John Labanc: New Zealand Hunt Report

Guided Tahr, and Chamois Combo Hunt in New Zealand

Susan (my wife) and I arrived at the hunting lodge after four days of sightseeing on the beautiful South Island of New Zealand. The lodge was beautiful and comfortable. The food was prepared by professionally trained chefs and worth the trip even if I had not been hunting. After settling into the lodge, my assigned guide, Logan, and I drove to the Tahr hunting area to glass. I rented a Tikka .308 mounted with a Swarovski 3.5-18x scope with custom elevation turret from 100 yards to 500 yards at 25 yd increments.

The next morning Logan and I departed the lodge just before sunrise and drove to hunt tahr. We spotted the first tahr several ridges and drainages away from our glassing position. Logan and I made a stalk crossing multiple ridges and side hilled chasing tahr. We would spot a tahr, drop down into the drainage a short distance, side hill to the next ridge, pop over the ridge only find they had moved.

We kept crossing ridges and side hilling. After crossing four ridges we cliffed out and finally spotted a tahr on a steep cliff at 325 yd. The issues were; can I safely get into a stable shooting position; do I have a clear, unobstructed line of sight; can we retrieve the tahr? Logan accepted the risk of retrieval, but it would be unsafe for me to accompany him to retrieve it. The wind was strong with periods of calm. I struggled to get into an awkward prone position. I set the custom elevation turret to 325 yards, set the scope on low power for the widest field of view, acquired the sight picture and waited for the tahr to give me a broadside target. I sent the 165 grain .308 bullet and hit the tahr hard.

The surrounding females scattered, the bull staggered a few yards before my second shot hit him in the spine. The tahr tumbled off the cliff into the ravine somersaulting and sliding to the bottom. Logan was able to locate the dead bull at the bottom of the ravine. He retrieved the hide and head, but it was too dangerous for me to go down for photos. It took us over 2 hours to climb out of the drainage and back to our side-by-side vehicle. This was an extremely difficult and sketchy hunt, but rewarding.

Day three was dedicated to hunting chamois. It was a one hour drive to meet the helicopter. It was a brief and scenic five minute flight into the hunting area taking hours off a hike to the hunting area. We were dropped off beside a creek at the base of the mountain range. We brought camping gear in case we needed to spend a day or two chasing chamois in the mountains. Within minutes of setting up to glass we saw a group of chamois at the top of the mountain grazing along the skyline.

The plan was to bush bash up one of the ridges out of sight of the chamois and then sneak a peak over the ridge to spot and locate them again. The ridge was steep and covered with dense ferns, trees and bushes. It was difficult to know where the ground was under the dense ferns. My feet and pack were constantly catching on vegetation and branches. The bush bash was difficult and slow going.

Logan scouted about and located a chamois. It was very difficult to find a spot that I could shoot from due to the dense vegetation and steepness. Logan found a flat area on a steep incline. I was able to get into a precarious prone position on the ridge. I had to fight to keep from sliding off the incline. The chamois was feeding 100 yards from our position. It disappeared behind a rock and we lost sight of it. We waited 10 minutes to try to relocate it.

Then Logan tapped me on the shoulder. The chamois was 30 yards behind us standing on a rock outcropping staring at us. It was stalking us. I would have to take the shot off-hand. While I was slowly turning to face the chamois, my foot slipped and the chamois moved 10 yards and stopped to look at us. I used Logan’s shoulder as a rifle rest. The chamois turned broadside and I shot, hitting it on the shoulder and breaking it. I racked another round and hit it again dropping it. It fell off the rocks into a shallow depression. After retrieving the hide and head, it took us another two hours to bush bash down the mountain to the helicopter landing zone. The physical exertion was challenging, but rewarding. Logan made a fire and we waited around the fire for several hours before the helicopter arrived to fly us out of the mountain range.

On day four Logan and I headed out to look for a red stag or fallow deer. I was open to either a fallow deer or stag as I was now in the “bonus round” having harvested a tahr and chamois. I elected to stalk a fallow deer that had a unique split paddle antler. A small herd of red stag and fallow deer were feeding on the hill side on the opposite side of the draw from our glassing spot. I set up on a rock using my pack as a front rest. The deer was ranged at 275 yards with a 10 to 15 mph left to right full value wind. I held slightly behind the shoulder to account for the wind. The shot dropped the deer immediately.

New Zealand has magnificent scenery and is a target rich hunting opportunity. Hunting in New Zealand should be on every hunter’s bucket list.