Himalayan tahr deja vu. Feeding the addiction.

An addiction to adventure is incurable and can only ever, at best, be temporarily satisfied. my latest sojourn to New Zealand's wilderness has quenched the cravings for adventure but for a little while.

himalayan tahr never cease to amaze with their magnificence, nonchalant surefootedness, habitat and all round grandeur and the desire to hunt them the hard way has not diminished.

L-R, mark, myself and paul set forth on foot once again last month to hunt the revered bull tahr.



upon reaching the 1st hut along the trail to the hunting area, we met and shared the hut with a party of fellow hunters. they had just spent 10 days in the hut further along the trail, unable to go anywhere due to relentless and torrential rain. not uncommon in the westland region of the south island. meeting in such a place and sharing tales in a crowded hut added to the mystique of the NZ backcountry. a most enjoyable night was had by all. thanks for the camaraderie guys!


days two and three were spent hiking up to the hunting area. at the end of day two we stayed in the next hut along the trail, the hut that the other hunters were stranded at for 10 days.

this part of the world is very photogenic and boasts many types of habitat. as we were hiking in we joked about all the different movies sets we were walking through. the actual mountains in the background of the group photo at the first hut were featured in the hobbit eagle scene. other movie sets we could walked through included the forest of pandora from avatar and the planets endor, dagobah and hoth from star wars. it really is that epic.
the forest can best be described as primordial and at times, brings about an eerie feeling when walking through it.




view out of the window of the second hut.


day three was time to climb up to the main hunt area.

we made camp above tree line on a south facing slope, which ment it didn't get much sun and was still covered in snow from the recent bad weather. welcome to hoth!




the next day (day four) was our first day of hunting. mark and i decided to head over towards where i shot a bull last year. mark hadn't been to this valley yet so i was going to show him the nice area we found last year. paul hunted the bush edges below camp. on the way we saw a few animals as we normally do. mark had a stalk on a sentry nanny.


the scenery can not be described, it must be experienced.


home sweet home.

a group of tahr feeding.



another group paul and i observed a few days later.



here's some groups that paul saw near the bush edge. photo's by paul.

here's a rock bivy i found. it would make an excellent camp with a little work like lining the floor with fern fronds or an emergency shelter as it is if it was needed.

that same day, (day 4, 1st day of hunting) mark i and i eventually made over to the area where we saw lots of bulls last year.
mark could see some bulls below us near the bush line and decided to move down and attempt to stalk them. i went the other way and went to check out the gully where i got my bull the previous year.

thick fog was starting to form lower down the valley and i knew in a short while that we would be cloaked in thick moist air and visibility would be reduced to about 30 meters. (100 feet) i found a nice little spot from which to glass the gully and set about fixing my trekking pole and glassing as the fog came and went periodically.

the day before as we forded the river to hike up from the hut to our tent camp, i went to adjust the length of the pole to get a more stable position to jump onto a boulder in the river when the bottom two sections of the pole slid out and were swept away. i use a black diamond carbon whippet pole which has an ice pick on the handle, so i was left with a small make shift ice tool. on the way up to tent camp i found a straight stick from which to whittle a stub to shove up the end of the pole.

i had just finished making a stub for the pole and the fog momentarily cleared and straight away i saw a nice bull in the gully. so i packed up my gear and headed straight down to see if i could put on a stalk. i was part way down when i saw him walk into a cluster of huge boulders and disappeared. i knew he would be in there, and i would be able to see him leave if he did so, so i dropped my pack and began moving down an open slope towards the boulders that were about 60 meters away.

suddenly he walked out of the boulders and started walking up towards me. i was completely out in the open so i had no choice but to nock an arrow and lay down against the slope and look like a rock. it worked and he didn't notice me and he dropped into a small drain and appeared to have a drink, although i've read that's it's extremely rare to see a tahr drink. apparently the get most of their moisture from the vegetation they eat.
whether he was drinking or doing something else, i saw it as my queue to have have a shot, since his head was obscured and he couldn't see me get up into a kneeling position. i released at the bull from about 30 meters with a steep downhill angle but i cursed as the arrow flew and passed just under him and clattered into some rocks.

startled a little, the bull jumped up out of the drain and ran a short distance behind some short monkey scrub bushes. i quickly moved down to the bushes and nocked another arrow when he walked out the other side and started to move up the other side of the gully. he stopped broadside looked downhill at about 25 meters and i remember intently focusing on his chest and drawing, consciously keeping my elbow high as i did. this is my shot routine and it just seems to work for me if i focus on form and let the subconscious do the aiming.
the flight of the arrow was perfect and the shot placement equally so, at least that was my immediate impression. the bull let out a bellow and ran down hill into the boulders, stood for a second then disappeared. i was was confident that the placement was good and as he ran away i could see equal amounts of arrow protruding out of either side of the chest.
i retrieved my pack and by then it was time to take up the trail. the arrow had broke, probably due to shoulder blades acting like a guillotine and both the broadhead and nock ends fell out. upon picking them up and piecing them together it became apparent that about 6" of the arrow must be still in his chest.
the blood was deep red with a few very tiny bubbles indicating at least some lung damage. the blood trail however was almost nonexistent. just a few small drops............

this is where the deja vu comes into play. the last place that i saw the bull was 10 meters away from where i recovered my bull last year. his bones are still there. here i was, starting the search for a bull right where the search for a bull ended 1 year ago. absolutely incredible circumstances. the two places where each bull was standing when they were shot are about 30 meters apart. they are separated more by time than by distance. i still shake my head thinking about how uncanny the circumstances are.

it was getting late in the afternoon and i new i couldn't spend too much time looking for him before i would have to rendezvous with mark and get back to camp. walking around in the dark in that country is bordering on dangerous IMO.

he vanished into the bush and ferns and doubt started to rear its ugly head. he could be dead in there and i still might not find him. i had a quick look around in there but couldn't find any sign and reluctantly i left to go meet mark.

i of course planned to go back in the morning and resume the search but the mountains had other ideas. it started to rain that night. it rained and rained and kept raining. morning came around and it continued raining all that day only relenting that night. 36 hours in the tent, contemplating....................

so next morning paul decided to come with me. he would hunt his way over to the search area then help me try to find the mountain's prize.
at around midday paul began a stalk on a pair of bedded bulls. the situation was a good one, with ideal topography aiding the stalk. i sat back and had lunch while paul did his thing. then the fog rolled in again. paul and the bulls were less than 100 meters away in plain sight but i couldn't see them. maybe half an hour later i heard some alarm whistles from the bull. i knew something was happening but couldn't see a thing. moments later paul yelled out for me to come over so that i did. when i got there he told me he crested a small ridge to find the bull less than 10 meters beyond but it had sensed movement and made good his escape.
the fog was set in now and hunting was near impossible in the low visibility conditions so we decided it was time to look for my bull, which wasn't far from where we were.
we started at the place of last sighting and began zig zagging through the small corridor of bush in the bottom of the steep sided gully. both sides of the gully where the bush is has rock slabs sloping down to the bottom forming a vee shaped gully.
there is so many holes and places where a dead animal could be that would guard the carcass and never allow it to be found. we had been looking for about 20 minutes and i was starting to accept that i might have killed a bull only to have it swallowed up by the bush, when i stood on a boulder that jutted out above the ferns and offered a vantage point. i happened to look to my right and as if by divine intervention, there he was, belly up in a parted section of trees in plain view. if i was standing anywhere else i wouldn't have seen him.
i was so relieved and happy to have confirmed my strong belief that the shot was a good one and that he was dead.

two bulls in two years in the exact same spot. i said to paul, "i hearby name this gully, 'golden gully' ". we both laughed.

so it was, 48 hours after the shot, i found him. he had run about 100 meters from where i shot him.

having lunch while paul was stalking.


the view when i spotted the bull. he's between the trees, center frame. remarkable, i know!



he must have died half way across the rock slope and slid down to his resting place. his head was underneath his body.


the trophy of my dreams. a mature bull tahr. his horns are nearly 12.5"


after opening up the ribs after this photo it was found that the shot took out the top of both lungs. the lungs of a tahr are lower than that of a deer. anatomy lesson learnt.

thanks guys.

the pack was heavy walking back to camp, though it was welcome weight.



the next day i bummed around camp and attended to the skinning out of the head and salting the cape. mark and paul went hunting again.

here's some tahr i spotted out of my tent door. they are on the ridge top.


that evening the weather closed in again and it began to rain once more. another 36 hour period in the tent had begun......
it rained heavily that night and to my disbelief i awoke early the next morning to a flooded tent. there was 5" of water in the floor of my little shelter. my mat and bottom half of my down sleeping bag were wet and my camera was underwater. i was sleeping with the inner doors open to maximize ventilation trying to combat condensation. through the night i must have rolled on the edge of the floor wall and pushed it down onto the ground allowing water from the small stream running under the floor to flow into my tent and flood it.
it took me a while to bail it all out with my jetboil cup. the rest of that day it rained but it cleared that night and there was a huge frost. it was very cold that night. i was in the fetal position in my sleeping bag because the bottom was wet which made for a terrible nights sleep. that morning it was minus 8 degrees C (17F)in our tents. everything was frozen. the bottom of my bag was frozen, usually limp bootlaces were like pieces of wire. i told the guys that i was going to go down to the hut since all my gear was frozen and with these temperatures it would be silly for me not to go down to the hut. they decided to join me as they were in a similar but not as bad similar situation.

we dined like kings for two nights when got back to the hut.


this is all my pics of the trip. my camera got flooded in the tent so no more pics for me. i'm still waiting for pics from one of the other guys so i will post them up when i get them.

total days for the trip was 12. 3 days walk from road end, 6 days hunting then 3 days back out to the road.

Really fabulous tale! Thanks for sharing, and congrats on your bull!

Nice work Clint. Epic effort to get one with the bow and a stud bull at that!

Lucky you didn't get any snow between shooting that bull and finding him!

Thanks for taking the time to post.

Cheers,
JWB300

Fantastic hunt, appreciate your story.

Can't wait to hunt NZ again.

Absolutely epic hunt. Thanks for posting.

Congratulations ! Great hunt and thanks for sharing. Terrible to hear about your camera though.

Awesome story, Clint! Looks like a really nice bull. How is the meat? Looking forward to seeing the rest of your pics!

the trophy of my dreams. a mature bull tahr. his horns are nearly 12.5"


Beautiful mate!! A proper Bull Tahr in south westland has got to be one of the most challenging and rewarding hunts in the world. you earnt that beast!Looks like an old bugger with worn off ridges?
Im still having trouble sleeping after missing more bulls this year haha, luckily no wounded/lost animals but alot should have arrows in them.
One of my last clients said
"you dont have to be mad...but it helps"
I think that sums up bow hunting south westalnd in general haha.
Im happy you got a good bull, good work mate you earnt it!!!

Fantastic write up and pictures!

Fantastic Clint! really look forward to your south Island hunts. Congrats on a top effort and Bull, and thanks for sharing.