Mountain Goat Advice

[Ron.C]

Ive hunted goats in various 4-25 units. Finding goats was never an issue, even on my first trip into new country. Getting to them when the are in a recoverable area and getting back down safely is another matter. It's taken me several years hunting an area to really get a good feel for how to get up and down some areas efficiently.

As far as odds, most Reg 4 units/zones don't go up and down that much year to year. Lower odds typically (but not always) mean more difficult access. I like to look for huntable areas inside vehicle closure areas.

Look at the 23/24 leh and the odds that are listed are the actual first choice odds from 22/23. I have copies of LEH's for the last 10 years so if you have a couple units/zones in mind and want to compare year to year, shoot me a pm and I'll dig out the data for you.

LEH deadline last year was 8 June. Pleanty of time to make a short list and should be enough of a window for you to get boots on the ground in a cond spend a couple days in each and make a final decison before you apply.

[358mag]

Ive hunted a couple 4-25 units several times. Finding goats was never an issue, even on my first trip into new country. Getting to them and getting back down safely is another matter. It's taken me several years hunting an area to really get a good feel for how to get up and down some areas efficiently.

As far as odds, most Reg 4 units/zones don't go up and down that much year to year. Lower odds typically (but not always) mean more difficult access. I like to look for huntable areas inside vehicle closure areas.

Look at the 23/24 leh and the odds that are listed are the actual first choice odds from 22/23. I have copies of LEH's for the last 10 years so if you have a couple units/zones in mind and want to compare year to year, shoot me a pm and I'll dig out the data for you.

LEH deadline last year was 8 June. Should be enough of a window for you to get boots on the ground and spend a couple days in each and make a final decison before you apply.

^^^^X's2 ^^^^^^^^^Pretty well sums up Goat Hunting in BC

[Gianni2507]

Ive hunted goats in various 4-25 units. Finding goats was never an issue, even on my first trip into new country. Getting to them when the are in a recoverable area and getting back down safely is another matter. It's taken me several years hunting an area to really get a good feel for how to get up and down some areas efficiently.

As far as odds, most Reg 4 units/zones don't go up and down that much year to year. Lower odds typically (but not always) mean more difficult access. I like to look for huntable areas inside vehicle closure areas.

Look at the 23/24 leh and the odds that are listed are the actual first choice odds from 22/23. I have copies of LEH's for the last 10 years so if you have a couple units/zones in mind and want to compare year to year, shoot me a pm and I'll dig out the data for you.

LEH deadline last year was 8 June. Pleanty of time to make a short list and should be enough of a window for you to get boots on the ground in a cond spend a couple days in each and make a final decison before you apply.

So after some googling I found last years synopsis, thanks for that! This will be my first year applying for a LEH, so I don't know much about the system at all!

Just to Clarify: if an area has 15 available tags, and the odds are 1,5:1 Does that mean that for each tag 1,5 Hunters put in an application? So a 1:1 Odd would be a 100% Chance, 2:1 50%?

And the Number of Tags issued to an area then speaks to the population numbers?

As far as I understand Goat Hunting now is to 1: Make sure you're only taking Billies and 2: E-Scouting and Scouting in general is more about access to goat areas than the animals themselves?
Thanks already for the great help!

[Ron.C]

I would think tag numbers are definitely proportional the herd numbers.

I put in for a goat draw with a buddy a few years back. When the draw is run, you will get informed if you won or not, buddy won and leh, I didn't.
Odds on that particular draw were 1.1:1 with I belive 25 tags issued.

I called the leh section and asked if my application made it in(back in the mail in days). The guy I talked to had a chuckle and said yes it did and there were 26 applicants. I guess I was the .1 .

At the end of the day, settle on a unit for this year and roll the dice in the draw. Even if you don't win, I'd highly recommend you go to that unit and spend some time consolidating what you have found during your e scouting with what you actually see on the ground.

E scouting is a good tool but all to often its a massive reality check once you get boots on the ground and eyes on the mountains.

[wideopenthrottle]

i carry a 30 foot rope. On nasty slopped or slippery stuff i will try to use any trees to double up the rope and use it to decend...then untie the knot at the bottom end and pull one side to retrieve your rope

[mike31154]

12 years ago on a backcountry ski touring trip with Boulder Hut Adventures. 4-20 southern part of Purcell Wilderness Conservancy. This group had made its way to the top of a pretty nasty cliff. I can only echo some of the advice already given with regards to getting one out after a successful shot. A ski touring guide I've used before related a story about a couple goat hunters that hired him to retrieve an animal they shot. It fell & ended up on a narrow shelf below a cliff. He's an accomplished climber & was able to get to it, but no way to get it up, only option was to push it off. Not much left for the hunters when they got to where it finally landed.



Wider view to give an idea of the challenging terrain. There were tracks in the snow below the cliff. They had no doubt known we were coming & sought the high ground. February 2012

[stoneramhunter]

I highly recommend the webinars put up by the goat alliance and Spikecamp, some great information shared in those.

sorry I’m of no help on region 4, biggest thing is just getting out there with some glass. Watch for broken up cliff areas, braided cliff / tree areas. Often big ol billys will be wayyy up in no man’s land, but they do move, so keep a watch out for when they do.

If you happen to be on the IG, I have a pile of goat content on there (even more to share yet), happy to help with the billy vs nanny stuff if you’re looking to learn. I use to put up a lot of quizzes, but have been slacking off…. I’ll get back into it though. It’s easy for me to share photos/videos on IG, I can load you up with a pile for quizzing if you’re interested.

cheers!

Decker are you planning a sheep hunt this year?

[Bado20]

Alaska fish and game has a goat sex judging quiz that I would highly recommend you review before going on your first goat hunt. It can be easy to find a band of nannies and juveniles and to see the biggest one in the group and think 'that must be a mature billy'. Odds are, if it's in a larger group outside of the rut, it's not. If you can find an experienced goat hunter to go with, even better.