Kopper
10-25-2015, 09:33 PM
Well, I don't post a lot on this site or any site for that matter which is evident by my measly number of posts. Not a huge fan of social media, not even "the facebook". Anyways, I've been on lots of awesome hunts but this one takes the cake as my favorite to date, who knows I may never best it. This hunt involved some awesome memories, great country, even better people, and an incredibly successful hunt which in my books is exactly what hunting is (it would of been great even without the goats!). So without further wait here ya go......hey 300 H&H I hope you read this and enjoy, I know you haven't quite been getting your hunting story fix.
My father is my mentor when it comes to hunting but I've always wanted to go my own way and do my own thing. To do that I needed my own atv and camp stuff. I was strapped for cash the last 4 years thanks to post secondary but having graduated early this spring I was able to save up this summer and buy a deluxe wall tent and a new pioneer 500 side by side. Both which I have so far deemed as awesome and perfect for my needs. The hunt wouldn't of turned out this way without them.
Oct 2nd came around which saw my dad and his hunting setup head off to the koots to our goat hole. I packed up that day and waited for my little brother, lets call him K, to get off work. We came into my dads camp late that night. The next morning we got up, breaky, coffee, poops, etc. My original plan was a bust as the road was damaged beyond useable. We set out to check out the roads in another valley with the sxs. The road proved hairy as slides had damaged it too but we were able to make our way through the rocks and muck on a quad trail made this spring. No, way a full sized sxs would of made it. We came back and got the little pull behind trailer packed up with whatever gear we needed for the week. The drive up was slow but we managed to get camp set up just before dark. Pretty sure we slept easier than our dad that night, he was very worried about us.....
The next morning was frosty but clear as a bell. We decided to give the last slide alittle love as it was only 100 yards from our camp. Just as we finished a g bear is walking up the road and turns into a bend in which we can't see. Awesome. We both get pointed in the right direction and decide the scare the bear away now so it doesn't run into our camp. As it comes around the corner, closer than we would like, I jump up and scream like a little girl. The bear stares for a bit but takes off pretty fast lol. It did come back while we were hunting tho.
After that, its about 10 now, we drive this old road onto a switch back and start spotting. Couple minutes in I spot 3 goats on a knob. One of the goats was noticeably smaller than the others so I thought forsure it was nannies and kid. Atleast that's the best we could tell with my leupold compact (swaro next season lol). We do a couple hours worth of exploring and notice the 2 of the goats are still there. We decide to take a walk up there and who knows maybe there will be a billy chilling up there too. Its noon or maybe just after now and we park the sxs by the creek in the bottom. We walked up the creek until it got steep and then hugged the shale side all the way up to the crest before it dipped into the other valley. K and I are in very good shape so we were able to do the 3 hour hike fast and maybe stopping a handful of times.
I was fairly confident the goats wouldn't be there but K wanted to give it a go anyways. The knob the goats were perched on was a small outcropping at the top of a finger of trees 50yards wide at the bottom and 10 at the top, probably 300 long. There was a cliff on one side and a super steep gulley on the other. There was zero other way of approaching this so we left the packs, slung up the guns and used our hands and feet to climb up this silly 30 yard tall cliff. Once in the trees it was steep but atleast we had trees to fall into. There was so many holes dug by goats, poop, hair, tracks, this was the home of these goats. We put our interior mulie skills into play and slowly walk up this finger. We were right near the cusp and I go to one side to look and K goes to the other. I give K a look and he's point over past him. I creep over and take a peek out. About 20 yards above us was two goats looking down. Now, this should of been simple but the goats weren't staring down down so I couldn't see the bases. All I could tell was there was huge gaps between both sets and the one goat was way smaller in body size. Nanny and kid half ass confirmed. I snuck over to K to which he said they have a "billy" curve to the horns. Hmmmm.
These goats should of been long gone but we had the wind and sun to our advantage. I snuck up over the top with K right behind me. Now inside 10 yards was the smaller bodied goat and the ass of the other one looking at me, goats about 10 ft apart. I immediately see glands and thicker horns, the goat turns and I see the nice "billy" curve. I step to the side to see the other goat and I see a nice set of male goat horns about to run for it. I click the safety off and quickly aim for the shoulder. Bam, the goat hunches up with an obvious hit. I began to reload at the same time yelling to my brother to shoot the other one. I sent my next round over my goats back (better hit the range more lol). K jacked the action back on the semi auto and let his goat have two shots. My goat took alittle left turn and off a ledge while K's was laying right on the edge. We both go to the edge and see my goat about 20 yards down. The horns did get a couple minor scraps on the horns but no biggie.
I immediately jump for joy and say "K do you realize what we just did? We got a billy goat doubler header. We shot two billies at 10 yards". Lots of hugs and laughter took place. We tried to get my goat back up to K's for pictures but omg that thing was massive. We are both big guys and have no problem dragging our 150 meat deers to a road but it was all we could do to get it up there. I was underneath giving her while K was above dragging. We spent a good three or 4 hours caping and cutting the meat out when we heard something yell. We look over the cliff and we see our dad down below the cliff. He asks how many we got, we tell him, he decides to climb up. That was awesome to have our dad show. I guess he had just spotted these goats when the first shot went off so he was able to see most of the excitement. He immediately headed up the hill to help us. He was pretty darn proud of us to say the least.
It was dark now as we were heading down the mountain, headlamps all the way baby. I felt the brute of it as I had the only solid framed pack. K had a quarter of his and the hide, our dad had a quarter of mine, but we were able to stuff 5 deboned quarters and random cuts plus my hide into my pack. We got back to the sxs at 10pm or so and decided to pack up our camp and head down to our dads camp in the main valley. It was well after midnight when we got there, his brother/our uncle arrived that night and was sleeping in his truck so more congrats were to be had. We stayed up into the wee hours of the morning drinking and eating goat on the fire! Beautiful.
Seeing that it was early in the hunt the rest of the week was some good r and r. K and I potted our limit of grouse and did some road hunting. We did spot some billies that week but lets just say they were higher up that the other generation wanted to hike.
To sum it up that hunt made my season. I am very happy and proud that my little brother did that hunt with me. One goat is awesome. To get a double header like that just brought that hunt to an even different level. For anyone who's interested the goats were aged at 4 plus and 7 plus (taxi thinks its more like 10-12) and the shortest horn in the pics is 8 3/4". I couldn't care if the goats were smaller, that was just such an epic experience. Also, this was not a super hard hike for these goats. Ive been on many, and much harder, with the smell of skunked being strong but sometimes you just get lucky.
Enjoy and have a good season ladies and gents, and sorry for the photos and editing. We only brought iphones with us.....Leaving tomorrow for an LEH moose jaunt.
PS: It started pissing on the way back to camp the one night. K and I rolled the windows up in the sxs and we were toasty. Our dad and uncle however didn't look to pleased with life by the time they got back. I may have had a small smirk of satisfaction. Does that make me a bad person? lol.
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone%20pictures%20oct%209%202015%20016_zpszpuvhu 7l.jpg
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone20pictures20oct20920201520017202_zpso03evrdc .jpg
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone20pictures20oct20920201520022_zpsukvtvqdr.jp g
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone20pictures20oct20920201520025_zpsmqggrnfb.jp g
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone20pictures20oct20920201520019_zpsdpzrkqf5.jp g
My father is my mentor when it comes to hunting but I've always wanted to go my own way and do my own thing. To do that I needed my own atv and camp stuff. I was strapped for cash the last 4 years thanks to post secondary but having graduated early this spring I was able to save up this summer and buy a deluxe wall tent and a new pioneer 500 side by side. Both which I have so far deemed as awesome and perfect for my needs. The hunt wouldn't of turned out this way without them.
Oct 2nd came around which saw my dad and his hunting setup head off to the koots to our goat hole. I packed up that day and waited for my little brother, lets call him K, to get off work. We came into my dads camp late that night. The next morning we got up, breaky, coffee, poops, etc. My original plan was a bust as the road was damaged beyond useable. We set out to check out the roads in another valley with the sxs. The road proved hairy as slides had damaged it too but we were able to make our way through the rocks and muck on a quad trail made this spring. No, way a full sized sxs would of made it. We came back and got the little pull behind trailer packed up with whatever gear we needed for the week. The drive up was slow but we managed to get camp set up just before dark. Pretty sure we slept easier than our dad that night, he was very worried about us.....
The next morning was frosty but clear as a bell. We decided to give the last slide alittle love as it was only 100 yards from our camp. Just as we finished a g bear is walking up the road and turns into a bend in which we can't see. Awesome. We both get pointed in the right direction and decide the scare the bear away now so it doesn't run into our camp. As it comes around the corner, closer than we would like, I jump up and scream like a little girl. The bear stares for a bit but takes off pretty fast lol. It did come back while we were hunting tho.
After that, its about 10 now, we drive this old road onto a switch back and start spotting. Couple minutes in I spot 3 goats on a knob. One of the goats was noticeably smaller than the others so I thought forsure it was nannies and kid. Atleast that's the best we could tell with my leupold compact (swaro next season lol). We do a couple hours worth of exploring and notice the 2 of the goats are still there. We decide to take a walk up there and who knows maybe there will be a billy chilling up there too. Its noon or maybe just after now and we park the sxs by the creek in the bottom. We walked up the creek until it got steep and then hugged the shale side all the way up to the crest before it dipped into the other valley. K and I are in very good shape so we were able to do the 3 hour hike fast and maybe stopping a handful of times.
I was fairly confident the goats wouldn't be there but K wanted to give it a go anyways. The knob the goats were perched on was a small outcropping at the top of a finger of trees 50yards wide at the bottom and 10 at the top, probably 300 long. There was a cliff on one side and a super steep gulley on the other. There was zero other way of approaching this so we left the packs, slung up the guns and used our hands and feet to climb up this silly 30 yard tall cliff. Once in the trees it was steep but atleast we had trees to fall into. There was so many holes dug by goats, poop, hair, tracks, this was the home of these goats. We put our interior mulie skills into play and slowly walk up this finger. We were right near the cusp and I go to one side to look and K goes to the other. I give K a look and he's point over past him. I creep over and take a peek out. About 20 yards above us was two goats looking down. Now, this should of been simple but the goats weren't staring down down so I couldn't see the bases. All I could tell was there was huge gaps between both sets and the one goat was way smaller in body size. Nanny and kid half ass confirmed. I snuck over to K to which he said they have a "billy" curve to the horns. Hmmmm.
These goats should of been long gone but we had the wind and sun to our advantage. I snuck up over the top with K right behind me. Now inside 10 yards was the smaller bodied goat and the ass of the other one looking at me, goats about 10 ft apart. I immediately see glands and thicker horns, the goat turns and I see the nice "billy" curve. I step to the side to see the other goat and I see a nice set of male goat horns about to run for it. I click the safety off and quickly aim for the shoulder. Bam, the goat hunches up with an obvious hit. I began to reload at the same time yelling to my brother to shoot the other one. I sent my next round over my goats back (better hit the range more lol). K jacked the action back on the semi auto and let his goat have two shots. My goat took alittle left turn and off a ledge while K's was laying right on the edge. We both go to the edge and see my goat about 20 yards down. The horns did get a couple minor scraps on the horns but no biggie.
I immediately jump for joy and say "K do you realize what we just did? We got a billy goat doubler header. We shot two billies at 10 yards". Lots of hugs and laughter took place. We tried to get my goat back up to K's for pictures but omg that thing was massive. We are both big guys and have no problem dragging our 150 meat deers to a road but it was all we could do to get it up there. I was underneath giving her while K was above dragging. We spent a good three or 4 hours caping and cutting the meat out when we heard something yell. We look over the cliff and we see our dad down below the cliff. He asks how many we got, we tell him, he decides to climb up. That was awesome to have our dad show. I guess he had just spotted these goats when the first shot went off so he was able to see most of the excitement. He immediately headed up the hill to help us. He was pretty darn proud of us to say the least.
It was dark now as we were heading down the mountain, headlamps all the way baby. I felt the brute of it as I had the only solid framed pack. K had a quarter of his and the hide, our dad had a quarter of mine, but we were able to stuff 5 deboned quarters and random cuts plus my hide into my pack. We got back to the sxs at 10pm or so and decided to pack up our camp and head down to our dads camp in the main valley. It was well after midnight when we got there, his brother/our uncle arrived that night and was sleeping in his truck so more congrats were to be had. We stayed up into the wee hours of the morning drinking and eating goat on the fire! Beautiful.
Seeing that it was early in the hunt the rest of the week was some good r and r. K and I potted our limit of grouse and did some road hunting. We did spot some billies that week but lets just say they were higher up that the other generation wanted to hike.
To sum it up that hunt made my season. I am very happy and proud that my little brother did that hunt with me. One goat is awesome. To get a double header like that just brought that hunt to an even different level. For anyone who's interested the goats were aged at 4 plus and 7 plus (taxi thinks its more like 10-12) and the shortest horn in the pics is 8 3/4". I couldn't care if the goats were smaller, that was just such an epic experience. Also, this was not a super hard hike for these goats. Ive been on many, and much harder, with the smell of skunked being strong but sometimes you just get lucky.
Enjoy and have a good season ladies and gents, and sorry for the photos and editing. We only brought iphones with us.....Leaving tomorrow for an LEH moose jaunt.
PS: It started pissing on the way back to camp the one night. K and I rolled the windows up in the sxs and we were toasty. Our dad and uncle however didn't look to pleased with life by the time they got back. I may have had a small smirk of satisfaction. Does that make me a bad person? lol.
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone%20pictures%20oct%209%202015%20016_zpszpuvhu 7l.jpg
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone20pictures20oct20920201520017202_zpso03evrdc .jpg
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone20pictures20oct20920201520022_zpsukvtvqdr.jp g
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone20pictures20oct20920201520025_zpsmqggrnfb.jp g
http://i1025.photobucket.com/albums/y317/KOPPER22/iphone20pictures20oct20920201520019_zpsdpzrkqf5.jp g