Thread: Forestry Block Goat Hunt

I was lucky to receive a hunting permit to access two forestry blocks from a local forestry company for this weekend.

The terrain was generally easy going, but I decided to climb up the hard way, hoping that steeper means more goats.
3 hours of climbing around and only saw one goat sunbathing on a slip face. Would have been an easy shot, but to retrieve it would have taken 2 hours, so I left it alone.

Then I heard an engine running in the forest. To my surprise I bumped into two guys driving their quad bike on the forestry track, each carrying a rifle on their shoulder. They got a fright too as they weren't expecting to see a human.

When I applied for the permit, the officer told me no quad bikes or any motor vehicles were allowed on the tracks, and only one hunting party is allowed per block per weekend. The two guys asked me if I had a permit, I said yes and asked them "Do you have a permit yourself"? One of them said "I grew up here and this is a family thing".
Didn't see a registration plate on the bike either.

Anyway on the way out I finally spotted a mob of goats, they didn't seem to be too bothered by my presence. I took my time and put in the earplugs, lined up the 223 running 55 grain soft points. 3 shots later 2 goats dropped on the spot, 1 had to be finished with a knife.

Looking forward to having goat curry tonight !

good stuff,the .223 is an awesome round for goats.enjoy your curry.

Bugger, the dead goat photo isn't showing up and having a hard time getting uploaded. Looks like a hiking trip instead of a hunting trip.

Nice pics of the forest and good report.

Here comes the goats. There must be a file size limit on the photos, had to compress them to be able to upload.

Good bit of fun. Enjoy your curry.

What part of HB, and how much goat damage did you see? I'm trying to work out where the goat populations are, I want to get HBRC to widen their goat control area! Were the other guys hunting for meat, or doing pest control?

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

What part of HB, and how much goat damage did you see? I'm trying to work out where the goat populations are, I want to get HBRC to widen their goat control area! Were the other guys hunting for meat, or doing pest control?

Pretty sure the other guys were hunting for meat. This was inland from Wairoa. Hard to tell what damage is caused by goats as I don't have any experience in that area. But according to the permitting officer the goats have always been causing them headaches, and hence recreational hunting is encouraged.

Plenty of goats around Wairoa. Cant imagine many blocks around that area not having goats in them

Awesome way to spend a day hunting, when we were younger goat shooting was a big part of our learning curve, enjoy the meat.

Even taking into account the athletic prowess of goats I think those trees are a bit past being under threat although the wildings in the clear could be in danger. There is a macrocarpa block near here and so far that seems to be untouched by goats and hares.

Belmont

Well done,nice wee eater.

Good work, thanks for sharing, enjoy your goat curry.

Ive just been away on a boys weekend/hunting trip and i took a casserole i made the night before. I used 50/50 venison and young nanny goat. The boys absolutley loved it, they also couldnt tell which was veni and which was goat. Both were incredibly fall apart tender.