goat hunt

partisan1911

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2009
Messages
171
Location
Alaska
I finally talked my brother-in-law to hunt with me in Alaska. Both of us Army makes it difficult to plan hunts like this. He had four days including travel time. I guaranteed him he wouldn't be dissapointed. I was right!
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Awesome hunt!!!
But come on!!! more details!!!
It would be nice to read the hunting experience you had, the complete story. Hope you have some time to share it with us.
Congrats on the goats, they sure look really nice.
 
Congratulations on two good mountain goats. Great game animals that are truly underated. I'm sure you enjoyed a great mountain hunting experience.
 
Thank you and your brother-in-law for your service. Congratulations on some great goats and thanks for the pics. +1 on we'd like to hear your hunting story.:)
 
I am not a very good story teller, too much time in the Army has forced me to talk briefly and not be descriptive. I am an Alaskan resident so Daryl my brother-in-law is allowed to use me as a "guide". I have been quite fortunate during my tour in Alaska and send him pictures of all my hunting trips. We grew up together and have always hunted together but the Army has moved us apart so we get very few opportunities to hunt together. After a couple seasons of brief fishing trips up here in Alaska Daryl was finally able to get a four day weekend to go hunting with me. In Alaska it may take up to four days to get to your hunting area so I knew I had to find a quick yet successful hunt. I have taken several goats already so I know that most of the battle is getting to them once you spot them and I was prepared to walk him all night in order to get to goat country. I was flying from Fairbanks to Anchorage to Cordova and he was coming from Seattle. I bought both of our tickets using Airline miles and we linked up in Anchorage. From there we flew to Cordova. We got our over the counter goat permits and were on our way. Cordova is really small so you can walk anywhere and leave right from the town to go hunting. Sure enough we woke up on our first full day of hunting and I spotted a couple nice Billie's right next to each other! We hike in about 4 miles, dropped off our camp and started hiking up. We ended up crawling a good part of the way because of how steep it was and the thickness of the alders. We were able to get straight across from the goats but there was a wide open area that would give us away if we we had to cross. Fortunately they were sleeping so we had all the time in the world. This left our shot at 350 yards. We talked about which goat he was going to shoot and our strategy. I found a good steady position and locked in on his goat. Daryl went up a little higher and started closing the distance with me in over watch. He was able to get about 100 yards closer but steep rock slide he was on started to kick up rocks and woke the goats up. Daryl quickly got a decent prone position and fired. I backed him up and the first goat goes down. Before the next goat knew what happened we quickly dispatched him. The hunt was over and it was nothing but hugs and high fives. I don't think there is anything better in this life than the experience we were having together. We went to work on the goats and packing up for the trek back down the mountain. I caped his and did a rug with mine. Daryl never realized that these goats are slightly larger than the deer we usually hunt together. I estimated each of these goats over three hundred pounds. After you bone them out and add the cape our packs were still about 130lbs coming off the mountain. Fortunately for us that is exactly what makes us happy. We got our goats down to our camp just after dark. The next day we took two trips to get our camp and goats out of the woods. Daryl flew out the next day. Not much of a story but the trip was a blast. Daryl is hooked on hunting in Alaska and I am planning our Brown bear hunt for next year. He will just be getting back from another trip to Afghanistan and I will just be finishing up finals after my first semester of college. We will definitely need to relieve some stress. So as Daryl was flying out I was meeting a couple of other friends at the same airport……..next short story.
 
During my year in Iraq there were a lot of guys dreaming about what they were going to do when they got back. A couple of these guys wanted to go goat hunting so I told them of an easy, cheap, yet highly successful area that I have been before. The planning continued and the physical workouts increased. It is difficult to find time to work out and one of these guys was in horrible bad shape and had gained way too much weight. He is a testament of how you can change your physical conditioning in a year. He dropped a ton of weight and was prepared to run up the mountain when he got back.
We all made it back with our hunting areas recon complete and all logistics figured out. A week prior to our leave their hunt area closed due to emergency order…….now what. I told them to spend the $250 and fly to Cordova and I will pick them up after Daryl's hunt was over and I would take them hunting with me. Sure enough Daryl was boarding the plane and here were my two friends getting off. I was already tired from a going up and down the mountains. Didn't matter, these guys dreamed about this hunt for a year and would soon be leaving Alaska for their next duty station so this was the hunt of a lifetime for them. In to town we went to get a couple goat permits and back up a different mountain we go. A couple days later we had two more fine goats down and a story they could brag about for a long time. I will post a few more pictures so you can see a couple more trophies and some beautiful country.
 
Mitch and his goat, darn thing was bigger than mine by an 1/8" ! Sorry about the blood but it was a double lung shot.

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Great story and mighty nice offer on your part. Thanks for sharing and look forward to some pics.
 
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