Had a pretty cool day today, got to go hunt sheep.
The property here has a Arapawa sheep herd that normally stays on the private land but a couple years ago a group of them headed up the river valley and onto public land. The department of conservation (New Zealand government) doesn't want these sheep on public land and told the outfit that they need to get rid of them or the government will come kill them and Bill the outfit for the costs.
We headed up the valley hiking. It's about 3 miles to where the sheep have taken up residence. The outfit has been hunting them pretty heavily since they went up there and haven't had much luck.
We got up there and located a group of 6 sheep. I managed to knock 3 of them down by running and gunning, and could have gotten another but remembered we had to pack anything we shot back down to the lodge and figured 3 was plenty.
The guide and I broke the sheep down and into our packs and headed out. I also get to bring home the ram skull for a European mount. These things were very spooky and wouldn't stand still for us at all! I had to shoot as they crossed openings. Was a ton of fun.
Also we got to measure my stag today. We came up to 315 inches. Heading home tomorrow.
