Montana Mountain Goat- at wits end

[Hunter4Life78]

No. You will need a comfort animal. mtmuley

Cuddle with the goat for as a comfort animal.
Please read below

DISCLAIMER:

As a non resident of Montana and after numerous videos of non residents attempting to shall we say, "interact with" various species of Montana Wildlife, I feel it is my civic duty as a Montana resident to advise you that the goat as in mountain goat, not to be confused with the acronym greatest of all time, should be deceased either by your hand or Mother Nature's before any cuddling attempts are made. Should you choose to cuddle above mentioned mountain goat while it is breathing, well that's your bad.

Good Luck in your application process

 

[Hunter4Life78]

has anyone else read the famous poem about shanking the tent?

Beneath this endless, starry sprawl,
A fury fierce, it grips my soul.
In shadows deep, my heart is rent,
To dare to act, to "shank the tent."

A blade, it gleams, a silent cry,
Tears through the canvas, oh, so sly.
In rage, I'm driven, discontent,
To rend and tear, to "shank the tent."

Oh, moon, bear witness to my ire,
A heart ablaze with vengeful fire.
Each cut, each thrust, my soul's intent,
To claim my vengeance, "shank the tent."

Morning's light, a cruel lament,
Reveals a scene of wild torment.
Yet still, my heart, though spent and spent,
Finds solace in the "shanked" lament.

Please put that on a shirt

 

[Hunter4Life78]

Cut a piece of that tent off stick it your pocket. And when you plug that long haired, black horned mountain devil. Put that piece of tent on stick plant your flag on the mountain top and yell, "Right in the fuggin head!!! Regardless of where you hit him at. Channel your inner HuntTalkMan!!! You got this!!

 

[TheGrayRider]

To the OP: I don’t know if this scenario is even allowed in Montana but you may want to consider immediately donating the mountain goat tag to one of the Wounded Warrior Programs, if you are not going to hunt anymore, as not to waste the tag.

I don’t know when the season ends, but I would assume the Wounded Warrior Programs could quickly find an appreciative veteran or other handicapped hunter to hunt with their other volunteers on short notice.

Good luck either way in your endeavors, TheGrayRider.

 

[Hem]

I think a t-shirt with a billy goat and " Don't Shank The Tent" would be hilarious.
Keep it simple .

 

[MT Bound]

The bridge outage will not keep you from having a very good hunt, and you don't really need horses, but you'll need a tent. From the looks of one of your maps, you were in a good place, but doesn't look like you ventured off the USFS trail. You walked in about 3 hours on a trail, turned around and walked out, not able to see shit from the trail. Had you plopped a tent down instead of turning around, climbed up on the north side of bridge creek (323) and glassed south into bridge lake and the basin to the southeast of there, I'm 100% sure you'd have seen goats to hunt, probably plenty of them had you been patient. That's your starting point, not your turning around point. A friend of mine killed a 10" monster at Bridge lake a few years ago, the weekend after Thanksgiving. Look what you can see if you climb 600' up off the trail into the rocks to the icon I marked for you.

GO BACK!


View attachment 296582

just saw this thread/post, did not read most of it but was drawn to Greenhorns helpful pics/post. Love the references Greenhorn, his advice is spot on. I went in with family who drew the 329 tag in 2017 and we came in from the west from 323, a healthy hike but not a death march by any means. It's been a mild fall so far, plenty of time to get back in there

It was quite an adventure, we danced with a Sow Grizz and cub on the way in, walked alot of goat trails on the sides of cliffs, and he walked out with his goat after 3 days, saw alot of them in there for sure.

 

[MT Bound]

"Marshian said:
I did both of these as day hikes. The longer one as you can see was 17.4 miles and 4-5k elevation. The other was nearly 15 miles and about 2500 feet but with about a 60 pound pack since that’s when I planned to camp. So for me, mentally, I’d rather go absolute balls out for a day and know I can get some sleep and rest versus stay up there. Those days are behind me. So if I have a free weekend, I’ll try once more to do another big day hunt but if I get snowed out before then, so be it. I’ll have no regrets knowing what I already went through.
We all have our own internal limitations, and I’ve come to accept mine."

Agree w/Greenhorn again, this area is not a "day-hike" hunt area, you've got to go in and stay a night or couple 3-4 nights to really get into it and immerse yourself. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself then find someone or a couple buddies to go in with you, it's a super neat and amazingly scenic area.

 

[RobG]

Keep after it. Light a fire and glass. These hunts are supposed to be type 2 fun.

 

[rjthehunter]

Honestly, I want everyone who pulls a Once in a Lifetime tag to be successful. This is all just going to add to your future successful goat hunt story. From the lowest of lows, to the highest of highs!

Cut a piece of that tent off stick it your pocket. And when you plug that long haired, black horned mountain devil. Put that piece of tent on stick plant your flag on the mountain top and yell, "Right in the fuggin head!!! Regardless of where you hit him at. Channel your inner HuntTalkMan!!! You got this!!

I actually laughed pretty hard at this. I'm envisioning a feller who looks like Bert Kreischer doing this!

 

[winmag]

Look how far we made it before dropping the unit number into the thread. I guess that was inevitable.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Look how far we made it before dropping the unit number into the thread. I guess that was inevitable.

Just in case anybody missed it - this is
MT GOAT AREA 329

 

[Khunter]

I had an expensive tent shanked by an Elkbear once. Costly lesson learned, do not keep my Hostess Donettes stash in the tent anymore.

 

[MT_elk]

Greenhorn is right on. I shot my goat 20 years ago just below the crest of Crow mountain in the rock slide. Keep at it!

 

[cgasner1]

I had an expensive tent shanked by an Elkbear once. Costly lesson learned, do not keep my Hostess Donettes stash in the tent anymore.

View attachment 296812

If this had been the gram it would of had a video of dude sitting next to the tent crying about how he was in it when elk bear destroyed it and was lucky he got out alive

 

[406dn]

There is little harm in naming a unit number in a limited draw area, other than it might make drawing the tag more difficult. It will not increase the hunting pressure at all.

Reflecting back on my goat hunt, and the moose tags I've drawn, I think having an entire area, seemingly to yourself is a very special aspect of the experience. The mountains can make a person feel small, knowing you are the only person on a mountain hunting, increases that feeling.

I gained immense respect for Mountain Goats during that hunt. I had killed one earlier in BC, while on a sheep hunt. That one felt like a consolation prize at the time.

One memory fully etched in my mind occurred on one hunt before we succeeded. A lone Billy was standing on a knob on the mountain face. The wind was howling and it was a cold day. His hair was parted by the wind, while he stood there like it was a wonderful day to be alive. There was no way to get to him, and the earth fell away from him about six inches from where he stood.

It is a hunt that is beyond my ability now, I was 36 then, 72 now. I do know that it was as hard a hunt as I have ever done, no harder.

 

[The Hedgehog]

There is little harm in naming a unit number in a limited draw area, other than it might make drawing the tag more difficult. It will not increase the hunting pressure at all.

Oh hey, let’s all apply for that unit that might actually have some goats- the one that guy shanked his tent in and ate his tag opening week. Says odds are 2.2% a while .38% better than most.

 

[YoungGun]

Ribbing aside, there wouldn’t be piles of helpful advice on here if people didn’t genuinely want @Marshian to be successful on an OIL hunt.

This. Couldn't say it better.

 

[406dn]

Oh hey, let’s all apply for that unit that might actually have some goats- the one that guy shanked his tent in and ate his tag opening week. Says odds are 2.2% a while .38% better than most.

The reason is the same as it was when I hunted. The units with 0.38% odds offer easier hunts. I can't remember what the odds were, back then. I wanna say ~ 4 or 5 %, while other units were ~1%. I drew the tag within the first few years of gaining resident status.

 

[Khunter]

Run, do not walk, to be first to buy this available Montana vanity plate before it is gone.

 

[MT Bound]

Look how far we made it before dropping the unit number into the thread. I guess that was inevitable.

yah big f-ing deal, we named the unit...oooooohhh

2023 draw odds from MT Website: 181 tags, 23,190 people applied. the LE tags and species are typically once in a lifetime, and not everybody who draws the tag are willing to hike up there and do what needs to be done.

Bring your bear spray up in there, you'll need it....