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Hard yards goat hunt (NZ)


Houseplant
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With meat stocks in the freezer very low (just a pack of rabbit legs left!), I went for a goat hunt with the blessing of Mrs Houseplant. Back to an old haunt where I've had mixed success in the past.

Bush as dense as ever. Travel made difficult in places by wet, slippery conditions due to recent heavy rainfall. 

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Very little to see, no fresh sign. It was going to be a hard day hunting. Nice views of surrounding farmland once I got near the top of the mountain.

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I pushed on towards a steep clearing which I had found via satellite imagery. As I got closer, I found some fresh sign at last.

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Finally made it to the clearing, but no goats to be seen. 

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I sat there for a while having a bite to eat before heading home when a young white goat popped out about 50 metres away at the other end of the clearing. It was a fairly easy shot and a 300BLK subsonic round to the neck did the job as usual. The animal went tumbling down the bluff. 

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Field butchery. Backstraps and back legs harvested.

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After dealing with the animal, it was time to head out the bush. Not somewhere I wanted to be in darkness due to the difficulty of the terrain. 8 hour round trip, definitely a hard yards goat hunt! 

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I let the meat hang overnight before tidying it up and vacuum packing for the freezer.

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Edited by Houseplant
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2 hours ago, Medic1281 said:

That looks amazing, hard work too! Where abouts in NZ is this? I went to nz in 2003, absolutely loved it and really want to go back. We only did the north of the north island, there’s so much more I want to see!

I'm in the north of the North Island (Northland). I literally could not have picked a worse place for hunting in the whole of the country. No deer and the land open for public hunting is gnarly, both in terms of geography and dense vegetation. Lot of pigs, but you need dogs to hunt them in this environment. A few goats scattered about here and there.  Fishing and diving are very good though and that's what brought me here. I do a couple of hunting trips south of Auckland every year, but the distances to travel are huge.

Edited by Houseplant
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That’s where we spent a bit of time, had a few weeks at a backpacking place on a farm near pukenui?! In the wild between there and 90mile beach. I loved that area. We went whale watching around the bay of islands too, got chatting to the guide, turns out he had only ever been to the uk once, but he stayed in my hometown when he did. So miles from home and me and this guide were talking about the same people in The same pubs!! It’s an amazing place. 

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19 hours ago, Houseplant said:

Haha! My words taken a little out of context there! The scenery in the south island would blow you away!

:) I know that's not what you meant but that thought popped into my head and tickled me so I wrote it down!

I've a few friends who've travelled to NZ, north and south plus one who moved out to Queenstown about 15 years ago and has never looked back.  The photos and stories they've shared are just amazing.  If I was single and had to ties I reckon I'd have been over there a long time ago.

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All good 😀

Otago is a special place, especially for the outdoorsman. Queenstown itself is nice, but too touristy at times. Such a different environment where I am now versus the south.  I'm not a big fan of the cold, so live at the top of NZ where it's warmest. It's midwinter and we have 16 degree air temperature and blue skies today. Everything is upside down here! Having said that, we're thinking of a longer term move south where the hunting is better, property is cheaper and we can live off the land.

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1 hour ago, Houseplant said:

Steep tends to be a defining feature of public land in my area, and it somewhat holds true for the rest of the country. Areas of flat land was bought/stolen/acquired for farming long ago.

That’s North Carolina also.  Out toward the coast with have thousand of acres of public swamp.  Great hunting but the deer are small and the swamp isn’t the easiest to get around in.  Then the western part of the state is solid mountains.  Steep land that nobody wanted.  The state did buy up a couple thousands of acres of good fields for bird hunting.  They plant for hunters.   Out west of the country you can drive all day on flat public land but on the east coast we are limited to the **** land,  but at least there is a lot of it.  

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35 minutes ago, NoBodyImportant said:

That’s North Carolina also.  Out toward the coast with have thousand of acres of public swamp.  Great hunting but the deer are small and the swamp isn’t the easiest to get around in.  Then the western part of the state is solid mountains.  Steep land that nobody wanted.  The state did buy up a couple thousands of acres of good fields for bird hunting.  They plant for hunters.   Out west of the country you can drive all day on flat public land but on the east coast we are limited to the **** land,  but at least there is a lot of it.  

Better than nothing! Could be worse like the UK. 

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4 hours ago, old man said:

Enjoy every minute of it and please keep the stories coming?

I enjoyed my month stay and drove end to end both islands, fabulous country and people.

 

I'll keep you updated 😀

Strong wind and rain forecast this weekend, so no adventures for me ☹️ 

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