First thing, I am really thankful for an understanding wife, and the group of guys I get to call friends. Without them this whole thing either wouldn't have happened, or wouldn't have been near as fun.
So obviously in the video, you get some sense about what drove me to have the passion for mountain goats that I do. The plan to try and get the MT governor's tag was hatched at
@Gerald Martin house with him and
@Randy11 during a mountain lion hunt in January of 2018. The idea being that for what the tag had been costing, you could hunt goats for less than a sheep hunt in AK would cost, and you had all season and any unit to do it in. As a NR The chances of me ever drawing a tag in the lower 48 were not great, and given I was 39 at the time, this seemed like it might be the way that I could have a DIY mountain goat hunt. Also, some on here have probably seen threads with our group of buddies all coming together and having a blast helping out when one of us has a great tag, I definitely wanted to be able to do this if I drew one of these really good tags. All of this came together in my head: 1. I can scout all summer 2. My buddies can come along 3. I can come out multiple times during the season to hunt 4. in MT, most of the money goes back to the goats via FWP. All of this worked out to be a much greater value than saving some money and doing an outfitted hunt in BC.
Fast forward to December and my wife and I decided that 2019 was going to be the year I tried to make this happen. In March, Gerald, Randy, and I headed over to Great Falls and crashed the SCI banquet. Long story short, at the end of the night I walked out with the the MT Governor's Tag.....
Immediately I started researching units. I had many conversations with biologists, buddies, Pete from RMGA, and others. I tried to narrow things down to 3-4 units that I would scout over the summer. I spent 20+ days, over several trips scouting last summer; some solo, but a good chunk of it with at least one buddy along. If I recounted every trip I could write a book, but suffice it to say I covered a boat load of ground and spent a ton of time looking at goats in 4 different units. One of the trips in July,
@theat,
@Gerald Martin , and
@Randy11 participated in the RMGA goat survey in the Bridger's; if you get a chance check one of those out, it is a blast.
My last scouting trip was in August and that was where I finalized the plan for the hunt. By this time work had interfered with my hunt plans and I was down to 8 days of hunting. on this trip I did a big solo backpack push through the country that would be plan A, and then spent the last few days scoping out plan B with Randy. I easily looked at over 200 goats that trip, saw several really nice mature billies, and felt good about where I was at. At that point I felt like I got everything I needed from that tag, and regardless of the outcome I would be happy.
When time came for the hunt the crew met up around Bozeman, and the rest is history....
As for how the hunt ended. I could have been more happy with my goat. I went into the hunt wanting a mature billy with a big horse face, and that is what I found. He was a tank, and I knew it from the first time I saw him with short hair in July. I was never hung up on measurements, I still haven't had it officially measured.
Like I said, I cannot thank my friends enough that made the ride that much more fun(
@ewludwig,
@jryoung,
@Gerald Martin,
@Highlands Hunter,
@Randy11,
@theat), and the fact the Gerald put this film together to capture this hunt for me is amazing. It will be something I always treasure.
