Congrats Ron. Going solo is bad ass, especially up where these things tend to die.
With the help of my friend Matt, I filled my tag last Sat with a 10.5 year old Billy and watched him cartwheel 250yds and break off 1/2 of one horn and the tip off the other. Made me sick, but the real trophy on these animals is not their head gear. Mature Billys have such amazing body structures, unlike any other ungulate...more like a bulldog. These are amazing critters that live in places that typically scare the hell out of you when you really enter their domain. They seem afraid of nothing, cliffs or critters. Mine took 3 solid hits in the chest and never so much as flinched, stumbled, or even limped as he walked 20 yards to bed up, before deciding to take his tumble.
When I walked up to check on my dead goat at 7:15pm, some loose rocks decided to follow him down the mountain, 15 min later. They were the size of footballs and basketballs and when they bounced on the loose rocks they were kind of hard to know which way to go to avoid them
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I watched my goat for 6 weeks and when it was done I felt relieved, a little sad, and angry at the tumble. When I realized his age and knew he only had maybe one more winter in him, I felt better. Now I need to find the right Taxi to do this old warrior justice. Definitely my most memorable season to date.
PS The night I killed this, we were sleeping in our individual tents by the river and had bulls bugling 100 yds on either side of us. All of a sudden a wolf is howling on one side and one bull behind us is so amped up in decides to bugle back at the wolf. I'm comfortable with my rifle, while Matt is cussing at the bull to shut up so the wolf doesn't decide to job through our camp to find him. Very funny.
With the help of my friend Matt, I filled my tag last Sat with a 10.5 year old Billy and watched him cartwheel 250yds and break off 1/2 of one horn and the tip off the other. Made me sick, but the real trophy on these animals is not their head gear. Mature Billys have such amazing body structures, unlike any other ungulate...more like a bulldog. These are amazing critters that live in places that typically scare the hell out of you when you really enter their domain. They seem afraid of nothing, cliffs or critters. Mine took 3 solid hits in the chest and never so much as flinched, stumbled, or even limped as he walked 20 yards to bed up, before deciding to take his tumble.
When I walked up to check on my dead goat at 7:15pm, some loose rocks decided to follow him down the mountain, 15 min later. They were the size of footballs and basketballs and when they bounced on the loose rocks they were kind of hard to know which way to go to avoid them
!I watched my goat for 6 weeks and when it was done I felt relieved, a little sad, and angry at the tumble. When I realized his age and knew he only had maybe one more winter in him, I felt better. Now I need to find the right Taxi to do this old warrior justice. Definitely my most memorable season to date.
PS The night I killed this, we were sleeping in our individual tents by the river and had bulls bugling 100 yds on either side of us. All of a sudden a wolf is howling on one side and one bull behind us is so amped up in decides to bugle back at the wolf. I'm comfortable with my rifle, while Matt is cussing at the bull to shut up so the wolf doesn't decide to job through our camp to find him. Very funny.
