Wasnt sure which place you guys place the humble feral goat but this "feels right" for a K1W1.
When we shifted out here from the big city some 5 n a bit years back I spotted a couple of goats in a local creek bed from roadside one afternoon...amazing just how much more you see from elevation of a truck...
a couple of descrete enquiries led me to believe they were feral and over the last 5 years nothing has led me to think otherwise.
the nearest goats on a farm are about 3kms away so these few probably escaped years back and have been happily breeding away unnoticed as very few people would even suspect they were there.
well anyway the young fella spotted them again about two months back while fishing the creek...I tried to get him to go back and get a photo before I commited to a hunt but had no joy in talking him into that....too much effort!!!!!
well one of the chaps from the mens group I attend works on local farm and last time I spoke to him the question was asked if his family would eat goat meat??? yes was the reply..... enough reason for me after spotting them again myself last week.
today I prised my oversized butt off the couch and loaded up a few cat sneeze loads for the 7.62x39mm ( 151grn cast pill,4.25grns trail boss std primer) and headed off. parked car at road bridge and started walking/wading my way up stream...about 2kms upstream was were the wee huas had been spotted. a pleasant stroll with nice easy creek crossings,very little gorse to contend with and a recent flood has helped by scouring slime off rocks so it wasnt slippery underfoot. I found heaps of foot prints where they had trod,and heaps of doo doohs where they had
....been
so knew they had to be around somewhere.
I carried on upstream past where they had been spotted and kept going till ran out of sign
nothing seen apart from one lone hare so time to turn around, now where the blue blazes were they hiding???? the area of this creek bed is only 1-200yards wide at most and no goats were seen over last 5 years in paddocks outside that so they just HAD TO BE in the scub somewhere
ok so I'd walked the open ground and come up blank so time to try walking through the scrub. two creek crossings later I moved up into scrub slightly above creek but only about 15yards off water , slowly stalking along when a quiet " crack' was heard ahead...now was that just broom/gorse seed head popping???? nope movement, quietly chambered a round and heheheheheheh goat walking towards me in the thick broom, up comes the rifle,down goes the bolt handle ...goat stops trying to see what the camo clad thing infront is (probably working out if she could eat it) crosshairs above head,thick part between eyes..phiiit smack and down she went...straight down, quick cycle of the bolt and 2nd yearling goat cranes head forward to find out why Mum has stopped....hard not to laugh..but managed to find head in scope and phiit smack down goes number 2. quick reload...nah not needed and 2 is enough. stoop and pick up one of the empties to reload and start the long walk to recover the animals.....
five not very long steps later
I whip out trusty bacho knife and let the red stuff out into the sandy soil and stop to take in the surroundings .
a quick bit of knife work saw the poohs n wees bits on the outside of young animal and leegs and steaks off bigger animal
a pleasant stroll back downstream to car with pikau full of mum and young one across shoulders had me perspiring but the grin never left my face.
now to get in touch with my Nepalese friend and deliver his early xmas dinner present.
when SWMBO gets a minute I will get her to post the single photo I took on my shoe phone.