Bow Hunting Himalayan Tahr

[JP100]

Hey Guys
Been pretty busy out in the hills guiding but finally got away on trip for myself. Its abit of a long story but hope you have the time to have a read

About 3 months ago I got a message from my mate asking if I was keen to go on a fly in Tahr hunt. Of course I said yes the only catch was it was a bows only trip…
The plan was to apply for one of the Landsborough Ballot blocks, although you can hunt public land year round in NZ there are some areas that have restricted helicopter access, and foot access is near impossible. The Upper Landsborough is one of these areas, allowing heli access for 2 months of the year with set landing sites and ballot type system to get a “block” for a week of hunting. So my friend filled out the forms and we waited and as luck would have it we drew a block in the 2nd week of May. This was good news for bow hunting as the earlier we could get in there the better as some rifle hunters will be shooting pretty much everything they see.
So it was set, 4 bow hunters would fly in on the 10th and out on the 17th.

The team was myself, Adrian, Kadin and my partner Mirella. Adrian and Kadin have been bow hunting for years(Kadin since he was 6) and I have been shooting a bow for nearly 5 months, and Mirella about 3 months. So I didn’t have too higher expectations of getting one. The lead up to the hunt was going pretty well, my shooting was pretty good and I was happy out to 40 yards. I was flat out guiding the month before we were due to set off so was fit and had plenty of practice chasing Tahr, but then disaster struck.
The week before our hunt I managed to derail my Bow (don’t ask how!). We managed to get the string back on with a portable bow press of Adrian’s but realised I had cracked a limb and smashed the bearings in the cams. This might not seem too bad but we live on the west coast of the south island and there are no bow shops in the whole south island the closest being in the north island 2-3 days courier away. I was a little stressed to say the least. I had my Bow sent in the courier the next day but it was very unlikely to make it back in time.
Luckily another friend of mine had his bow at my place so I started shooting this as it was likely my bow couldn’t be fixed in time. Now this bow was not the prettiest thing around, a PL(Perfect Line) bow with about 10% let off, but it was better than nothing(or so I kept telling myself). I got a lot of shooting in that week and was pretty confident out to 30-40 yards with it.
Anyway back to the hunt.

Day 1
We met at the heli pad hoping to fly in at 9.30-10am but low cloud kept the flight delayed till midday. It was good to see the other parties coming out with a few Tahr and Chamois heads and a lot of wet cold gear as they had only one day with-out rain in their week of hunting.
The flight in was spectacular, flying past some of the highest and most rugged mountains in the country. We landed out our campsite which was about 3000(960m) feet above sea level at 12.30. We were lucky to draw one the highest blocks so our camp was above the bush line and almost in the open tussock.
We quickly set up camp and split up to have a look around. Mirella and I went up the creek bed behind camp and Adrian and Kadin went up straight up the hill behind camp.

The creek was good to travel up but had dense monkey scrub on both sides. Monkey scrub is hard to describe but it is generally a dense jungle about 4-6 feet high. Making it impossible to go under or over the top. After about 10 mins of stalking and glassing we heard some Tahr whistling at us in the creek. We couldn’t see where the noise was coming from then I spotted 3 Tahr as they made there escape, only seeing them when they jumped high over the scrub. It was 2 young bulls and a Nanny so I was not too worried. Good to see some so close to camp. We carried on up the creek making it up to about 5500 feet just below the deep snow. From here we spotted a mob of nannies with 2 very good looking mature bulls with them. It was 4.30pm and they were still about 2-3 hours away at least in some very hard to access tussock benches.

We decided to head back to camp and try for them tomorrow. Kadin and Adrian stalked about in some monkey scrub and missed a bull at 25 yards, hitting some dense brush inches from the bull. It was a good start to the trip!

to be continued haha...

 

[Shrek]

That's some great looking country. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

I would love to do this hunt in the next few years! Awesome country, looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

[JP100]

Allrighty then

Day 2
We were heading up the creek behind camp in the dark trying to get up to the two good bulls we saw the evening before. We saw a few Tahr up high and saw 2 nannies moving down into the creek. We decided to stay put in the creek bed to see what these nannies would do. As we waited they moved down to about 80 yards, they were heading our way. I nocked an arrow and waited as they came into about 50, one of them knew something was up and they trotted below us and stopped for a moment at about at 30 yards. I was at full draw but was not confident so I let down, they stopped again at 50 but I was not happy taking a shot. So we let them be and they soon disappeared into the scrub.

We carried on up the creek and soon made it to the spot where we spotted the 2 big bulls the evening before. They had moved uphill a lot since the night before and were at about 7000ft in a snow field above a glacier, a pretty safe place.

You can see one right on the skyline

We spied two other younger bulls by themselves bedded on a snowy ridge about a mile away at about 6000ft, these seemed an easier approach. We had a long approach on these bulls as we had to get above them and come down the ridge, the climb up was abit dodgy in places and the snow was still frozen and we only had one ice axe between us (left the crampons behind haha).

After a couple of hours we came onto the same ridge as the two bulls and I peered over a rock and 64 yards away there was one of the bulls sitting in the sun, the other was about 5 yards below him under a small rock. There was no cover between us on the exposed ridge and the snow was crunchy. The bull heard me a few times as I tried many approaches but he was not quite sure what was happening. After about half an hour of trying to close the gap from all angles the Bull got up and bedded facing downhill.

64 yards away. not much cover haha



This was my only real chance, I quickly got up and snuck forward a few steps closing the gap to about 55yards and decided to have a crack, he stood up and I let and arrow go. The arrow sailed just passed him, right height but abit off to the left. I was happy I hadn’t wounded him and the two bulls quickly left the scene down some horrid bluffs. As they ran off they pushed another bull out of the bluffs that I had seen as I was stalking them. He was looking very confused about 150 yards away down the ridge, I tried to approach him but he was very wary and soon spotted me and left the scene.

Pretty hard to approach in the terrain


We sat there admiring the view and ate some food. As we were doing so we spotted another much bigger bull holding about 7 nannies move into view 300 yards below us. He was a really good bull but in a very difficult place to approach. After some discussion I decided to have a go at him while Mirella stayed put and watched. I dropped down a steep snow chute and then began a very scary scramble/climb around some wet icy rock face to get above the Bull and nannies. Mirella gave me the thumbs up a few time letting me know the bull was still there. I eventually got to just above them and cautiously peered over a rock. 50 yards below me lay a massive Bull Tahr and his harem of nannies. I quietly nocked an arrow and prepared to shoot. He got up to chase a nanny as I attempted to get some good footing for the shot. He looked up and saw me but I had enough time to let an arrow fly.

The shot was at about 46 yards but on a 50 degree angle I held pretty low but not low enough and the arrow just skimmed the top of his mane and into the rocks, the group quickly tore off. I was pretty gutted after my spider man effort to close the gap and the fact he looked like a 13 inch Bull but it was not an easy shot. Now the hard part began. I re traced my steps carefully and tried to descend to retrieve my arrow. I had a moment of shear panic and I lost my footing and my bow was caught on a rock. I slip here would mean certain death.

long way to the valley floor

I managed to loosen my axe from my belt and threw it into the snow below me; I nearly did the same with the bow but managed to get some footing back and calm myself somewhat. The climb down to my arrow was very difficult and one of the scariest moments of my life, what we do for a $10 arrow haha. As I picked up my arrow I peered over the sheer face to see the Bull and nannies only 100 yards below perched in the most horrendous place. I watched in amazement as the Tahr panicked, the nannies sidling the bluffs below and the Bull making a direct route to the valley floor. I had never seen a Tahr loose its footing before but I watched as this Bull went down a vertical rock face slipping and sliding and he went. I was scared just watching. It’s amazing what they can do when under pressure.

Now I had the job of getting back up to Mirella. I was pretty shaken after what had happened and slowly made my way back to her, she met me half way which was a great relief. We sat on the ridge and ate some more food and we decided we had enough of Tahr and bluffs for one day and looked for an easy route home before the snow froze over. The walk back to camp was slow as I was still pretty scared from earlier, we saw a few Tahr on the way back but none that were approachable with the daylight left.


Kadin and Adrian had headed up the main valley in the morning. They saw a few Tahr but spent most of the day chasing a mob of 7 Chamois. The rut was in full swing and they had a lot of stories about one buck who spent most of the day chasing away a smaller buck who was trying to get in on the does. Adrian has taken nearly 50 Chamois with the bow, the most in NZ(most likely the world) so was happy to let Kadin have a go at them. Kadin had a few shot but they all missed their mark. They had found a good place to cross the river up from the camp as well and had ventured onto the other side of the valley for a look around.

Day 3
We had seen cloud building the night before over the range and it started raining at about 2am. The rain was steady all day and we pussied out. We went for a short walk in the morning but decided to wait the rain out, as we had no way to dry gear once it got wet. It was a pretty uneventful day, good to rest the legs.

 

[JP100]

Here is where we went on day 2 just to get a bigger picture of the terrain.

 

[JP100]

Day 4
The day dawned clear and we all decided to head up the main valley and split up, hunting both sides as we had seen some bulls lower down across the river. As I followed Adrian up the river bed I slipped badly on a rock and hit the ground pretty hard. Luckily no damage to the bow but my left knee cap had taken most of the force and I was seeing stars for a few minutes. I was pretty pissed off at myself for slipping but we carried on. With some nimble rock hopping we got across the river with dry feet. I was not feeling flash at all, and had a rest under a boulder on the other side of the river. After a few minutes we slowly moved up the hill to where Mirella had seen a Bull Tahr when we left camp. We made it up to about 4000ft where we had last seen the Bull.
I was not feeling so good and my knee was swelling up and I could hardly bend it.
We spotted the Bull with a nanny and a kid on some bluffs about 800 yards away.

I was not happy going up there with my sore knee so we made the slow trek back to camp, the ice axe proved very helpful and it was used as a walking stick the whole way back to camp. We got back at camp at about lunch time and spent the afternoon watching Tahr through the spotting scope and waiting for Adrian and Kadin to return.

Adrian arrived just on dark, he had seen a few Tahr but none that were accessible but he had some good news. Kadin and Adrian had climbed pretty high together and were glassing when Kadin spotted a Bull on the other side of the valley on a tussock face. As usually the case in this steep country it’s always easiest to spot animals on the other side of the valley.
Adrian watched as Kadin descended to the valley floor and began his stalk up the other side. He stalked from probably 2 miles into 25 yards with nearly no cover and nailed the Bull. Adrian said the Bull ran about 100 yards straight down hill and collapsed! Awesome!!!
We made dinner and Kadin arrived just after Dark to re tell the story. He then spent the rest of the day chasing the same group of Chamois they had seen earlier but again they had evaded him. His bull was a good mature animal, 5 years old with horns just on the 11 inch march with big solid bases. He had left the bull gutted on the hill side and Adrian and Kadin would retrieve it tomorrow.

Day 5
We decided the day before that we would try to head up into some steep bluffs above camp as we had been seeing a lot of Bulls and nannies there in the days previous. The knee was still stiff and sore but I wasn’t going to sit in camp for the rest of the trip so Mirella and I headed off at day break to chase some Tahr while Kadin and Adrian went to retrieve Kadin’s Bull from the day before.

The main problem with this area above camp was the Tahr quickly moved into in-accessible bluffs as soon as the sun got up and wouldn’t come out till dark. They also were not in same areas each day and moved about a fair bit making a stalk in the early morning dark pretty pointless. Anyway we thought it was worth a try. As we made it up one of tributaries of the creek behind camp we passed a few carcasses. These were most likely from the Tahr helicopter culls the Govt does every year. We carried on and soon made some high ground but the only Tahr we could see were well out of reach on the very highest crags.

As we sat making a plan Mirella spotted a younger Bull on a mission down a big rock slab heading in our direction. He was about 300 yards away and moving fairly quickly. We had no real cover but I nocked and arrow and moved up hill about 50 yards hoping to ambush him as he went passed. I saw his back moving through the tussock at about 75 yards and got ready to shoot but he never got any closer. I walked toward where I thought he was but he must have winded us and I saw him 300 yards away running up the rock slab he came down. The rest of the day was spent climbing endless bluff systems and chasing Tahr. They were always about 500 yards away on some horrid crag looking down on us. We gave up and walked home slowly in the dark. Adrian and Kadin spent most of the day skinning Kadin’s Tahr and carrying it back to camp.

 

[JP100]

Day 6
Kadin had been up the last two nights with a very bad tooth abscess so he decided to have a day at camp to try and recover, and he already had his Tahr so he was happy. Mirella wanted to do some hunting by herself down valley. I was planning on heading up valley and Adrian was heading across the river.

I slowly picked my way up the river in the dark; after about half an hour I sat down to glass some country I had not hunted before. I soon picked up two dark shapes in the morning light. It was the two Chamois bucks Kadin had been after the days previous. They were chasing each other around some open tussock faces. I thought they would be worth a go so I carried on. After a few hundred meters I glassed the face again but couldn’t find the Chamois, instead there was a big furry shape above where they had been, a bull Tahr. He was out on a big tussock face strewn with massive boulders. The same face Kadin had shot his bull. I was still about 2kms away so quickened the pace. As I made my way through some big boulders I came across a fresh Chamois bed and could smell one close by. I stopped to have a good look around and spied a buck 85 yards away. He was already onto me and snorted loudly and trotted off, stopping a few times to look back at me. I was abit gutted as If I was moving slower I could have had a chance to get him but I was focused on my bull Tahr.

The Bull had bedded down under a big boulder and looked like he would stay there for a few hours anyway. All I had to do was go down a big moraine wall, cross a stream, climb the other side and I would be within 100 yards of his bedding place. The Moraine was frozen solid and my knee was still pretty sore but I slowly made my way up toward him. The wind had changed as was swirling around a lot but I couldn't change my stalk without the bull seeing me so I carried on. I crested the moraine wall and spotted him about 150 yards away bedded under the same boulder. There was a big rock between me and him for cover so I snuck along closing the gap to 65 yards. I peered over the rock just in time to see the bull depart as the wind swirled behind me.

Bedded Bull under the rock


Another missed opportunity I thought to myself as I ate some food. While I had been climbing the moraine wall I had spotted two bulls opposite a glacier that had now bedded down. These were my back up plan.

Bedded in shade just center picture

They were about 1200 yards away and it meant I had to descend the frozen moraine, cross the lower part of the glacier and climb 1000ft up the opposite moraine wall to possibly get a chance at them. I could only see one bull bedded in the shade of a huge boulder. It was a pretty good place to approach him so I set off. The frozen moraine was very difficult to descend and my knee was pretty buggered but I had all day to get there.
After what seemed like hours (probably only one) I was nearly at the top of the moraine wall on the other side. The 50 mile an hour wind that had blasted me earlier had stopped and the sun was out. I had stopped to re asses where I was and was just about to creep around to where I had last seen the Bull when I spotted another Bull under a big rock over hang about 250 yards above me. I was totally exposed and I’m not sure why he didn’t see me but I quickly hid behind a rock as I tried to figure out what to do. I decided to leave my pack where it was and try and quietly make my way out of sight to approach the bull from above. This plan meant passing by where the other bull was bedded so I had a possible two bulls that I could have a go at. This seemed pretty good to me. There was a small avalanche in the valley and some big rock fall about 600 yards away which took the bulls attention as I slithered over some rocks out of sight.

This is when things got confusing and pretty exciting.
As I crept my way over to where the first bull had been bedded I could not find him anywhere, I think he had moved off. This was ok with me. I was slowly creeping along through some big boulders and scattered snow with the light breeze in my face. Perfect I thought.
As I was creeping along I picked up the strong scent of a Bull Tahr and knew there was one close. I nocked and arrow and waited where I was to see what would happen….
Barely 30 seconds later, I spotted the distinctive shape of a Bull moving through the boulders not 50 yards away. He was going to walk right passed me. I quickly ranged a few rocks and prepared to shoot.
He stepped out from behind a boulder 30 yards away and stopped broadside on looking right at me. I was at full draw and shaking with excitement. I let an arrow fly and with great disappointment watched as it smacked him fair in the back leg! An awful shot. He didn’t seem too fussed by this and trotted along, I quickly nocked another arrow and stepped forward hoping he would stop again. He continued on his path at a slow walk and I was following him at full draw, he was about to pass out of sight so at 40 yards I lead to the front of his chest and let another arrow go. I was annoyed again at my piss poor shooting as the arrow was a few inches too far back and hit him fair in the guts, I didn’t lead him enough. He trotted off out of sight.
I sat down and nearly cried as I had messed up as good a chance as you can get. I decided to carry on with my plan to stalk the other bull that I had seen under the rock over hang, not to shoot him but just to fill in some time before following the wounded bull. I got around to the rock over hang and found the bull had disappeared. I then noticed his tracks and followed these and they went back toward my back pack and I soon realised this was the bull I had shot. I don’t know why he left his bedding spot or why he decided to walk back toward me but he did. I sat down and had the rest of my lunch. I wanted to wait at least an hour before tracking the wounded bull.
I slowly made my way to the spot where I had hit the bull and turned on my GPS, I was getting prepared for a long evening of tracking. Bull Tahr are extremely tough animals and I have seen them soak up bullets from .300 magnums and travel for miles up hill through heavy snow drifts when wounded. Just 2 weeks previous I had dug 4 .270 projectiles out of a Bulls chest cavity that a client had shot. He was still standing after those 4 shots and I shot him twice again at about 30 yards in the neck to finish him off. So you can imagine how I felt about tracking this bull. I did not have high hopes of finding him any time soon.

I was surprised to find a lot of blood right from where I had first hit the bull in the back leg. I must have hit a major artery which combined with the snow made for very easy tracking. I had waited nearly 2 hours and it was now 2pm, I didn’t want to wait any longer as the snow was starting to freeze up making things pretty slippery. I followed a solid blood trail for about 100 yards and saw his tracks going downhill to a big rock. I thought he must be bedded down under there so I sat there for 20 mins and glassed that rock from every angle trying to get a glimpse of him. I made my way down slowly hoping to find him there dead but saw his tracks veer off and down again to another big rock. Under this rock I found where he had bedded and there was a big pool of blood.

A good sign but I was annoyed I had pushed him further. I’m not sure whether he heard me coming or if it was a nanny who had been whistling at me from further up the hill that pushed him along. Anyway I carried on down another 100 yards or so. Suddenly I got a very strong whiff of bull Tahr and knew he was close. I quietly peered around a rock and there 10 yards away in a rock cave I saw some red eyes glaring at me. Or so I thought. I had been shooting illuminocks and soon realised they were not his eyes but the nocks of my arrows. I could hear him breathing and saw he was pretty well trapped in the cave. I nocked my last arrow (I only had 3 haha) and peeked around the rock and gave him a final shot (this time in the chest) at 10 yards. He quickly died and then I finally realised that I had actually done it. I had shot my first Bull Tahr with the bow!
As I made my way over to the bull I realised the situation I was now in. The bull had gone into this cave to die and it was not an easy place to recover him. He was jammed into the very back of the cave; it was about 2 feet high and 8 feet deep.

I panicked and thought I might never be able to get him of there. I climbed down next to him and gave a tug on his horns, it was pointless. Bull Tahr are pretty big and this guy probably weighed 250lbs with his guts in.
After much cursing and thinking I got my rope from my pack and looped it around his neck, tied the other end around a rock and set up a wee haul system using my axe jammed into the rocks. I managed to move him so his head was straight uphill.

Tying the rope off, I quickly scampered down beside him and gutted him as best I could. This lightened the load considerably and with more swearing and heaving I finally got him up out of the hardest part. I was pretty exhausted to say the least but managed to drag him out for a half decent photo. After few photos I skinned him and loaded my pack up for the slow march home. I left that cave at 4pm and stumbled into camp at 9pm, it was slow walk home with a heavy pack but it was definitely worth every minute.

Kadin had spent the day trying to recover, his face was pretty swollen now and looked very sore, and Adrian had chased some Tahr across the river with no luck. Mirella had stalked a Chamois down river but lost his tracks, she then stalked some Tahr in the monkey scrub getting 10 yards from a bull but with no shot. The scrub was so dense she couldn’t see the Tahr at 10 yards but could hear him munching away. He got wind of her and soon departed.

 

[Shrek]

Congratulations !

 

[realunlucky]

Awesome thanks for sharing these photos. Congratulations on this adventure

 

[breacher]

Wow. What an adventure! Hard earned animal right there!

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Congrats! Looks like quite the adventure! Great pics too.

 

[dangerousD]

That was a great story and amazing photos of that beautiful country! Glad you were able to make a good recovery of your bull! Congratulations!

 

[idig4au]

This would be a great story to put on an International Hunting Forum section.....hint hint moderators!

Great story, really enjoyed it. I'm hunting Himalayan Tahr in 2015, but doing it in Nepal along with blue sheep. I need to get to New Zealand and try a hunt down there as well. Thanks for the pictures and story.

 

[Manosteel]

Wow! Great story and awesome pics! Looked like some steep terrain.

 

[Jdog]

Awesome story and epic pics--loved every minute of it.

Man--tahr with stick and string--VARSITY!

 

[Maxhunter]

Great story and pictures. Congrats on a successful hunt!

 

[robby denning]

One of the coolest posts I've seen on Rokslide.

 

[JustOneMoreShot]

Awesome hunt! Great pictures and trophy. Congrats and thank you for the good write up.

 

[weaver]

Awesome story!

 

[ozyclint]

congrats! bull tahr are amazing animals.
you probably flew over me in the chopper on the way into the landsborough. i was walking into a valley near there on those dates. tahr hunting of course!