Extremely Southern State ******** Ram versus Hemtragus jemlahicus

[nzhuntinginfo]

Adult Female Chamois.     Canterbury New Zealand

This picture (taken yesterday) shows an adult female chamois under full acceleration.

Note that the coat is fully summer without any blemishes due to moult.

She did a 1000 foot climb with hardly a pause.

The agility and fitness of these animals, especially those hounded on public land is truly amazing.

[nzhuntinginfo]

This is what the king of the deer family looks like at the moment...the antlers need a bit more time to harden up
but within about 2.5 months these boys will be making a bit of noise.

[nzhuntinginfo]

Alpine chamois in New Zealand are hunted 24/7 like this one photographed two days ago on public land.

On the same morning this photograph was taken a commercial venison recovery helicopter was shooting the area for deer.

This animal was extremely touchy.

[Austrian Hunter]

Awesome pictures NZ.   Wow, makes me home sick, lol, but  not from New Zealand.  C

[nzhuntinginfo]

Thanks Mr Austria for your kind comment. (These animals were originally imported from Austria over 100 years ago as described in my book.)

This photo was taken a few moments after the one above.

At around 8 times optical zoom, I'm pretty close. But she still hasn't seen me.

A yellow hunting helicopter flew past a few minutes later.

[scree]

I may have missed it but what is your book?

[nzhuntinginfo]

I took this photo this morning to illustrate two points..

1. You gotta get out of bed early to be consistently successful on public land.
    The time is 9.00 am and this animal has already lain down. It would be extremely hard to spot if you didn't know where it was.

2.  Chamois live in a wide range of habitats in New Zealand...this pic is taken in Marlborough in a rainfall area of about 30cm.
     Chamois also live in areas with a rainfall of well over 450cm.
(Book is "Chamois A New Zealand Hunter's Handbook)

[nzhuntinginfo]

Trophy?

Is it ok to call the back legs of this animal, a trophy?
Probably the best feed possible in New Zealand.

To get to it required about 1000m of climb...a gut buster by many hunters' standards.

[nzhuntinginfo]

THE RED STAG RUT (ROAR) NEW ZEALAND

The roar started early for me this year...I was lucky to get onto some good active Red Stags on public land in Mid March.
In new Zealand we have wild deer herds that originate from liberations made 100 years ago using founder stock from various parts of the UK and Scotland.


This photo was taken at 109m with 12 optical zoom.
When I put up the next photo of this stag maybe you can relate to the process of roaring in a Red Stag

[lokidog]

Nice photos, awesome that you are on public land.  My dad was down there a year and a half or so ago, he shot a huge stag (#11 I think) and a monster of an elk (#1 crossbow) as well as a few other critters.  He was not on public land.     I'd love to get  down there some day, as would most of us I think.   

[nzhuntinginfo]

BLOG   Try this blog?            www.nzhuntinginfo.blogspot.com/          "Hunting for Hunters" 


I gave a low growl. So quietly that he didn't hear at first.
Suddenly his ears pricked up but he stayed sitting and roared.
Then after a few minutes he stood up and started raking the ground.

He was on his way to say hello to me.

[nzhuntinginfo]

BLOG   

www.nzhuntinginfo.blogspot.com    "Hunting for Hunters"  A blog for the experienced hunter.

So the red stag is on his way.
He doesn't make any more noises but what is clear is that he has pinpointed exactly where my growl has come from.
April is the only time of the year when red stags on public land can be readily seen...the rest of the time the stags stay buried in the brush.
The commercial venison recovery helicopters are not allowed to operate during the rut but the rest of the year they shoot these animals from the air.

[nzhuntinginfo]

Picture of a buck mooching around in June at the end of the rut.

We've has just experienced one of the heaviest dumps of snow in decades.
Much of the normal hunting areas are unsafe because of avalanche danger.
Luckily warm winds have juststarted to melt the snow off the river flats which means that we will be able to get out hunting again soon.

[longrange7mm]

awesome pics

[nzhuntinginfo]

The record snowfall in Canterbury has melted back over the last month and hunting is now readily available.

Here is a group of nine chamois I found recently.

We chose to take the master buck who was still spending a lot of energy trying to chase off a lesser buck.