Idaho Bull

[ida homer]

I headed up this last Wednesday morning with plans to pack in 3-4 miles and hunt until Sunday night if need be. It was pouring down rain all day and didn't let up during our hike into camp. 30 minutes after we left the truck we stopped as we kept crossing dry fresh elk tracks in the trail, so we knew they were in the area still, great news.

I let out a bugle for chits, and got 1 response 4-500 yards up the draw. We tied the goats off and dropped everything unnecessary. As we closed into about 100 yards I caught a cow feeding in the timber. We bugled again, but the herd bull rounded up his cows and headed away up the mountain. We played cat and mouse with him for an hour but he didn't want anything to do with us. A spike came in quiet to our left where I promptly missed him off hand at 50 yards

We hiked up the draw to again try and close back in on the herd with the herd bull. He still didn't want to come in, but he responded to all of our calls. Eventually we got to a high point where we could see any exit that they would take out of their timber stand, to hopefully catch them coming out to feed closer to dark. 5 minutes later across the draw a solo 5 point was walking our direction slowly. We bugled back and forth with him and he was pretty fired up, he came all the way into 8 yards where I shot him prone off of my bipod and pack, just like at the range





I was dissappointed I missed his heart with that chip shot, but the double lunger was enough to put him down quickly. 10 yards later and I had my first bull of the OTC variety. My proudest accomplishment thus far as elk are my passion and they can be very tough to nail down in this zone with all of the pressure and being just 20 miles from the original wolf release in 1996.





With the 2 of us and the 2 goats we were able to get the entire cape, the organs, all of the meat, antlers and camp the mile back to the truck in a timely fashion.

 

[Speeddmn]

Sounds like a great time. Sometimes we plan plan plan and all of a sudden it finished before you ever get started. Glad you had a blast!

 

[havgunwilltravel]

Great effort on the hill...i will take missing the heart and hitting the lungs every day of the week!! Well done.

 

[worm]

Job well done. Great photos

 

[recon6036]

Very nice. Congrats!

 

[Apparition]

So.......what kind of hold under do you need for 8 yards lol. Congrats on a great bull, and in a super tough area to hunt!!

 

[1_pointer]

Super!! That is some of my favorite country in all of ID.

 

[LCH]

he came all the way into 8 yards where I shot him prone off of my bipod and pack, just like at the range

That sounds like my kind of shot! For some reason, I always get a kick out of seeing those goats..

Congrats on a great bull.

 

[FloridaArcher91]

great story & nice Elk!!

 

[elk_hunter]

Awesome bull! Congrats! Those goats sure made that packout easy!

 

[brymoore]

Congrats!

 

[BlakeA]

Awesome bull! Congrats!!

 

[Firedancer]

I have heard of people using goats but this is the first time i have seen them used. Congrats on the bull

 

[Horn Seeker]

Nice job!

how much weight can your goats pack? I have packed with them a few times, but never could nail down a good safe number. I know it varies per goat! 40-80 pound range??

Congrats!!

 

[Ron Wright]

That's a great OTC Bull! Nice cape too

The Goats are awesome, the 50 pounds or so that they can each carry makes a huge difference with those backcountry Elk hunts.

 

[MT_elk]

Congrats!

 

[TheShootist.41]

Nice bull. Congrats

 

[Gr8bawana]

What a great story. I just wonder, could the goats become bear, wolf or mtn lion attractant at night?

 

[ida homer]

What a great story. I just wonder, could the goats become bear, wolf or mtn lion attractant at night?

This is our first season with the goats, or any sort of pack animal actually. They are weird critters, learning how to handle them has been a learning curve, albeit probably a much shorter humbling than training horses I'd bet.

I do worry about the woofs, cats and bears, as there are lots of each of those in the areas we hunt. They would be a sitting duck, I hope that they will make enough noise to wake me up if they are getting eaten so I can rip a shot off. The goats do fine with gunfire.

Their max carrying capacity seems to vary a LOT depending on the terrain. In July we took them scouting and they did 4 miles each way to camp with 30 pounds on each goat. They did great, they were a little tired, but they weren't in shape as they hadn't packed in 8 months. On Wednesday, we put the 2 front quarters on the bigger goat (boned out of course) and all of the steaks and neck/loose meat on the other goat. It was only a mile but a loss of 800 feet in elevation to the truck. It was very steep for the first half, and they were going very slow. I would guess we had 65 pounds on the big one and 50 on the smaller one. That's a lot, 30-35% of their body weight. Once we got down into the flat part of the trail I felt like we could have put another 5-10 pounds on each and they would have done well. It saved us a full trip which was kick-ass.

They can brushwhack with the best of em, which is probably the best part, and that you don't have to pack any food. You still have to maintain a backpack hunter attitude, as they aren't going to pack in cots, wall tents and beer. But they fit our style of hunting. The downside is that they can be very stubborn sometimes and they are just weird animals to deal with, unlike anything I've been around. For example, they won't eat an apple if you give it to them, but they will eat tree bark off of dead timber or goat heads... I think the road bumps we have experienced along the way have been more related towards dealing with them. You can't train pack goats, they train you.

 

[Baerman]

Congrats! Good to see you got it done!