One thing about picking up sticks and relocating is you have to, hunting wise, start from scratch. Up north I had it pretty comfortable. Id done all my exploring in my 20s. I had it sorted so that I knew where I could go and the minor details of where the deer etc would be at any time of year. You could say that my hunting had become comfortable and it was seldom I didnt know where to go to get an easyish animal.

Thats all changed and I having to do all the exploring again, except now Im 50....

Last week My brother and I went looking for somewhere that might hold some red deer come the roar. We have a bigger plan for the area we selected, but first up we just wanted to push into some fairly easy to get too clearings and see what sign presented.

We were quite happy with the clearings and though you cant see from the photos, there is a reasonable amount of fresh grazing and other sign.
Clearings achieved we then started to scout for the routes the deer were using to get to these spots. They are ringed by bluffs and it was just luck that I happened to turn left when I needed too and voila! there was a big muddy trail that wound its way up a gutter to the ridge. Even better was the cast antler we found on the trail.

This now gives us confidence to push further into this area where other hunters might not be going so much.

Monday morning I got up at 330 am and drove 3 hours south. My plan was to check a couple of spots for chamois sign. The first was a major river with a bad reputation, and true enough I wont be trying to wade it any time soon unless I have a death wish. But I tramped 2.5 hours up it and found alot of deer and Chamois sign on the way. Plus an avenue into some very promising country.. An idea anyway.
The trouble with exploring is you need to do it in daylight and you dont yet know where you need to be at dawn or dusk, So rather than wait around there, I tramped back out and drove a further 30 minutes too another spot. Grabbed a drink and bite to eat and headed up a small side creek that promised much. Though sign was not as plentiful as the previous spot, there was enough, and I pushed up valley until it became rough. Id rolled my ankle the week before and it turned out it wasn't as healed as i thought, and it was now telling me not to get into heavy climbing and jumping. So even though the valley ahead looked great, I stopped and went back down.

Once on easier country I looked at the time and realised that if I went back to the car, Id miss the best time for hunting. So found a small flat with a big sheltering rock and had a sleep.
About 7pm I stirred and with the cold setting in, put some layers on and started to glass. Downstream was a big slip face and some river flats. One hundred yards too my right was a smaller cliff with lots of feed and rocky points. I checked out the area too my right, then the down stream slips. nothing. I happened to glance right again and there at that moment a Chamois buck sauntered into view.
!00 meters away and 70 meters up, I very carefully moved at each moment he turned his head away. Picking up rifle and daypack and slowly manoeuvring to place them on a rock that offered a good shooting platform. I settled in and waited for him to graze either down, or onto the steepest piece of cliff. He did the later and when on a promontory I held fast on his shoulder and waited the extra time for him to come full broadside. The shot sent him spinning and plummeting to land across the creek at the stream edge.

Photos, butchery done, I made my way back to car and slept on a mattress in the back. Little too well as I missed daybreak and rushed back up river an hour too late, but still caught a 2 year old red hind just departing the flats. She was a second too fast for me to get a shot off. Though that didnt worry me too much. I had the info I needed about the spot now.

Thats what you call: "off to a great start"

Do it now while young and healthy. Don't wait til
you are 80 & crippled.

Thanks for sharing.

George

Great result and beautiful country

Thanks for sharing your report!
Hopefully the wisdom and cunning of age will make up for the lack of strength and agility of youth!!!
Best of luck with the new spots.

JCHB

Yeah I do miss the endless supply of energy I once had. That and my recovery time. The knowledge though sure does save quite a bit of time. And google earth, a tool I never had 30 years ago. Though it means the country has no secrets from anyone.

Nice pics Craig! Very nice hooks on that one!
I have to agree with the others…do that exploring while you are still able. It only gets tougher….

Congratulations on that chamois!

Z

That's great stuff, Craig.

I don't suppose that place you went for the chamois is anywhere near where I went with Michael. I recall the stream there was five feet deep and required wading, something I declined to do even when I was a young fellow of 60-plus.

Yep same river, just closer too and more accessible from the road. You and Zee have something in common. Both of you have come to NZ and been hunting up that river. Its rough, tough country. Gryphs been up there as well but that was an even tougher trip as we climbed for two days through untracked forest to get too the tops.

It looks great Craig, I'm glad that you had some luck there.

Thanks Craig, I had a shot at a chamois up there but, having bumped the big scope a few minutes before on a soft mud bank, missed the buck by a foot at only 100 yards.

Maybe that walk in was my journey to Damascus

Are you telling me you had an American scope?

No, Craig, it was actually a Nikon Monarch 4-16×42. I must admit that I replaced it with a little Leupold 2-7× in a Hillver bridge mount, though, and that it has been reliable so far.

I'm not against American scopes for their 'nationality', just the way their makers have taken us. I love my old Bausch & Lomb 'Custom' scopes, Unertls and a 1947 Weaver K2.5, and hope to a find a Lyman Alaskan, Noske Type A and some of the pre-'64 Leupolds some day.

quote:

eah I do miss the endless supply of energy I once had.

At 50? My next is 72 old mate...when ya 50 theres heaps of energy compared to now.

Yep. Geez I thought you were about 65. Feel bad now dragging you around those mountains.

Ha ha 65? I`d be happy to be way back there again mate.

actually when you think about it, it was too many years ago that we last hunted together.

Well covid fucked that for three years.

At 69 you are still late middle aged and still climb the same hills you did at 50. After 70 the wheels start falling off. At 73 I now rely on sheer momentum to reach the top!

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Great read and congrats on the chamois! Thanks for sharing



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From memory Charlie, you're a keen fisherman. Some great brown trout fishing down here too.