Horn Seeker
New member
And yeah, spotting them in this is always fun....
goat scouting
- Thread starter RockyDog
- Start date
RockyDog
Member
For those that are interested, here's the blow-by-blow of the day of my goat kill:
When Lucky Sherpa and I got to the trailhead 1.5 hrs before light it was -12 degrees. Grumpily we bundled up and hit the trail. 20 minutes up the trail there is a thigh deep creek crossing. Ive been crossing it all season with bags taped over my legs, so I know where the slick rocks are. Lucky Sherpa falls twice and I catch him him by the armpits, but he is wet. We are done if water got in his pants and boots. Turns out he is OK, his waterproof insulated pants worked so we could continue on but his legs were ice chunks all day.
We hunt our way about 5 miles up the trail without seeing sign of life. The snow gets deeper as we climb, we stop around 1 pm when the snow is about knee deep, have a little snack (OUR WATER BOTTLES ARE SOLID) and we decide this country is sterile (not even birds to see) lets go home. 5 minutes after turning around we run into another hunter, the 1st human ive seen all season. He is the other goat tag holder and he’s from great falls. The guy looks in triathlete shape and has hit it hard all week and several other trips in november. he has seen one nanny and one possible billy way, way up on a mountain. he also flew and saw zero goats from the air.
After talking about our mutual dissappointments we wish each other luck. The great falls hunter goes up the trail and we go down. After about a mile we stop to sit and glass some cliffs. I spot 2 goats on a ledge 2/3 of the way up the mountain. A billy is sniffing around a nanny and at one point mounts her. I range them at 500 yards, 350 yards after vertical compensation, and quickly decide that is outside my range. LuckySHerpa sits down and I head up the mountain. about 1/3 way up I realize its so steep I may not make it up there and I cant see the goat from directly below. I descend back down to sherpa and say im thinking about taking the long shot. He says too late they bedded out of sight.
I spend the next 1.5 hour climbing the mountain and negotiation boulders and slick exposed slabs of granite covered in ice on a 45 degree slope. The great falls hunter comes down and sits with Sherpa to watch. I gain 1,200 feet and get to where I think the goats are but cant find them. I just decide I must need to climb higher when I spot two black eyes at my elevation looking at me. White goat camo works excellent in snow. I think its a nanny about 150 yards away, I cant see another goat. The only way I can get closer without revealing myself to the watching nanny is to crawl another 100 feet on my hands, knees, sometimes belly keeping a large boulder in front of me. At the boulder I peak around and can see 2nd, larger goat bedded under a tree next to the nanny. It dwarfs the nanny. I watch for a while hoping they will stand. The wind is blowing, im soaked and cold. I decide to take 80 yard shot at him in his bed. At the shot both goats jump up and the nanny looks over the ledge down to the valley. The billy tries to follow her but turns dowhill back towards me. I shoot 3 more times and he goes down but I cant see where.
There is a very steep and narrow avalanche chute between me and the ledge the goats are on. To get to my goat, I must climb the chute then turn left on a narrow ledge that will lead to the goat ledge. To me it looks slightly impossible, I may have shot an unretreivable goat. While climbing the chute a very large billy (later named Curious George) sidehills 50 yards above me coming from exactly where my billy was. We only saw two goats, did my billy get up? I have about 10 seconds to decide whether to shoot. I don’t shoot, he sees me and takes off striaght up a crevice in the rocks. I go look at his tracks, no blood. Must be a different goat. I hope anyways. Then a nanny comes running down the chute and passes by within 20 yards.
LuckySherpa and the great falls hunter watch Curious George and a nanny meander around on the cliff away from me. LS tries to convince the hunter to shoot the billy, but greatfalls hunter is too concerned about me and does not take the shot. He has a much better rifle than me, his gear is very capable of the 500 yard (350 yard horizontal) shot, but he doesn’t take it and choses to watch the goats for at least 15 minutes. According to luckysherpa, Curious George is the biggest billy on the mountain that day.
I climb some scary stuff and find my billy lying on his ledge. My once-in-a-lifetime-hunt is over. Wow, goats are tough animals. Wow, they are small compared to elk. Its so cold and im so wet my fingers are stiff, there is no way I can get him down what I just climbed without killing myself. So I push him off the side of the ledge. He falls about 50-60 feet, the main face is probably 100 feet tall. The carcass hits snow, slides, comes to a stop in the drainage below the steep chute I climbed.
When I make it down I drag the goat further downhill until I meet sherpa. Then we take some photos and do the caping. We are in survival mode so we don’t get a lot of photos. Goat hide is the thickest, toughest hide ive ever cut. We drag the caped carcass down a little lower, then bone the meat and put pile it in our packs along with the cape and the hide from the goats rear half. After numerous spills in the rocks we finally hit the trail. We spend the next 3 hours packing out in the darkness. The entire day we have been without water because our bottles froze solid. When we hit the creek we are as thirsty as if we crossed the desert, except it was subzero.
I called when great falls hunter 1 day left to hunt. he had not seen another goat. I really hope he had some luck on that last day. I would not have minded if he shot Curious George, but he sure showed alot of class by not shooting.
When Lucky Sherpa and I got to the trailhead 1.5 hrs before light it was -12 degrees. Grumpily we bundled up and hit the trail. 20 minutes up the trail there is a thigh deep creek crossing. Ive been crossing it all season with bags taped over my legs, so I know where the slick rocks are. Lucky Sherpa falls twice and I catch him him by the armpits, but he is wet. We are done if water got in his pants and boots. Turns out he is OK, his waterproof insulated pants worked so we could continue on but his legs were ice chunks all day.
We hunt our way about 5 miles up the trail without seeing sign of life. The snow gets deeper as we climb, we stop around 1 pm when the snow is about knee deep, have a little snack (OUR WATER BOTTLES ARE SOLID) and we decide this country is sterile (not even birds to see) lets go home. 5 minutes after turning around we run into another hunter, the 1st human ive seen all season. He is the other goat tag holder and he’s from great falls. The guy looks in triathlete shape and has hit it hard all week and several other trips in november. he has seen one nanny and one possible billy way, way up on a mountain. he also flew and saw zero goats from the air.
After talking about our mutual dissappointments we wish each other luck. The great falls hunter goes up the trail and we go down. After about a mile we stop to sit and glass some cliffs. I spot 2 goats on a ledge 2/3 of the way up the mountain. A billy is sniffing around a nanny and at one point mounts her. I range them at 500 yards, 350 yards after vertical compensation, and quickly decide that is outside my range. LuckySHerpa sits down and I head up the mountain. about 1/3 way up I realize its so steep I may not make it up there and I cant see the goat from directly below. I descend back down to sherpa and say im thinking about taking the long shot. He says too late they bedded out of sight.
I spend the next 1.5 hour climbing the mountain and negotiation boulders and slick exposed slabs of granite covered in ice on a 45 degree slope. The great falls hunter comes down and sits with Sherpa to watch. I gain 1,200 feet and get to where I think the goats are but cant find them. I just decide I must need to climb higher when I spot two black eyes at my elevation looking at me. White goat camo works excellent in snow. I think its a nanny about 150 yards away, I cant see another goat. The only way I can get closer without revealing myself to the watching nanny is to crawl another 100 feet on my hands, knees, sometimes belly keeping a large boulder in front of me. At the boulder I peak around and can see 2nd, larger goat bedded under a tree next to the nanny. It dwarfs the nanny. I watch for a while hoping they will stand. The wind is blowing, im soaked and cold. I decide to take 80 yard shot at him in his bed. At the shot both goats jump up and the nanny looks over the ledge down to the valley. The billy tries to follow her but turns dowhill back towards me. I shoot 3 more times and he goes down but I cant see where.
There is a very steep and narrow avalanche chute between me and the ledge the goats are on. To get to my goat, I must climb the chute then turn left on a narrow ledge that will lead to the goat ledge. To me it looks slightly impossible, I may have shot an unretreivable goat. While climbing the chute a very large billy (later named Curious George) sidehills 50 yards above me coming from exactly where my billy was. We only saw two goats, did my billy get up? I have about 10 seconds to decide whether to shoot. I don’t shoot, he sees me and takes off striaght up a crevice in the rocks. I go look at his tracks, no blood. Must be a different goat. I hope anyways. Then a nanny comes running down the chute and passes by within 20 yards.
LuckySherpa and the great falls hunter watch Curious George and a nanny meander around on the cliff away from me. LS tries to convince the hunter to shoot the billy, but greatfalls hunter is too concerned about me and does not take the shot. He has a much better rifle than me, his gear is very capable of the 500 yard (350 yard horizontal) shot, but he doesn’t take it and choses to watch the goats for at least 15 minutes. According to luckysherpa, Curious George is the biggest billy on the mountain that day.
I climb some scary stuff and find my billy lying on his ledge. My once-in-a-lifetime-hunt is over. Wow, goats are tough animals. Wow, they are small compared to elk. Its so cold and im so wet my fingers are stiff, there is no way I can get him down what I just climbed without killing myself. So I push him off the side of the ledge. He falls about 50-60 feet, the main face is probably 100 feet tall. The carcass hits snow, slides, comes to a stop in the drainage below the steep chute I climbed.
When I make it down I drag the goat further downhill until I meet sherpa. Then we take some photos and do the caping. We are in survival mode so we don’t get a lot of photos. Goat hide is the thickest, toughest hide ive ever cut. We drag the caped carcass down a little lower, then bone the meat and put pile it in our packs along with the cape and the hide from the goats rear half. After numerous spills in the rocks we finally hit the trail. We spend the next 3 hours packing out in the darkness. The entire day we have been without water because our bottles froze solid. When we hit the creek we are as thirsty as if we crossed the desert, except it was subzero.
I called when great falls hunter 1 day left to hunt. he had not seen another goat. I really hope he had some luck on that last day. I would not have minded if he shot Curious George, but he sure showed alot of class by not shooting.
Last edited:
DreaminofMT6X6s
Member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2010
- Messages
- 801
All the work finally added up! Great job! Someday I hope to do the same.
HUNTMAN
New member
Thats a great hunt in a wonderful place. Congrats on your trophy.
MTBackcountry
New member
Way to stick with it and get it done! Congrats!
Doug in Idaho
Member
Man great hunt from start to finish. Congrats again!
RockyDog
Member
Today i got the official score on my goat from Boone and Crockett.
He is 49 2/8"
B&C minimum is 47".
What a lucky sob i was.
He is 49 2/8"
B&C minimum is 47".
What a lucky sob i was.
shoots-straight
Well-known member
Holy chit man. What were some of the measurements?
Missoulaz28
Active member
- Joined
- May 6, 2009
- Messages
- 411
When you put in as much work and effort as you did it is never luck. Congrats
RockyDog
Member
Sorry SS, i wont get certificate for about 30 days so i dont have the measurements yet. I measured the horn length at 10" and 9 7/8" and both bases were 5 3/8".
shoots-straight
Well-known member
The goat I killed from there 3 years earlier, had 10 1/4" horn lengths, and the same bases. Guess I should of got it scored. I thought I scored it at 45 or something. That might have been during my meth days.
RockyDog
Member
Well it sounds like it is still B&C eligible, but unfortunately you let it shrink so now you cant beat my goat's score.
shoots-straight
Well-known member
passinthru
Active member
Very cool.
Thanks for taking us along.
Thanks for taking us along.
