5.56 Medic
09-13-2013, 12:53 AM
Ok, I'm back from an epic Father/Son hunting trip! After a whirlwind tour of gathering gear and a little bit of knowledge from this site and Rokslide.com, the 2013 Mountain Goat Trip is now in the books!
This was our first try at the goat hunt and it would be a trial by fire!
I started out in Squamish,BC and then took the Skytrain to YVR. Now that was weird walking down the street with a huge camo pack and gun case. Why, yes there were weird looks! Ya ya, I know! More than normal! I then fly to Smithers, BC and then off to my old home town of Hazelton.
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Seen above is my Eberlestock J107 Dragonfly pack. I love the built-in gun scabbard.
On the Weekend, my son Christopher and I gathered all our hunting gear and drove out into the wilds of the Hazelton mountains. We unloaded the ATV and our hunting packs (50lbs+ each) and rode another 12 km into the mountains.
45464547
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Once we were all geared up, we decided to go where the big billies live and not the easy route! Of Course! We then hiked straight up the mountainside for 2 or so hours. Wow that was a a lot of work and I'm very happy I'd been training for this. We get to the ridge at around 6pm and there is still lots of light. So we do a little recon glassing and initially find nothing , so we carry on and put our packs in a place that looks like a good base camp area.
4538 4548
After poking around on the ridge area, for a few minutes we find goat tracks! Yay, they are here. We use the Vortex binos and look way across a valley and see a family of goats (Billy,Nanny & kid) on a cliffside. They are way to far away to even consider but hey, we've seen goats already!
At this point, we say "Hey lets go find some water and then set up camp". Good idea, let's just walk over that ridge first and see where we need to go, no need for the packs and gun yet. First "Note to Self", always have gun,binos and rangefinder with you! haha
So, what happens next...A big gorgeous white billy goat jumps out of the underbrush 200+ yards away and saunters across the bowl! Well, having the rifles with us would have been far less problematic! He walks across the bowl and just above us on the same ridge system. He just stands there and stares at us, while we decide what to do. Well, I suppose we caught a bit of the goat fever and well we were there to get one, so let's get at it. We looked at the range and it looked like 200 yards to me but not accounting for the angle of the shot. Christopher snuck out of sight and down to the gear and guns. He thankfully used my newly acquired Vortex rangefinder and ranged this billy at 400 yards! Well we have only been practising shots at 200 yards...hmmm no prob right?
My son is using his Tikka T3 Stainless in 300WM with a Vortex Diamondback scope with the BDC reticle. I had my Remington 700 SPS in 30-06 with the same scope.
Well, he takes the first shot and misses by a small margin. Second shot is a prime lung shot...booom and billy jumps straight up and staggers over the ridge. I then moved up to see what happened. It was a great shot and he was down but not quite there, so Chris got up and took a finishing shot. The area was fine if the goat had just stayed there. Well of course, that would be way too easy for us rookies!
We watched in horror as the goat rolled over and started to slide down a rock chute. Ok, not just a little way but a 1000-1500 yards!
4539
Above is a pic of myself showing the chute that Mr. Billy decided to slide down. That creek above my pack is the eventual camping spot at the nights end.
So we have to go back down to the packs (remember we had packed for 3 days and oh yeah, we still need water!) and then perilously make our way down the chute to find Billy Goat Gruff. Now if this doesn't sound all that bad, the sun is starting to set and we are a long way above the goat. So, man up and get there! Off we go and sidehill back and forth to the area that we figured the goat was.
Well, about half way down the hillside, the sun has finally set. Hello darkness and out come the head lamps. We spend an hour and half looking on this super steep hillside chute that is comprised of loose rock and horrible little underbrush.
We finally find the billy. Well, he's taken a bit of a beating on the traumatic bounce fest but still has his horns somewhat intact. We take the obligatory photos and start to process the meat and head. After this is done, it is now around 0200 in the morning! Gee, i'm tired and thirsty! Christopher and I pack the meat and head on to our packs, though the young buck has more meat on his (his kill, haha) and the weight is almost unreal.
454045414542
We know that there is a creek in the distance but not quite sure how far. So we continue down a narrow chute until it spills into the lower timber line. This is crazy! The packs are making the steps so hard and the rock below our feet is unstable. There is no where to just stop and camp as it's a steep chute. I was thinking, "just concentrate on being stable each step or we are going to need the 442 Squadron Cormorant to hoist our battered bodies out of here!" We had a Spot GPS locator incase this happened.
The noise of the babbling stream kept us going! Water!
We get to the creek about an hour and a half later. Wow! Glacier fed water never tasted so good! Next we hung the meat and food in trees and then pitched the tent in a hurried fashion! We had been going non stop since we left the ATV about 12 hours ago, it's now 0400 AM! Sleeeeeep!
We woke up at 11:30 and I decided to eat as much food as I could to reduce weight! We grabbed our packs and hiked off along the creekside to our ATV. This took another 1-2 hours.
Needless to say we were tired and sore but Wow! We did it and lived to tell about it!!
The Goat has a 9" set of horns, so a pretty big beast. Not bad for a couple of first timers!
4543
I can't wait for next years LEH!
We have a lot of "Note to Self" info to improve on for the next time and hopefully our hunting careers get smarter and more fun each year!
4544
Jordan
4549
Chris
This was our first try at the goat hunt and it would be a trial by fire!
I started out in Squamish,BC and then took the Skytrain to YVR. Now that was weird walking down the street with a huge camo pack and gun case. Why, yes there were weird looks! Ya ya, I know! More than normal! I then fly to Smithers, BC and then off to my old home town of Hazelton.
4519 4534
Seen above is my Eberlestock J107 Dragonfly pack. I love the built-in gun scabbard.
On the Weekend, my son Christopher and I gathered all our hunting gear and drove out into the wilds of the Hazelton mountains. We unloaded the ATV and our hunting packs (50lbs+ each) and rode another 12 km into the mountains.
45464547
45374535
Once we were all geared up, we decided to go where the big billies live and not the easy route! Of Course! We then hiked straight up the mountainside for 2 or so hours. Wow that was a a lot of work and I'm very happy I'd been training for this. We get to the ridge at around 6pm and there is still lots of light. So we do a little recon glassing and initially find nothing , so we carry on and put our packs in a place that looks like a good base camp area.
4538 4548
After poking around on the ridge area, for a few minutes we find goat tracks! Yay, they are here. We use the Vortex binos and look way across a valley and see a family of goats (Billy,Nanny & kid) on a cliffside. They are way to far away to even consider but hey, we've seen goats already!
At this point, we say "Hey lets go find some water and then set up camp". Good idea, let's just walk over that ridge first and see where we need to go, no need for the packs and gun yet. First "Note to Self", always have gun,binos and rangefinder with you! haha
So, what happens next...A big gorgeous white billy goat jumps out of the underbrush 200+ yards away and saunters across the bowl! Well, having the rifles with us would have been far less problematic! He walks across the bowl and just above us on the same ridge system. He just stands there and stares at us, while we decide what to do. Well, I suppose we caught a bit of the goat fever and well we were there to get one, so let's get at it. We looked at the range and it looked like 200 yards to me but not accounting for the angle of the shot. Christopher snuck out of sight and down to the gear and guns. He thankfully used my newly acquired Vortex rangefinder and ranged this billy at 400 yards! Well we have only been practising shots at 200 yards...hmmm no prob right?
My son is using his Tikka T3 Stainless in 300WM with a Vortex Diamondback scope with the BDC reticle. I had my Remington 700 SPS in 30-06 with the same scope.
Well, he takes the first shot and misses by a small margin. Second shot is a prime lung shot...booom and billy jumps straight up and staggers over the ridge. I then moved up to see what happened. It was a great shot and he was down but not quite there, so Chris got up and took a finishing shot. The area was fine if the goat had just stayed there. Well of course, that would be way too easy for us rookies!
We watched in horror as the goat rolled over and started to slide down a rock chute. Ok, not just a little way but a 1000-1500 yards!
4539
Above is a pic of myself showing the chute that Mr. Billy decided to slide down. That creek above my pack is the eventual camping spot at the nights end.
So we have to go back down to the packs (remember we had packed for 3 days and oh yeah, we still need water!) and then perilously make our way down the chute to find Billy Goat Gruff. Now if this doesn't sound all that bad, the sun is starting to set and we are a long way above the goat. So, man up and get there! Off we go and sidehill back and forth to the area that we figured the goat was.
Well, about half way down the hillside, the sun has finally set. Hello darkness and out come the head lamps. We spend an hour and half looking on this super steep hillside chute that is comprised of loose rock and horrible little underbrush.
We finally find the billy. Well, he's taken a bit of a beating on the traumatic bounce fest but still has his horns somewhat intact. We take the obligatory photos and start to process the meat and head. After this is done, it is now around 0200 in the morning! Gee, i'm tired and thirsty! Christopher and I pack the meat and head on to our packs, though the young buck has more meat on his (his kill, haha) and the weight is almost unreal.
454045414542
We know that there is a creek in the distance but not quite sure how far. So we continue down a narrow chute until it spills into the lower timber line. This is crazy! The packs are making the steps so hard and the rock below our feet is unstable. There is no where to just stop and camp as it's a steep chute. I was thinking, "just concentrate on being stable each step or we are going to need the 442 Squadron Cormorant to hoist our battered bodies out of here!" We had a Spot GPS locator incase this happened.
The noise of the babbling stream kept us going! Water!
We get to the creek about an hour and a half later. Wow! Glacier fed water never tasted so good! Next we hung the meat and food in trees and then pitched the tent in a hurried fashion! We had been going non stop since we left the ATV about 12 hours ago, it's now 0400 AM! Sleeeeeep!
We woke up at 11:30 and I decided to eat as much food as I could to reduce weight! We grabbed our packs and hiked off along the creekside to our ATV. This took another 1-2 hours.
Needless to say we were tired and sore but Wow! We did it and lived to tell about it!!
The Goat has a 9" set of horns, so a pretty big beast. Not bad for a couple of first timers!
4543
I can't wait for next years LEH!
We have a lot of "Note to Self" info to improve on for the next time and hopefully our hunting careers get smarter and more fun each year!
4544
Jordan
4549
Chris