NZ 2016- '180 degrees'. tahr, trials and tribulations

[Hud]

Amazing stuff, can't wait for more.

[CoachBGriff]

Awesome so far guys!  Thanks for sharing and keep it coming!

Mark, congrats on the addition to your family!

[Marksman Quivers]

Thank you guys for the kind words, ive passed them on to my wife also.

So now lets continue.......

I froze on the thin ledge. The lone bull looking my way, he knew something was up but didn't know what.
After a while he started feeding again but this time he was feeding up out of the creek towards a mob of nannies above us, I smiled and thought these animals know when they cant be touched. I kept going off the ledge and although my intercept plan had failed, I was comforted by the realisation on seeing that side of the terrain, that the closest shot would have been to far and the wind barreling down the creek wouldn't have done much for my arrow flight!  I went as far as I could go to the creek and was content to take a few more pictures to add to my growing collection of Tahr photos.

 

 

 

 

Good job I didn't look down. The view back to the ledge I descended.

[Marksman Quivers]

After deciding to re group with Clint, I cut back round the bottom of the shale slide, a safer option I thought.
Clint was just rounding the bottom also, I relayed the story and we soaked up the mountains around us and it was decided that we should start the decent back to camp as time was getting on.

We used scree slopes to descend where we could, this is is the first time we have encountered these bush escalators and boy did they save us some time.

 

We sideled the whole face to get back to camp then dropped into the creek and descended to the tent,.

This is where the whole trip changed for me.

upon arrival at the tent Clint decided to take a few practice shots, its always good to to shoot with a mate, especially if its a good mate you only see once or twice a year. So I decided to join him, as I focussed on the tussock we were to shoot at and drew back.......
I was met with 100% let off, and here's me thinking I was shooting trad gear.

 

 

 

Bugger..... a nut bar, will make it better.

[23feetupandhappy]

Man that stings.......

[J. Cook]

Brutal!!!

[ozy clint]

mark's apparent calmness after the event is testament to his attitude towards hunting. of course i could see his disappointment, but it was tempered with his acceptance that this is just another trial to overcome before the mountains will give up their bounty for him.

i'm not sure i would have been as willing to accept that fate as readily. mark's reaction taught me that anger wouldn't have helped the situation at all, so there is nothing to do but enjoy the mountains for what they are. these trips are so much more than simply hunting, it is a life journey.
i will personally be as happy to see mark and paul rea (he couldn't make this trip) claim the mountains prize as if i had myself. i couldn't think of people more deserving.

[Terry Green]

I've been there....LOVE NZ threads!!!!

Didn't kill anything on the two days I hunted...but KILLED the trout!!!!

[ozy clint]

i can't remember exactly but we probably drowned our sorrows that night with an extra hot drink and a mars bar.
 

the next day the weather was fine and it didn't take long to spot some animals. we glassed for a while, content to try and formulate a plan for a stalk. however it wasn't long before there were so many tahr visible from camp that we were literally unable to move from camp to stalk any.
here's a photo i took from camp-
 

now here's the same photo with the tahr marked with dots-
 

there's about 80 tahr there! so, with little hope of a stalk because they would see us coming and for their numbers we had no choice but to hope they all fed into a better location where an approach was possible, which they didn't.

that night we thought we had patterned their movements somewhat and decided to glass early, spot them, then quickly make a move. except we only briefly saw about 6 tahr early in the morning which soon disappeared into the crags. after that we didn't see another tahr all day anywhere in the valley. so much for having patterned their movements.
 
 
 

[Benny Nganabbarru]

That's a pretty impressive mob! What happened next?

[vintage-bears]

[hybridbow hunter]

Go on Clint!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Just Getting caught up. Bummer about the bow but what beautiful country!