HighWildFree
Well-known member
At this point, I'm just hoping a buddy will draw a tag just so I can go along
Montana Moose Sheep and Goat results!!
- Thread starter The Hedgehog
- Start date
BAKPAKR
Well-known member
Congrats on the goat tag! I look forward to the story and photos.
FYI - My billy, like KHunter’s goat, was tasty but really tough, so look for a recipe that calls for a long cook.
sacountry
Well-known member
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?
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Gerald Martin
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Hunt goats in September for best hunting conditions in that country. The coat won't be as thick but the weather will be better. Wait till the first or second week of Nov. for your sheep tag. The bigger rams don't come out of the timber till late October. There's a lot of private land up high in that unit.
Congrats on your tags! Looks like you are about to test the limits of if there can be too much of a good thing.
Congrats on your tags! Looks like you are about to test the limits of if there can be too much of a good thing.
MO Betta
Well-known member
sacountry
Well-known member
Thank you for the information. I've been dissecting OnX and losing sleep at the same time. I hadn't realized just how much private there is in that ram district until I started breaking it down. I've driven that road between Plains and Paradise often, always just admiring the sheep, never considering the private land aspects.
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brownbear932008
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Wow all I can say is congrats and quit your job come Mid Sept. Hahahaha
Really hope you do a story on all this fun your about to have this fall.
sacountry
Well-known member
Thanks brownbear. I have started journaling it. Feeling a tremendous amount of responsibility to honor the tags, the animals, other hunters that put in, and my family as I try to introduce two young kids to hunting. Thankful FWP moved hunter ed online. My step daughter's April class was cancelled and she was so bummed. She was exited to tell me last night over dinner that she started working towards her license yesterday.Wow all I can say is congrats and quit your job come Mid Sept. Hahahaha
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Mtnhunter1
Well-known member
.......and that is what makes the draw "GREAT", as literally everyone as a chance to draw! The Bonus is......listening to the MAX point crew quibble after they find out that a young hunter has drawn that special tag.
Good luck in the UL....might be your year to notch that tag!
Mtnhunter1
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Congrats BHR! Gonna give the bow a walk in the cliffs?
BigHornRam
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That's what I'm thinking. I'll see how approachable the goats are in the unit this summer before deciding what weapon to use. It's very open country, so getting in close could be a problem.
6mm Remington
Well-known member
If a kid drew a tag for a sheep that was just destined to be mine and I knew it, I would rather the young hunter get the tag rather than me! Yes it might sting inside but I just think it's pretty special for a young hunter to get to experience something like a sheep tag or a big bull tag. And I say that having never drawn a moose or sheep tag in 42 years straight!! We need our young ones to keep our tradition going.
Goat recipe. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm
My buddy got a Pintler goat quite few years ago that I helped on his hunt. He got a beautiful billy the first part of October. We very carefully took care of the meat like we always do. We had heard that mountain goat was not so good to eat so we tried a couple backstop steaks after the meat aged a few days. Man it was tough and chewy. To me it almost had an acidic taste to it also. You know that taste and smell that you get when you are in a corral with domestic goats in it on a hot summer day. The meat did not smell but it had that flavor about it. Hard to describe. It wasn't horrible but it was not good. So we thought we will grind up the whole thing and make sausage except for one roast. On the roast he took it and seared it in a cast iron skillet and then seasoned the heck out of it and put it in a slow cooker with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and a few other items and let it cook on low for about 8 hours. It was incredible and was tender! The sausage that we made we put a lot of extra spices in it. I tried on large round link that was like a large Weiner in a casing and fried it up. It STILL had that slightly off taste and acidic flavor to me, and to him. I also chewed and chewed on each bite. Yes this is ground up and it still seemed really tough! He shipped all the frozen sausage meat back east to his brother in Maryland who ate it and loved it! Go figure.
Fast forward a few years and my BUDDY drew ANOTHER goat tag, yes his second one! (Just wrong oh so wrong!). I never got any of his second billy but he said it was tender and tasted great! Can't make that one up. I think folks are right low and slow is the trick. A nice roast seasoned and wrapped in bacon and skewered with toothpicks to hold the bacon on and then put in a smoker and cooked until the meat was about 200 degrees sounds like one of the ways to go. I think I would even like that.
Best of luck on your hunts guys.
My friends Pintlar Wilderness goat.
His Cabinet Mountains goat.
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Scott85
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Did it hurt when you pulled the horseshoe out?
EYJONAS!
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I'm sure some 60 plus guy with 2 shot knees and will shoot the first goat they see has my tag...... that's fine I'll be back next year with max points yet again.
Mtnhunter1
Well-known member
Congrats!
Seems that the elk hunt with the boys has priority...good for you! You'll find that the goat will require the most time and effort, HD140 can be tough. My advise would be to make a few August goat scouting trips, find goats and then return in early October. October goats will have decent hair and most G-bears will be roaming around in the lower country after the hucks are gone. Your sheep tag will take up less time and energy as it can be scouted/hunted via glassing from the highway. There will be a few rams visible in September but, as GM stated above, November will bring the rams out of the timber.
Good luck and be bear-aware while scouting goats, that whole area is G-bear infested and if the H-berries are plentiful, so will the bears be!
sacountry
Well-known member
It definitely did. I've played the tag game quite awhile, no different than most of you on this message board I'm sure. I've always put in for these sheep and goat districts plus the Elkhorns.....eventually giving up my elk points with archery draws in the Breaks. hunted over there for several years, always eating tag soup. The bulls are vocal, but I could never get them to come in so I would call/spot n stalk consistently getting busted by a cow or spike. Super frustrating to hunt over there, but a joy to be around and see big bulls. For some unknown reason, my tag luck changed this year in one big seismic shift.
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sacountry
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Thanks. Looks like most HD140 entry points will be from hwy 2. I do see that the Logan Creek access from Hungry Horse could be decent. Wondering if anyone has seen goats-a-plenty along dirtyface as they hike up Logan Creek?
AggieHunter
Well-known member
Have the o
Have the older boys join on sheep and goat as well and get them hooked on it for life.
D
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A good buddy killed a great B&C Ram in that vicinity a couple of years ago. He looked over a lot of sheep and spent many, many days there to sort him out. The year I hiked all over the freaking place in the spanish peaks looking for a man moose there was a kid that drew M/S/G all the same year. If I recall he didn't cut his moose tag either. Anyway you never know what'll happen in the 'ol draw.
Mtnhunter1
Well-known member
I have faith that it can be done!
Enjoy the hell out of it!!!! Good Luck!
