2016 Idaho Mule Deer - Pack Goat Hunt!

[SteveE]

Definately following this. After wrestling horses for years goats have got my curiosity.

50 pounds on one goat? Wow. Thats a load.

Could you comment on the weight some more Matt. Can the largest carry 50 pounds and smaller goats carry around 30 pounds?

 

[plumber1969]

OK am I the only one who thought they would see a mother in law picture here or something you left at the bar at 2 in the morning. I was really expecting a good joke but the pictures are awesome. That is incredible and this cajun would have never thought about goats for packing anything out.

 

[ida homer]

This will be my 3rd season owning pack goats, they're fun. Better suited for deer than elk hunting.

You'll figure out real quick this first season whether everything you read on the internet was BS or not. Hint, THEY CAN'T go 2 days without water to start. Looking forward to the rest of this. I'm headed in for elk with mine for 5 days on the 8th.

 

[Irrelevant]

Awesome. Good luck!

 

[matt meyer]

Great Pic's. Sounds awesome Good Luck

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Got too the first spot, saw 1 nice buck going away and a couple elk....
Matt

 

[Corax]

Thanks for posting. Looking good forward to the rest of the story.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Not much too report this morning, an elk 6 miles away, doe and fawn, 2 small 3x3s....
Matt

 

[JLS]

Best of luck Matt, looking forward to seeing the outcome.

 

[walnuttree]

Good luck - I look forward to the rest of the story! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Steelhead]

This is gonna be an awesome thread! Good luck up there buddy!!

 

[BeartoothFront]

Good luck! I look forward to following along!! Have you had any run ins with predators and the goats? I've always been curious, living in Montana, how it would play out.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Moved camp yesterday afternoon, keep seeing that 5x5 and spike elk, listened too them trying to bugle last night, saw a doe and 2 fawns this morning,
Matt

 

[HalfAce]

I got an Idaho Mule deer hunt this year as well. Ill definitely be checkin in to this thread to see how your doing. Good luck out there.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Seeing more elk than deer, 5pt bull and 11 cows, I'm hunting in the morning and calling it, deer are far and few between....
Matt

 

[matt meyer]

Hang in there and good luck

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Well, I called it after Thurs. mornings hunt. I ran into 2 bucks that had stripped there velvet already while I was having a bugling contest with a bull. Both were 22" 3x3's - nothing I wanted to shoot. I also glassed an additional 3 does 5 fawns, I also saw the bigger velvet deer from evening 1 on my way to the glassing location. He was very wild, does not stop and goes straight into the mess of blowdowns and trees. I think he is a 25" short tined 4x4, only got glimpse of him as he ran through all that mess. I also saw a small 6x6 and 11 cows across from camp, 2 other bulls circle camp bugling all Wed. night. This area has more elk in it than expected. I will be modifying my location next year for this hunt. This particular location I picked was a lot harder too glass than I expected, The distance's from ridge to ridge from which to glass from was farther than expected.

The goat's did fairly well, The pack in was a little difficult on my pasture potato's. They were not in the shape they needed to be in come to find out. So note to self they need about a 6-8 weeks of hiking before instead of only 3 weeks prior. Mr. Bill(white) he carried 6 gallons of water in and is the smallest goat I have. He did very well for his size. Mr. Buck(brown) did very well also, he carried my entire camp and my extras and it all weighed in at about 53lbs. Mr. Black(black) is my biggest goat and he carried my homemade panniers and 2 frozen gallon jugs and all my food/beer/rockstar's for the trip, total he was at about 64lbs, he carried very well and did the best at packing in my opinion, the problem is he is stubborn and doesn't listen very well, I cussed him out a few time's for not following and getting tangled in stuff, but he was a champ and I only had too get him out of 1 mess he got stuck in, my panniers did great, they are a little big, i'm taking 2" off the side's too narrow them and about 3"-4" of the top too shorten them. I planned on putting 2" foam in them and only went with 1" foam. My frozen stuff stayed frozen for 2 days and cold for 4 days, I believe if I use dry ice in them that they would easily go 6-7 days if not longer. I will post my flurry of pictures here today, as soon as I get all the vids/pics loaded and somewhat edited. If you have any questions feel free too ask them.

I also need to mention I forgot a few things, cause I did not look at the list that I had made. I forgot the gopro in the truck, I forgot my power cord to charge my phone at home or I would have posted way more pics and such. I did conserve and got 4 days out of my phone, my GPS cord stopped working so I was at about 50% power after 2 days, I was able to recharge after the first day thou before the cord broke/stopped working. I really like the portable power supply's my wife and I got with our IPhones, they work good to recharge just about anything if it has a usb charging cord.

There are a few things I would change, I brought a portable seat that folds out, its light but I did not use it, also I brought a sweatshirt and a pull over, leaving the fleece sweatshirt, also going to bring less liquids in the cooler, not so much frozen food, i'm going too shave a few lbs off by using dehydrated food's for half of the food I bring. One thing I will always have with is the Bacon, Egg, Potato, Cheese burritos that I made, they were outstanding, stick them in the boiling water in the mornings with Coffee was awesome while I glassed from camp. Bought a small 9 cup aluminum percolator and that is on the must have list if you like coffee, fits perfect right on top of the MSR Pocket Rocket. I need to upgrade a few things to save some weight also, my sleeping bag is 7 lbs and is only a 30 degree bag, which was fine for this hunt, I need to get that weight down to 3 or so lbs. In all honesty the goats were the best investment I have made, they do take patience, so if you don't have patience when they are stubborn or chewing on stuff, rubbing on tree's, and making noise than they are not for you. The make all kinds of noise walking, they like to rub there horns on everything, they like to climb on all kinds of stuff, they have this internal need to 4x4 all the time , kinda cool in my opinion. I loved the trip, even thou it ended a little sooner than I would have liked. Between there not being very many deer and elk were all over with no elk tag, my phone going dead and my GPS, horse guy's that were elk hunting, had a wall tent at the spring that the deer were using, figured the deer would move out with them there. And labor day weekend coming up and i'm sure more people would start venturing my way. But it may have been better hunting that way, all the deer down lower may have been pushed up to where I was at also? That is all for now. Thanks for following along.
Matt

 

[SteveE]

Thanks for the report on the goats Matt. Looking foreard to the pictures.

Lots of season left. I have no doubt it will come together for you. Good luck!

 

[Duck-Slayer]

An old Tree stand that was left up in the high country....

 

[Duck-Slayer]

Camp was in the patch of trees,