Back to Bucktown – Willis Macbeth

Once again we were in heaven. History would indicate that the next couple of days would be enjoyable with some good hunting and the enjoyment of being amongst it with some good company. The first evening we split up to cover more ground. I climbed through a waterfall, found my bearings then out shot a chamois across the creek. He stopped about 50m away, up went the scope, he looked alright, so off went the bullet and so did the chamois. “I can’t have missed that”, I thought to myself as I searched the nearby area for signs of the buck. “Aha! I thought the shot felt good!” I thought to myself as the first spots of blood were found. I followed the regular spurts downhill through a small dry stream, then into the bush. After almost 5 minutes and 100m I found him dead. It’s never nice to know an animal suffered, but at least it was all over now for him. The shot had gone behind the shoulder and got him in the lungs.

I carried on and saw 7 more chamois and a few tahr for the evening. The weather was poor, getting even a light snowing on for my efforts. One buck of about 9 ½” inches was seen but it really needed to be 10” now as I didn’t want another one in the 9” category on this trip.

Callum had shot a 12 ¾” bull in his evening hunt so the pressure was off a little.  The next evening we teamed up and went for a wander, seeing a few animals including a beautiful stag just on dark with wide velvet and lovely bottom tines. He stood broadside for a minute before prancing off a bit and barking at us even further out on the flats. Someone would appreciate him a lot more in hard antler, hopefully he survives!

That night we met a German guy, Martin, who was a keen hunter and asked to come along for a hunt. He hadn’t planned on hunting in NZ but was keen as so along he came. We saw a few animals for the morning, including a couple of close encounters.

The second chamois we were in close to was near the end of the hunt anyway so I offered up the shot to Martin. He was so excited to get the opportunity, and pulled off a perfect shot on the chamois. He was one happy German!