Morning Goat Success

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Well Goat season was here on Saturday. Normally I'd go with the GF and the Dog, but they wanted to visit her folks instead of camping in the middle of nowhere, understandable. My other two hunting buddies are both in the middle of harvest, so they are a no go. Looks like I'll be going solo this year.

I figured why take the truck and the camper all the way over to western SD if its just me. We'll just tent camp this year and save gas money for my Mullie tag, or cow elk tag later this fall.



I wanted to get out to the unit and do some glass the day before opener, so I left the house just after day break. Nice and soggy start to the trip, hope its not like this west river...


Had a very uneventful drive out (which is a good thing!) Got to start glassing around 3 in the afternoon.

First Goats in the unit! Just a fawn and a doe, but I still get excited when I see them!



I kept glassing the area that I killed my buck in three years ago, when I finally spotted a decent buck hanging around the water tanks:

He looks like a pretty good buck to me, but its early in the day yet. I figure we'll watch him for a bit then see what the rest of this chunk of public has hiding on it.


Drive to the back corner of the public to see what's going on back there. I know I'll be out of view of this buck, so I'm not too worried about running him off.

There's more goats hanging out at the back of the public land, but mainly does and fawns. I do see one buck, he doesn't looks as big, but man was he wide!


He proved very difficult to get a good photo showing how wide he was. Also, I'm terrible trying to line up my cell phone to the spotters eye.... Really need to get a phone skope or something.....

Any way, I didn't fall in love with this buck. Its getting later in the evening, so I decide I want to watch the first buck until the sun goes down. I'll try to put him to bed so I can stalk up on him while he sleeps.

Plenty of good shots of the buck while I eat dinner and enjoy the beautiful weather. He's about 0.75 to 1 mile off in these photos, and I don't want to risk spooking him by going closer so I'll have to judge from the distance:





Its decided he's the one. Story continues below

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

So I'm still watching waiting for him to bed, he ends up just wandering around for a while:

I'm sitting glassing from spot #4 and most the photos are from him standing at spot #1.

As were getting close to dusk he decides to walk up towards spot #2 and eventually out of view behind a hill. I don't love this because it can go for a long ways back that direction. I decide to reposition to see better where he is going to bed for the night.


After I reposition, I spot him around #3. He's just walking and eating grass, not a worry in the world. Finally at last light it looks like he beds down in one of the cuts in the side of the hill around #3.


I start to come up with a plan. We'll sneak in while its still dark on the top of #3. We'll get to a point where we can see most of what is going on and wait for him to wake up. When he gets out of bed, we'll be waiting. By "we" I mean me myself and I because I'm solo....

It's going to be a long night waiting for opener.... On the plus side, there is almost zero light pollution in this part of the world, so the star gazing was unbelievable.. My Iphone can't do stars that well, but with the naked eye I could see the Milkyway and that's pretty freaking cool!


After a pretty restless night, its time to get up. I plan to sneak into the spot while its still dark, so I need to be walking in around 6am or so.

Beautiful cold morning (38 Deg):




I end up sneaking into #1 without knowingly kicking anything out of the area. I sit down overlooking #2. I wait and I wait. Finally its shooting hours, but still no buck to be seen.

I'm getting a little chilled, but nothing terrible. Finally the sun comes out, provides a nice little boost of warmth. But still no buck.


After waiting an hour or so I decide he's either not here, or he's still sleeping. Either way I'm making a move. So I slowly sneak over to #2 to look down the cuts and see if he's still there. Nothing, not a goat to be seen. Shoot!



We'll I figure if he's not here he's probably right where he was yesterday hanging around the water tank. So I start walking in that direction. Finally, I get to a point that I can see that area, and sure enough here is a buck hanging around. I can't really tell if its the same buck or not, but he looks decent and is in the same location as yesterday.


I need to close the distance and stay out of sight. With no grass or shrub cover, I need to use the hills to my advantage. So I take the long way around to get to point #3.


There is one point that I will be pretty exposed while I go from the cover of one hill to the next. I pull out Moo Moo Bessie to hide myself.


Bessie works like a charm and I am never noticed.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

I get behind the next hill and army crawl my way to a spot that I can shoot from. Buck is feeding down below me without too much care in the world. I range him around 285yds. A bit further than I want to shoot, so I keep belly crawling closer.

I get to about 250 yards or so and the buck notices my movements. He's not running, but staring straight at me.

I decide its probably now or never on this buck. I get set up with my shooting sticks, but because of the position on the hill, I have to raise myself up a little higher than I'd like. Because of this I'm a little more unstable than I'd like to be.

I wait a couple moments to calm the crosshairs down and pull the trigger. Felt like a kind of crappy shot to be honest. Just wasn't stable like I'd like to be. I hear a whack and the buck starts to stumble around, but not going down. Shoot again from the same position, same effect. Whack and stumbling, but not running. He ends up laying down and his head slowly lowers.


I walk up and can see he's still breathing slowly, I put one in the high neck to put him out. Not impressed with myself that the buck had to suffer like that, but I dispatched him quickly.


I still can't tell if he's the same buck from the spotter or not, but he's a nice buck regardless.


I quarter him out and pack him in one trip to the car to throw him on ice. All said and done, the tag is filled by 9am of opener...


I decide to stick around for the day and enjoy the sights. Ended up only seeing one other buck the whole day in the same area. Lots of hunters, but not many shots throughout the day.


Not sure if it was the drought or what, but far fewer goats in the area than previous years.



Stayed the night to enjoy the star show again. Pulled the meat out of the cooler and let it air dry on top of the car. Worked out great actually.


Made the drive home Sunday and processed the meat. Dropped the skull off at my European mount guy, but did a rough measurement first on him.


I'm no expert in measuring, but followed along B&C's guide and came up with a gross score of 75-4/8 and a final score of 75-0/8. Not sure how accurate that is, but I'm happy with the buck!

 

[WNC2500]

Thanks for sharing. Always enjoy following along on the speed goat hunts. Good luck sir!

 

[timberman56]

thats the way to do it, sleep under the stars. great hunt & write up. nice buck. congrats

 

[blackbeard]

Nice buck, congrats

 

[Buffs35]

Great buck. Thanks for the detailed posts.

 

[CPAjeff]

Congrats on a great buck! Wonderful post!

 

[Sask hunter]

Congrats

 

[TimeOnTarget]

Sounds just like my hunt, Except I never did find the buck from Friday night.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Sounds just like my hunt, Except I never did find the buck from Friday night.

It was a tough year out there man. Not many goats running around like usual...

 

[duckhunt]

Great hunt

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Backstraps ready for freezer, tried something new this year. Added plastic wrap to the meat before vacuum sealing them. See if that helps a little if the seal fails on the bag. Usually not too big of an issue with Antelope because we eat it so fast...






Rears and Fronts, not sure what I'll do with them yet. Maybe jerky? Maybe a snack stick? I'll freeze them for now and decide later.

 

[Wayne Clark]

Such an awesome story. I loved reading the details from start to finish. Great buck as well!

I will be in a similar situation next month, traveling from the East Coast to CO for a 3rd season mule deer hunt. Will be truck camping the entire week to save $$, and might just buy an OTC elk tag with that savings.

 

[BuzzH]

Meat looks sort of good...without the hair would be better. Propane torch prior to butchering snaps about all of it off.

Nice looking pronghorn buck, congrats.

 

[LuketheDog]

Awesome! Those quick solo hunts where the plan comes together are pretty dang fun.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Meat looks sort of good...without the hair would be better. Propane torch prior to butchering snaps about all of it off.

Nice looking pronghorn buck, congrats.

Never thought about torch on the hair. For me, its never really a problem, if I'm using it for something I'll pick the hair off before doing anything.

After a long tired day, I said Eff it, good enough to freeze for now haha

 

[BuzzH]

Never thought about torch on the hair. For me, its never really a problem, if I'm using it for something I'll pick the hair off before doing anything.

After a long tired day, I said Eff it, good enough to freeze for now haha

Most of the hair sort of "snaps" off the meat with a torch...best to do it while its quartered or before you start to process.

 

[CRAZYCARL]

Nice goat

 

[EastTNHunter]

Sounds like a great hunt. Congrats