Well it was a one day hunt this time as after the afternoon exertions I didn't think I would be up for another climb tomorrow.
I was up at 4.45 this morning and got away by 5.30, picked up another chap who was coming for the first time and was on the rabbit face by 7.30 am. I have never seen so few rabbits on all the time I have been shooting this place. We did end up with a few but unfortunately the young feller couldn't hit anything and in fact that was the result for the full day for him.
It was a cold morning with heavy frost and the track up to the high country was a bit slippy in places with parts of the track having standing water in some of the wheel ruts and in a couple of places there were slips that required a bit of careful negotiation because of the very steep drop-off down to the creek about 900yads below.
We saw a mob of eight but they were right down on the creek flat and that was a climb too far for me.
When we got round to the low end (low end that is still 1000 yds down to the creek--ha ha ha) we had a bite to eat and headed down into the bluffs and Glen had a shot (again he missed) that set a few heading down and round heading for safer pastures. I managed to get away around ahead of them but fell twice as the frost on the rocks was treacherous and both times the rifle took a battering, the first time it smacked down on the stock and the rear bell of the scope and the second time I slipped off a rock I was trying to get down and fell a yard or two and the rifle landed on its side with the scope turrets being the point of impact. I though it would probably have knocked everything out of kilter but had no time to stop as I still needed to get into position to get onto the goats as they came round out of the gut they were in. I got two of them and the first one dropped where he was and the second one went off the rock it was standing on and I thought it had fallen away down to where couldn't get it as there was a cliff about 50-70 yds straight down. To get down to them I had to crawl on hands and knees over a couple of flat sloping rocks as they were still far to trecherous to get down any other way. I got the first one headed and gutted but the second one was a slightly more involved process as the goat had fallen between a rock and a mataghouri bush and I had to hold myself against the rock with my hip and grab the only horn visible and nearly lost it over the bluff getting it back to where I was and trying to dress it out on a small patch of tussock grass still on a very steep slope that was only about 2ft y 3ft was a bit of a challenge.
It was a case of taking the larger animal up aout 20ft and wedging it so I could go back for the other on and the rifle. Ground still frosty and slippery so having taken just over a 1/2 hour to climb in and shoot them it took me over 2 hours of slog and rest to get them back to the truck. When I got back up to the realative flat, Glen took the larger animal and carried it the rest of the way in his pack.
By then I had decided that I wouldn't be fit to do the same thing the next day in the other basin so we packed up the truck and came back home where I skun and hung the goats and will break them down tomorrow.
I am a tired boy tonight and will sleep well.
I was up at 4.45 this morning and got away by 5.30, picked up another chap who was coming for the first time and was on the rabbit face by 7.30 am. I have never seen so few rabbits on all the time I have been shooting this place. We did end up with a few but unfortunately the young feller couldn't hit anything and in fact that was the result for the full day for him.
It was a cold morning with heavy frost and the track up to the high country was a bit slippy in places with parts of the track having standing water in some of the wheel ruts and in a couple of places there were slips that required a bit of careful negotiation because of the very steep drop-off down to the creek about 900yads below.
We saw a mob of eight but they were right down on the creek flat and that was a climb too far for me.
When we got round to the low end (low end that is still 1000 yds down to the creek--ha ha ha) we had a bite to eat and headed down into the bluffs and Glen had a shot (again he missed) that set a few heading down and round heading for safer pastures. I managed to get away around ahead of them but fell twice as the frost on the rocks was treacherous and both times the rifle took a battering, the first time it smacked down on the stock and the rear bell of the scope and the second time I slipped off a rock I was trying to get down and fell a yard or two and the rifle landed on its side with the scope turrets being the point of impact. I though it would probably have knocked everything out of kilter but had no time to stop as I still needed to get into position to get onto the goats as they came round out of the gut they were in. I got two of them and the first one dropped where he was and the second one went off the rock it was standing on and I thought it had fallen away down to where couldn't get it as there was a cliff about 50-70 yds straight down. To get down to them I had to crawl on hands and knees over a couple of flat sloping rocks as they were still far to trecherous to get down any other way. I got the first one headed and gutted but the second one was a slightly more involved process as the goat had fallen between a rock and a mataghouri bush and I had to hold myself against the rock with my hip and grab the only horn visible and nearly lost it over the bluff getting it back to where I was and trying to dress it out on a small patch of tussock grass still on a very steep slope that was only about 2ft y 3ft was a bit of a challenge.
It was a case of taking the larger animal up aout 20ft and wedging it so I could go back for the other on and the rifle. Ground still frosty and slippery so having taken just over a 1/2 hour to climb in and shoot them it took me over 2 hours of slog and rest to get them back to the truck. When I got back up to the realative flat, Glen took the larger animal and carried it the rest of the way in his pack.
By then I had decided that I wouldn't be fit to do the same thing the next day in the other basin so we packed up the truck and came back home where I skun and hung the goats and will break them down tomorrow.
I am a tired boy tonight and will sleep well.
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