Tahr Success – Mike Gibson with his 13 inch Bull

Tahr hunting the West Coast New Zealand wilderness blocks can be very addictive for some people which is evident by the faces that you continually see pop up each year at the helipad or the local pub before heading into the mountains.

For me its a bug that has bitten hard. I love the remoteness of the hunt, the unpredictable West Coast weather and the challenge of pulling a good bull tahr out of the steep mountain landscape.

The hunt relies on fusing all facets of your hunting into one week long outing that will normally test everything you have at some stage throughout the hunt. As the locals would know gear preparation, optics and fitness being paramount to making sure that you have a successful hunt.

This year I had the new Veil Deception to run in the mountains. I had already used it extensively throughout Australia and was confident that it would be a great pattern in the mountains, but I was still keen to see just how effective it was.

This year we had a 4 man party all with cameras. With that I managed to get some shots of myself hunting that I would normally miss being behind the camera. In the mountains I felt that it was working effectively and was keeping me blended in the mountain and tussock landscape. Once home and trawling through photographs it was clear just how good my break-up was working at any distance especially changing some shots to black and white.

The hunt went extremely well with 2 virgin New Zealand and Tahr hunters both taking nice bulls and I also managed my PB bull at a heavy 13 inches. We managed lots of great photos and video along the way before the heavens opened up and ended our hunt with a 56 hour deluge of rain.

Once again a fantastic trip across the ditch that never disappoints.

A nice bull we filmed over the hunt

One last look – Yep hes a good one

My Bull before he was taken

Tahr a long way out a couple of blocks away.