Canterbury Long Weekend Hunt
My usual hunting buddy (Dr Dre) and I decided to use the opportunity of the Canterbury Anniversary Day to go in search of some meat for the freezer.
Headed away early Friday morning to get a good start.
Got our gear sorted and headed up into the hills above the hut. (secret location sorry :P )
Weather was seriously hot, and it was blowing a typical Canterbury North West "breeze".
Glassed the faces of the hills around us and eventually saw a small mob of Tahr.
We were trying to find some veni for the freezer, but seeing as beggers can't be choosers, we decided to bag a thar.
The wind was in our favour as we decided on the best plan of attack. But it changed as we set off.
A few of Tahr stopped and looked up as if they had sented us. We tried to keep out of sight as we moved further up the valley from them hoping to get above and behind them.
The plan worked! We popped up over the ridge slowly to get the drop on them -Gone! WTF! Some frantic glassing had us recognise we had gone a bit too far.
We got over to the next ridge, down valley, and looked over and saw 2 of the Tahr looking at us. Probably 300m away at the most.
Dr Dre, quickly set his Remmy 270 up on the bipod, and aimed at the nearest animal. 1 shot and the animal dropped instantly.
We quickly droppped down to where the nanny fell and butchered as much of the meat as we could get.
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Then the very long arduous walk back up to the tops and down the other side to the hut. Did I mention it was frickin hot! And blowing a NW gale now!
Our water supplies ran out as we walked along the tops, and we had just a wee bit of a wander to the next stream. (We had probably gone through 10L between us :o ) So we we finally arrived at the stream, we had a real good break and refreshed.
Back at the hut, we had a good feed and decided to crash for the night.
Next day saw us rise early and go for a lighter wander further up the river valley for more of a recce than a hunt.
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The weather was again stinking hot and the breeze was a tad strong at times. Trying to find shade when glassing was getting harder as the day drew on.
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It had been forcast to turn SW later in the day. We saw the clouds approching fast mid dayish, and decided to go back to the hut to see what happens. We had planned on a late aftrernoon hunt anyway, so the opportunity to rest up from the previous day was much appreciated.
Well the clouds came and the wind came up real strong as well. So a good feed and a rest went down real well.
Late afternoon it cleared up just nice thanks. Still was very warm though.
Went to an area we found earlier in the day and had a decent look around following game trails and sign.
Dr Dre fairly quickly spotted something through the trees he thought was deer, but they were actually a group of 4 young bull Tahr.
I got into a comfortable position and drilled a young bull thar when he looked up. The others disappeared real fast!!
So after butchering that animal it was back to the hut well before dark.
Back at the hut we got an early night hoping to get a good rest for the walk out loaded with the spoils.
There was 1 small problem though, It came in the form of a fcuking aussie!
The bastard decided at some ungodly hour of the night, to try and get into the hut.
Not really wanting to let rip with the AR in the hut I decided to give him a hurry along with a few words and a lump of wood.
He promptly disappeared into the broom.
Well, I reckon not even an hour later, the fricken prick turned up again.
This time though he jumped from the nearest tree onto the hut roof. Followed by some sort of cat on a hot tin roof impersonation.
When I opened the door (me with AR in hand and Dr Dre with torch), he jumped down and decided to run up the veranda post and sit on a roof rafter.
So a barrel round his noggin (didn't want to put a hole in the roof eh) sent him groundwards bound. He then ran to the tree outside the hut and clung to the trunk looking at me as if to say "what you got now buddy?"
So I called his shot and drilled him right between the eyes. Aussie 0 - NZ 1. Game over.
Slept real well after that. Fcuking possums!
Sunday showed up so we packed up, and tidied up around the hut.
The walk out was slow with heavy packs full of meat.
Had an awesome weekend and the shed freezer has something to chill for a change as well now.
