decker9
09-25-2012, 08:05 PM
This is my first time posting a story and pictures, hope it works!
Just got back from a week in the mountains with a couple life long buddys of mine, (2 brothers) the older one (34) and i have been hunting goats together for many years. His younger brother (30), this would be his second goat hunt, and so had first crack at what would be his first mountain goat. They each were carying goat draws, i was just along for the trip.
Day 1 found us leaving town a little later then planned, we made it to our lake about 4ish pm to find what was ALOT of smoke from the forest fire near by. By dark we had beat our way down the lake and had our camp set up for the night.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/404097_10151096865111687_965638701_n.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt009.jpg
Day 2 we were up early, had our stuff packed in the boat and headed to our final piece of shore line, up we would go from there. we hiked about 6 hard hours and we were breaking into goat country. After camp was set up it was pushing 5pm, we hiked up the creek a ways further just to have a peak, seen a nanny and kid feeding but no other goats that day.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt085.jpg
Day 3 we were all up early with the plan of hiking over to a area we hunted a few years previous where we had seen a couple inaccessible billy's. Our planned route turned out to be 4 hours of ball busting shintangle and loose shale, by the time we got near the top it must have been pushing 25 degrees, damn it was hot! we took advantage of any shad we could find.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt051.jpg
We spent all day hiking from basin to basin with tons of tracks,turds and beds, but no goats, just alot of beautiful country.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt068.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt060.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt064.jpg
Day 4 was a bit of a sleep in day, think i herd the first fart about 8am, which put us all out of the tent fast, and we quickly realized we were, smoked in! the wind had changed from the day before and blew our vally full of thick smoke from a forest fire a ways away. since we couldent see much we decided to just head up the creek we were camped in just to see what we could see.
The sun was pounding threw the smoke which made visibility even worse, limited to about 1000 yrds, not to mention it was close to another 25c day. We spent most the day beside the creek soalking our feet watching the nanny and kid from the few days before who were feeding lower in the basin. Everyone was pretty relxed feelin,twidlin our thumbs's, when the younger of the two brothers say's, "what about that goat right there!" and what do you know, theres a billy! right flippin there! sitting about 800 yards away watching us, like he's been there the whole time.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt089.jpg
Well he obviously had us pinned, with no cover at all. What do we do? it was pushing about 5 pm, we new if we just left he would prolly be there in the morning still, but, we had to try lol. It was a head down fast march up the shale slide towards the billy. We got to about 500 yards and just like we thought would happen, he stood up and started, goin up.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt092.jpg
We wondered back into camp about 8 that evening and came up with the plan of moving a spike camp up the drainage a ways so we could make a better move on this goat, we new where he was located there was very little cover for a stalk, and there was no way to come at him from above, so this was going to prove to be a very difficult stalk.
Day 5 was a early one, 5 am we were up, breaky and packs were ready by 6am. This morning was alot less smoke so within a couple hours up the creek we located the billy again with no problem, basicly in the exact same spot.
We went as far as we could untill we were running out of cover in the creek bottom, (about 1200 yards from the billy)
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt078.jpg
Thats when things got, intresting. The start of a 6 hour grewling stalk. Shintangle patches were quite a ways between each other, so as one guy watched the goat, waiting for him to turn his head away, GO! two of us would mad dash to the next patch of bush, dive in, and watch the goat for the next guy, this went on for about 5 hours as we closed the distance, more then once the goat would catch a glimps of somthing, pin us in whatever bush we were in for a while, then turn again, think we messed with his mind pretty good lol.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt128.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt123.jpg
Finally, after what was pretty much a 5 hour belly crawl, we were close to level with the bottom of the cliff he is on, we think! The last 100 yards i stayed back so it was less noise, the two bro's did theyr final belly crawl across the rock slide. I could see the pain they were in with every foot closer they got, the younger brother has had bad knees to begin with, which made this stalk even tuffer for him.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt148.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt148.jpg
It took te boy's a good hour to close the last 100 yards, as the younger was hoping to get within 250 yrd or so. I couldent quite tell what they were doing, or waiting for, when i herd the 270wsm, bang!, bang! When i seen the guys stand up, and theyr heads turn from up, to down hill, i new he cranked his first ever mountain goat.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt149.jpg
I grabbed the packs and mad my way over to the fallen trophy, holly what a smile that boy had!
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/644043_10151096883351687_1494632485_n.jpg
On his second shot he had slipped back a bit and the scope kissed his forhead, leeaving a good gash, but he dident mind a bit! it was a scar of a lifetime he said.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt167.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/229414_10151096884121687_1017804145_n.jpg
Normally a person would say the work was about to begin, but after that stalk, the work was done, we were more then happy to cape, debone and pack this guy off the mountain, just as long as we dident have to do it on our bellys!
It was a happy night in camp lookin back at what we had acomplished, stalking a billy from below, is hard, doing it with next to no cover, next to impossible on a vetrin billy, and for it to be a first goat, even better! (think we created another addict) lol
Needless to say, that night was filled with "our traditional goat hunting drink AFTER a long successfull hunt" is 151 and orange tea and goat backstrap on the home made oven, with goat liver for desert :-)
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt097.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt206.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt207.jpg
hope you all enjoy the story as much as i enjoyed the hunt, it was a week ill remeber for the rest of my life, spending time in the hills with two good friends, and a hard earned mature billy for my best bud's little brother.
The horn length is 9 1/2 on one side, and he broke off about a inch off the other side on his fall, the bases are 5 7/8, and aged at 9 years old, a true trophy!
Ed.
Just got back from a week in the mountains with a couple life long buddys of mine, (2 brothers) the older one (34) and i have been hunting goats together for many years. His younger brother (30), this would be his second goat hunt, and so had first crack at what would be his first mountain goat. They each were carying goat draws, i was just along for the trip.
Day 1 found us leaving town a little later then planned, we made it to our lake about 4ish pm to find what was ALOT of smoke from the forest fire near by. By dark we had beat our way down the lake and had our camp set up for the night.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/404097_10151096865111687_965638701_n.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt009.jpg
Day 2 we were up early, had our stuff packed in the boat and headed to our final piece of shore line, up we would go from there. we hiked about 6 hard hours and we were breaking into goat country. After camp was set up it was pushing 5pm, we hiked up the creek a ways further just to have a peak, seen a nanny and kid feeding but no other goats that day.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt085.jpg
Day 3 we were all up early with the plan of hiking over to a area we hunted a few years previous where we had seen a couple inaccessible billy's. Our planned route turned out to be 4 hours of ball busting shintangle and loose shale, by the time we got near the top it must have been pushing 25 degrees, damn it was hot! we took advantage of any shad we could find.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt051.jpg
We spent all day hiking from basin to basin with tons of tracks,turds and beds, but no goats, just alot of beautiful country.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt068.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt060.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt064.jpg
Day 4 was a bit of a sleep in day, think i herd the first fart about 8am, which put us all out of the tent fast, and we quickly realized we were, smoked in! the wind had changed from the day before and blew our vally full of thick smoke from a forest fire a ways away. since we couldent see much we decided to just head up the creek we were camped in just to see what we could see.
The sun was pounding threw the smoke which made visibility even worse, limited to about 1000 yrds, not to mention it was close to another 25c day. We spent most the day beside the creek soalking our feet watching the nanny and kid from the few days before who were feeding lower in the basin. Everyone was pretty relxed feelin,twidlin our thumbs's, when the younger of the two brothers say's, "what about that goat right there!" and what do you know, theres a billy! right flippin there! sitting about 800 yards away watching us, like he's been there the whole time.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt089.jpg
Well he obviously had us pinned, with no cover at all. What do we do? it was pushing about 5 pm, we new if we just left he would prolly be there in the morning still, but, we had to try lol. It was a head down fast march up the shale slide towards the billy. We got to about 500 yards and just like we thought would happen, he stood up and started, goin up.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt092.jpg
We wondered back into camp about 8 that evening and came up with the plan of moving a spike camp up the drainage a ways so we could make a better move on this goat, we new where he was located there was very little cover for a stalk, and there was no way to come at him from above, so this was going to prove to be a very difficult stalk.
Day 5 was a early one, 5 am we were up, breaky and packs were ready by 6am. This morning was alot less smoke so within a couple hours up the creek we located the billy again with no problem, basicly in the exact same spot.
We went as far as we could untill we were running out of cover in the creek bottom, (about 1200 yards from the billy)
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt078.jpg
Thats when things got, intresting. The start of a 6 hour grewling stalk. Shintangle patches were quite a ways between each other, so as one guy watched the goat, waiting for him to turn his head away, GO! two of us would mad dash to the next patch of bush, dive in, and watch the goat for the next guy, this went on for about 5 hours as we closed the distance, more then once the goat would catch a glimps of somthing, pin us in whatever bush we were in for a while, then turn again, think we messed with his mind pretty good lol.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt128.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt123.jpg
Finally, after what was pretty much a 5 hour belly crawl, we were close to level with the bottom of the cliff he is on, we think! The last 100 yards i stayed back so it was less noise, the two bro's did theyr final belly crawl across the rock slide. I could see the pain they were in with every foot closer they got, the younger brother has had bad knees to begin with, which made this stalk even tuffer for him.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt148.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt148.jpg
It took te boy's a good hour to close the last 100 yards, as the younger was hoping to get within 250 yrd or so. I couldent quite tell what they were doing, or waiting for, when i herd the 270wsm, bang!, bang! When i seen the guys stand up, and theyr heads turn from up, to down hill, i new he cranked his first ever mountain goat.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt149.jpg
I grabbed the packs and mad my way over to the fallen trophy, holly what a smile that boy had!
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/644043_10151096883351687_1494632485_n.jpg
On his second shot he had slipped back a bit and the scope kissed his forhead, leeaving a good gash, but he dident mind a bit! it was a scar of a lifetime he said.
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt167.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/229414_10151096884121687_1017804145_n.jpg
Normally a person would say the work was about to begin, but after that stalk, the work was done, we were more then happy to cape, debone and pack this guy off the mountain, just as long as we dident have to do it on our bellys!
It was a happy night in camp lookin back at what we had acomplished, stalking a billy from below, is hard, doing it with next to no cover, next to impossible on a vetrin billy, and for it to be a first goat, even better! (think we created another addict) lol
Needless to say, that night was filled with "our traditional goat hunting drink AFTER a long successfull hunt" is 151 and orange tea and goat backstrap on the home made oven, with goat liver for desert :-)
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt097.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt206.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/2012goathunt207.jpg
hope you all enjoy the story as much as i enjoyed the hunt, it was a week ill remeber for the rest of my life, spending time in the hills with two good friends, and a hard earned mature billy for my best bud's little brother.
The horn length is 9 1/2 on one side, and he broke off about a inch off the other side on his fall, the bases are 5 7/8, and aged at 9 years old, a true trophy!
Ed.