sacountry
Well-known member
This is a hard one to share, but I feel like I owe it to Hunttalk to do so. Given this once in a life time hunt, I've been journaling the experience even though I'm not a journal kind of guy. Here's my entry following the hunt.
October 5th
Not the way I thought this season would start. I filled my goat tag over the weekend and I wish I could put the bullet back in the gun. I invested a lot of time and money to be properly prepared for this specific hunt and with that comes certain expectations of myself, the hunt, and of course the animal. The animal and the hunt did not disappoint, but the expectations of myself did.
On Thursday October 1st, my buddy Dan and I made our way up towards base camp on Thursday morning, then hiked up into goat country from there. To my surprise we were greeted by 3 goats on a perfect hillside between us and our glassing spot. We studied these goats for 10 minutes at 130 yards. The biggest goat was a mature goat and a trained eye would have concluded it was a nanny immediately. It took me an agonizingly long 10 minutes with the goat perfectly seated in my crosshairs to make the determination. She had one long thin horn and one that was busted off about half way up, but she also had dark circles around the bases like the glands a Billy would have. I kept thinking I need to make sure this is a billy...must make sure this is a billy. We let it go once I felt confident that it was a long horned, mature nanny. Could have been done with my hunt on the first day with a very safe, ethical shot had it been a billy. We were definitely in the right spot to harvest a goat. We proceeded to the glassing spot and saw about 15 goats in what is effectively a goat nursery.. So we confidently hiked back the 2 miles to base camp thinking we had a good chance at a billy the next day.
That night we decided to cut down on gear in order to set a spike camp closer to the goats, thus expanding the hours of hunting/day for the next 3 days. Friday morning we hiked back up. We had about 5 hours to hunt that afternoon after dropping gear for the spike camp. We glassed the nursery hard as well as the drainage to the south where our spike camp was. I think we saw about 14 goats that afternoon/evening in the nursery, two of which were solo goats from a distance with larger bodies. Figured them to be billies. We retreated to the spike camp for a beautiful fall sunset in Montana next to a high mountain spring.
On Saturday we saw about 11 of the goats we had seen the day before in the Nursery but none where alone, indicating these goats were likely all nannies and kids. All were feeding uphill with a group of 5 to a location where we could make a stalk for further review and possibly a shot. Spot and stalk hunting is a ton of fun, one of the reasons why elk hunting the Breaks is a kick in the pants. These goats were on the move so we moved quickly trying to avoid being seen, but the lead goat was on to us. We made it to within 200 yards when I put my crosshairs on the lead goat trying to determine it’s sex. It kept moving uphill to about 300 yards when I could finally determine testicles but this goat was moving. I took a fast, ill advised shot that missed completely as I saw the bullet implode on the rock band to the left of the goat. I was at a low. We hadn’t seen the solo goats from yesterday and this was Saturday which would have been an ideal time to make a harvest. We decided to push northward to the next drainage to see if we could get up on these goats again and glass that area. It was an incredibly rough and rugged drainage. Impossible to cross and dangerous to hike. As we glassed we saw 4 solo goats, none available for us to stalk. The 5 goats we saw move into the drainage were gone. This data proved a point on one of the hunting websites I’ve been using to help glean information. Nannies and kids will hang out in high country but in relatively easy terrain to move around. The billies will be nearby, maybe ½ mile to a mile, but the terrain will be much more rugged. We did see one billy that stood alone in size way up high. He was regal looking in his yellowish, offwhite hide, way up in the cliff bands. It was obvious that any shot taken in this area would be unethical because the goat would drop a couple thousand feet, turning into hamburger. Thinking that we’ve seen goats in the nursery for the last couple of days, we proceeded back to set up for an evening hunt hoping we might see those solo goats. We only saw 3 goats in a group that night, likely a nanny and two kids. Still seeing 15 goats in a day over two drainages was encouraging. Another buddy, Joe was hiking in this afternoon to participate in the rest of the hunt.
Recognizing tomorrow was Sunday and we had a long hike out, I started thinking in my mind about the following weekend and the weekend after that. I had already seen snow up in these mountains from home earlier in September. With any snow on the ground, this area would be shut down due to treacherous hiking conditions. I had sporadic cell service so I began texting buddies to see who could hunt next weekend while acknowledging that I had obligations at church next Sunday. I was hoping for a 3 day hunt, Thurs-Sat. As responses came in, my heart started sinking. I wasn’t going to be able to pull a 3 day hunt together. Who knows what the weather was going to do for the weekend after that. The weekend after that was already committed to a limited draw bull elk hunt with my step son. I dreaded the thought of not filling this tag. I also dreaded trying to hunt this district in November down low, balancing time here with the unique elk hunting opportunity and a pending sheep hunt that would kick off with the rut at the very end of October.
We awoke Sunday morning and tore down camp, moving the gear up to our glassing spot for an easier hike out later. Mentally, I was saying to myself I would shoot a young billy this morning if presented with a good shot. I had two guys with me to help. The weather was great. Juggling calendars with buddies was complicated by a myriad of things including COVID.. So this was prime time for a harvest. I was hopeful that the wind from last night would have pushed goats into the Nursery. Unfortunately, we only saw the 3 goats from the night before. We decided to hike over to the Billy drainage to see if any billies were lower. Those 3 goats we had seen from the glassing spot 45 minutes ago turned into 4 as we approached the Billy drainage. We studied them hard. I needed a billy, even a young billy. This would be the time. The biggest goat of the four was the broken horned nanny we had seen on Thursday. She had a kid locked on to her hip. The 3rd goat was clearly a young nanny and the 4th goat disappeared out of sight. We enjoyed watching them at close range for a bit, then decided to head over to the billy drainage, probably 9:30 at this point. Time was running thin given the eventual 6 hour hike out. With the huge population of Grizzlies in this area butted up to Glacier Park, no one rightfully wanted to hike out in the dark.
We glassed the Billy drainage for about 45 minutes or so. Some of the goats had moved down, but we were short on time plus any shot taken would result in that billy falling a long way. I was at another low. I didn’t have any legitimate opportunities and we needed to start our long hike out no later than noon. As we started back, we saw the 3 goats still bedded in the area that we had watched earlier. But now from this perspective we could see the 4th. All were bedded which allowed us the chance to begin evaluating the 4th. We looked at the goat for what felt like 30 minutes. Creeping up to within about 50 yards. The horns were short but held a steady curve and they looked different than the two confirmed nannies in the group. This certainly was a billy. I began evaluating the shot options. A good shot on a bedded goat would anchor it from falling from the cliff band it was on. Plus if it moved after the shot it wouldn’t go more than 40 -50 feet vs thousands of feet. I was calculating all this as I’m evaluating this opportunity. I was prepared to not take home a trophy. I was set on taking a billy no matter what, even a small, short faced one. I did not want to eat this once in a life-time tag.
I fired the shot with 90% confidence that this was a young billy….something I told myself over the course of the summer on my runs and scouting trips that I would absolutely not do. The shot hit it’s intended target. The goat did make a move to my surprise. I put another shot into it and it expired one shelf below. I had my goat. I punched my tag. It was 11:00. I was feeling a sense of accomplishment at this significant challenge, but because of that 10% of uncertainty I didn’t feel that complete elation of satisfying my goal. I needed to go check. My heart sank. It was a 4 year old nanny. Too young for her prominent hook shape to begin to appear at the top of her horns like the other nannies in this group. I just did what I knew I didn’t want to do. It wasn't easy to muster a smile for the picture. It was a long hike out with a heavy heart and a heavy pack. Lots of time to reflect. I was grateful for my wife, my true once in a life-time tag. I was grateful for friends that would tag along with me on this journey, including a long time hunting and fishing buddy that dropped what he was doing to come meet us on the trail for the pack out. I was grateful for my health to allow me to get up to this beautiful area that I would not have otherwise seen. I was amazed by God and the fall colors that had been painted before me. It's one thing to see the colors from the valley floor, it's entirely another to see them spread out like a patch work quilt from above tree line.
Continued....
October 5th
Not the way I thought this season would start. I filled my goat tag over the weekend and I wish I could put the bullet back in the gun. I invested a lot of time and money to be properly prepared for this specific hunt and with that comes certain expectations of myself, the hunt, and of course the animal. The animal and the hunt did not disappoint, but the expectations of myself did.
On Thursday October 1st, my buddy Dan and I made our way up towards base camp on Thursday morning, then hiked up into goat country from there. To my surprise we were greeted by 3 goats on a perfect hillside between us and our glassing spot. We studied these goats for 10 minutes at 130 yards. The biggest goat was a mature goat and a trained eye would have concluded it was a nanny immediately. It took me an agonizingly long 10 minutes with the goat perfectly seated in my crosshairs to make the determination. She had one long thin horn and one that was busted off about half way up, but she also had dark circles around the bases like the glands a Billy would have. I kept thinking I need to make sure this is a billy...must make sure this is a billy. We let it go once I felt confident that it was a long horned, mature nanny. Could have been done with my hunt on the first day with a very safe, ethical shot had it been a billy. We were definitely in the right spot to harvest a goat. We proceeded to the glassing spot and saw about 15 goats in what is effectively a goat nursery.. So we confidently hiked back the 2 miles to base camp thinking we had a good chance at a billy the next day.
That night we decided to cut down on gear in order to set a spike camp closer to the goats, thus expanding the hours of hunting/day for the next 3 days. Friday morning we hiked back up. We had about 5 hours to hunt that afternoon after dropping gear for the spike camp. We glassed the nursery hard as well as the drainage to the south where our spike camp was. I think we saw about 14 goats that afternoon/evening in the nursery, two of which were solo goats from a distance with larger bodies. Figured them to be billies. We retreated to the spike camp for a beautiful fall sunset in Montana next to a high mountain spring.
On Saturday we saw about 11 of the goats we had seen the day before in the Nursery but none where alone, indicating these goats were likely all nannies and kids. All were feeding uphill with a group of 5 to a location where we could make a stalk for further review and possibly a shot. Spot and stalk hunting is a ton of fun, one of the reasons why elk hunting the Breaks is a kick in the pants. These goats were on the move so we moved quickly trying to avoid being seen, but the lead goat was on to us. We made it to within 200 yards when I put my crosshairs on the lead goat trying to determine it’s sex. It kept moving uphill to about 300 yards when I could finally determine testicles but this goat was moving. I took a fast, ill advised shot that missed completely as I saw the bullet implode on the rock band to the left of the goat. I was at a low. We hadn’t seen the solo goats from yesterday and this was Saturday which would have been an ideal time to make a harvest. We decided to push northward to the next drainage to see if we could get up on these goats again and glass that area. It was an incredibly rough and rugged drainage. Impossible to cross and dangerous to hike. As we glassed we saw 4 solo goats, none available for us to stalk. The 5 goats we saw move into the drainage were gone. This data proved a point on one of the hunting websites I’ve been using to help glean information. Nannies and kids will hang out in high country but in relatively easy terrain to move around. The billies will be nearby, maybe ½ mile to a mile, but the terrain will be much more rugged. We did see one billy that stood alone in size way up high. He was regal looking in his yellowish, offwhite hide, way up in the cliff bands. It was obvious that any shot taken in this area would be unethical because the goat would drop a couple thousand feet, turning into hamburger. Thinking that we’ve seen goats in the nursery for the last couple of days, we proceeded back to set up for an evening hunt hoping we might see those solo goats. We only saw 3 goats in a group that night, likely a nanny and two kids. Still seeing 15 goats in a day over two drainages was encouraging. Another buddy, Joe was hiking in this afternoon to participate in the rest of the hunt.
Recognizing tomorrow was Sunday and we had a long hike out, I started thinking in my mind about the following weekend and the weekend after that. I had already seen snow up in these mountains from home earlier in September. With any snow on the ground, this area would be shut down due to treacherous hiking conditions. I had sporadic cell service so I began texting buddies to see who could hunt next weekend while acknowledging that I had obligations at church next Sunday. I was hoping for a 3 day hunt, Thurs-Sat. As responses came in, my heart started sinking. I wasn’t going to be able to pull a 3 day hunt together. Who knows what the weather was going to do for the weekend after that. The weekend after that was already committed to a limited draw bull elk hunt with my step son. I dreaded the thought of not filling this tag. I also dreaded trying to hunt this district in November down low, balancing time here with the unique elk hunting opportunity and a pending sheep hunt that would kick off with the rut at the very end of October.
We awoke Sunday morning and tore down camp, moving the gear up to our glassing spot for an easier hike out later. Mentally, I was saying to myself I would shoot a young billy this morning if presented with a good shot. I had two guys with me to help. The weather was great. Juggling calendars with buddies was complicated by a myriad of things including COVID.. So this was prime time for a harvest. I was hopeful that the wind from last night would have pushed goats into the Nursery. Unfortunately, we only saw the 3 goats from the night before. We decided to hike over to the Billy drainage to see if any billies were lower. Those 3 goats we had seen from the glassing spot 45 minutes ago turned into 4 as we approached the Billy drainage. We studied them hard. I needed a billy, even a young billy. This would be the time. The biggest goat of the four was the broken horned nanny we had seen on Thursday. She had a kid locked on to her hip. The 3rd goat was clearly a young nanny and the 4th goat disappeared out of sight. We enjoyed watching them at close range for a bit, then decided to head over to the billy drainage, probably 9:30 at this point. Time was running thin given the eventual 6 hour hike out. With the huge population of Grizzlies in this area butted up to Glacier Park, no one rightfully wanted to hike out in the dark.
We glassed the Billy drainage for about 45 minutes or so. Some of the goats had moved down, but we were short on time plus any shot taken would result in that billy falling a long way. I was at another low. I didn’t have any legitimate opportunities and we needed to start our long hike out no later than noon. As we started back, we saw the 3 goats still bedded in the area that we had watched earlier. But now from this perspective we could see the 4th. All were bedded which allowed us the chance to begin evaluating the 4th. We looked at the goat for what felt like 30 minutes. Creeping up to within about 50 yards. The horns were short but held a steady curve and they looked different than the two confirmed nannies in the group. This certainly was a billy. I began evaluating the shot options. A good shot on a bedded goat would anchor it from falling from the cliff band it was on. Plus if it moved after the shot it wouldn’t go more than 40 -50 feet vs thousands of feet. I was calculating all this as I’m evaluating this opportunity. I was prepared to not take home a trophy. I was set on taking a billy no matter what, even a small, short faced one. I did not want to eat this once in a life-time tag.
I fired the shot with 90% confidence that this was a young billy….something I told myself over the course of the summer on my runs and scouting trips that I would absolutely not do. The shot hit it’s intended target. The goat did make a move to my surprise. I put another shot into it and it expired one shelf below. I had my goat. I punched my tag. It was 11:00. I was feeling a sense of accomplishment at this significant challenge, but because of that 10% of uncertainty I didn’t feel that complete elation of satisfying my goal. I needed to go check. My heart sank. It was a 4 year old nanny. Too young for her prominent hook shape to begin to appear at the top of her horns like the other nannies in this group. I just did what I knew I didn’t want to do. It wasn't easy to muster a smile for the picture. It was a long hike out with a heavy heart and a heavy pack. Lots of time to reflect. I was grateful for my wife, my true once in a life-time tag. I was grateful for friends that would tag along with me on this journey, including a long time hunting and fishing buddy that dropped what he was doing to come meet us on the trail for the pack out. I was grateful for my health to allow me to get up to this beautiful area that I would not have otherwise seen. I was amazed by God and the fall colors that had been painted before me. It's one thing to see the colors from the valley floor, it's entirely another to see them spread out like a patch work quilt from above tree line.
Continued....
