Rocksteady's Mountain Goat Adventure Starts

[rocksteady]

Well tomorrow is the first day of the mission of getting a good billy goat from the high mountain ridges..

Have been helping a friend for the past 3 weekends to work on his garage (sheeting/roofing felt/shingles). Got it finished up on this past Sunday, so he's a happy camper now....He also has a tag for goat in the same area, he has hunted it for goats before, so he will be the "guide"...

Plan is already in motion to be ready to roll at 05:00 tomorrow morning for the drive up the Bull River to the "zone"...

Not sure how much snow is going to be up there but I am sure there will be a fair depth....

So later tonight is the check-check-double check of all the gear necessary to try to take one of those ridgetop bad boys.....

Will post pics and the story, whether successful or not....

Wish me luck, this over 40 body does not go up and down mountains as easy as it used to.......(and it hurts for a longer period of time when I do....)

[Ddog]

here RS,,,let me start it for you.........I drove to my spot,,started the hike,,saw a goat,,shot it,,came home, put feet up and had a beer.

[Chuck]

Sounds like you already did the easy part, but no doubt you got your knees tuned up and calloused for the hard climb. Good Luck anyway and don't forget to watch out for bears.

[shantz]

Good luck...can't wait to hear your story and pics.

[J_T]

Use your bow man. Goat with a bow is a different hunt.

[d6dan]

Good Luck RS on your Mt Goat Adventure. I have done that in late oct and it was a grind!.. (Over the hill from where your going). look forward to the pics and story..

[Buckman]

Don't know how much snow you will have where you are going. i was up to 40km last Friday in the rain and sleet and took the road up to Summer Lake. I got to 44km and turned the corner and there was the snow (4inches) and rain and a bit of ice. Turned around, as it's tough to inspect snow covered roads and headed to Suzy lake. There were lots of truck tracks heading up to the lake, though it could be the guide outfitter.

[rocksteady]

Thanks for the info Len....

Gonna be up somewhere in that area, don't want to give out too many secrets though.....:wink:

Gonna be taking Peters truck so if we are not back by Monday, you know where to start looking for our sorry carcasses....:mrgreen:

[ufishifish2]

Good luck Rocksteady, I am leaving tonight with the new wife to do the same thing, different place. She is up for the hike, been practicing easier hikes for deer and Moose lately. I had her buy a w/t tag just in case she doesn't appreciate the hills. It will be her first goat hunt. Hopefully she doesn't leave me already---but she might. Swap stories next week.

[sawmill]

Thanks for the info Len....

Gonna be up somewhere in that area, don't want to give out too many secrets though.....:wink:

Gonna be taking Peters truck so if we are not back by Monday, you know where to start looking for our sorry carcasses....:mrgreen:
It`s cold enough now that you won`t rot till spring:mrgreen:Be safe and good luck.

[hunter1947]

Good luck Mike hope you nail a dandy billy ,looking forwards to the up dates http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon12.gif.

[RockyMountainHunter1]

Good luck, took two billies in late september from the upper bull area. One should make the book. It was a bit easier for us in the 25 degree weather though.:)

[6616]

Good luck Mike, and be careful up there...

[rocksteady]

here RS,,,let me start it for you.........I drove to my spot,,started the hike,,saw a goat,,shot it,,came home, put feet up and had a beer.


Well Ddog, what it take 19 seconds to read it took us 19 hours to do......

One of the longest , hardest, exhausting hunts I have ever been on.....

We scored a double header though....

I got a beautiful dry nanny that is over 9 inches and my buddy took a billy that is just under that......I will post the whole long, fully detailed story tomorrow, but for now....Heres a picture....
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/100_0642.jpg

[moosehunter21]

Cool nice lookin goat! congrats!!!

[J_T]

Way to go Mike. A banner year for you.

[brotherjack]

Wow... you've killed more critters this year than some people kill in 10. Congratulations, man!

[bozzdrywall]

right on rock good for you now all you have to do is show or tell me were to get a wt deer. cant wait to read the story. were is the pic of the other goat

[leadpillproductions]

nice lookin goat where is the pic of your buddies

[6616]

I guess that's pretty much "a wrap" eh Mike, do you have any tags left?

Way to go.

[Freshtracks]

Congrats on a very nice goat.

[BCbillies]

Congrats. A double on goats and 19 hours . . . I like the sounds of that!

[toyordie]

congrats nice billy well done

[Ambush]

RS. I'm now pretty well convinced that you go shoot something and then come home and say you're going hunting.
Two hours later you post up the "..went hunting, killed this, came home" story and some pics.

Not wishing you bad luck or nothing, but I hope the stories take a little longer next year.

Congratulatons on topping off the Dream Season!!!

[Rackmastr]

Congrats!!!

[hunter1947]

Way to go Mike ,thats a dandy nanny you got there ,the two of you really deserve the two goats after 19 hours of hard climbing ,I am very happy for the two of you http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon6.gif.

This year has been very good for you ,you are a great person and deserve all http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon12.gif.

Whats next a monster ???:???:??? ,congrats to the two of you on a very successfully goat hunt http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon7.gif.

[rocksteady]

Okay, so here goes the story.....

Up at 04:00 Saturday morning, buddy picked me up at 05:00, on teh road up the Bull...Arrived at the trail head at about 07:00, sat and waited for first light, glassed the hillsides right facing us....No goats, so off we go up the trail....

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/100_0630.jpg

Here is where we think they may be.....

We hike up the trail til about 09:30 or so, get to a spot where budy says "right up tehre on that bluff is where Rod killed his goat last year, so let's glass this a bit"....He is setting up the tripod for the spotting scope and I glass with the binos.....Not 30 seconds later I see a goat.....Get on teh spotting scope, crank it up to 45 X and the decision is made that its a mature goat so we are gonna go for it....
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/100_0632.jpg

SO the goat is right at the top of the poplar tree in the middle of the photo.....Looks to be about 900 or so yards up the hill. We gear up and head up the hill to the left, keeping a small ridge in between us and the goat for hiding cover......Talk about a horrible climb....

8 to 10 inches of corn snow, no base, no traction, 80 % slope, thick with regen and alder.....So it takes us til about 11:30 or so to get up to our staging area....Off come the packs, on goes the snow camo and the stalk is on......

We sneek around the hillside, find an opening and try to find the goat....After 5 minutes of glassing there it is....

[hunter1947]

Thanks for your wright up Mike looks like you had a hell of a clime ,again congrats to you and your partner ,Remember partners for ever http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon6.gif.

[rocksteady]

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/100_0633.jpg

So the goat was standing at the base of the big trees, uphill left off the end of my barrel....I crawled, climbed scampered from where we first saw it to where I could get a solid rest.....Range finder reading, just over 300 yards.....Partner is downhill about 30 yards backing me up....

I tell him I am gonna take a shot......Hold on the goat and BOOM !!!!!! DIrt kicked up right at its feet.....DAmn, forgot to compensate for the steep angle shot.....Goat starts moving up the hill, partner takes a whack at it....miss......Finally the goat comes out but on a run heading straight up hill at about 400 yards., I do a hold over, pull the trigger...WHAP !!!!!!! Here comes the goat down hill, tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, down, down down.......Finally comes to rest about where the end of my barrel is in the picture....

High fives and handshakes......Its just after 12:00.....

We wander back to the pack boards, gear up and sneak back to where the gulley begins, so that we can contour into the draw and up to the goat......

As we are heading into the draw, I see movement, right where my goat came to rest...Up go the binos.....There is a goat standing there......WTF???? We have been gone for close to an hour and its still alive???? Son of a B*%CH.....

We both get rests...Not nearly as solid as we would like, but we are not gonna follow a wounded goat around for days on end......Another first shot miss (note, wimpy alder does not make a great solid rest...) Goat is running straight up hill, buddy touches one off, goat bails hard left into the regen from the knife ridge....Another 400 yard shot......

He scoped himself...Blood trickling down the bridge of his nose...I had to laugh......

So we sit and have a smoke......I started thinking about it and said to him......I think that was a second goat.....It looked different than the one I had hit.....There was no blood on the second one and it looked a lot more yellow.......We both had tags so not an issue.......

We hike/ crawl/ climb our way over to the gulleys.. This took over an hour......I go up the gulley where I had seen my goat go down, partner went to the ridge on the right where we saw his goat go....I get to where I thought mine would be and bingo...There she is, piled up in a hole caused by a blowndown tree........:mrgreen::mrgreen:

So I hike up the ridge to my partner and say, we got 2 down......

We sneek up the razor back ridge to where we think the goat bailed, find the trail, find blood, 50 yards later...There his goat is....:mrgreen::mrgreen:

MOre high fives and hand shakes.....

[rocksteady]

So we take and roll his billy down the hill, right to where my nanny lays.....


Take a few pictures, cut the tags etc and get ready for the long haul out......

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/100_0639.jpg

We drag these things downhill to the creek, which was no easy feat let me tell you......It was steeper than hell, no place to butcher/cape on that hillside, so we just kept gooing down, down, down......Took us close to 2 hours to get to teh creek.....So much alder/brush that they kept haning up and were a real work out......If we only had one goat, we could of processed it on the hillside and packed it out but 2, not sure.....

Get down to the creek around 04;00 and start caping.....Cape , head, edible portions (one quarter lost by shot on each goat...:cry:).....And off down the trail we go......Did not get back to the truck til 08:00, absolutely exhausted.....I had muscles hurting and cramping that I did not know I had.....

Had saved my last 2 cigarellos, we sat on the tailgate in the dark had a smoke and a snort off a special mickey that I had in my other pack in the truck.....

Drove down the road and met up with some other goat hunters who were camped and bs'ed with them for a 1/2 hour around there campfire.......Was great to get dried out, as I was sweated like an old mule......

Arrived home just before midnight......Dumped all of the gear in the garage, had a bite to eat and crashed hard core.......

Had a terrible sleep...Had muscle cramps in places where I did not know I had muscles.......Back, shoulders, toes, hip flexors, hands......

The hands were the worst, as we had to grab anduse brush, trees etc as hand holds for the hike up and down because of the terrible footing.....

Got up on Sunday, bathed the hide, gonna take it to be CI'ed this morning......

Butchered all of the meat and put it into a brine for jerky.....Goat meat at thtis time of year can be really gamey so the wife and I figured this would be the best use of the meat......

Just by throwing a tape on the horns, she measures just over 9 inches (but I am not a scorer so not really 100% sure if I measured it right)......My budd's was just a little bit less.....

Gonna get the whole cape tanned and more than likely a european skull mount for the head.....


Thanks for hanging in there and reading......

I was gonna post the story yesterday but I had too much to do and only enough energy to do what I had to do....

I now know what roadkill feels like.....:twisted:

[d6dan]

Great story and pics RS. Hell of a day you had. Anyway, you tagged out on a Goat and your Buddy did as well. I'd say thats a good Day!. They both have exceptional hides. Congrats again.:-D

[6616]

Yah, goat hunting can be a real b_t_h at this time of year, but the hides are worth it. Steep terrain you can usually stroll around on with ease is much different when the ground is frozen with a couple inches of snow hiding all those slippery little sticks and other such hazards. You guys earned those two goats that's for sure. Nice goin' Mike.

[rocksteady]

[quote=Ambush;553991]RS. I'm now pretty well convinced that you go shoot something and then come home and say you're going hunting.
Two hours later you post up the "..went hunting, killed this, came home" story and some pics.

quote]


I really hope this is not what you think......That would hurt my feelings....:twisted:

[J_T]

Good story Mike. Thanks.

[Ambush]

quote]I really hope this is not what you think......That would hurt my feelings....:twisted:

Naw. You earned them all!! And now that you posted the story I don't feel so ripped off.

[rocksteady]

Sorry you felt ripped off, I was so exhausted after the hunt it wasn't possible for me to sit and think straight and give the hunt the story telling it deserved.....I just thought I would do a quick post with the details that it was a LOOOONNNGGG hunt, with success and post 1 picture to prove it....


Quick update, got 3 Little Chiefs on the go this morning making goat jerky.....:mrgreen::mrgreen:

Had the goat Ci'd yesterday, 3 1/2 years old, should be decent eatin......The buddy's goat was the same age.....

I have not cleaned the skull for a european mount yet (maybe tomorrow night) but that will give me the opportunity to get a real good measurement on the horns.......Body is still feeling the pain of the adventure..:cry: