2016 Fly-In (with pictures...hopefully)

[Wrj]

So I hope I can get the pictures to work half decent! Either way, I'll give it a shot. I love reading others hunts (successful or not) and seeing pictures! Post away HBC!


Third week of August, me and another good buddy (HBC Member) drove all the way up to Region 6 to fly into a lake that is in our LEH zone...we were told that our area we were flying into was loaded with goats, had some moose, sheep, and the odd Bou. Well, long story short, we flew in and spiked out for 9 days and didn't see any moose or Bou unfortunately. In hindsight, I don't know how we would've dealt with a moose wayyyy back in the country/terrain we hunted!

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/image_zpspoazl5qi.jpeg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/image_zpspoazl5qi.jpeg.html)

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/image_zpso2gdjt2k.jpeg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/image_zpso2gdjt2k.jpeg.html)

First day, we get dropped off right on shore. The trip was destined to be an adventure, before stepping off the planes floats my buddy took a slip and landed on his back in 5 feet of water! COLD! It wasn't funny at all in the moment...but now :) haha! So after he strips down and gets on an entire new dry set of gear (minus soaked boots) we hike 4 hours or so giving us enough time to set up a tent and have dinner. Side note, our packs weighed around 70lbs total, and I'll definitely want to upgrade to a high end quality pack next year! First night on the hike in, we were watching goats the entire way up the valley. Lots of family groups, and only a few singles off on their own. We planned to hunt sheep for the first few days as we figured that the goats weren't going anywhere too far!

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/image_zpszjzzhkox.jpeg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/image_zpszjzzhkox.jpeg.html)


Our second and third days are spent hiking our camp for another few hours up to the end of this one valley we wanted to concentrate hunting out of, and glassing hard for sheep. By the 3rd or 4th day, all we had see for sheep was a re-occurrence of a Ewe and Lamb...and there wasn't anything moving at the valley bottoms either! This seemed very strange, the valleys had awesome terrain/areas for all sorts of animals, but NOTHING! So every once in a while, we keep a close eye on the goats that were behind us back closer to camp. This starts us thinking, maybe we should make a play at one of these Billy's about now! So, we abandoned the sheep and go back to camp and get in a solid Mountain House meal for the afternoon/evening spot and stalk. At about 3:30pm, we head a steep drainage up to where we last seen 2 Billy's bedded down. The plan was to get up to a similar elevation and shoot across at them, rather that fire uphill. It took us an hour of HARD climbing to get up high enough that we thought we should peek over some heavily rocked area and have a look. The terrain was so steep, that there were times it felt as if I was crawling uphill on my hands and knees!

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/image.jpg4_zpsgj54zfks.jpg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/image.jpg4_zpsgj54zfks.jpg.html)



CONTINUED.....

[Wrj]

CONTINUED...

Anyways, we get to a spot that we had a pretty good chance at being within 150yards from these Billy's...so quietly we pop our heads up and look across another rock slide to see NOTHING. They had moved from their bed in the time it took us to climb to their elevation. Me and the partner both look at each other (a little discouraged from the exhausting climb) and start whispering...CRAP, where could they've gone? As soon as I said that, I look back across the slide...and there's a Billy, looking directly into my eyes, and CLOSE! Get down, get down, he's right here. They've fed across, and bedded down IN this rock death drainage that we had planned to shoot across! We'll, I knew I'd been busted by this Billy for sure. (I haven't harvested a goat, so my only stipulation was that I find a Billy. I wasn't concerned about finding some monster.) Anyways, since I'd been busted I decided to have another quick look to see whether the goat was bounding away from us...nope. Still looking right at us. At this point, I could see fairly easily that the only shot I had was a high head shot. So I scrambled (unseen) up higher to where I was able to get a perfect prone rest at only 60 yards! Now my buddy down lower than me, would slowly pop his head up now and then to keep the goats attention off me. When I got settled and controlled my crazy heart rate (I already had my gun on a great rocky rest), I lift my head just high enough to view exactly where this Billy is hopefully still laying...well, to my surprise the Billy was still calmly chewing right next to a 2nd Billy that we couldn't see from our original vantage point! They were 10 feet apart. Now, I really didn't care about horn length at all, but the 2nd Billy was directly behind (laying down) the first Billy. So my only ethical shot was to take the further Billy, and I knew there was a decent drop off on the far side of him, so I chose to make it as quick as possible. One shot from the 300 Win Mag rang out. Now from my buddies view down lower, he could still only see the one goat. Later I find out, that after he sees me shoot, he thought I missed! Since the goat that he could still see, didn't move an INCH when his buddy went down! Well, one shot through the neck and I had my first goat. I was pumped, but realized we had an opportunity here to drop the other Billy. So here I am, adrenaline still racing, trying desperately to do some Navy Seal hand signals to my partner about 100 feet below me, to relay to him there's a second goat! Didn't work too hot, so I did my "get up here" wave, and a whisper yell "there's another Billy!" 5 minutes later, he shoots the 2nd Billy still lying in the same spot. Both goats were ANCHORED, 60 yards. 2 shots, 2 goats heads hit the dirt. No shimmy or shake, no flipping out over the embankment...this was about 5:00pm or so, and the hard work begun. After de-boning both goats, and loading up our packs (which weighed in excess of 100lbs), we basically slid, rolled, and half controlled tumbled down the steep rocky terrain. At times it was downright scary! I was so fatigued by the time we got down to the bottom, that we dropped our packs under some trees and a SIL tarp for the night and walked weightless back to the tent.


http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/image_zpsq8nkysob.jpeg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/image_zpsq8nkysob.jpeg.html)

Where mine laid, little bit of a drop here!
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/image_zpsilmvlizd.jpeg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/image_zpsilmvlizd.jpeg.html)

Left pretty gruesome wounds, did my best to edit it out quick :)
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/image_zps0o1ktupa.jpeg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/image_zps0o1ktupa.jpeg.html)

Not the greatest angle to really see the size of the animals, they were fatties though!
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/image_zpsynvkj9mz.jpeg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/image_zpsynvkj9mz.jpeg.html)


We spent the next few RAINY and WINDY days packing the meat down to the Lake, resting, and glassing Sheep. Followed by a few more cold, wet, and windy days. Unfortunately buddy only saw a few Rams, and the best one was a hair to short. He had the horn length if the curl hadn't curled out sideways rather than up! Bummer. Anyways, there's a lot more to our hunt but we were unable to find a legal Ram, moose, or Bou. Being as this was my first real mountain hunt chasing these animals in hell-ish terrain, I've already got a few thoughts for next year. I attempted to tough it out and was successful, but not at all as comfortable as I could have been!

1. Get a quality comfortable backpack that can handle serious weight!
2. Boots. Get better boots, with excellent ankle support.
3. Rain gear, just thin lightweight Helly Hansen set. Worth it.
4. Train harder. Hike with more weight, and hit the gym. Lose weight lol.
5. No matter how miserable, wet, tiring, and cold some days are, the experience is worth it.
6. Get better pictures haha
7. For freeze dried meals, stick with the original guys. Mountain House.

I hope the pictures work!


For those interested, rifles used were both Tikka T3 Lite (30-06 and 300 Win Mag). Our Billy's measured 3.5-4.5 years old @ 9" (seems long for a young Billy!) and 7.5 years @ 9 5/8" with thick bases for the other. I'm not a small guy @ 250lbs, so I can make animals look smaller than they are!

Enjoy!

WRJ

[monasheemountainman]

F*ck ya boys! Way to go! Great story and beauty goats!

[khoffnbud]

Great write up! Congrats on the doubl but no need to photoshop out the blood on here. Anyways, great job.

[Wrj]

Can I post/share a short video clip right from PhotoBucket on here?

[Wrj]

F*ck ya boys! Way to go! Great story and beauty goats!

Yeah, probably won't happen again having the opportunity to smack 2 at the same time!

[monasheemountainman]

Yeah, probably won't happen again having the opportunity to smack 2 at the same time!
Me and a buddy have a goat draw in the koots, heading out in a couple weeks, Im hoping we double down that would be unreal

[Fella]

Way to go man, glad to hear the story haha!

[albravo2]

Awesome adventure. Thanks for posting.

Double-billy. Good for you!

[Sitkaspruce]

Congrats on the goats!!!

Thanks for posting and sharing your hunt!! Nice to see!!

Cheers

SS

[Dash]

Absolutely wicked!! Congratulations to you both!! Beautiful goats and a gorgeous area.

[Buck]

Way to go .Pretty sure i got my Goat from that lake and he was very tasty enjoy the meat.

[last light]

Nice billies guys! Super cool, especially a double. A hunt to remember. Hopefully they taste as good as they look.

[D Tho]

Great looking goats!!!! This will be my first year hunting goats and reading this has made me even more antsy to get chasing them.

[Caribou_lou]

Nice Billys! Great write up

[Fella]

Can I post/share a short video clip right from PhotoBucket on here?
Yeah you can just copy the link the same way you would for a picture

[Wrj]

Yeah you can just copy the link the same way you would for a picture

Let's see if it works:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/th_IMG_0075_zpsnxcu7hlm.mp4 (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/IMG_0075_zpsnxcu7hlm.mp4)

[Fella]

Boom, worked. Nice shot, put him right to sleep

[Stormy]

Awesome report, great hunt guys - lovely animals that you harvested.

[HarryToolips]

Wicked writeup, pics, and congrats on 2 goats down! If your looking to train a bit like you say, lunges, leg press, dead lifts etc are good, but I find for training for mountain hiking nothing beats squats..proper form, ass to the grass, and for me, I like going lower weight (100 and something pounds) and rep it out lots....

[goatdancer]

Very nice goats. They will be tasty as well. Souvlaki...........

[SKYLINE]

Congrats boys! Nicely done. I was wondering if I would see this on here.

[Whonnock Boy]

Looks like a very memorable trip. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Rhyno]

Awesome, well done boys...thanks for posting!

[kennyj]

Way to go guys! That's amazing that you dropped them both on a ledge like that. Awesome goats!
Thanks for sharing your adventure.
kenny

[srupp]

Hmmm great hunt, thanks for sharing...amazing that one didn't flip over the edge..
Cheers
Steven

[digger dogger]

Hahahaha, nice going on the double!
Theres nothing like the drive home, with meat on board!
Fantastic story, and billy's
Congrats :-)

[Krico]

Awesome double on the billies!
nice shooting!

[lightmag]

amazing!!! congrats !! i hope to harvest a goat this year as well!!! great story

[decker9]

Couple good Billy's, congrats fellas!! Thanks for taking the time to post, cheers!!

[Blainer]

Fantastic!

[bacon_overlord]

Amazing pics and write up. Thanks for sharing.

[Hammerhead]

Well done and great story. Double header on goats!! Just got back myself but unfortunately didn't have the luck you guys did.
congrats
HH

[Mik]

Not too often can you get a double header like that. Congrats to the both of you.

[warnniklz]

Yeaaahhhh!!!!!

[Rattler]

Way to go on a couple beauty goats. Thanks for sharing.

[.264winmag]

Great job on the double boys! Congrats

[604Stalker]

Thanks for sharing the story. Sounds like alot of work went into all that.

[ydouask]

:-P Hey, two early, edible goats... not pre tenderized by a tumble off some cliff, excellent ! Great story too, thanks.