Able Lake 3rd period 2016
This is from a few years back I had to copy and paste it off the old forum so photos are all lumped at bottom and their might be the odd mumbo jumbo in their that'll be the photo file name off the old forum I havent bothered to go threw and proof read it as its bloody long winded but I'm sure itll kill 5 mins for some keen readers cheers all our cameras ended up flat and wet so not very photo heavy unfortunately
Long winded written averagely But as it happened enjoy... or dont I had fun Skip to "day one" to cut this yarn in half if need be got carried away with the lead up Wink
It all started part way into a late September early October Tahr trip into my local stomping ground trying to secure Dan Moe and Cam 3 of my north island mates their first Bull Tahr seeing good numbers and spying some good bulls it was all very exciting and we started tossing around the idea of trying our luck for this famous Westcoast ballot everybody talks about so fondly about . With the rest of the trip going swimmingly with a 11" 2 12'' Bulls and a massive 13.5'' Bull by far the biggest I've ever seen or heard of coming out of this particular east coast area , hyped up for the chance at a crack at a ballot block we got back to town spoke to a few people over the next few weeks got a list of the blocks we wanted to go for . Period 3 suited all of us best as one of us had a baby due mid March and the other 3 of us like chasing feathers the first weekend of May .
A couple of months went by Christmas and new years hunting a little bit got into some Red's and Samber in the Manawatu area . Time flew and it was February 10th Ballot day a few days later their was a letter in the post waiting for me when I got home from work upon opening it read we had secured able lake Adams 4 landing site 3rd period may 14-20th . Letting the guys no of our luck Dan had to bail due to getting married but not to worry I had another keen as mate who id done most of my Tahr hunting with shore he was in the U.K at the time but he's a good keen man and was coming back for our bi-annual trip to Stewart Island in March any way so I let him know and he was pretty keen to hang around and come into to mountains for another adventure .
I'd just started setting up a longer range rifle and was going back and forth up and down left and right trying to pick a calibre id already selected a 5-25x50HD5 just need something to mount it on looking at big wildcats standard 300WSM 300Win Mags 7mm WSMS 7MM Rem Mag. What I learnt here is theirs to many options and fate ended up taking over and Cam had a beauty 85Finnlight for sale in 7mm RM and their we have it my medium to long range rifle . Jack also needing new shooter as his trusty browning 308s barrel is in need of some attention settled on a Remington XCR in 7mm RM nice piece of kit extremely light weight and stainless coated in some form of Ceracote like coating making it a very weather proof tuff alpine rifle .
Fast forward a couple of months and the Boys arrived from up north we loaded the truck and headed for the coast as I'm shore allot of you know the weather for period 3 was looking absolutely crap with lots of phone calls to the chopper company over the week hoping for good news but not to worry us a good feed at the Greymouth ale house and south bound for Franz Josef to hit the scratcher .
Morning came with the sound of a angry backpacker poking their head out the door and informing us it was 5 am ''Just encase we didn't no" showered coffee brewing and waiting in the lounge of the back packers for the nod from the pilot time went by exchanging everybody's roar photos and yarns mine not so successful this year but did bag a white tail so that eased the pain we got the nod from the pilot and off to the pickup point the boys had brought Jacks new rifle down the store was in the north island and saved messing around with police order forms the flip side of this meant it hadn't being sighted in so arriving early we set up a trusty Speight's box double as a target with three perfect bulls eyes in went one of my Amax 7mm rm loads for my finnlight but to no success it wouldn't chamber made no sense its a Remington and this 7mm rm load it fitted to a tikka mag box no way it wouldn't be fitting into a Remington tried some factory loads that also didn't chamber F@%K a well we will sort it out at camp .
The boys from James Scott turned up weighed in and loading up the first trip was under way Cam and Moe were off not realising we had so much spare space and weight we opted to leave behind 99% of our beer and all the rum behind with the weather we had coming over the week this would later haunt us . Chopper's got back and off we went 10 mins later we were up at camp and ripped into erecting tents before the forecasted afternoon weather came in , tents up and a gear shed for packs we set about finding a posy for our main stay shelter tucked in below the bluffs and out of winds way we found a primo little rock bivy that perfectly fitted our $25 bunning gazebo up that went duct tape reinforced poles and over that a huge 6x4.5mtr ultra heavy duty tarp tied down to everything possible rocks creating 3 walls and the tarp pulled down on the entrance created the perfect home away from home even had a flat rock for a kitchen some one has put time into this thank you who ever you are this proved to be invaluable over the next week for drying gear and sitting around talking shit . Out with Jacks new rifle a good clean and going over we found it was the ejector spring was buggered and blocking the bolt face so we couldn't chamber a round so the rifle was in the tent for the rest of the trip.
Morning one we woke to a small break in the weather where we packed up headed up stream and glassed the true left bluffs up behind camp that we were told were inaccessible spotting bulls right away we soon blew off all advice and headed up through the systems running into a few young animals on the way to the big guys the window in the weather was smaller than wed hopped and started to clag in as we were trying to close the gap . with the weather against us and the mature bulls positioned across large icy rock shelves a decision was made to get out of their as chances of retrieving a shot animal were minimal and we were still 600mtrs away dropping fast following our route up we ran into a young animal we thought we'd take for camp meat not knowing if the weather was going to give us another chance over the next week Moe stepped up and delivered a clean kill with his 7mmRM .Moe and Jack shot across to bone it out while Cam and I scouted ahead to make shore we were on the right path down the boys caught back up with the meat in hand and we navigated the bluffs back down before the weather really seat in back at camp by 11 thankful to get out and watch some bulls and secure some meat on the first day
Day 2 was a write off lots of cards and drinking coffee waiting for the weather and off to bed.
Day 3 was looking like our best shot so up early Moe and Cam shot off across the stream from camp downstream and up into another catchment while Jack and I headed down stream and up into a big tussock face and into the bluffs spotting some really good bulls early trying to close gaps they kept getting the better of us and moving out of eye site and popping up another 100 away we closed the gap to 400 on a very good looking bull dialled in I lay down and closed the bolt only to see his ass disappear over the top BUGGER so we climbed up into some icy rather questionable bluffs sat down had a cupper and decided we'd try and go over the top and come across level with the big bulls wed seen on day one the path we choose while having a coffee put us in the area id lost sight of the big bull from earlier and while climbing up I caught him out the corner of my eye it was that steep I just lay forward ranged him at 250 a tricky shot as it was just his chest poking over the ledge he was on I couldn't see the back of his horns I squeezed of the round from my 7mm and that tell tale thud of a suppressed shot finding its mark rang out and he lunged up and flipped off the bluff 40 mtrs and landed dead in a creek we climbed up found him out across a icy face Jack roped his horns and we pendulumed him back over the ice above a big bluff only to find out it was a classic Bull Tahr switcharoo and this was not the bull from earlier but his smaller mate measuring in the 12'' mark not the 13'' mark I was trying to hit bright side was he was still a good bull sporting a nice coat that'd look good beside others in the lounge at home. fluffed around skinning him climbing higher only to find it was certain death trying to get across the tops to the bulls from day one deciding to turn around get back to a good vantage point and have some lunch hoping to catch the first Bull from the morning come back down and into our range in the evening .
We got Cam and Moe one the radio they were having a great day out over yonder but Moe had taken a fall one a slippery rock in the morning smacking his rifle a beauty which bit him in the ass when they spied a cracker bull they could only describe as huge big bodied and black moving through the creek above them like a Grizzly Bear 2 seconds and he was gone in a haste they climbed and glassed he popped out only 115 away and Moe lined up and pulled the trigger only to see a rock explode right in front of the bull and never see him again ! Shortly after that we heard a shot ring out from Cams big 7mm/338 Norma Imp . Tried them on the radio but no luck we could only hope he'd hit his animal.
Sitting eating my roast lamb and potato once again I caught a big shaggy Bull out of the corner of my eye right on our level . not able to tell if it really was a Bull casually reaching for the bingos not wanting to get the excitement up for nothing they revealed it was a hell of a bull with big horns huge body amazing coat best Id seen tossing my lunch out alerting Jack hastily ranged him at 300 I swung round plonked the rifle in front of Jack for him to make the shot . it was a hard shot as he was quartering away from us but gave Jack a split second of shoulder bang the shot was perfect he was hit hard watching threw the binos on impact his head instantly starting spinning in huge 360's he turned towards us showing of a huge set of horns staggered down 3 mtrs and dropped in a crack not falling out of the bluffs . Now for the hard part getting over by far the worst bluffs of the trip to try and get him I spotted and Jack set upon climbing along the shear wall 300 mtrs between us and the bull this proved to be a huge task very dangerous and harder than we thought no radios so hand signals were used to send him up down back and forth we went about this for 3 hours me calling Jack back many times but him persisting trying to retrieve his downed bull he got to within 15 mtrs but the last part was just too much couldn't get up the 10 mtr face to where he collapsed. Losing light and trying every angle we had no choice but to throw it in no animals worth dying for, Feeling very deflated this was the first animal either of us had ever lost and it happened to be a cracker we were so shore he would roll down the hill for us.
this countrys far worse than looks
We headed back for camp coming up with lots of what ifs . It was several hours after dark a very exhausted looking Cam and Moe turned up having battled waterfalls and monkey scrub for hours in the dark Cam's shot was good he had taken a Nice 12'' Bull with a great shot right in the chest that opened the him right up killing it instantly this also sore them clambering around big bluffs out of the comfort zone only to find that the bull had actually slid down out of site all the way to the bottom so carefully getting back down they retrieved it dealt to it and got stuck into the long grind back to camp for a cuppa and bed
Day 3 sore a full day of rain turning to snow and a massive plummet in temperature cabin fever setting in Jack wrapped up and went and sat in the shit glassing the clear patches between the waves of snow and thick fog that paid off when he sung out he'd spotted what looked 2 good Bulls from camp hanging around the bluffs by the glacier 2 bulls soon turned into half a dozen around the tussock and up in the steep creeks one Bull in particular looked to be a monster a plan was hatched to get up there in the am and try and secure Jack and Moe a Bull before the afternoon crap rolled back in
Day 4 up early coffee over the creek and into it up the moraine wall for a glass we spotted the bulls Cam spotted the big Bull from the night before so we dropped into the lake and up the other side hoping to get to a point where we could see a few bulls. Climbing threw a lower bluff Moe whistled out he'd spotted a Big bodied bull in the bluffs directly above us with a range of 300 again Jack was confident and bolt goes down crack the Amax exploded into the rock above the bulls shoulder I sore this threw the binos and alerted him to aim low the Bull steeped down out of sight only showing some of his head he took one step forward and crack again with a solid hit right in the throat down he went Moe followed up on another Bull with that shot not seen and a clean miss he must have smoked his scope in the fall a few days earlier we climbed up and over got to the bottom of the bluff the bull had fallen down and 100mtrs down a snow shoot their he lay when we got their we didn't know what to expect knew he was big bodied but what were the horns like? we were over the moon to see he was the biggest bodied biggest horned Tahr wed ever seen that was easily going to top 13'' whipped the tape out and holey shit he's 14.5'' and over 9" base's Jacks face looking blank with the surreal Bull we got some photos and Cam set about showing us how he capes them out a team effort skinning and a brew on the hill toes going numb in the snow we headed back down to camp . The plan came together perfectly and it was an awesome mission, it was the only hunt all 4 of us went on together over the week it was a real team effort. The afternoon sore allot of measuring the monster over and over a spot of glassing into some new country that held more big bulls looking 13"+ . Hoping for a chance to get up there in the morning for Moe to have one last crack at a good Bull and hoping I might get that 13''+ mark iv being chasing we needed really clear weather as it was big country and we didn't want to get fog roll in while we were up there.
Jacks bull photos were hard flat cameras and water on the lens in this picture
Day 5 and it was rubbish bugger it all another camp day no chance to get up to the other Bulls not to worry Moe had previously shot a nice Bull on our October east coast trip and had also taken the first west coast Tahr of our trip and not being a greedy bunch we were all stoked to be part of Jacks Bull of a life time getting a tiny patch in weather we took a meat animal not far from camp got our gears packed and ready for the morning well and truly ready to fly out in the morning allot of you will know how long a week in the ruggered west coast alpine country can be very very testing it's not the glamorous Stewart Island trip we usually do it really tests you and your gear there's only so many hands of cards one can handle in a week over all it was a bloody good trip couldn't of done it with a better bunch lads .
Cheers
