Addicting
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Very cool, following.
2018 Pack goat Elk/Deer
- Thread starter Duck-Slayer
- Start date
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Sept. 17
We slept in after a tuff pack in for my cousin and I not to mention the goats were pretty tired. We than drank coffee and decided to take the 2.5 mile hike up to a saddle behind camp. Not to exciting, some so so sign that the elk have been there but nothing to get excited about. We got to the top and it was blowing at least 30mph in the saddle which made any type of calling pretty much useless. We glassed the area until almost dark w no elk sightings. We returned to camp for Mountain House and a good nights rest.
Matt
We slept in after a tuff pack in for my cousin and I not to mention the goats were pretty tired. We than drank coffee and decided to take the 2.5 mile hike up to a saddle behind camp. Not to exciting, some so so sign that the elk have been there but nothing to get excited about. We got to the top and it was blowing at least 30mph in the saddle which made any type of calling pretty much useless. We glassed the area until almost dark w no elk sightings. We returned to camp for Mountain House and a good nights rest.
Matt
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Sept 18
Was a really long day! We headed out of camp after it got light out. We were glassing not far from camp when Tyler says Bill spotted a deer. We look up the hill and sure enough he was staring at a dry Doe mule deer. Tyler says he wants to fill his deer tag. So he put the smack down on that doe, 32 yards. Funny deal, it ended up expiring right on the trail.
Packed the deer back to camp, had some back straps and coffee for lunch! Good stuff. We than decided to do our original plan of an 8 mile loop. All new area and was fun exploring it.
We ended up finding some elk. We had stopped shortly before dark to rest, eat a snake. I started to do some blind calling while we ate our snack. Note to self always be ready LoL.
Wasn’t long maybe 10 minutes of sitting there I decided we should go sit in a little bit thicker patch of timber just in case. We literally just stepped behind the trees and a bugle rips off a 100 yards above us on a bench.... all to no avail... not sure what happened. He screamed 2 times and than disappeared. Ended up being a nice walk back to camp with the full moon.
Good times in the elk woods!
Matt
Was a really long day! We headed out of camp after it got light out. We were glassing not far from camp when Tyler says Bill spotted a deer. We look up the hill and sure enough he was staring at a dry Doe mule deer. Tyler says he wants to fill his deer tag. So he put the smack down on that doe, 32 yards. Funny deal, it ended up expiring right on the trail.
Packed the deer back to camp, had some back straps and coffee for lunch! Good stuff. We than decided to do our original plan of an 8 mile loop. All new area and was fun exploring it.
We ended up finding some elk. We had stopped shortly before dark to rest, eat a snake. I started to do some blind calling while we ate our snack. Note to self always be ready LoL.
Wasn’t long maybe 10 minutes of sitting there I decided we should go sit in a little bit thicker patch of timber just in case. We literally just stepped behind the trees and a bugle rips off a 100 yards above us on a bench.... all to no avail... not sure what happened. He screamed 2 times and than disappeared. Ended up being a nice walk back to camp with the full moon.
Good times in the elk woods!
Matt
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Sept. 19-20
We decided to go right back up to where we blind called the bull in the day before. We also needed to be down at the trail head to meet my buddy from Wisconsin that I met hunting last year. Mark and his friend Jake should be there about 5-6pm.
We hiked almost to the top of the mountain and we came down from the top down to where we thought he was bedding. We got almost to the top and took a break to let the thermals switch to blowing up the mountain.
We than made our way to an east facing slope where I figured he was bedded. Got over there to where I wanted to call from and had the wind checker out and first spray good, second good, third oh crap!!! Than about 5 seconds later crash crash crash...... and that fast it was over lol.....
Lunch time I guess.
We decided since the wind was not cooperating this morning that we would try and hunt the ridge line back to the trailhead, that was 10 miles away. Just after we took our lunch break, we still hunted threw a bedding area where we bumped a cow and calf. As soon as I saw the glimpse of them I got on my cow call and got the calf to stop. I thought to myself yummy full freezer and I had knocked an arrow already, ranged her 32 yards. Drew my bow, pauseyfor a moment to double check my Acent slider and what do I see, it’s set on 50 yards. Well &$@(... so I held low and released, thud... tree branch just got smoked lol.... got on the cow call again really aggressively, and the calf elk came running back, as I was calling I hustled up to where I had hit the branch. The calf elk came running down and stop about 18 yards from me, like an idiot I did not have an arrow knocked yet and as I knocked an arrow the elk took off but I got it to stop again at 42 yards and I held just low on the heart and released, this time I got nothing but air. over the top. Note to all, I normally keep my slider set at 30 yards and I’m very proficient at using it this way, but I obviously did not check it after my practice session at the trail head.
After that debacle we made our way down the ridge line and bumped another elk. This day was not a very good day for me at all. We then continued our way toward the trail head and got Cliff out at one time trying to get back to the Trail head. We finally made it about 6 o’clock. Marc and Jake were at the Trail head waiting for us. We were beat from the 14 mile hike that we just did, so we loaded up the goats and went to our campsite.
We spent the evening talking and catching up from the past week in the past year. The goats were wore out from the last five days of hiking so with a little elk movement and a full moon we decided to take September 20 morning off, then we would pack back in to where camp was in the afternoon. We got all of our gear ready that afternoon after sleeping in and visiting the local Hot Springs for a bath. It took about five hours to hike in to Spike camp. My cousin Tyler Had one more day to hunt Friday the 21st.
Matt
We decided to go right back up to where we blind called the bull in the day before. We also needed to be down at the trail head to meet my buddy from Wisconsin that I met hunting last year. Mark and his friend Jake should be there about 5-6pm.
We hiked almost to the top of the mountain and we came down from the top down to where we thought he was bedding. We got almost to the top and took a break to let the thermals switch to blowing up the mountain.
We than made our way to an east facing slope where I figured he was bedded. Got over there to where I wanted to call from and had the wind checker out and first spray good, second good, third oh crap!!! Than about 5 seconds later crash crash crash...... and that fast it was over lol.....
Lunch time I guess.
We decided since the wind was not cooperating this morning that we would try and hunt the ridge line back to the trailhead, that was 10 miles away. Just after we took our lunch break, we still hunted threw a bedding area where we bumped a cow and calf. As soon as I saw the glimpse of them I got on my cow call and got the calf to stop. I thought to myself yummy full freezer and I had knocked an arrow already, ranged her 32 yards. Drew my bow, pauseyfor a moment to double check my Acent slider and what do I see, it’s set on 50 yards. Well &$@(... so I held low and released, thud... tree branch just got smoked lol.... got on the cow call again really aggressively, and the calf elk came running back, as I was calling I hustled up to where I had hit the branch. The calf elk came running down and stop about 18 yards from me, like an idiot I did not have an arrow knocked yet and as I knocked an arrow the elk took off but I got it to stop again at 42 yards and I held just low on the heart and released, this time I got nothing but air. over the top. Note to all, I normally keep my slider set at 30 yards and I’m very proficient at using it this way, but I obviously did not check it after my practice session at the trail head.
After that debacle we made our way down the ridge line and bumped another elk. This day was not a very good day for me at all. We then continued our way toward the trail head and got Cliff out at one time trying to get back to the Trail head. We finally made it about 6 o’clock. Marc and Jake were at the Trail head waiting for us. We were beat from the 14 mile hike that we just did, so we loaded up the goats and went to our campsite.
We spent the evening talking and catching up from the past week in the past year. The goats were wore out from the last five days of hiking so with a little elk movement and a full moon we decided to take September 20 morning off, then we would pack back in to where camp was in the afternoon. We got all of our gear ready that afternoon after sleeping in and visiting the local Hot Springs for a bath. It took about five hours to hike in to Spike camp. My cousin Tyler Had one more day to hunt Friday the 21st.
Matt
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Friday, last day for Tyler to hunt. We went up the mountain to where we saw a nice 6 pt bull, a spike, and 8 cows. We had a general idea where they would be. Friday we left camp about 8, knowing it would take a couple hours to hike up to the top and circle around from the top, figured that’s where they were bedding. After hunting our way up and not getting any action we made our way along the ridge. A bit before we got to where we wanted to start moving in/down the mountain we stopped for lunch.
Matt
Matt
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Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
After the wind switched to going up hill we laced our boots up and started our decent down the mountain. We went through several great bedding areas on our way down checking each one with a bugle and soft cow calls with no luck. We were about quarter of the way down and sneaking through another bedding area. I was in the lead with the 4 goats behind me, than Tyler. I peaked into the dark timber and immediately spotted a calf standing 35 yards way staring at me. I motioned to Tyler to nick an arrow, and to get up to me. In the meantime I ranged it at 35 yards. In all the commotion I lost sight of the calf elk. We tried to rush ahead stealthily but with no luck in relocating the elk. Bummer deal! We hand discussed before we left camp that he would shoot anything in range(has never harvested an elk). We continued around a small finger ridge, we stopped right on the spine and gave out a few cow calls, we got an immediate bugle 300 yards up the spine of the finger ridge..... to be continued
Matt
Matt
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Hilljackoutlaw
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- 6,477
You lost me with spam singles...lol
I'll still be following tho.
I'll still be following tho.
Duck-Slayer
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dirtclod Az.
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- Jan 24, 2018
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- 2,776
Looks like the goat took advantage of that poor man!
Great story so far! I didn't know that goats got to be over 200 pounds and can pack out over 50 pounds. I have heard of pack goats before but didn't know much about them, this thread is very informative. Wheels spinning in my head. Haha. Also spam, eggs and cheese is my favorite breakfast taco. Good choice!
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Continuing.......
We tried to call the bull down to us with several challenge bugles and cow calls with no luck. We decided to try and get closer. Moved about 300 yards parallel around that spine, it was brutal steep and lots of blow down, I now know why that bull did not come to us. As we decided to go up the mountain when we stopped, we weren’t more than 100 yards up the mountain and I spotted a cow and spike. The cow was staring right at us. We stopped immediately and the goats started milking around and the cow went back to eating. I ranged her at 90 yards. A touch to far. We had to stand there forever waiting for the two elk to feed behind the lip of the mountain. While we waited a Doe Mule Deer fed out to our right about 175 yards, grrrr another set of eyes
. After the two elk eventually fed out of site we back tracked enough to where the Deer was out of site as well. Moved 100 yards back the way we had come than went straight up from there. Well between the mule deer spooking after we spooked about 10 grouse I believed the elk were onto us and the bull was still bugling but moving away. We had found where they had spent several days bedded up during the day, really great meadows with long grass! Lots of water and shade. We trailed those elk for an hour until shooting light ended with no luck! That’s how it goes though sometimes..... it was a bummer my cousin didn’t connect with a bull or cow.... I owe him one still though! Made the 2 hr hike back to camp in the dark, and of course the 1 day I forgot my head lamp, had to use the cell phone light all the way back to camp 
Matt
We tried to call the bull down to us with several challenge bugles and cow calls with no luck. We decided to try and get closer. Moved about 300 yards parallel around that spine, it was brutal steep and lots of blow down, I now know why that bull did not come to us. As we decided to go up the mountain when we stopped, we weren’t more than 100 yards up the mountain and I spotted a cow and spike. The cow was staring right at us. We stopped immediately and the goats started milking around and the cow went back to eating. I ranged her at 90 yards. A touch to far. We had to stand there forever waiting for the two elk to feed behind the lip of the mountain. While we waited a Doe Mule Deer fed out to our right about 175 yards, grrrr another set of eyes
. After the two elk eventually fed out of site we back tracked enough to where the Deer was out of site as well. Moved 100 yards back the way we had come than went straight up from there. Well between the mule deer spooking after we spooked about 10 grouse I believed the elk were onto us and the bull was still bugling but moving away. We had found where they had spent several days bedded up during the day, really great meadows with long grass! Lots of water and shade. We trailed those elk for an hour until shooting light ended with no luck! That’s how it goes though sometimes..... it was a bummer my cousin didn’t connect with a bull or cow.... I owe him one still though! Made the 2 hr hike back to camp in the dark, and of course the 1 day I forgot my head lamp, had to use the cell phone light all the way back to camp Matt
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Duck-Slayer
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Saturday morning my cousin packed out. One of my WI buddy’s helped and packed half of Tyler’s deer and gear. My goats were shot after the last 6 days straight of walking/hunting. We put on just shy of 80 miles. So Saturday was a sit at camp drink coffee and add a couple extra meals in, which we’re definitely needed lol.
Mark went and sat on a wallow that he and Jake had found the previous day. He did not have any encounters. Jake got back right before dark that evening, it’s a 15 mile round trip from spike camp to trailhead and back.
Matt
Too be cont.....
Mark went and sat on a wallow that he and Jake had found the previous day. He did not have any encounters. Jake got back right before dark that evening, it’s a 15 mile round trip from spike camp to trailhead and back.
Matt
Too be cont.....
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Cav1
Well-known member
I'm really looking forward to more trips with my four pack goats this summer and fall. We've only done short walks along the road this spring as 2 feet of snow melting had left everything else either deep mud or standing water. Hopefully we'll be doing longer conditioning hikes in the foothills soon. They were fully mature last spring and went with me on some back-country hunts in September and were a big help packing out elk meat this past November, where I took the photo. The packs they carried ranged from 38 to 50 lbs.
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Saturday evening I got a text from my wife, on my inReach. Big storm was going to hit about 11am on Sunday. We made the decision to pack up camp Sunday morning. We got up early and got camp packed up and weighed out and in the panniers. Was a decent walk out. Jake took a different line down the main ridge looking for elk. He managed to find a small bull moose shed that looked pretty chalky. He also spotted a lone cow that fed into a clearing than disappeared again on the opposite ridge. We all met back up at camp and went for another awesome bath in the hot springs and much needed R&R which included several coors lights lol. Other than that it was a very uneventful day of pretty much just walking.
Matt
Matt
dirtclod Az.
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- Jan 24, 2018
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Good Times.Hot springs in our Javelina area.Always nice to wash off every couple of days.
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
Good Times.Hot springs in our Javelina area.Always nice to wash off every couple of days.
Yes it is!
Matt
Losing_Sanity
Well-known member
I ran into a guy hunting elk with 5 or 6 goats this past season. They were really interesting! They stayed right with the owner and worked as a team. I read an article that said the goats actually become faithful pets much like a dog.
Duck-Slayer
Well-known member
@RookieSeason
Matt
Matt
