Awesome trophies and beautiful country. What is the story on the hunts?
I Hunted with Gary Herbert New Zealand Hunting Safari's. It was a July hunt, right in the middle of winter. The Lodge was amazing, The wife loved it, food was amazing…..everything about the place was 5 star, like a resort! Gray though was a little blunt……I think most of his customers have too much money. We didn't start off on the right foot, had a pretty good argument on what are expectations were. The guy that sold us the hunt at the show promised my wife a tour guide to take her skiing and wine tasting and all that good stuff. The second we walked in the door, he planned to make it clear that wasn't going to happen until I was done hunting. Lets just say Gary and I had a heart to heart and from that point on he was cool. Wife got her guide!!!
There were 3 older guys there that were doing nothing but helicopter hunting….too old and out of shape. After looking at the mountains that I would be Tahr hunting in and finding out that it could be days of hunting without seeing one or to dangerous due to the snow and ice, I asked Gary if I should be thinking about maybe trying to get a ride on the chopper. He asked if I had been training for this, which i had. he said lets just wait and see. Myself I really wanted to hike, but also wanted to make sure I got my Tahr.
First morning, up at 0500 hrs…..I was paired with my guide Jordi and we were supposed to go hunt Tahr, but the weather was not cooperating and too dangerous so we headed out for Stag.
Upon arrival to the property we loaded up in a side by side and headed out. From there it was an hour walk up a ridge to a good glassing point. I am in good shape and trained for this hunt and I tell you trying to keep up with this 36 year old marathon runner was a chore. We glassed, and moved spots for another hour or so till we found our first Stag. We looked over the animal for a while, Jordi determined he was in my class but something wasn't right. Just didn't get my heart pumping. He was wide, perfect crowns but to me it looked like an Elk I am going to shoot someday. Still thought I wanted a closer look so we worked are way across to another ridge. Right when we got to the other ridge we spotted a stag bedded down that was right below the first spot we set up at. This stag had massive horns but was very narrow and the crowns weren't much. When we glassed over to the first one we saw I saw another stag get up out of the brush. (let me tell you the Brush there was like 6 ft tall sage brush with thorns.) It was at this instant my heart started pounding…..I told Jordi thats the one. I mean I was shaking. We moved in closer to make sure he wasn't broke up. I told him I didn't care what it scored. I really liked the the junk on his left and the split brow tine. We snuck up to about 248 yards of him, set up and boom. First shot was good. Have the video to prove it!!!
Right after the shot, 3 other stag came out of no where, surrounded him and they all went down hill and around the ridge to the right into the brush. We waited an hour or so. Kept watching the video, confident he was just around the corner in the brush. We looked for that Stag all day and no luck. At 1 pm we stopped to eat. Jordi called Gary, they were going to bring out the other guides to help. We kept combing the mountainsides while the others were on the way. At 3:30 I prayed Please let me find this animal. 10 Minutes later I was working my way up another small draw and saw this unusual brown thing sticking up a couple inches above the brush. Put my glasses on it to see what the hell it was….It was a nose, looking straight up into the sky. In disbeliefe I ran over there and WOO HOO it was him. I screamed to Jordi I found him…….A few High Fives later it was time to work.
As far as the Tahr hunt. It was day 2…..up at 0500 hrs again and Gary informed me to be ready by 0600 hrs to hunt for Tahr. The weather cleared!!!! It was at this point Gary asked if I could swim, I replied yes, but asked why he was asking. He said where you are going you have to cross a river and if you can't swim they will have to think of somewhere else. The mountain Range where we went to hunt was an hour drive in an old glacier river bottom in what would be National Forest. We stopped a few times, glassing several mountains before we hit pay dirt. Maybe 10-15 Tahr in the group with one that seemed to have the mane of an old goat. We were to far away to judge horn size but felt it was worth the hike. For this hunt Jordi and I had the help of a second guide. We came up with a plan and had to hurry while they were still feeding. Jordi and I would hike and Nick(2nd Guide) would stay below on the spotting scopes to keep an eye on the goats. We aired up the raft and headed across the river.
Mind you it was cold enough outside that the walking staff I had was covered with ice by the time we crossed the river. The hike up this shale mountain was the hardest thing I have ever done. Trying to keep up with Jordi was tough until we got into the nasty shale and stupid steep ****. From here on out I was with him step for step. Adrenaline Pumping!! We figured we had to have this hike up the mountain done in 3-4 hours. When we got to 200 yds of where we saw the billy's originally we slowed down, glassing around every rock we could every 10 steps or so. The goats had moved up the mountain and into a chute that we couldn't see. Slowly we worked are way up to a cliff over looking the chute. 30 yards below us was a yearling, 100 yds below him were 3 more goats….small billy's. We sat here for a half hour or so waiting for a good billy to show up as the others fed around but no such luck.
My guide Jordi decided he would have me stay put and he would sneak back down and around another ridge to see if some other goats went the opposite way. I asked him "what if he shows up when you leave, can I shoot him?" He said, if a good one shows up, just wait for me to get back. Watch to see where he beds down. I told him "**** don't always work that way!" I asked him what a good billy is and he said…"full mane, Horns long enough that they go back into the mane".
Jordi left, it wasn't 10 minutes and I heard some rocks falling. 200 yds away a small billy climbed up on a ridge of rocks in the shale. 30 seconds later i looked up and there he was. Magnificent and broadside……and no Jordi in sight. I put the scope on him….huge full mane, horns reaching back well into his mane. THIS WAS THE ONE! Right then he turned around and was leaving as quick as he showed up. He was at the 2 o'clock position from me….put the cross hairs on the back of his ribs and pulled the trigger on that 300 Win Mag. and that was the last I saw of him..
Jordi came up running, asked why did I shoot, I said I think it is a good one!! He got to it before me and started screaming. I asked him if I did OK…..He said "this things a stud!
He measured 13 1/2 on one horn and 13 3/4 on the other.
