5 solid days of NZ hunting

OK, been kidna hard to find time to write the last five days. We've been hunting Himalayan Tahr in some hardcore country. Days start at 4am, on the mountain by 5am for a 2-3 hour hike. Overall 14-15 hours on the mountain. We do 2000-3000 feet of vertical each morning. And it is straight up. Some of the trails are basically stairs (really built with wood). The tahr bulls are still in bachelor groups, but we are only a week or two from the rutt. Both my guide, Sam Coulton, and Kiwi cameraman Henry Coulton felt tahr and chamois decoys would do very well in the rutt. Sam said a chamois deocy would bring in a buck from across a mountain. A new project for Jerry at MT Decoy to work on.

Yesterday found ourselves in position on a group of 15+ bulls we had seen the day before. After a 45 minute hike down a ridge spine, and through some really thick brush, we were in position for a 400 yard shot. Yeah, sounds long, but 250-400 yards is fairly norm. Once in position the sun popped over the mountains and our tahr went to the brush -- eliminating any chance to shoot. After a half hour wait two bulls appeared on a ridge on our side of the drainage. Quickly, I made a good shot. The bull acted like he wasn't hit. I put two more 300 win mag rounds into him before he fell. Another long hike throuh thick brush we found the huge bodied bull down in a dry creek where he had fallen. He measured almost 13 inches and was every bit of 350 pounds. After all the regular work of skinning, pics, etc. we headed out.

We chose to go down to the creek only to find most of it impassible. Waterfalls and huge boulders blocked our way. We side-hilled through steep, unreal brush. It was tough going. After 4 hours we had only traveled maybe 1/2 mile from our shooting position -- still a long way from the truck. Sam Coulter, my guide, made the decision to hike straight up through more thick brush. It took us another 2 hours to get up to the top of the ridge. Then another 1.5 hours to the truck over the ridge tops. It was very dark when we arrived at the truck -- all of us quite spent.

An epic adventure for a huge Himalayan Tahr bull. Next up fallow deer in the rutt.