After a rough end to 2023, when Ben and I were invited to go hunting on Stewart island in March of 24, we didn’t hesitate to say yes.
With it being a good time of year for chamois we also thought why not accomplish my goal of shooting my first chamois with the bow while we were at it.
A couple of weeks prior Ben went to scope out spot x and had a great weekend, he even caught the back end of a big fella as he took off up the hill.
March rolled around and it was my turn. We arrived at spot x and started walking with head torches on. As daylight broke we spotted a wee chamois doe feeding down low. I knocked an arrow and waited with heart pounding and hands shaking for a shot to present itself. She teased me for a while then wandered off not to be seen again. No matter, we carried on.
Not far from where Ben had his luck the weeks prior I saw a doe and kid skip off up the hill but Ben said “don’t worry babe, they would have been too high up the face to take a shot at anyway”. I thought to myself, if they were feeding on that bush it would have been perfect, and all of a sudden a small section of bush started shaking, I’m thinking it was the wind I still froze and watched intently before it happened again. “That’s not the wind” I thought as I signaled Ben over, right in time to see a little chamois nose poke out from between the leaves. Arrow on!
We snuck into position as the big buck from 2 weeks ago busted out from the bushes, knowing chamois can’t help but look back I knew he would give me one chance and one chance only. Ben said “32 yards”, I drew back, levelled my bow, took a deep breath and thought “this is your chance, send it”. My arrow hit and he leapt into the air while Ben yelled “watch it, watch it, you’ve just shot a monster”. With crashing in the bushes and hooves in the air, we decided it was safe to go check him out. There was no ground shrinkage this time and I was over the moon to have shot such a magnificent animal as my first chamois with the bow.
I carried him out to the truck, and raced off to a mates place where after a quick measure, we decided he was definitely going on the wall. While on Stewart island, our friend took the head to be officially scored, at 27 1/2 Douglas he came in second in the NZBHS record books!
The trip was already made!
The Fishing Paper & Hunting News is proud to support this new monthly column from the Marlborough BowHunters and hopes that you will enjoy following the journey of this group of bowhunting enthusiasts.
