Number 2 son secured his first chamois this week. We were in the Marlborough high country for a few days and often spotted a chamois or two when out cleaning up a few goats.
We made a basic plan and headed off in a location we had seen them before. Climbed our way up to a creek head and began glassing, wasn't long before we spotted a lone chamois buck way up a ridge line just getting up from the morning sun & having a stretch before feeding.
Easy stalk as we were able to climb up to his last seen level out of sight. Crawled the last few metres and poked our heads over and bugger he wasn't there, always a problem when you are out of sight for so long. Wasn't long before I spotted him over on a shingle scree bedded down in the little bit of sun we had.
Ranged him at 232m and almost level, so it would be a straight forward shot off the bipod. He looked in our direction obviously seeing our movement as we were right on the skyline but didn't budge, never keen to take a bedded shot so we were to wait it out for him to stand. I was fossicking around trying to get my camera out and that got him to his feet, so the shot was on. I just managed to get the binos back up & KC wacked him with the Creedmoor, at which he reared up and over the edge he went.
Pat on the back from me and away we went to find him. We sidled a couple of running screes and I spotted him over the edge of another, luckily hooked up on a rock or else he would have been on a rolly trip down hill I reckon. I sent KC down to look at him first being his animal and he was pretty stoked with it too, not to mention 'ole dad as well.
After the usual photos & gathering of all the bits we wanted to take, we retraced our steps back to a nice saddle for a snack. KC then announced he was off up the ridge to crack the top of the hill we were on for a look around and some pic's. We were at just over 1000m ASL and this hill was 1631m, oh to be young & fit again :thumbsup:
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