Tahr hunt - Gammack Range

After a fair bit of interneting a mate and I reckon we'll head into this area end of Sept... unless anybody would advise otherwise. Recent 1080 drops? Bad animal numbers? Carnivorous locals?

The plan is to leave Wanaka around 6pm on the Friday night and hopefully get to the Jollie hut before midnight.

Looking at some maps and google earth it seems like there are a lot of slips and not a hell of a lot of vegetation / cover?

Neither of us have shot a tahr before and are pretty damn keen to walk up some big hills and hopefully find something!

Cheers,
Dan

Best of luck!

Last year I hunted that area I came away with 2x Tahr. Spotted maybe 50/60 in total. Enough said :thumbsup:

We were up weekend just gone.
Spotted a few animals waaaaaaaay up.
We had a longish shot at a nanny which was in another group lower down.
Apart from that not much to be seen. Same was said by another keen guy who was running around the hills as well.

There was a cull in Autumn and as a result we saw the remains of two bulls. One was a decent animal. Such a shame.
Attachment 55255
Attachment 55256

Edit:
Green Point Hut (further up true left) is neat and tidy enough but rat shit everywhere and the hut book said rats rats rats.
We had tents so we opted for that option.

^ We have since completely cleaned out Green Point, is very tidy since we left it.

Been up there heaps mate. It has become very popular over the last few years. Last time I was in there I seen 13 people over 3 days . Plenty of country to cover. Get up the valley away from the first hut. First hut is maybe 35-45 mins and couple hours from there to Greenpoint hut. Flick me a PM if you need anything else. Good Luck great country youll enjoy it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hotsoup

^ We have since completely cleaned out Green Point, is very tidy since we left it.

---

It was very tidy on Saturday when we got there. Rat shit everywhere though on the concrete floor. I'm sure it would have been fine we just opted for tents.

Take some rat poison with you wanderer

Possoms for Africa too.

I was up there in early May. I took my son (15) and my Bother-in-Law up for their first Tahr hunt and we had stunning weather but being so warm the animals were right up on the very tops. The lads managed to secure a young nanny each for the pot from just over 250m but the big beasties eluded us on the hill. On the last morning we were about to climb up a face opposite camp when a helicopter came around the corner working the guts, flushed a huge Bull from the heavy scrub and shot it just 300m from us. I was livid. It wasn't a nice way to end what was otherwise a marvellous 4 days in the mountains. As the animal was shot from the hovering helicopter it was clear that this was an illegal activity because the area we were in is not available to WARS licensees. The rules for guided heli-hunting say you have to put the shooter out on the hill and leave him to shoot from the ground... so these guys were operating illegally no matter which way you look at it.

I heard from both DOC and another local operator that yet another Wanaka-based helicopter was in the area soon after our trip, having a big bomb-up with heli-hunters. I was planning to go back in June but there seemed little point. Next year. Definitely next year.


Attachment 55370

Spot the young bull. He's still up there waiting for you. Give him a couple more years though.


Attachment 55371

Still a bit of a climb yet to go - the Lad contemplates the way he's going to spend the next hour or so of his life. :)


Attachment 55372

I've got to give him is dues, despite the shaking knees the lad put in the hard yards and didn't complain.


You can't accuse us of not putting in the effort. Awesome location too... so beautiful. We're guardians of a stunning country.

Thanks for sharing @planenutz . Photo's looks great!! Hopefully we can get onto something worth bringing home ;)

Would anybody who's been up here recently suggest taking an ice axe?? Much snow / ice about?

Best have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.

This time of year, if I was going Tahr hunting id be taking one with me. You never know what your going to get in early spring