An overdue story: 3 hours of hunting (and 7 days of scouting)

MtnRambler said:
I'm glad folks are enjoying the story! It certainly was a memorable hunt!
@2rocky - I agree it would be sharp on the back of a couch. While I caped out the full hide, I ended up going with a half-life size (the taxidermist and I are planning on having her 'walk out' of the wall and have her front legs on a small rock ledge). I rarely go with anything beyond a euro mount, but wanted this one up on my good memory wall.
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I think that will look really classy and show off that coat.
 
great goat and thanks for sharing love the pics thats gona make a great mount
 
Beautiful animal, and nice writeup. that's what hunting is all about.

MtnRambler said:
I meant to write up a post several months ago, but things got away from me (warning, long post).

This year was a heck of a year for me on a personal level. I turned 40, drew my first goat tag, and most importantly—in August—had my first kiddo (a girl). If you choose to read below, you will see this hunt was as much about balancing family responsibilities as chasing goats.

When I saw my credit card was hit by Colorado Parks & Wildlife for ~$250 nearly a year ago, I was incredibly excited. I called up my long-time deer & elk hunting buddy to let him know the good news. He immediately checked his credit card too. He was hit for ~$250, as well. We sat on the phone in silence for a moment, then one of us said (I can’t remember who), “…well something must be messed up, as there is no way we both drew.” Feelings of excitement, disappointment and anxiety set in until the official results were posted on CPW. Turn out I drew a goat tag and he drew a sheep.

We had long committed to each other that if either one of us drew a goat or sheep tag, we would be there to support the other person. However, with a kiddo on the way for me and balancing a new demanding job for him, the reality was we needed to focus on our own hunts. Not what we had promised, but the realities of life.

During the early portion of the summer, I managed to get several solid days of scouting up in the mountains. The first half of my scouting was focused on finding good access points and covering miles on foot to determine the best ways in/out, with the later days of my scouting season looking for mature billies. I was hunting in a unit with 4 seasons, and I was in the 4th season in October. With my kiddo coming early-August, it cut my scouting off in early-July. I saw several goat on each of my 7 scouting days. So, wasn’t worried about finding one come season. Most of my scouting was focused on finding areas that may have been overlooked by other hunters in earlier seasons (largely by finding areas hard to get into and far from any road) with the idea that a bigger billy may have escaped the pressures of others.

A few scouting photos (that occurred May-July):

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While enjoying the early days of fatherhood, I sill managed to stay in shape (I’m fortunate to live 1/8th mile from a trail head where I can get just under ~1,000’ vertical up my local trail). As the days approached, my excitement grew. However, my wife’s anxiety grew, as well. Let’s just say she was not happy about the prospects of leaving her with a 2-month old for a week. After a lot of negotiation, it was determined I could hunt the 1st three days of the first week (solo, since my other main hunting buddies would be in the woods for 1st season rifle elk) and the 1st two days of the second week of the season (when I would have my buddies with me). However, I had to promise my wife I would try to move in on and try to take the first goat I saw—billy or nanny, regardless of size.

I packed up my truck Sunday morning before the hunt and planned on driving up to the trail head that evening to camp before the Monday opener. However, my little girl had her first round of vaccinations the Friday afternoon before the trip and ended up with a mild fever and did not sleep much Friday and Saturday nights. To ensure mom had enough sleep when I was gone, I took over childcare the night before my hunt and let my wife go to bed early. After finishing up feeding my daughter a bottle at 10:30pm and getting her to bed at 11:00pm, I woke up at 4am on Monday and was out of the house by 4:10. I rolled into the trail head a little after 6:00am. I had an ~3.5 mile (steep) hike to get into where I had plan to glass.

After getting geared up at the truck, I was hiking by 6:30 am. On my way up to my glassing spot, there were several cliff bands along the way. About ~0.5 mile in to my hike, I put my binos to my eyes for the first time (more glancing around than actually glassing) and immediately picked up four goats up on a set of cliffs above me to my right. I pull out the spotter and could immediately tell (due to him peeing) there is at least one billy in the group. To get to them, the the best approach required me to go back to the trail head, and then start up a cliff face to get behind/above them. After memorizing rock and vegetation features so I knew where to climb down (and taking a few pictures to help me do so), I hustled back to my truck, dropped off all unnecessary gear, and started up the lowest part of the cliff band to get above them.

According to my Garmin, I climbed 2,100’ feet over ~1.2 miles. At that point, I was trying to triangulate between different rock features and vegetation where I thought the goats may still be feeding. The terrain was steep and rocky enough that as I worked my way down the cliff band I could only see 25-50 yards at a time before losing visibility. After descending ~250’ I peeked over a rock pile and saw three of the four goats ~25 yards away. There was a billy, a large nanny and a smaller nanny.

I shouldered my rifle in a kneeling position. The larger nanny jumped out of view to my right, which I knew was on the side of a very steep cliff (a conservative estimate after seeing it later, is ~700' drop/roll to the bottom). The billy was facing the same direction and about 3’ away from jumping out of view my view, and the smaller nanny was tucked away in a little dish further to my left. As I settled my cross hairs on the billy, I paused and became concerned he would end up falling/sliding down the cliff. In my hesitation, he stepped out of view.

I sat there for a moment, pondering what to do. I remembered the promise I made my wife about taking the first reasonable opportunity. The smaller nanny was in a place where if I dropped her in her tracks there was zero chance she would roll, and it was unclear what would happen if I repositioned for the billy. Like most of us, given the opportunity, I’d love to bring home the biggest trophy possible. However, the meat is more important to me than the horns. I re-shouldered my rifle and dropped the nanny in her tracks (at ~9:30am). It was a good thing too. After walking down to her, it was very clear that the other goats had moved into a spot that I would be unwilling to take a shot (due to how far they would fall/roll)...nor would I have been willing to follow after them. It would have been a waiting game until the moved to a safer location.

After a few selfies, I boned her out and got my pack loaded. I’ll admit—I could barely stand up and was in a ‘no fall’ zone for a bit. I should have taken two trips to haul her out. However, I was stubborn and did it in one. It took me twice as long to carry her down the mountain, as it took me to get up to her. By 12:30pm the truck was loaded and I was driving back to the front range. I made it to the CPW office in Denver to get her checked out by 3:00pm, drove up to my taxidermist by 5:00pm, picked up takeout Indian food at 6:00 pm(my wife’s favorite, as a thank you), and had a baby back in my hands with a bottle by 7:00pm.

It was a heck of a memorable 24hrs! Once of the most enjoyable aspects to me is that between elk, deer, oryx, pronghorn and big horn sheep meat—my wife has declared that mountain goat is her favorite...good thing I shot a young one. Perhaps I can parlay that into a trip to Alaska! 😉

I wish everyone good luck in the draw this year and hope someone else gets an equally memorable experience this year! Look forward to hearing about your credit card getting hit in ~2 months.

A few photo from my hunt below.

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First off, congratulations to the new addition to your family! That goat has gorgeous hair and is going to look awesome in your home.
 
Beautiful goat! Great write up and congrats on the little one! Once you get it back from the taxidermist make sure you post it for us!
 
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