A mammoth mission for the sake of some tasty wild mutton!. With the freezer getting low on red meat, it was panic stations. Noah and I desperately made a gap in our schedule and picked a spot before we ran out!
Friday afternoon after getting out of lectures, we chucked our stuff in the van and hurtled out the drive straight into after work traffic. Delayed but not deterred we eventually got to put the boots to dirt and after a solid bit of graft arrived at the bivvy under head-torch.
A quick feed was consumed before we hit the hay, nervously excited for what was bound to be a long day on the hill.
Sure enough our beauty sleep was cut off and we soon found ourselves pushing through mountain beech destined for the tops and clearings above.
With venison on the hit list we put the bino’s to work and spent a few hours making our way down the ridge glassing, eyes peeled for a spring red skin out feeding in amongst the matagouri and dracophyllum.
We knew the area to have deer but also a breeding population of wild sheep so it wasn’t a surprise when Noah mentioned a few white blobs moving through the scrub.
We quickly decided to stalk these sheep as no deer had materialised and sure enough I managed to sneak in and shoot two rams! Not quite the big horned rams I was hoping to find but still awesome animals.
The sheer amount of meat on these big rams compared to the hogget I got last time is insane and these big woolies were in prime spring condition!
With bags significantly fuller we decided Noah should have a crack but after several stalks only to find sheep bearing lambs, we were ready to give up. Sure enough, just as we got up to leave a young ram and ewe with a lamb appeared, Noah snuck into 30 metres and dropped another tasty wild sheep.
Then began the walk out. Leaving late afternoon we knew it was gonna be a late one, sure enough we hobbled back to the van at 8.30pm. Brilliant mist and some epic views! Freezer is looking a lot healthier now!
