With good weather forecast a quick overnight mission to the tops was in order. Being Easter weekend I thought heading somewhere a bit harder to get to would be a good idea and was hoping the stags would be making a bit of noise.
I got to my campsite shortly after mid day Sunday so after setting up, headed off to explore an area I hadn't been into before. Access to this spot would definitely put some people off and it was a great afternoon recce but no animals were seen.
I got back to camp late in the afternoon, had a quick snooze and then headed for a lookout just a short distance from my tent. After giving the area a quick scan with the thermal, I spotted a bright speck in the bluffs opposite. The binos reveled a chamois sitting below a rock outcrop. He was just relaxing and since I was really there to find a roaring stag I kept half an eye on him as I watched the surrounding area. As dark approach I gave a couple of roars to see it I could prompt a bit of action.......nothing. Not a sound.
The more I looked at the chamois the more I realised he was not a bad animal. I had ranged him at 388 yards TBR and through the binos it wasn't possible to really access his horns. He was already in a dark coat and looked of solid build but I wasn't sure. As it got darker I came to a decision. There was no action on the deer front so, a bird in the hand as they say...
I set up the rifle and wound the scope up to 9x. 388 yards was stretching my ability (not the rifles) so I wanted to make sure everything was as good as I could get it. Once in position, as if on cue, the chamois stood up and stood side on. Allowing for the bullet drop, I squeezed off the shot and watched as the chamois gave a slight hunch and the sound of the impact came back to me. It wasn't your typical "thwack" of a good hit bit wasn't the sterile sound of a miss either. I reloaded ready to fire again. The chamois just stood there as if unhit but, before I could take aim again, he casually walked off out of sight. Ok....
By this time it was nearly dark. A job for the morning.
After a marginal sleep due to the summer sleeping bag and winter temperatures, I was up well before dawn and heading back to my lookout. On arrival I gave a scan with the thermal and then a couple of roars to see if I could wake up any of the local stags. Again silence. As soon as it became light enough to walk without the aid of a torch I headed towards where the chamois had been the night before. As I climbing up the very steep strip of tussock leading towards the spot the animal had been bedded down I spotted something which look a bit odd. A table sized rock up ahead had an unusual brown top??? The binos came up and.....great. A dead chamois.
My shot had hit low and just brushed the bottom of his heart. I am not sure if he had gone to the rock and laid down and died, or slid down there. Either way I was very lucky. If he had slid into the tussock he would have gone at least 100m further down and I probably wouldn't have found him and assumed a miss.
The trek out was a relatively easy few hours helped by the spring in my step from a successful hunt and the undoubted highlight of this whole trip was the environment I was in. This has to be one of the most spectacular back country locations in NZ, or the world for that matter. Judge for yourself.
Tent camp in the usual spot beside "Emerald Tarn"
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Looking back at the knob I shot from just above the cloud.
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