No chamois, but a good hunt anyway
Earlier in the year I offered to take Alan and his son Tom on a "tops" hunt in hope of finding them a chamois or two. But it wasn't until this weekend gone that I finally got the chance to get them out for a hunt. They arrived around lunchtime and by 4pm we'd arrived where we were hoping to hunt for the next day.
A campsite was sorted and tents pitched and we shot up the hill to glass some gullies and bush edges in hope of an easy deer for the trip. By dark no amount of glassing could bring up the presence of a deer or chamois, so we resigned to camp to cook some tea and have a yarn.
Young Tom was a fairly competent fella in the hills, and this was quickly noticable wiith the amount of quality gear he carried and used to good effect. He had his camp sorted smartly and was first to have dinner cooked and served up for himself and his Dad. He was also first in bed and the first one snoring.
It was a relatively mild night and we all slept comfortably. We were already fed and on the hill hunting as then sun rose. We hunted strategically up the ridge we'd camped below, keeping off the skyline and within sight of the scrub line. Even though we were after chamois, it would be sometime before we were in their country, so an easy deer wasn't going to be passed up if the opportunity arose.
Putting Tom in front I tried to reinforce some basic hunting rules and general things to think about, as we covered the ground quickly but silently. Soon enough, and as I'd expected the outline of a deer appeared on the scrub line below us. Dropping to the deck, I frantically indicated to the others I'd seen a deer and we hatched a plan. We slid on our bums down through the tussock to close the range and as we crested the small rise below us two young spikers stared back up at us.
I was quietly instructing Tom to load up and line up on the closest deer and take his time, when the bang of his 243 cut me off! The deer reared up and toppled back into the scrub. What a shot! A proud Dad, and myself patted young Tom on the back and we climbed down to where the deer had fallen. We soon found it and soon had it broken down ready to be picked up on our way back off the hill.
Tom with his first "tops" deer;
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We continued on up into the head of the valley we intended to hunt. It wasn't easy going, with a fair bit of snow about which due to mild weather was soft and deep. Sinking up to our waist was a common occurance and it drained our energy. Tom was feeling the climb, soon working out his Dad wasn't joking when he'd told him months ago to get fit, so we slowed the pace. As a result I spent plenty of time glassing for animals while the other two scrambled up the mountain side behind me.
We finally reached the head basin, and after carefully dissecting it with our binos we decided that there were no chamois to be seen! A brief disscussion was had and we made the decision to continue up and over into the next catchment. I was surprised at the boys keeness to find themselves a chamois!
A decent slog later, up a slippery but safe snow shoot and we were up in the saddle glassing the next head basin. It was an ideal opportunity to show Tom some key things to look out for and take care of while travelling in the tops, including demonstrating self arrest techniques and kicking steps!
Crossing through the saddle into the next catchment was a good mission;
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Glassing the far side of the gully carefully for what seemed like hours, only two deer were spotted out in the open feeding. No chamois! The changing weather conditions made our decision to head down country towards camp pretty easy. We trekked back downhill through the snow checking out likely chamois spots as we closed the gap between us and camp. A couple of hours later we were back at the deer we'd shot earlier, which we duly collected up and packed out to the truck.
Alan and Tom sussing out some chamois country up the valley;
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Even though we hadnt seen any chamois for the trip, four deer seen and one deer shot was a welcomed sweetener. Alan and Tom enjoyed their excursion into the mountains and we've already made plans for the next trip, which I'm looking forward to as well.
Cheers
Josh :)
