I am in the planning stages for a 2016 Tahr and chamois hunt in New Zealand. Has anyone been and have any recommendations for an outfitter? I plan on booking the hunt soon and and any leads would be appreciated. On a side note, I really am not interested in a Red Stag, which seems to be the emphasis of most of outfitters in New Zealand. I can hunt elk and red stag here in Texas a lot cheaper and keep the meat.

Why don't you go to the DSC convention in January and speak to the outfitters in person?

There are 50 plus outfitters in New Zealand, only 4 or 5 are less than ideal.

Try and find one that owns the land the tahr and chamois are on, 90% plus of them are hunting the public areas during the drawings they have on public ground. May/June is prime time for tahr, as they are rutting.

I broke my back or I would have went with a friend of mine when we lived in Australia. They shot 4 tahr for 4 people, the trip before they shot 20 tahr. You can hunt on your own and lease a helicopter to get to the hunting areas if you draw the concession. Think of it as drawing a leased area, and no one else is allowed to helicopter into it.

Look at the New Zealand Gov websites for drawing information.

DSC is in January and there are a lot of New Zealand outfitters there. I hunted with Jim Hunter of Glenroy Lodge back in 1999 for mine. He had the option of taking a helicopter up to the top of the mountain and getting them that way for more then I wanted to spend, or you could shoot one on his land, which is what I did. He has one of the largest high fenced ranches in New Zealand and there are plenty of animals spread out over it. Something like 8,000 acres plus all the public land.

I talked to him two years ago, but didn't see him there last year. I know he goes to SCI in Vegas, but I haven't been there in quite awhile. I like DSC better!!! A friend wanted to go there when we talked to Jim and while Jim's prices where better, he seemed under the weather and very tired. He didn't make a good impression and my friend went with another outfitter. He got all his animals and had a great time, but I felt he could have done better with Jim.

It's all a dollars game. You pay for trophy size pretty much like hunting whitetail on a high fenced ranch here. I paid for silver medal animals and got lucky with both my thar and chamois. The chamois had a broken shoulder and was way down in the valley when we saw him. He was gold medal, but clearly hurt, so they asked me to take him. The thar was a mistake by my guide. He ranks number 31 in the SCI book. They said congratulations and how lucky I was to get such a great animal.

I've read where some outfitters will try to charge you more for shooting an animal bigger then what you booked, but they never said a thing.

While there, another guy was hunting there at the same time. He was on the heavy side and couldn't walk very well. He shot some nice animals that where all gold medal, but then he would complain about them and wanting bigger ones once they measured them and gave him the score. He never helped out with anything either. When his wife wanted to shoot a non trophy stag, they charged her a grand. I helped drag the animals out and skin them. I'm very particular about my capes and I spend extra time on them cleaning them up. I think they liked that because when I asked if my wife could shoot a stag like his wife, they charged me $200.

Eddie

I hunted with Kiwi Safaris on the South Island back in 2009. I had a great hunt and no complaints. I would recommend them.

http://www.kiwisafaris.co.nz/home.aspx

I am a member of DSC and plan on going to the convention for three days, and yes I will talk to outfitters at the convention. What I was looking for was to see if a forum member has been tahr and chamois hunting and was happy or unhappy with the outfitter.

Thanks bowhunt only and Eddie for the leads. Anyone else been?

Up

I've never hunted with or even talked with this company so take the link for what it's worth however the taxidermist I've been going to and a few of his friends have had good experiences with them.

http://www.mountainhunters.co.nz/