RETURN
FOR THE
STAG
WRITTEN BY ~ TOBY WALKERA good buddy of mine called Chris had just
started hunting and I was keen to take him to
one of my favourite haunts
When I’d first started, I spent a lot of time in this area and it was
the place where I took my first chamois and first solo animal.It was mid-August and this trip started
like the rest of them, with nerves and
a sense of anticipation about what we
were going to see and what would
happen. The aim of the trip was to
blood Chris’s brand new 308 with a deer
or a chamois. We spotted a few deer
on the Friday evening but since it was
the start of the hunt and the deer were
relatively high up, as they usually are in
winter, we decided to leave them and
try to get something with horns.
On the first morning we left camp
and hunted a side stream where
I knew a family group of chamois
lived. The last time I’d been there I’d
also gotten on to a good mob of deer
at the start of the stream. The deer were
not there this time but after a morning
of not seeing anything, Chris finally
spotted a chamois that was standing
on an outcrop and surveying the area
below it. It didn’t take us long to come
up with a plan to get into a position to
shoot but the climb would take some
time. Just as we started climbing, the
wind did a U-turn and started blowing
up our rear ends.
We gave it a go anyway and got within
300m but the chamois caught our
wind and started running around in anagitated way, despite the fact that it
couldn’t have seen us. Long story short,
what turned out to be a wee mob of
three chamois did what they do best
and got out of range very fast!Chris and I were
a bit gutted as
we headed back
to camp for some
lunch.
The evening hunt started out very
slowly. A hind and her young one were
the only animals we spotted miles up
a small side gut off the main river –
safe from us! Then as we were walking
back to camp before dark, we started
glassing the hill face above camp like
we had multiple times before – and
wow – there was a stag! I had
never seen such a big stag on the
hill; he was a definite shooter. He
was way out in the open and we just
couldn’t believe we hadn’t spotted him
earlier. He was 1.2km away in a straight
line and way out of reach for us thatToby with his trophy14 NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE ~ August / September 2019FOR THE
STAG
WRITTENBY~ TOBYWALKERA good buddy of mine called Chris had just
started hunting and I was keen to take him to
one of my favourite haunts
When I’d first started, I spent a lot of time in this area and it was
the place where I took my first chamois and first solo animal.It was mid-August and this trip started
like the rest of them, with nerves and
a sense of anticipation about what we
were going to see and what would
happen. The aim of the trip was to
blood Chris’s brand new 308 with a deer
or a chamois. We spotted a few deer
on the Friday evening but since it was
the start of the hunt and the deer were
relatively high up, as they usually are in
winter, we decided to leave them and
try to get something with horns.
On the first morning we left camp
and hunted a side stream where
I knew a family group of chamois
lived. The last time I’d been there I’d
also gotten on to a good mob of deer
at the start of the stream. The deer were
not there this time but after a morning
of not seeing anything, Chris finally
spotted a chamois that was standing
on an outcrop and surveying the area
below it. It didn’t take us long to come
up with a plan to get into a position to
shoot but the climb would take some
time. Just as we started climbing, the
wind did a U-turn and started blowing
up our rear ends.
We gave it a go anyway and got within
300m but the chamois caught our
wind and started running around in anagitated way, despite the fact that it
couldn’t have seen us. Long story short,
what turned out to be a wee mob of
three chamois did what they do best
and got out of range very fast!Chris and I were
a bit gutted as
we headed back
to camp for some
lunch.
The evening hunt started out very
slowly. A hind and her young one were
the only animals we spotted miles up
a small side gut off the main river –
safe from us! Then as we were walking
back to camp before dark, we started
glassing the hill face above camp like
we had multiple times before – and
wow – there was a stag! I had
never seen such a big stag on the
hill; he was a definite shooter. He
was way out in the open and we just
couldn’t believe we hadn’t spotted him
earlier. He was 1.2km away in a straight
line and way out of reach for us thatToby with his trophy14 NZ HUNTER MAGAZINE ~ August / September 2019