Brambles
10-03-2006, 12:00 PM
So I got drawn for a goat tag here Region 4. Sept 30 I head up scouting for goats and for the morning and early afternoon I came up empty handed. I decide to try a different drainage which just so happened to be on the other side of the mountain I was hunting. I Hike 5 kms into the new valley and find a lone billy on the mountain. He's fairly far away still and its getting dark fast so I watch him until 6:00 pm and start hiking back to the truck. That evening I call my brother and he volunteers to cancel his sheep trip to help me go get the goat. He gets off night shift on the morning of Oct 1 and we start the 2 hour drive to the trail head.
At 9:00 am we start hiking into the valley and by 11:20 we covered the 5 kms and are watching the goat on the mountain across the valley. He beds down almost immediatly and we lose sight of him in the brush. He's about 2 kms away and we decide to start hiking up to him to cut the distance and get a closer look at him. The terrain was rugged and we had to scale some cliffs to get up to a higher plateau that was below the goat.
At 12:50 we get to the plateau and start trying to locate him, after some time spotting we were unable to see the goat and so we decided he was still there but not visible in his/our current location. We check the wind and start the final leg of the stalk, to keep the wind in our favor we had to circle around and come out on top of the goat, unfortunalty it also took us throught he scariest SH&T you have ever climbed through, if you slip you will DIE, no question about that, the cliff from hell. After about an hour and a few close calls we come out of the cliffs and find ourselves on some rolling slide shutes.
We start working our way over to were we think the goat should be. Even thought the goat had been bedded since 11:00 am and it was now 3:00 pm he was still there, my brother spotted him 82 yards below us. As I was preparing for the shot he gets up and starts to run, he goes out of sight but because its rolling shutes he has to come out and over one last shute before he's gone for good. I stand there ready to fire when he shows himself and about 30 seconds later there he goes trying to make his escape. We are above him and he's running straight away so I shoot and hit him in the spine stopping his accent and reducing his hind legs to just baggage, he starts going down the way he came. We run over to were he was making his way down the slide shute and finish him off.
He's a good billy with 9 1/2 inch horns and I scored him at 47 4/8 which just qualifies for the Boone & Crockett awards minimum.
This hunt was hell on the body and my knees and legs are very sore, I have hiked over 60 kms throught the mountains this year already, maybe even more and this is the first time my legs have been stiff. The cliffs were insane and when I got home I hugged my wife. She doesn't know how close she was to being a widow
Here are some photo's
First plateau looking back the way we came, we spotted him from the far side. This plateau is also on top of the first set of cliffs, you can sort of see how it just drops off.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/IMG_0916.jpg
More terrain
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/IMG_0915.jpg
The bluffs that the goat was on looking from the Plateau, the goat was on the second green finger from the left and we hiked the cliffs on the far right. Trust me the pictures don't do it justice
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/IMG_0914.jpg
My Prize
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/IMG_0922.jpg
At 9:00 am we start hiking into the valley and by 11:20 we covered the 5 kms and are watching the goat on the mountain across the valley. He beds down almost immediatly and we lose sight of him in the brush. He's about 2 kms away and we decide to start hiking up to him to cut the distance and get a closer look at him. The terrain was rugged and we had to scale some cliffs to get up to a higher plateau that was below the goat.
At 12:50 we get to the plateau and start trying to locate him, after some time spotting we were unable to see the goat and so we decided he was still there but not visible in his/our current location. We check the wind and start the final leg of the stalk, to keep the wind in our favor we had to circle around and come out on top of the goat, unfortunalty it also took us throught he scariest SH&T you have ever climbed through, if you slip you will DIE, no question about that, the cliff from hell. After about an hour and a few close calls we come out of the cliffs and find ourselves on some rolling slide shutes.
We start working our way over to were we think the goat should be. Even thought the goat had been bedded since 11:00 am and it was now 3:00 pm he was still there, my brother spotted him 82 yards below us. As I was preparing for the shot he gets up and starts to run, he goes out of sight but because its rolling shutes he has to come out and over one last shute before he's gone for good. I stand there ready to fire when he shows himself and about 30 seconds later there he goes trying to make his escape. We are above him and he's running straight away so I shoot and hit him in the spine stopping his accent and reducing his hind legs to just baggage, he starts going down the way he came. We run over to were he was making his way down the slide shute and finish him off.
He's a good billy with 9 1/2 inch horns and I scored him at 47 4/8 which just qualifies for the Boone & Crockett awards minimum.
This hunt was hell on the body and my knees and legs are very sore, I have hiked over 60 kms throught the mountains this year already, maybe even more and this is the first time my legs have been stiff. The cliffs were insane and when I got home I hugged my wife. She doesn't know how close she was to being a widow
Here are some photo's
First plateau looking back the way we came, we spotted him from the far side. This plateau is also on top of the first set of cliffs, you can sort of see how it just drops off.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/IMG_0916.jpg
More terrain
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/IMG_0915.jpg
The bluffs that the goat was on looking from the Plateau, the goat was on the second green finger from the left and we hiked the cliffs on the far right. Trust me the pictures don't do it justice
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/IMG_0914.jpg
My Prize
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v437/Brambles77/IMG_0922.jpg