NZ Tahr Hunt – Day 3
NZ Tahr Hunt – Day 3
Some backcountry essentials: headlamp, inReach, cell phone, and water
Day 3 started with another slow morning of tahr meat sizzling on the wood stove as Josh finished fleshing and salting his tahr cape. The sun provided some Vitamin D and warmth for a mid-day snooze. Finally we got our gear together and once again headed up the mountain. The weather was turning a bit more cloudy and the wind had picked up.
Roll out
Rokosch trusting his waterproof gaiters and surefooted steps
Boulder hopping up the creek
With our pressure from the past two days putting the tahr a bit on edge we elected to go up the creek bottom to just underneath our glassing knob. From there we’d hike straight up and pop over and be ready to glass and locate tahr. We would stay out of sight and hopefully the tahr would feed off the mountain one more time.
Tahr on both sides of the drainage, looking for the biggest one
We quickly located a large mob of tahr high in the cliffs and once again settled in to see if they’d feed down to the areas we could safely access. After about an hour and a half we decided they would come off the mountain and we better close the distance now or else they would see us. We dropped back off the ridge and looped further up closing the distance to about a 1000 yards and the tahr slowly working closer and closer. After about thirty minutes they had worked into under 400 yards. After getting closer they winded us and started back up the mountain. When the biggest bull tahr stopped clear of the others the Tikka barked and made a lethal hit. The bull came downhill before one more shot put him down quickly. Fist bumps and high fives went around and we quickly scrambled up to the bull.
Zack with his New Zealand bull tahr
Three tahr in three days. A darn successful trip with great guys. We knew the routine and quickly had the bull in our packs and headed down the mountain.
A successful tahr camp
Success and good times with a great crew!
The next day we cleaned gear and all the tahr skulls and hides. Unfortanately a storm blew in that evening and we were unable to hunt or fly out. The following morning we had a chopper show up just after sunrise.
Stoked
A beautiful but bumpy ride took us back to the hangar and our New Zealand tahr hunt was complete. If you are interested in hunting free range tahr, stag, or chamois definitely give Ben a shout over at BGHNZ > https://bghnz.co.nz/ A big thanks to both Ben and August who provided much comedic relief in camp and on the mountain! Good times boys, till next time!
-Written by Zack Boughton
