Big Game Hunting New Zealand Jul/Aug 2015 | Page 26

search through the bino’s and there they were,
however we’d got there just in time to see
them feed their way over a ridge away from
us. This meant we had to continue our climb,
very cautiously as bumping rams like this would
probably be the last time we see them.
Eventually we thought we’d climbed high
enough and we could now look down the little
gutters running off the mountain. We edged
around and found the rams, however now there
was only three, two of which were legal. None
of these guys was the “big one”.
It all happened pretty quickly from here, the
sheep were no more then 80 yards away. I
made Kansas aware neither of the two legal
sheep were the big ram we had seen; however
both were very respectable sheep. For some
reason he made a snap decision to harvest the
ram in front. How all this happened in so little
time, I don’t really know, but it all just seems to
fit in circumstance’s like this.
The shot was good, I told him to reload as we
watched it tumble backward, and after several
minutes of nil movement I was satisfied the

26 BGHNZ Issue 7 Jul/Aug 2015

270 had done the job well. After unloading the
gun we shook hands, Kansas was stoked! He
was actually a blithering mess, but that’s fine, it
shows how much an animal like this means to
him.
After the customary photographs we set
to taking a full body skin and the required
meat. With heavy packs and big smiles we
slowly made our way back to camp. Here I
finished turning the head-skin and removing
feet bones. This is somewhat a mundane task,
however the freshly grilled sheep steaks over
the open fire ensured I was kept very happy.
The next day we loaded heavy packs again and
made our way down through the pass. Hiking
home successfully always seems easy enough
even through snow and sleet showers.

Eight hours later we walk into camp,
another sheep hunter heads home
happy, new friends are made and again
I’m reunited with a proper mattress and
pillow. Life is all good and clam for now,
but the next client will arrive in a day and
the process will start all over again!

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