tahr and chamois quest 2013

[ozyclint]

the following morning we awoke to another superb morning. before our eyes the fog rolled in up the valley from the ocean, threatening to envelop us and leave us tent bound with less than 30 yards visibility. however for the entire day it stayed low in the valley. it's always in the back of your mind that you can get fogged in at any moment. only a fool sets off for the day without taking mental notes or even gps marks on how to get back to camp since you may have to try and find camp in near zero visibility. it's very easy to get excited and rush off for a hunt without remembering how many gullies or ridges you are away from camp or knowing the quickest and safest way back to the tent. little things like this add to the ellure and challenge of the hunt.


that day i hiked way up from camp so i could hunt a small basin in the neighbouring catchment. when i got up there it didn't take long to spot some chamois bedded down for the morning. it was a very open approach but they were looking down hill away from me and i thought i'll give it a go and see what happened. i had nothing to lose afterall.
after a couple of hours of descending down a steep face in full view, (should they look my way) some of it in an uncontrolled manner on my butt following my bow down the slope, i was suprised to be within less than 80 meters. now the terrain had started to ease into the basin floor which made the final approach a little easier and still they were unaware of my intrusion into their domain. slowly i managed to get into a boulder which was about 40 meters from the chamois. all i could do was monitor the situation and hope they would play the game. after about half an hour of spying on them from behind the car sized boulder a nanny got up and started feeding away across the slope. soon they were all up and feeding, moving about all over the place. an arrow was placed on the string and i moved into position ready to pop up from behind the boulder for a shot. as soon as i did they saw me, which i fully expected, and ran out of sight. however moments later one came back to the same spot, again i appeared from behind the boulder with tension on the string and again it fled down the slope. thinking surely that was that, i was amazed to see it come back again a little closer. this time it hesitated as i came into view but so did i. it stood broadside for a moment but i passed it up. instinct told me it was too far. this time it had made it's mind up to leave for good. it joined the rest of the chamois on a rocky knob below me in the basin. it was a magnificent sight. again i was pleased with the stalk considering it looked impossible at the start. it's strange though, most times they will spot you a mile away, sometimes it pays to just give it a go.

spot the chamois-






when i arrived back in camp not much had changed.

 

[Mark Pitts]

I headed back up the mountain to try and locate the Chamois we had seen the days before.

I glassed this Chamois doe from the other side of a knife edge ridge for a couple of hours to make sure there were no others in the area where I was going to approach from.

I had picked all my landmarks and had a plan to drop down from the exposed face I was on into a small creek that would put me out of sight.
This would take me close to where she was bedded and I could make the rest of the approach through the broken boulder terrain.

I grabbed my pack and as soon as I tried to slither over the ridge she was onto me....

It is ridiculous how good their eye sight is.
She sprang up and made a dash up the hill and paired up with another Chamois.

This is the kind of range they spot you at.

She was originally at the bottom left of the picture, then she made a dash up to the hillock in the centre of the picture.

Another un hunt able Chamois.

I soaked up the beautiful views, and continued glassing these majestic mountain dwellers, hoping for a reasonable chance to develop.

 

[Mark Pitts]

Centre of picture is the ridge I was on earlier in the day.

Gear for a days mountain hunting.

Back at camp after another beautiful day in the mountains.

 

[mallacootasmoothie]

Great thread mate, your certainly committed!

 

[travissalinas]

Fricken awesome thread you guys, that country is amazing looking!

i agree. great quality photos too

 

[ozyclint]

the next day i was planning to go over to the same area as the previous day. i was out of bed a little earlier than mark that morning (he must have been enjoying the comfort of sleeping on top of all his gear that was leveling out the ground) and had already made a start up the mountain. about halfway there mark's voice came over the UHF saying there was a number of chamois feeding below me and that it might be possible to get a stalk on them. so with mark's guidance by UHF i slowing made my way down towards them. unable to do so in silence because of the low monkey scrub in the area, they were alert to something heading towards them from above and this is where it gets interesting. mark tells me on the radio that one of the chamois, presumably a buck, is heading up to investigate the source of the noise. none of them had seen or smelt me so far so we thought we'd let this play out. mark tells me in a more excited voice that the chamois is still coming and that i had better get an arrow on the string cause he might just walk right onto me. looking through his binos mark gave the best directions he could. he said get ready he should come into view anytime at about 12 o'clock. i got myself set and waited.........

but the difficulty of giving directions by radio had foiled the show once again for us. the chamois appeared at about 15yards at 10 o'clock and we both spotted each other at the same time. the chamois, having satisfied his curiousity as to the source of the noise in the bushes made a hasty retreat leaving me there suprised but happy. i consoled myself with the thought that after all the tribulations of our adventure it would have been 'too easy' to have one walk up to you and stand there waiting to be shot at.
so this trip both myself and mark had very close chances only to be undone by the difficulties in giving accurate radio directions. it simply doesn't look the same from a different vantage point.

by this time it was too late too go and hunt where i was planning to hunt so i returned to camp to hear mark's version of events.
it was decided that we would start making our way out as the weather forcast called for some heavy rain and we didn't want our way out to be flooded.





we made it to a nice beach on the river and had the luxury of a bush TV. staring into the flames we reflected upon what had been and looked forward to next time......................

 

[bikerdavet]

What an amazing adventure. Thank you for sharing.

 

[InDeep]

Wow, what a amazing place to hunt . Thanks for the awesome pics and story !!

 

[JP100]

Awesome work guys!! well done for sticking with it. I loved your description of what we call "monkey scrub". no one can understand how horrid it is until they have experienced it. That stuff defeats you mentally and physically. the west coast sure is an awesome place to hunt but it can be bloody hard work.
you guys were lucky to have such a long spell of fine weather!!
Most hunters now chopper into that area but its great to see guys putting in the hard yards.
true real hunters!! good work!

 

[R Miller]

That is a serious effort, thanks for taking the time to share it.