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Well I have a challenge

2K views 19 replies 5 participants last post by  quackadikt 
#1 ·
A physical challenge for myself that is. Found out a couple of weeks ago that I drew a Montana Mountain Goat tag. Turn 58 this week. I have been working on getting in shape for a high country elk hunt this September, but since I got the goat tag I've tried accelerating my pace. My body is saying "Stop it You Fool"! So I thought I'd waste some time on the internet and relax a bit.
 

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#2 ·
Man, congrats. That is flat out awesome. I'm assuming you're going to take the rifle and leave the bow at home? When is the hunt?
 
#3 ·
quackadikt said:
I'm assuming you're going to take the rifle and leave the bow at home? When is the hunt?
Hunt is 3 months long; Sep 1-Nov 30, so I've got lots of options. Some people will hunt later so the goats will have longer hair, but this raises chances of getting snowed out. Not sure when I will go, if I get done early with elk hunt I might go up and chase them around with my bow in late September. But more than likely I will end up using a rifle in October or November.
 
#4 ·
Did a little googling and looks like you have 1 of the first two tags ever for that area...I'm expecting some pictures of that awesome scenery and a hero shot of a dead goat. Best of luck to you :thumbsup:
 
#5 ·
Yep, one reason I put in for that unit was because it had never been hunted. Should be some older goats there, but problem is judging them is not easy, from what I gather. So my goal is to: (1) survive, and (2) shoot something "representative" of the species.
 
#6 ·
Yea, from what I've read and seen, Mt. goats are the toughest species to sex/score through glass. Are you planning on hiring a guide, or DIY?
 
#8 ·
Well, here is the update, shot a good billie goat last Friday, on an extremely long dayhunt. I had help from a guy (Pete) from Bozeman, who started the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance. Without his help I don't think I could have done it, especially the packout job. I'm pretty sure this was the hardest hunt I have done in my life. Hike up to shoot the goat was 3-4 miles with 3000 ft climb. Back in the dark, took a shortcut down a 1700 ft chute. I carried all the meat, and Pete carried the hide (full hide with head weighed more than the meat). I was totally spent when we got to the bottom, lucky I had not hurt myself, fell down several times. Still 2 miles to go so left my pack there, got to truck at 10 PM. Went back and retrieved the meat the next AM.

Here is a pic of Pete with the goat. Can't thank him enough. Sometimes it seems like the world is overrun with internet yahoos, you forget there are some truly nice people out there willing to help you out, just to be nice. :beer:
 

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#10 ·
That is 100% awesome :clapping: :clapping: . Are you going to do a full-body mount? And how does goat meat taste?
 
#12 ·
quackadikt said:
That is 100% awesome :clapping: :clapping: . Are you going to do a full-body mount? And how does goat meat taste?
Yep, took it to the taxidermist yesterday. The tag was "relatively" cheap for a non-resident in MT, but with all the new gear I bought and the taxi bill this was an expensive hunt. But as they say; "you can't take it with you" :thumbsup:

Haven't tried the meat yet, plan to cook some tomorrow. They don't have a great reputation, about the best you hear is "had a good flavor but real tough", worst you hear is "I feed it to the dog and he wouldn't eat it". You don't go Mtn Goat hunting for the meat, obviously.
 
#13 ·
Splatt said:
Way nice!!
Good on you.

So tell us more.
Gun, caliber, bullet, distance, story, etc.....
Relatively easy shot, ~220 yds with 300 WSM, 150 grn XP3 win bullet. Goat was bedded, at the shot he got up and ran 10-20 yards and keeled over. They have a reputation for being tough animals so when he got up I was worried for a few seconds. Complete pass through the shoulder. We were set up about 400 yds originally, but with the wind I didn't want to take the shot, managed to get closer.

When I got home I weighed my pack at 73 lbs. I bought a new lightweight Kuiu pack, and it doesn't seem to carry a heavy load as well as my other external frame packs, at least for me. Not that 73 lbs is light for me under any circumstance, but it felt more like 80-90.

Here is a write-up I did for another website, cut and pasted below;

Just got back from MT last night, it was a relatively short and successful hunt. Short, but tough for an old guy. I got real lucky and drew a tag for the new hunt in unit 361, right on the ID border, west of West Yellowstone.

And I also got really, really lucky in that I had help; Pete Muennich (Founder of Rocky Mtn. Goat Alliance) met up with me and wow that was fortunate; In retrospect I don't think I could have done this hunt alone. As a side note Pete's organization, along with Julie Cunningham (FWP) were instrumental in getting this unit opened to hunting, so thanks to them for that alone.

Pete asked that I write a story of my hunt for his website (http://www.goatalliance.org/) so I will just post a few pictures and a summary here. It might take a few more days or weeks before the story shows up on his site, I'll post an update when it happens.

Even more luck early on, Randy Newberg contacted me back when he found out I drew the tag and told me where he has seen goats when he was previously elk hunting in the unit. That information proved golden, and probably have saved us a ton of hard work, and time.

So, as I entered Montana on Hwy 20 last Thursday afternoon my odometer just clicked over 900 miles (from Albuquerque). I just passed mile marker 2 and looked east to the ridge Newberg had mentioned and thought I saw something that might be a goat. I pulled over and looked through the binos, but it was only a small patch of snow. But 100 yards over to the left were two goats! Wow, pretty dang neat, I was in Montana less than 3 minutes and I had spotted goats. I set up the spotter and found 5. Several looked big, but at 3 miles away I couldn't see horns or really judge them. They were also about 2-3 miles up the main creek drainage, and uphill about 3000 ft,

I met Pete Friday AM and after going over our options we decided to cancel our original plan of backpacking into the middle of the unit and setting up camp, and instead go after these goats on a long day hunt. Well it worked! I told Pete I thought this approach was within my physical limits, but I might not have much left when it was done. That was prophetic.

The approach we took worked nearly to perfection, by 1:30 PM we were within 650 yards of 4 billies, two of which were really big. We didn't have a good method of closing the distance from there so we waited a while. Based on the previous days observations I thought the billies would start feeding in our direction, but by 3PM nothing substantial had happened. When taking another look at our options we spotted 4 more billies closer to us, they had been hidden just by the lay of the terrain. These were closer, about 400 yards. The wind had picked up so I didn't want to take that shot either, we took a bit of a gamble being seen for a brief moment and were able to close the distance to about 200 yards. After looking over these 4 billies for a good while I relied totally on Pete's experience to decide which one to shoot. About 4PM I took one shot and my hunt was over. Well, except for the hard part. After skinning for full body mount and boning the meat, we started on the hike back, taking a shortcut down a 1700 ft chute. I had all the meat, and Pete carried the hide/head. I started running out of gas about 1/3 of the way down, and it got dark. I fell down 4 or 5 times, luckily just landing on my butt, but it was getting harder to get up after every fall. I was also having to rest every 50-100 yards, it seemed like we would never get to the bottom of that damn chute.

I was beyond tired when we got to the bottom, felt lucky I had not hurt myself, and still had 2+ miles to go. So I left my pack at this spot and retrieved it the next morning. Even without a pack I had a little trouble keeping up with Pete, who was still carrying the hide. I guess since I am considerably more than twice his age I shouldn't feel too bad about it.

The goat was much bigger in body than I expected. We had to cram a big rock under his belly to keep him from rolling down the hill, the rock hides some of his girth in the photo. Longest horn on left was 9", right horn at 8-3/4". Measured one base at 5-3/4" with a piece of fly line, didn't do any more specific measurement. 8 years old. Extremely happy with him.
 
#15 ·
jrabq said:
Yep, took it to the taxidermist yesterday. The tag was "relatively" cheap for a non-resident in MT, but with all the new gear I bought and the taxi bill this was an expensive hunt. But as they say; "you can't take it with you" :thumbsup:

Haven't tried the meat yet, plan to cook some tomorrow. They don't have a great reputation, about the best you hear is "had a good flavor but real tough", worst you hear is "I feed it to the dog and he wouldn't eat it". You don't go Mtn Goat hunting for the meat, obviously.
Dang right...spend it while you can :) Who is doing the taxi work for you?

I figured that about the meat, but was wondering since I've been told that BHS is about the best game meat on the planet.

Thanks for the story and pictures. That's a heck of a trophy.
 
#18 ·
Ate some goat tonight and it was pretty dang good flavor, the wife even liked it, I'd give it a 7 or 8 out of 10. Cooked one tenderloin and a couple of backstrap steaks. Even the tenderloin was a tad chewy, but with a sharp knife it was very edible. Backstrap was a bit tougher, but still not the chore I was expecting. I can see I might end up grinding up most of the rest of the animal at some point, however. I usually use pork back fat at 10-15% for my grind, Albertsons usually has it.

I went with Mountain Legends, north of Belen for the taxidermy.
 
#20 ·
:thumbsup:

That's cool as it gets. Couldn't imagine coming down that mountain with that load at night. I bet the pucker factor was a little elevated.
 
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