Caseknife
Well-known member
You must do a bit more write-up on your lunch and I read a bit more on my lunch
Hairy Beasts and Smell Korns
- Thread starter Stone_Ice_1
- Start date
Stone_Ice_1
Well-known member
He is worried the goat can see him. But I am pretty sure at this distance and the fact he is behind the tree the goat is just looking out of his cave, not necessarily directly at him. We whisper back and forth to each other about what is happening for about 5 minutes and then my buddy says, "He's moving, something's happening". I get the gun up to my shoulder and ready. I have a spot picked out on the crevice exit that once he gets there or closer I am shooting once he turns broadside. But I still don't see anything. My buddy keeps telling me he can see the goat, and then he can't see the goat. This goes on for another 10 minutes or so until finally I see a small piece of white from my vantage point. It appears to be the ass end and he is still a ways in the cave/crevice.
He then disappears and neither one of us can see him. Nothing for about 5 minutes and then my buddy says "Here he comes!" I look and sure enough I can see his head, he is farther down the crevice and headed out. The goat takes his time, stopping and surveying what he can see then sort of browsing. But he is coming out exactly where I had figured he would come out. He is walking straight towards me and I can now see his entire body. One slow step at a time he walks out, stopping every 2 steps or so. He then gets to the exit of the crevice and there is a spot to his left where there is a rock and the cliff kind of starts. He jumps up on that and is now broadside and standing still. Been waiting over 6 hours for this......BOOM! The goat is startled and runs to the other side of the crevice and stands broadside again for just a second....BOOM! I shoot again. No reaction, I realize I am hitting low. It must be farther than I thought. The goat runs over to the left again and stands broadside for a second, I am a little higher this time, just over his back. BOOM! He goes down and gets right back up and turns to face the other direction. BOOM! I can tell this shot is also a hit as he stumbles. At this point I need to reload but I had the bullets out and ready, it doesn't take long. I shoot again and the goat goes down. He is laying down with his head up but can't move. I try shooting a couple more times. The problem is when he went down went down with a big log in front of him. All I can see is his hump, neck and head. I take a couple shots trying to get it right over the log but there is no reaction from him.
At this point I tell my buddy we need to get closer. So I grab all my stuff and head across the small valley. When we start up it is steep, then just gets steeper and steeper. Its a LOT farther and steeper than I had thought up this side and is thick brush with blowdown littered everywhere. Adrenaline is flowing freely and we both scoot up the hill. We get to within about 200 yards and I stop. I try and get the shooting sticks set up to shoot again. The goat isn't going anywhere but his head is up and I'm not a fan of just letting them slowly die if I can help it. With the steep angle of the slope it is really hard to get set up. The other problem is from this angle I can only see the rump and the head. Otherwise the log is in the way. My heart rate is also through the roof from climbing this hill. I fire a shot and there is very little response. I tell my buddy we need to get closer so up the hill we go. We get to about 100 yards and I try again. The angle is terrible so we get even closer. By this time we are just below the goat and to his right. I can see his ass and his head and his hump.
I don't want to shoot him in any of those spots but those are my options. At this time I look and realize I only have one bullet left. There is a then a discussion with my buddy, do I save this bullet, we are in bear country and it would be nice to have at least one bullet just in case. At first I say we save it, but then I just can't do it. I get comfortable and put the last one right in his rump, lengthwise through his body and we watch as his head goes down.
He then disappears and neither one of us can see him. Nothing for about 5 minutes and then my buddy says "Here he comes!" I look and sure enough I can see his head, he is farther down the crevice and headed out. The goat takes his time, stopping and surveying what he can see then sort of browsing. But he is coming out exactly where I had figured he would come out. He is walking straight towards me and I can now see his entire body. One slow step at a time he walks out, stopping every 2 steps or so. He then gets to the exit of the crevice and there is a spot to his left where there is a rock and the cliff kind of starts. He jumps up on that and is now broadside and standing still. Been waiting over 6 hours for this......BOOM! The goat is startled and runs to the other side of the crevice and stands broadside again for just a second....BOOM! I shoot again. No reaction, I realize I am hitting low. It must be farther than I thought. The goat runs over to the left again and stands broadside for a second, I am a little higher this time, just over his back. BOOM! He goes down and gets right back up and turns to face the other direction. BOOM! I can tell this shot is also a hit as he stumbles. At this point I need to reload but I had the bullets out and ready, it doesn't take long. I shoot again and the goat goes down. He is laying down with his head up but can't move. I try shooting a couple more times. The problem is when he went down went down with a big log in front of him. All I can see is his hump, neck and head. I take a couple shots trying to get it right over the log but there is no reaction from him.
At this point I tell my buddy we need to get closer. So I grab all my stuff and head across the small valley. When we start up it is steep, then just gets steeper and steeper. Its a LOT farther and steeper than I had thought up this side and is thick brush with blowdown littered everywhere. Adrenaline is flowing freely and we both scoot up the hill. We get to within about 200 yards and I stop. I try and get the shooting sticks set up to shoot again. The goat isn't going anywhere but his head is up and I'm not a fan of just letting them slowly die if I can help it. With the steep angle of the slope it is really hard to get set up. The other problem is from this angle I can only see the rump and the head. Otherwise the log is in the way. My heart rate is also through the roof from climbing this hill. I fire a shot and there is very little response. I tell my buddy we need to get closer so up the hill we go. We get to about 100 yards and I try again. The angle is terrible so we get even closer. By this time we are just below the goat and to his right. I can see his ass and his head and his hump.
I don't want to shoot him in any of those spots but those are my options. At this time I look and realize I only have one bullet left. There is a then a discussion with my buddy, do I save this bullet, we are in bear country and it would be nice to have at least one bullet just in case. At first I say we save it, but then I just can't do it. I get comfortable and put the last one right in his rump, lengthwise through his body and we watch as his head goes down.
Caseknife
Well-known member
Wow!
Stone_Ice_1
Well-known member
One thing that my goat research revealed over and over was how tough these animals are. After shooting this goat numerous times and him still going there was certainly a lot of truth to that.
Now we have to get to him. He died at the top of this little cliff and behind a log to keep him from falling off of it. I had actually seen that log while waiting for him to come out and thought it might be useful. Or at least it looked like a little cliff from below. When we got to it we realized it was about 25 feet high. I found a little spot to climb up the cliff a little bit to the left of the goat. I scrambled up it and turned around, my buddy was no where to be seen. I said something to him and could hear him talking back but wasn't sure where he was. Then he popped up right next to me. I ask how that side was to scramble and he said it was bad, probably 40 feet up a cliff. Told him mine wasn't much better but not as high so we could go back down there. We then sidehill a bit and get to the goat, he is completely dead and a brute! I get just above him, it is really steep here and he his jammed underneath the log. My buddy doesn't want to come all the way out to my position with how steep it is. By this time it is almost dark so we get some pictures.
You can't tell in this pictur4e but that log by him is right at the top of a 25 foot cliff. It looks like just a slope here but assure you it is not.
After the pictures I want to move him over to where my buddy is at because it is not as steep and there is a tree still standing there. We try to get up up the hill and out from under the log and he won't budge. We try this several times and nothing. All 4 legs are wedged underneath it. Eventually I think well maybe if I go over the log and throw him over the cliff it will work out better. The bottom of the cliff is steep but brushy and I think he will get hung up and not go to far. So I grab one of his front legs and get it over the log. Then the other front leg. This is about when my buddy tells me to be careful of not pushing the entire log off the cliff. It is only wedged up here as it extends past the tree he is standing by. If it goes down we are all going down. I get one of the back legs propped over the tree and can see all the weight of this goat is on that 4th leg that is wedged under the log. I am worried I might have to cut that leg to get it out. I pull on it and get just a couple of inches of movement. I can see the goat slowly moving and back away from it as far as possible and slowly it slides over the log. Down the cliff and hill it goes and it rolls about 30 yards down the hill and gets hung up on some more deadfall.
We then have to scale back down the cliff. I throw my backpack and it rolls way down the hill. Buddy throws his and it stops immediately.
At this point, it is dark, I can only hear out of one ear, there is bear sign everywhere and we are in grizzly country, we have no good headlamps, very little food and not much water left. We are about 2 miles from camp and have a goat to take care of. But it's been a GREAT day!
Now we have to get to him. He died at the top of this little cliff and behind a log to keep him from falling off of it. I had actually seen that log while waiting for him to come out and thought it might be useful. Or at least it looked like a little cliff from below. When we got to it we realized it was about 25 feet high. I found a little spot to climb up the cliff a little bit to the left of the goat. I scrambled up it and turned around, my buddy was no where to be seen. I said something to him and could hear him talking back but wasn't sure where he was. Then he popped up right next to me. I ask how that side was to scramble and he said it was bad, probably 40 feet up a cliff. Told him mine wasn't much better but not as high so we could go back down there. We then sidehill a bit and get to the goat, he is completely dead and a brute! I get just above him, it is really steep here and he his jammed underneath the log. My buddy doesn't want to come all the way out to my position with how steep it is. By this time it is almost dark so we get some pictures.
You can't tell in this pictur4e but that log by him is right at the top of a 25 foot cliff. It looks like just a slope here but assure you it is not.
After the pictures I want to move him over to where my buddy is at because it is not as steep and there is a tree still standing there. We try to get up up the hill and out from under the log and he won't budge. We try this several times and nothing. All 4 legs are wedged underneath it. Eventually I think well maybe if I go over the log and throw him over the cliff it will work out better. The bottom of the cliff is steep but brushy and I think he will get hung up and not go to far. So I grab one of his front legs and get it over the log. Then the other front leg. This is about when my buddy tells me to be careful of not pushing the entire log off the cliff. It is only wedged up here as it extends past the tree he is standing by. If it goes down we are all going down. I get one of the back legs propped over the tree and can see all the weight of this goat is on that 4th leg that is wedged under the log. I am worried I might have to cut that leg to get it out. I pull on it and get just a couple of inches of movement. I can see the goat slowly moving and back away from it as far as possible and slowly it slides over the log. Down the cliff and hill it goes and it rolls about 30 yards down the hill and gets hung up on some more deadfall.
We then have to scale back down the cliff. I throw my backpack and it rolls way down the hill. Buddy throws his and it stops immediately.
At this point, it is dark, I can only hear out of one ear, there is bear sign everywhere and we are in grizzly country, we have no good headlamps, very little food and not much water left. We are about 2 miles from camp and have a goat to take care of. But it's been a GREAT day!
samuel_284Win
Well-known member
This is awesome! Congrats on your goat harvest @Stone_Ice_1
Caseknife
Well-known member
This is one hell of a story and haven't even got to the elk hunt yet!
Luke_with_a_lab
Well-known member
Awesome congrats! Looking forward to the elk story
Stone_Ice_1
Well-known member
We start working on the goat, I don't want to leave him here overnight as this part of the valley has a ton of bear sign, even clear up by this cliff. Right at the beginning my buddy looks at me and says, "should we be worried about bears"? I tell him no, it shouldn't be a problem but he still gets a kick out of that I add at the end of my statement "But you should talk and be loud just in case".
Up to this point I wasn't sure if I wanted to shoulder mount the goat that I ended up with. After seeing him I decided to cape him for a shoulder mount. We had all sorts of problems. One thing in my research on goats beforehand didn't reveal was how thick their skin is. This was a healthy billy, plenty of fat on him, the hair is already getting thicker but the biggest issue was the skin. It was very thick and was a lot of work to cut. After about 20 minutes of working on getting the cape off I gave up on the idea of getting the cape off. We would be out here all night before I had it done.
This is one of the 2 things I wish I could have done better on this hunt. I should have just taken the time and gotten the cape. The 2nd one is better pictures. The earlier pictures of the goat are the only ones I have of him. We should have gotten more after we knocked him down the cliff, even though it was completely dark by that time. Those are the only pictures I have of that entire day.
So I proceed to get as much meat off him as possible. We cut off the head and we put the meat and head in some game bags and I go to start loading our backpacks. My buddy has loaned his backpack from a female co-worker. It is at this point that he informs me that he has been instructed that under NO circumstances is any meat or animal parts to go into the backpack he is using. I wish I had a picture of the dumbfounded look on my face as he tells me! So I proceed to empty EVERYTHING out of my pack and he is carrying all the gear we have while I take all the meat and head of the goat.
We have long since ran out of water but there is a good sized creek at the bottom that we have to get to before we start heading back up towards camp. We get to the creek and I distinctly remember filtering and filling myself up on some amazing water. We then hike the miserable 2 miles back up to camp. Our headlights are dying, my backup flashlight that my buddy is using eventually does die. In the dark it is a lot harder to navigate the blowdown and numerous gullies with steep ledges than it was when we came down this valley. The whole way up the valley my buddy is yelling "HEY OH" to let any critters know we are around. Nothing is this entire valley didn't know we were there by the end of the night.
As you can see from the pictures there aren't any good trees to hang the goat in during the night. So about a quarter mile before we get to camp I unload the goat and we stuff it underneath a small spruce tree. There is very little animal sign this high up like there was back down where we shot the goat.
We get back to camp and get something to eat and then go lay down. It is 1:30 AM by the time I am laying in my sleeping bag. But it takes another hour to get to sleep. I can just feel my heart pounding hard still. We had been going a hundred miles an hour since 6:30 PM and it was hard to settle down.
Up to this point I wasn't sure if I wanted to shoulder mount the goat that I ended up with. After seeing him I decided to cape him for a shoulder mount. We had all sorts of problems. One thing in my research on goats beforehand didn't reveal was how thick their skin is. This was a healthy billy, plenty of fat on him, the hair is already getting thicker but the biggest issue was the skin. It was very thick and was a lot of work to cut. After about 20 minutes of working on getting the cape off I gave up on the idea of getting the cape off. We would be out here all night before I had it done.
This is one of the 2 things I wish I could have done better on this hunt. I should have just taken the time and gotten the cape. The 2nd one is better pictures. The earlier pictures of the goat are the only ones I have of him. We should have gotten more after we knocked him down the cliff, even though it was completely dark by that time. Those are the only pictures I have of that entire day.
So I proceed to get as much meat off him as possible. We cut off the head and we put the meat and head in some game bags and I go to start loading our backpacks. My buddy has loaned his backpack from a female co-worker. It is at this point that he informs me that he has been instructed that under NO circumstances is any meat or animal parts to go into the backpack he is using. I wish I had a picture of the dumbfounded look on my face as he tells me! So I proceed to empty EVERYTHING out of my pack and he is carrying all the gear we have while I take all the meat and head of the goat.
We have long since ran out of water but there is a good sized creek at the bottom that we have to get to before we start heading back up towards camp. We get to the creek and I distinctly remember filtering and filling myself up on some amazing water. We then hike the miserable 2 miles back up to camp. Our headlights are dying, my backup flashlight that my buddy is using eventually does die. In the dark it is a lot harder to navigate the blowdown and numerous gullies with steep ledges than it was when we came down this valley. The whole way up the valley my buddy is yelling "HEY OH" to let any critters know we are around. Nothing is this entire valley didn't know we were there by the end of the night.
As you can see from the pictures there aren't any good trees to hang the goat in during the night. So about a quarter mile before we get to camp I unload the goat and we stuff it underneath a small spruce tree. There is very little animal sign this high up like there was back down where we shot the goat.
We get back to camp and get something to eat and then go lay down. It is 1:30 AM by the time I am laying in my sleeping bag. But it takes another hour to get to sleep. I can just feel my heart pounding hard still. We had been going a hundred miles an hour since 6:30 PM and it was hard to settle down.
Stone_Ice_1
Well-known member
The next day we sleep in a bit and wake up to a beautiful morning. We get some foot from our eating/food area.
Then head down to get the goat and bring it back up to camp to pack everything up.
This is the only other picture I have of the goat from the hunt. This was from camp and just before he took off. Little did I know that I left my shooting sticks somewhere, my knife sharpener at the kill site, my backpacking cup hanging in the tree just behind me, and somehow we didn't make it back to the truck with my spotting scope (it was an old cheap one from 25 years ago so I wasn't that sad about it).
The hike out I was stressed about just that one stretch of 15 feet or so. I had a lot of weight on my back now. I don't have a picture of that particular spot. But it was a slow slog climbing out of there and up to the ridge.
This is a picture of the last stretch up to the ridge. Once we get up there that sketchy spot is pretty much right away. My give a damn when we get there is pretty small. I just look at it, plan my steps ahead of time and quickly just walk across the 1 foot wide "plank" of flat earth to cover the 15 foot long spot. My buddy doesn't crawl this time but he gets down so he can use his hands a bit. Once past that I am feeling pretty good.
Then head down to get the goat and bring it back up to camp to pack everything up.
This is the only other picture I have of the goat from the hunt. This was from camp and just before he took off. Little did I know that I left my shooting sticks somewhere, my knife sharpener at the kill site, my backpacking cup hanging in the tree just behind me, and somehow we didn't make it back to the truck with my spotting scope (it was an old cheap one from 25 years ago so I wasn't that sad about it).
The hike out I was stressed about just that one stretch of 15 feet or so. I had a lot of weight on my back now. I don't have a picture of that particular spot. But it was a slow slog climbing out of there and up to the ridge.
This is a picture of the last stretch up to the ridge. Once we get up there that sketchy spot is pretty much right away. My give a damn when we get there is pretty small. I just look at it, plan my steps ahead of time and quickly just walk across the 1 foot wide "plank" of flat earth to cover the 15 foot long spot. My buddy doesn't crawl this time but he gets down so he can use his hands a bit. Once past that I am feeling pretty good.
Stone_Ice_1
Well-known member
We do run into a few folks on the way out. One guy that had horses, who I had talked to before he went in, I ran into once I started driving up the road on the four wheeler back to my truck. In talking to him, he ended up being the other hunter that had been next to us while we waited for the goat. Said he saw a bunch of goats on the trip, but that was the only billy. He didn't know it was me next to him as he was telling me the story and said he saw the goat from a distance came over and got set up and looked over to see us sitting there and had basically the same thoughts I had "5 miles in and there is another guy sitting on this goat!?" He did tell me from his vantage point it was 460 yards to the goat. When I had been looking at the distance from me to the goat and from him to the goat I thought it was pretty much the same, I might have been just a touch closer. So the shots I was taking were mostly likely in the area of 440 yards or so.
The rest of the trip home is pretty uneventful with the exception of some close calls in both of our vehicles with some deer. It was nice to sleep in my own bed after a tough couple of days.
The next day I get up and start putting away things and taking care of all of it. It then dawns on me that I know this is a good billy but I don't know how big he actually is. So I get out some twine and measure him. His bases are 5.5" each and each horn is 9" long exactly. I look up the requirements for a B&C billy and take the other required measurements. To my astonishment, he is a B&C goat if I ever wanted to officially get him measured. I won't as I don't need anything official like that, I am just happy he is a mature billy.
I also count the rings on the horns and there are a lot of them. Having never been this close to one I didn't know what rings to count but I was getting 11. Later that day I took him into FWP to have them pull teeth and measurements. The biologist was out that day so a warden had to do it. He admitted he didn't have the first clue what he was doing. So he counts the rings first and says he has 8. Then he goes to pull the tooth out and he sees how ground down it is. He then goes back and counts 10 rings so this Billy is entered into FWP as being a 10 year old. His base measurements on the goat were off also. He pulls 2 or 3 teeth since they are in such bad condition. I will be interested to get the results of those back.
I decided to have a euro done on the goat. I recently got the goat back. Here is a better picture of the horns and the rings. Being able to see it better I could 12 rings but they get really close together for the last 2. Looking at the FWP results from this year he is the oldest goat shot in the state this year. There were 2 marked as 10 year olds, including mine but I'm confident he is older than that. This assumes none of the others are grossly off on age though and that is a big assumption.
So with one tag filled it is time to focus on the other limited tag I have in my pocket.
The rest of the trip home is pretty uneventful with the exception of some close calls in both of our vehicles with some deer. It was nice to sleep in my own bed after a tough couple of days.
The next day I get up and start putting away things and taking care of all of it. It then dawns on me that I know this is a good billy but I don't know how big he actually is. So I get out some twine and measure him. His bases are 5.5" each and each horn is 9" long exactly. I look up the requirements for a B&C billy and take the other required measurements. To my astonishment, he is a B&C goat if I ever wanted to officially get him measured. I won't as I don't need anything official like that, I am just happy he is a mature billy.
I also count the rings on the horns and there are a lot of them. Having never been this close to one I didn't know what rings to count but I was getting 11. Later that day I took him into FWP to have them pull teeth and measurements. The biologist was out that day so a warden had to do it. He admitted he didn't have the first clue what he was doing. So he counts the rings first and says he has 8. Then he goes to pull the tooth out and he sees how ground down it is. He then goes back and counts 10 rings so this Billy is entered into FWP as being a 10 year old. His base measurements on the goat were off also. He pulls 2 or 3 teeth since they are in such bad condition. I will be interested to get the results of those back.
I decided to have a euro done on the goat. I recently got the goat back. Here is a better picture of the horns and the rings. Being able to see it better I could 12 rings but they get really close together for the last 2. Looking at the FWP results from this year he is the oldest goat shot in the state this year. There were 2 marked as 10 year olds, including mine but I'm confident he is older than that. This assumes none of the others are grossly off on age though and that is a big assumption.
So with one tag filled it is time to focus on the other limited tag I have in my pocket.
Couldn't agree more!!!!
HSi-ESi
Well-known member
Congrats on a great hunt. How's the Billy for table fare?
CPAjeff
Well-known member
Congrats on the fantastic goat - can't wait to read about the elk!
txco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2017
- Messages
- 289
Congrats! Well done.
Carl 9.3x62
Well-known member
Awesome
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