With the bucks out in the open, there was no chance to get any closer than the 300m I was at, so I was content to just take some video and photos and the knowledge that I actually did hear them clash antlers and wasn't going crazy.
As I stood to walk out, they quickly jumped the fence with ridiculous ease and ran off to the cover of the eucalypt forest. I was happy with my rabbit, and my shooting form, but couldn't help but feel that it was meant to be my lucky day. Guess it wasn't meant to be.
I made it back to the hay shed and looked out in to paddocks and saw what I thought were cattle feeding. I put up the binos, and saw that they were the goats! Far out, I'd been all over the thickest and steepest parts of the property, and the buggers were out in the open feeding! The hill was a "J" shape and they were at the bottom tip of they "J" of you like and I was looking all over the straight part, they were around the corner, hidden from view.
They were feeding back to the treeline on the hills I threw the pack back on and took off in a big circle to come at them from above in the cover. No time to muck around, the suns' last rays were on the hilltop. I jogged the whole way to the treeline which was about 2km. Once I was there, I stripped off a jumper as I'd worked up a sweat running that far uphill, put on my faceveil and moved in.
They were in two groups, the closer one only had about a dozen in it, and the second one had about thirty. As I moved into the closer group, they were just that bit quicker than me, and made it above me and into the thick caprosma (which is like thornbush) and dissapeared. There was a good billy with them that would have gone close to the magic 40" benchmark, and because of this I thought of chasing them, but decided not to push them.
A qiuck scan of the other group showed a big dirty white shaggy billy, and a turn of his head showed him to be the one we had called "The Longhorn".
He was a real trophy animal, easily over 40 inches in spread and huge in the body. Could my luck turn? One way to find out, I pushed hard to gain elevation and just made it in front of them. They were feeding uphill, directly past where I was. There was no chance to shoot as it was too thick, so I backed off a few yards and moved uphill to a spot where I had two shooting lanes.
As they fed past, a couple had already gone past me. I knew the longhorn was up the front, but had he already moved through? I was starting to second guess myself, as I could see goats feeding uphill, but couldn't see their horns in the bushes. A brown and black billy that was about level with the big fella, came into view, so I stayed put and not ten seconds later he moved through the first lane.
Fingers on the string, he ambled into the second at ten yards.
Concentrating hard on his armpit, I chanted to myself "GET TO FULL DRAW, GET TO FULL DRAW"
Drew back, anchored and released.
The arrow hit him tight on his crease, a quater of the way up his barrel chest. He paused for two seconds, let out a bleat and spun and tore off downhill. He only ran ten yards and stood there. I took another shot and it went over his shoulders. Damn.
He moved to where I couldn't get a clear shot, only twenty yards away and stood there, hard hit. The other goats had no idea what had happened, one was looking at me and let out a few alarm sneezes, but was unsure as I had gloves, faceveil and 3D top on, and didn't move a muscle. They kept feeding past me, and when the last one had gone past, I slowly moved down to him. He was bedded against a tree, panting. I had to get to two yards before I could get a clear shot, and fired the finisher. At the shot he slumped his head and it was all over.
I moved around to his head and squatted beside him,looked him in they eye and said thanks and patted him on the chest. He was a magnificent specimen. His horns were incredibly wide and with heavy bases. I looked at all his scars in the hard skin under his horns from fighting, and his shaggy coat that displayed his cashmere bloodlines. It was a moment I won't forget.
With the sun almost gone I set up the tripod, and began to a photo session that lasted about half an hour.
It had been a long time between drinks, but I think I had just made up for it with what is likley to be the best trophy i'll take.
He measured an amazing 46" spread and scored 132 2/8 on the Douglas score and sits at about 25th on the all time bowshot list.
It was a great day, and a helluva way to break my drought. The beers sure tasted good that night.
For the record, the bow is a Fox longbow, Arctic fox 2pce takedown 53# @28, with juniper veneers.
Arrows were 5/16 Australian Ash with 190 Ribteks.
Thanks for all the words of encouragement and congratulations, it makes Tradgang a good place to be.
Good luck to you all on your upcoming hunts,
Memo
Topic: A long time between drinks (Read 966 times)
