing you have about Blasers, I am quite sure the hunters who had the old 4 bore blackpowder muzzleloaders took one look at the new mauser breechloaders and said " this little toy will NEVER catch on!"

Cheers, Dave.

quote:

Must admit Muzza is not a bad shot under pressure, and did manage to shoot the right animal, and restrain from a bomb-up on the easy ones.

Gee Tim , thats nice of you!! The critturs were pretty close and that Leupold scope made them look even bigger....and the only reason I didnt kill em all was cos you would have had to carry them all down the hill mate .....

Very nice days work mate very nice indeed! Ive always envied the hunting you blokes have .Mind you I took the lad out after goats today.Strike me pink I knew I was Old & years of shooting (which involves a 4x4 & spotlight with very little walking) Took its toll on me ,as we live in the Flinders Ranges I'm buggered.So at the end of the day the score was Lad =3 nannies 1small billy shot with a .310 cadet at about 50 to 70 mtrs and Dad a mild heart attack,sore legs ,back&pride.No shots expended out of the 45-70.