troutseeker
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Prince George, BC
Well, this year I received a limited entry draw for Mountain Goat in the Kootenay's in BC. So here goes the story...
We got in camp on Saturday afternoon, early Sunday morning I put my bino's on the hills I spot goats. Lot's of goats... Counted 17 different animals in the span of two hours, going in and out of bush and setting up on the steep cliffs feeding and sunning. Nanny's with kids in tow, some loners Billy's higher as well as lower on the cliffs. My hunting partner is glassing as well and he says that things are looking good!
I'm pretty excited by now and have the spotting scope out and enjoy looking at them and try to determine what is a bigger Billy out there. As some of you may know, I've never hunted Goats and I am learning to judge them. In my favor is that I do some long range shooting and I can gauge distances and sizes pretty accurately. The terrain is very steep and unforgiving, how do they make it look so damn easy???
I scope a fair bit higher than were all the goats are and spot one coming out of the woods onto a ledge. It is a several hundred yards north of the other goats, and has no inclinations to join them. At first site I think it is a big Billy. The scope does not make it diminish in size and my brain starts to formulate a plan...
I watched this goat for an hour and a half. My spotter is not a super duper SwarozZeissPoldy, but I can base my estimate of size based on vegetation, boulders, etc.. It seems BIG, my scope even allows me glimpses of the horns and my legs get itching to go...
But first a big breakfast! Eggs, Bacon, fesh baked cinnamon buns, tea, juice, fruits, holy crap, too much food!!! We packed some luch and took some basic overnight stuff. I packed a light down jacket, long johns and spare socks. Weather was good, sunny and cool but not supposed to go much below freezing at night if we got stuck on the mountain.
Partner and I load our packs and rifles in the truck and head off in the direction of the mountain, in a roundabout way to end up on the North side. His father told us he pulled a good Billy out of there years before but the hike in was hell.
We figured once on top of the ridge, 40 minutes should get us to the ledge the Goat was on. Hahaha, at first we had a nice walk in an overgrown D9's trail for a hundred yards. Then we had to hit the bush, well, let me tell you that I have never been in anything worse than this bush!
The snags were endless, no trails cut in this wooded area at all. We took a bearing and started fighting bush, jams tripping us, sidehills and downhills covered in blowdowns, trees so thick passing thru with a pack on the back was nearly impossible. I quickly flipped and ankle over, thanks to good boots (Lowa) it was not too bad and I carried on (as if I was normal...).
After 50 minutes of cursing and falling we decided to check the edge of the bluff to see if were near the Goat. Nope, still a long ways to go. Quick stop for some water and a snack and off we go.
Back into the deeper bush to avoid spooking the Goat, another hour of snaglebrush to go through. I can tell I mainly spend time at a desk at work... Even though I workout three times a week and go hiking and biking often, this is HARD EXHAUSTING WORK. I have a hard time lifting my legs over snags by now...
Total time from the truck is 1:50 hours and we get near the spot we think the Goat is and try to be quiet, put our packs down and go look around. I've drawn first shot, the goat is mine if I want it. I approach the edge of the precipice and my toes curl into my boots making sure I dont fall over this cliff. It is straight down! I am now a little scared, really...
Anyways, I keep still hunting North against what my brain tells me (run away! Run away!), and I see the big guy on a ledge below us, about 90 yards away. He is standing and looks like he wants to go down further.
I pull out my Leupold bino's and determine he is a very large and worthy Billy with good horns. Problem is, I am standing on the edge of a cliff, it is windy and I will be shooting freehand, oh yeah and at a steep angle!
I move the Model 7 to my shoulder, he is not giving me a good shot so I stupidly go Bwaaaaah. He turns slightly and looks up, Wow, great goat! I aim and shoot, he jumps up and his whole body quivers and he hops behind bushes and I can't see him anymore.
Partner joins me, I tell him I shot the goat and down we start going. He goes down the next plateau and I keep going North, the way the Goat had moved at the shot. Sure enough, as my buddy goes down I hear the Goat move thru some brush and see the limbs move, no shot though.
We decide to circle the bluff and come from both directions, cornering him. Shoot only at the cliff face or toward the lake at the bottom of the face, make sure you now where the other is at all times. Of course, we loose each other immediately!
I am a very slow still hunter, and I look at everything before I move again. I spot the Goat, it is hobbling along slowly towards my partner. Once it sees him, it turns to go down some other small cliff and I am waiting for him. He is so intent on evading my buddy that he passes with 30 feet of me, crouched behind a bush. It is a magnificent animal, I aim and fire. The second TSX finishes him off.
I watch him fall forward against a buch of small sapplings and get hung up in them. He is immobile for five or so seconds and then gives one last big kick with it's hind legs. That pushes him thru the sapplings and down a very steep grade, I hear him tumble for some time... Crap!
We go down (I'm quacking in my boots) and find him nestled between some small trees, at the base of a big stump. He is in a depression and we walked down at least one hundred meters, my legs are tired and the work as yet to begin!
We check the beast over, he is in prime shape, the horns are large, the fur is beautiful. I could not have wished for a better Goat for my first! A handshake and some pictures and the work begins.
By 4:30pm we had packed all the meat and the cape between the two of us and started up the steep hill. We made it to the point where I had shot it and agreed we could not take it all out in one trip.
By now the light is fading fast, we repack the meat and get going. We considered spending the night but there was no water on the bluff and we were running dry. Morning would have just made our exit more painful as we would have been more dehidrated...
Thanks to my GPS and our headlamps we managed to stay in a fairly straight line through this hell of snags and deadfalls. At one point we stopped for a fifteen minute break to eat a fruit bar and drank the last of our water. We were both pretty close to calling it our sleeping spot but got up and carried on and suddenly got out of the bush into the clearing. The truck was just around the corner.
We made it to the truck at 10:10 pm, exhausted. We left the cliffs at about 5:45pm, it took a while to negotiate all the snarles in the dark.
We were black and blue and slept like babies.
Monday we went back up there and recovered the rest of the meat. Nothing had touched it, it spent a nice night at -5 on the mountain side. By now my legs only moved forward because I forced them to. We made good time in daylight and had steak for super!
I'll try posting pictures, if it doesnt work go check my gallery.
Oh yeah, tonight we put a tape measure to the horns, we don't know what we are doing but without going to the skull plate and not streching the tape they go a bit over 10 inches. Is that a good thing?
Troutseeker
We got in camp on Saturday afternoon, early Sunday morning I put my bino's on the hills I spot goats. Lot's of goats... Counted 17 different animals in the span of two hours, going in and out of bush and setting up on the steep cliffs feeding and sunning. Nanny's with kids in tow, some loners Billy's higher as well as lower on the cliffs. My hunting partner is glassing as well and he says that things are looking good!
I'm pretty excited by now and have the spotting scope out and enjoy looking at them and try to determine what is a bigger Billy out there. As some of you may know, I've never hunted Goats and I am learning to judge them. In my favor is that I do some long range shooting and I can gauge distances and sizes pretty accurately. The terrain is very steep and unforgiving, how do they make it look so damn easy???
I scope a fair bit higher than were all the goats are and spot one coming out of the woods onto a ledge. It is a several hundred yards north of the other goats, and has no inclinations to join them. At first site I think it is a big Billy. The scope does not make it diminish in size and my brain starts to formulate a plan...
I watched this goat for an hour and a half. My spotter is not a super duper SwarozZeissPoldy, but I can base my estimate of size based on vegetation, boulders, etc.. It seems BIG, my scope even allows me glimpses of the horns and my legs get itching to go...
But first a big breakfast! Eggs, Bacon, fesh baked cinnamon buns, tea, juice, fruits, holy crap, too much food!!! We packed some luch and took some basic overnight stuff. I packed a light down jacket, long johns and spare socks. Weather was good, sunny and cool but not supposed to go much below freezing at night if we got stuck on the mountain.
Partner and I load our packs and rifles in the truck and head off in the direction of the mountain, in a roundabout way to end up on the North side. His father told us he pulled a good Billy out of there years before but the hike in was hell.
We figured once on top of the ridge, 40 minutes should get us to the ledge the Goat was on. Hahaha, at first we had a nice walk in an overgrown D9's trail for a hundred yards. Then we had to hit the bush, well, let me tell you that I have never been in anything worse than this bush!
The snags were endless, no trails cut in this wooded area at all. We took a bearing and started fighting bush, jams tripping us, sidehills and downhills covered in blowdowns, trees so thick passing thru with a pack on the back was nearly impossible. I quickly flipped and ankle over, thanks to good boots (Lowa) it was not too bad and I carried on (as if I was normal...).
After 50 minutes of cursing and falling we decided to check the edge of the bluff to see if were near the Goat. Nope, still a long ways to go. Quick stop for some water and a snack and off we go.
Back into the deeper bush to avoid spooking the Goat, another hour of snaglebrush to go through. I can tell I mainly spend time at a desk at work... Even though I workout three times a week and go hiking and biking often, this is HARD EXHAUSTING WORK. I have a hard time lifting my legs over snags by now...
Total time from the truck is 1:50 hours and we get near the spot we think the Goat is and try to be quiet, put our packs down and go look around. I've drawn first shot, the goat is mine if I want it. I approach the edge of the precipice and my toes curl into my boots making sure I dont fall over this cliff. It is straight down! I am now a little scared, really...
Anyways, I keep still hunting North against what my brain tells me (run away! Run away!), and I see the big guy on a ledge below us, about 90 yards away. He is standing and looks like he wants to go down further.
I pull out my Leupold bino's and determine he is a very large and worthy Billy with good horns. Problem is, I am standing on the edge of a cliff, it is windy and I will be shooting freehand, oh yeah and at a steep angle!
I move the Model 7 to my shoulder, he is not giving me a good shot so I stupidly go Bwaaaaah. He turns slightly and looks up, Wow, great goat! I aim and shoot, he jumps up and his whole body quivers and he hops behind bushes and I can't see him anymore.
Partner joins me, I tell him I shot the goat and down we start going. He goes down the next plateau and I keep going North, the way the Goat had moved at the shot. Sure enough, as my buddy goes down I hear the Goat move thru some brush and see the limbs move, no shot though.
We decide to circle the bluff and come from both directions, cornering him. Shoot only at the cliff face or toward the lake at the bottom of the face, make sure you now where the other is at all times. Of course, we loose each other immediately!
I am a very slow still hunter, and I look at everything before I move again. I spot the Goat, it is hobbling along slowly towards my partner. Once it sees him, it turns to go down some other small cliff and I am waiting for him. He is so intent on evading my buddy that he passes with 30 feet of me, crouched behind a bush. It is a magnificent animal, I aim and fire. The second TSX finishes him off.
I watch him fall forward against a buch of small sapplings and get hung up in them. He is immobile for five or so seconds and then gives one last big kick with it's hind legs. That pushes him thru the sapplings and down a very steep grade, I hear him tumble for some time... Crap!
We go down (I'm quacking in my boots) and find him nestled between some small trees, at the base of a big stump. He is in a depression and we walked down at least one hundred meters, my legs are tired and the work as yet to begin!
We check the beast over, he is in prime shape, the horns are large, the fur is beautiful. I could not have wished for a better Goat for my first! A handshake and some pictures and the work begins.
By 4:30pm we had packed all the meat and the cape between the two of us and started up the steep hill. We made it to the point where I had shot it and agreed we could not take it all out in one trip.
By now the light is fading fast, we repack the meat and get going. We considered spending the night but there was no water on the bluff and we were running dry. Morning would have just made our exit more painful as we would have been more dehidrated...
Thanks to my GPS and our headlamps we managed to stay in a fairly straight line through this hell of snags and deadfalls. At one point we stopped for a fifteen minute break to eat a fruit bar and drank the last of our water. We were both pretty close to calling it our sleeping spot but got up and carried on and suddenly got out of the bush into the clearing. The truck was just around the corner.
We made it to the truck at 10:10 pm, exhausted. We left the cliffs at about 5:45pm, it took a while to negotiate all the snarles in the dark.
We were black and blue and slept like babies.
Monday we went back up there and recovered the rest of the meat. Nothing had touched it, it spent a nice night at -5 on the mountain side. By now my legs only moved forward because I forced them to. We made good time in daylight and had steak for super!
I'll try posting pictures, if it doesnt work go check my gallery.
Oh yeah, tonight we put a tape measure to the horns, we don't know what we are doing but without going to the skull plate and not streching the tape they go a bit over 10 inches. Is that a good thing?
Troutseeker
