Montana Moose Sheep and Goat results!!

[Hawk Tuah]

I hear you and have heard others this week since I drew the tag saying to get it done in first week or two as season opens. The hair makes it a trophy for me. That said, a Euro MT goat from a September hunt might look fine next to a Euro CO bighorn ewe I have.

Will LopeHunter hunt early? Will he wait too long to backpack in deep then day hunt from Cooke City for a nanny? Will he eat tag soup prepared on a jetboil in the parking lot at the Soda Butte Lodge? Will Montana decide non-residents need to quarantine? Will the Feds close down the interstates? Will he get lost using his compass from a 1956 Cracker Jacks box? Stay tuned and find out at the same goat time, same goat channel.

Nice! Get after it and best of luck. They are fun.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

The hair makes it a trophy for me.

Couldn't agree more!
Betting that goat will not have the shaved poodle look when you post up the photos this fall.
Good Luck LH and be safe.......

 

[Mtnhunter1]

My daughter has been holding out on her Old Dad.

She just sent me this:


She says that she's calling in her markers on all the meat packing trips, that she had to leave college, to help me get a critter out of the hills of W MT.

Markers called Sweetie! Between my wife's deer permit and the daughter's sheep, the two ladies of my life have certainly done their best to fill up some of my fall hunting days.....wouldn't have it any other way!!!

 

[Irrelevant]

I hear you and have heard others this week since I drew the tag saying to get it done in first week or two as season opens. The hair makes it a trophy for me. That said, a Euro MT goat from a September hunt might look fine next to a Euro CO bighorn ewe I have.

Will LopeHunter hunt early? Will he wait too long to backpack in deep then day hunt from Cooke City for a nanny? Will he eat tag soup prepared on a jetboil in the parking lot at the Soda Butte Lodge? Will Montana decide non-residents need to quarantine? Will the Feds close down the interstates? Will he get lost using his compass from a 1956 Cracker Jacks box? Stay tuned and find out at the same goat time, same goat channel.

The real question is how this 3rd person speak lasts?

 

[sacountry]

View attachment 140054

I have a sincere question. I put in for my elk tag with a group of dads hoping to that our 12-15 year old sons would draw youth permits in the same unit. Amazingly, we all drew. That day was the pinnacle of my 18 year drawing history in Montana and I was absolutely pumped. Helping my step son get an elk while hanging out fire side with his buddies afterwards would be all I could ever dream. Then May 11th happened. Didn't sleep much last night and I probably won't again tonight. Certainly not looking for any attention here, just needing some sound advice on strategy. I truly want to protect rifle season to chase elk with my step son on what should be a never again father/son hunting season. So against the advice of many, I'm contemplating an early ram hunt followed by an early October goat hunt so I can focus on the elk hunting. I understand the desires for a thick goat coat, but I don't want to get snowed out of the area. I've been told to wait until the last weekend of rifle for a ram to hit the rut, but I hate to shut the door on elk hunting if I still have a ram tag. Thoughts on timing of each?

Well, I spoke to 5 prior hunters of the unit since drew the tag and am rethinking the good hair strategy. Four hiked then hunted in 4 - 5 miles deep the first week of the season rather than hold out for October or November hair. One hunted November on a day hunt portion of the unit. All filled tags. All got billies.

Hey Lope, how did you find the 5 prior hunters? I need to find guys that have hunted 140. I can't imagine FWP is giving out names unless the previous years hunters have consented.

 

[LopeHunter]

Hey Lope, how did you find the 5 prior hunters? I need to find guys that have hunted 140. I can't imagine FWP is giving out names unless the previous years hunters have consented.

HuntinFool and Epic Outdoors keeps track of members that drew various tags. Sometimes no one has. Sometimes get a half dozen or more names. I am active on some hunting forums and can private message another member you find in a search on the hunt you now have a tag in hand. In the past 3 days, have interacted with 8 prior goat hunters and a couple of other people that spend time in the unit. Google searches on the unit number or the more popular peaks or basins in the unit can turn up threads and articles. Good luck with the Google Fu. Can be mind-numbing to gather up data and get ahold of people that may have made a couple of posts then disappeared into the wind but I keep grinding until pull together a plan for Day 1 at sunrise, Day 2, etc.

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

View attachment 140054

I have a sincere question. I put in for my elk tag with a group of dads hoping to that our 12-15 year old sons would draw youth permits in the same unit. Amazingly, we all drew. That day was the pinnacle of my 18 year drawing history in Montana and I was absolutely pumped. Helping my step son get an elk while hanging out fire side with his buddies afterwards would be all I could ever dream. Then May 11th happened. Didn't sleep much last night and I probably won't again tonight. Certainly not looking for any attention here, just needing some sound advice on strategy. I truly want to protect rifle season to chase elk with my step son on what should be a never again father/son hunting season. So against the advice of many, I'm contemplating an early ram hunt followed by an early October goat hunt so I can focus on the elk hunting. I understand the desires for a thick goat coat, but I don't want to get snowed out of the area. I've been told to wait until the last weekend of rifle for a ram to hit the rut, but I hate to shut the door on elk hunting if I still have a ram tag. Thoughts on timing of each?

Dream season! Congrats!!!

 

[sacountry]

HuntinFool and Epic Outdoors keeps track of members that drew various tags. Sometimes no one has. Sometimes get a half dozen or more names. I am active on some hunting forums and can private message another member you find in a search on the hunt you now have a tag in hand. In the past 3 days, have interacted with 8 prior goat hunters and a couple of other people that spend time in the unit. Google searches on the unit number or the more popular peaks or basins in the unit can turn up threads and articles. Good luck with the Google Fu. Can be mind-numbing to gather up data and get ahold of people that may have made a couple of posts then disappeared into the wind but I keep grinding until pull together a plan for Day 1 at sunrise, Day 2, etc.

Thanks. Just joined HuntinFool and submitted a request based upon my districts. The goat tag Intel is going to be hard to come by but I will chase down every conceivable avenue so again thank you.

 

[BAKPAKR]

I don’t know which is worse - finding out that I was unsuccessful in ID, MT, and UT all in one week or having the bad news spread out over a month...

 

[Gerald Martin]

Thanks. Just joined HuntinFool and submitted a request based upon my districts. The goat tag Intel is going to be hard to come by but I will chase down every conceivable avenue so again thank you.

Go to Amazon and buy the book, “ A Beast the Color of Winter” by Doug Chadwick. It is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to learn about goats and how they utilize their terrain.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

I don’t know which is worse - finding out that I was unsuccessful in ID, MT, and UT all in one week or having the bad news spread out over a month...

BP....you have to give the masses a chance to experience these special hunts every once in a while!

PS: By the way, I like the new avatar!

 

[sacountry]

Want to recognize just how cool Montana FWP is. I just got off the phone with the FWP Region #1 Supervisor and not only did he give me some great information, but he even sent me several pictures from the area. Here's one....

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Nice! From the pic, now you know what I meant by "where the snow never melts". You will also find goats further south and those don't see people much due to access being a bit more difficult. Still, you will find that your 140 goat may test your resolve a bit as the 60-65% success rate has proven. Since you do not have competition, find goats in August and they will still be in that general location through September and into October. If early snows hit, the goats will drop down into the timbered benches. They will not migrate to the south slopes until the winter has set in and the snow is there to stay.

I know of three folks that have drawn that tag over the last 15-20 years and only one one was successful in punching their tag. One old hunter took a nanny with his contender pistol, not BAKPAKR, off of the north side of G.N., was the first goat to give him an opportunity. One that made multiple scouting trips and had things all dialed in on a huge billy located on the south end before a G-bear spooked his horse at day light opening day. He ended up in the hospital and endured several back surgeries. The third discovered that he didn't like heights much and gave up when he dropped his high-end binos off a cliff in an almost panicked state of mind.

That is some of my favorite country with amazing basins in just about every drainage. Stick with it, scout in August and I hope that you punch that tag on a good billy!

PS: The best goat "INTEL" you will receive, will be from putting boots on the ground and learning the area.

 

[sacountry]

Thanks. I live in the area so I'm planning on lots of weekend scouting in July and August.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Thanks. I live in the area so I'm planning on lots of weekend scouting in July and August.

Good scouting trips with the boys sounds like a good time, especially if you are close!
Elk, goat and sheep permits calls for a very busy fall. Good Luck with all of them and please keep us updated here on HT.

 

[Khunter]

Go to Amazon and buy the book, “ A Beast the Color of Winter” by Doug Chadwick. It is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to learn about goats and how they utilize their terrain.

great suggestion. Gonna pull out my copy I bought when I drew in 2006 and freshen up my knowledge for this years tag.

 

[sacountry]

First off, thank you to everyone on this forum. Last week was a whirlwind of information collection. I did use Huntin Fool and spoke to a guy who hunted 124 for a sheep back in 2014. He said that year it was hunted hard (and that shows in the MT FWP avg hunt days) and the size of the rams paid off. He shot a 182 but there were a couple of 190s. Now I'm still of the mindset that I simply want to fill these tags. BUT, in my data collection mode, I'm wondering if anyone knows if the size of the animals harvested is recorded somewhere. The FWP harvest data doesn't show this level of detail.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

First off, thank you to everyone on this forum. Last week was a whirlwind of information collection. I did use Huntin Fool and spoke to a guy who hunted 124 for a sheep back in 2014. He said that year it was hunted hard (and that shows in the MT FWP avg hunt days) and the size of the rams paid off. He shot a 182 but there were a couple of 190s. Now I'm still of the mindset that I simply want to fill these tags. BUT, in my data collection mode, I'm wondering if anyone knows if the size of the animals harvested is recorded somewhere. The FWP harvest data doesn't show this level of detail.

When you say "size", do you mean score? If so, the B&C and P&Y record books would be where to look. But I'd estimate that there is a big percentage of record sheep taken that are never placed in either of these books. There are a whole lot of people that don't care to have their names in either.

A better place to look would be our FWP's Bighorn sheep horn data. This data is available online and will give you a better picture of dates of harvest, age of rams and also horn and base measurements.

Here you go:

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks

Bighorn Sheep Horn Measurements

fwp.mt.gov

Have fun!

 

[sacountry]

That is precisely that I was looking for Harvest dates to boot! Hadn't found that page on FWP so thanks for the link. Super helpful

 

[jeffpg]

I hadn't even thought to check until I logged on here and saw this thread... here is what I found:

Successful

2020 Moose License
– 102-50 was your 1st choice

So, it looks like I am in for some research. I just now found this out, so I am still in a bit of shock that I drew the tag.