01 May 2013, 11:25
shanksponySome well deserved trophies
I've had some Mates from Sweden here over the last few weeks. I first hunted with them about 4 years ago on their first visit, and then again when I hunted in Sweden a year later.Their big goal for this trip was a bull tahr, so I arranged to take them on a bit of an adventure To a spot not many people visit. I havn't quite cracked an easy route to this spot and knew it would be a test, so contacted Tim who had been there before with me With Gryph a couple of years ago, to see if he was keen to help, as I felt I needed someone else who knew what they were in for. We drove down and picked up Emil And Mathias from Christchurch, Got them sorted with rifles and headed off for the west coast.
A member of the Kiwi forum helped us out big time by letting us sight in at his place. Forum's are great when you need help. Then we were off again, His last words of, we've had 200mm of rain, the rivers will be dodgy didn't really sink in.
Soon enough we had to face the river and it was a close run thing. I could see it was up from last time, but it didn't look that bad. we linked up, me breaking the water at the top, then Emil, all 6 foot 5 and 115 kg holding me up, then Tim and finally the other giant, Mathias anchoring the group.
20 minutes of totally fear inducing fight later we crawled out on the far bank, exhausted. It had been too much, we made it but just, thankfully we had a crew who didn't panic. After a calm down, we shouldered packs and started the climb At 6pm we called a halt, we had been climbing steadily for many hours and the crew were done for the day. This was the only piece of flat ground we had encountered, and there was water nearby. I didn't dare ask the guys to push on for another hour. It was lucky I didn't as we never found another flat spot next day where we could have camped.
We set up the tents and got a fire going to dry our clothes.
It was taking longer than I wanted, and the guys had just never struck anything like this. We had a couple of talks about whether to continue or not. The guys reckoned that if they had of known before they started, they wouldn't have, but we were into it now. they had never seen forest like this and it was pretty intimidating, but weighing on everyones mind was the river that had to be crossed again, and no one wanted to head down while it was still high.
Next day we climbed for a further 5 hours until we broke out onto our little flat campsite. We had a bite to eat and set up the tent then started cutting a track through the scrub for the last 200 meters to get to the tops.
The cloud beat us.
Mathias had a running shot at a bull in the mist, but missed.
Next day we climbed back up with the intent of putting in a big effort as the forecast was for further, sustained rain coming in late the next evening.
We decided tomorrow was for getting down and across the river.
Tim wanted to explore, so I took the guys for a walkabout. We found a couple of Chamois, and as we wanted meat, the guys took one each.
We then wandered around into another watershed. Way down below We spotted two bulls, one was, i'm sure, an absolute monster. We just didn't have the time or legs left to go after him and return though, so we took some photos and video.
Reluctantly we returned the way we had come to sit in wait for the evening...... You guessed it, just as we approached the magic hour the cloud rolled in. We set our selves up over prime spots, but talk about frustrating, the cloud was so thick that we could hear the Tahr eating all around us, the squeeeeek squeak as they pulled the tussock and the munching as they chewed, yet we could not pick them in the poor light. Mathias tried stalking in but they somehow were onto us and just kept moving and whistling away form us, out of site.
We had 5 minutes of shooting light left. Emil asked what to do? We reckoned to go after one. He crept down the valley but the same thing again. Finally he just up and sprinted around the hill and out of our sight into the fog. A second later we heard a shot ring out, followed by a gurgle and a series of thuds. As Emil ran a bull stopped to look back and a shot to its neck at 25 meters or less and he had his trophy.
This was a fine bull with one horn broomed back just over 12 inches, and the other just under 13.
Reluctantly we hurried off the hill, eat, slept and got away early for the 9 hours down and out and across that damned river!
The guys came north with me, and we took a week to recover such was the toll it took. All of us ended up with some sort of flu or illness, we had worn ourselves so thin.
We did a bit of hunting though and the guys got a fallow buck each.
Then with 10 days left, they decided they needed to have another crack at a bull Tahr for Mathias
We poured over maps and I showed them a spot I'd seen some promising bulls earlier this year, and how to hunt it best. They were off. I could not go with work building up, but waited with baited breath towards the end, hoping they had some luck and wanting to hear from them. Finally I got an email.
Hi Craig!quote:Hi Craig!
Regarding the hunt.... It was a really successful hunt for Mattias, he got a good bull Chamois 10.5" but futhermore he got a 14" Bull Tahr aswell, high up in ------ creek. We havent got it professionally measured yet, but it really is a fantastic head that makes my Tahr looks small!
We send you some photos when we have a better computer.
Cheers!
//Emil & Mattias
. Well done to the hunters.