Idaho Hunter1
Well-Known Member
Ranger Rick,
What caliber did this guy shoot this with and what bullet? That is a big goat!
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Mountain goat bullet selection.
- Thread starter Gunnuts
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quarterman
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
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- 157
I ve shot quite a few goats. Use what ever shoots well in your rifle. anything from 130 to 156 grains will do.
BrentM
Well-Known Member
I can't imagine it not working well. Elk are much heavier boned so if a person wanted a shoulder shot I'd think about a bonded or partition. I take boiler room shots tho and can't see why it wouldn't be a hammer. I've seen 143 and 147 do massive damage. They are all built similar.
COBrad
Well-Known Member
I shot this billy in 2006 with a .243 and 90 grain fusion bullet. Shoulder shot at 304 yds. Penetrated onside shoulder and chest and stopped on the far side scapula. He stood and teetered while I worked the bolt but tipped over before I could shoot again.
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whirlwindjml
Well-Known Member
I've never had any interest in shooting a goat until seeing the pictures in this thread. Looks like an elk hunt x4! Hard earned critter for sure.
dougduey
Well-Known Member
Hardest thing I've ever done. Very satisfying accomplishment. And, goat meat is very very good. It surprised me and my family how delicious it tasted.
So I'll post most of my goat story below, but I bot a Bergara 6.5 CM for the hunt thinking that the goat might be a long ways off - meaning vertically, not necessarily horizontally. I shot it all summer and took the goat with 143gr ELD-X bullets. One was enough, but he flinched after a few minutes and I didn't want him to slide down the mountain. Note that fully loaded that rifle weighs about 14 pounds. It is a load to carry up in goat (or any other) country. Good luck, enjoy the summer scouting and getting in condition, and be patient on your hunt. Here's part of my story: "
As I approached the pass, I took a couple of pictures then went to the rock pile just South and up a bit from the pass where Bill had his spotting scope set up. He said 'there are your goats' as I got to him and out of the wind a bit. I called him a liar. This was too good to be true, and I miss-read him. After scrunching down behind his Swarovski spotter, I couldn't see anything resembling a goat. Turns out he had it turned up to about sixty power, and I must have bumped it a bit getting behind it and between the rocks and the scope.
After turning the power down so I had a wider field of view, and making a focus adjustment, there they were! This time, instead of four goats one of which was obviously a kid as the day before, there were only two goats and horns were visible! I was able to get a range on what we eventually called the 'snow rock' at 848 yards, so our estimate of the distance from us to the goats was about 1,300 yards.
We determined that the lower of the two goats was the largest. He was laying down, and facing away from us, so hard to tell horn size or confirm (from behind) that he was a male. The other goat was directly above the first, and was feeding while walking up the steep hill. Finally the lower goat stood and turned to face us, and horns were definitely visible. This confirmed all of the information I had received from the Game and Fish with my license, and other information on the web. First, there were two goats, not a bunch of them. They were off by themselves, not with a group. They had what appeared at our long distance view to have larger horns than the nannies and kid we had seen the day before. I decided that we would try to get close enough to theses goats to get a shot. We also glassed seven or eight Bighorn sheep on the slope to our West from the divide. We did not see any rams with this group. They were unconcerned with our presence, although we were probably seven hundred yards from them.
Bill and I discussed the evidences as above, the time of day and he finally said – "Well, what do you want to do?" I told him "We're going to go down there and shoot one of them." He said "OK", and I said "But first, we're going to have something to eat." We got out sandwiches we had made earlier that morning (mine with bread, Bill's with tortilla's) and had a bite and something to drink. We also discussed that things would not appear the same as we approached the goats, and that landmarks from here would not be the same when we were near, on or behind them. We agreed to the 'snow rock' which was a massive outcropping with a snowfield on it, and the 'shadow rock' which was perhaps like an Arkansas razor-back type of formation that had the sun behind it and cast a shadow on our (North) side of it. We decided that we needed to get to the shadow rock, and would then be very close to the goats.
We packed up and headed down the road on its first switch-back on the Hughes Basin side of the divide. At that point we dove off the road and started cross country down to the small creek in the bottom, which is one of the original starting points of the North Fork of the Shoshone river that eventually feeds in to Buffalo Bill reservoir West of Cody. From there we started up the gentle side-hill on the West side of the basin, trying to side-hill such that we would end up at the base of the snow rock. As we went along, the slope got steeper and steeper. I also looked up at what might have been a path across the snow rock if we wanted to be sure to come out above both of the goats. The upper one we had last seen feeding in the scrub pine trees above the larger lower goat, and we were concerned that we might spook the upper goat, who would then spook the lower goat. Worst case scenario was that we wouldn't see either goat.
At one point I told Bill we needed to get to the snow rock, and he told me that we had just passed it! In fact, the shadow rocks were just ahead of us about another 50 yards. We decided to drop our packs there. I led now, so that the rifle would be in the front of our group, and got to a point in several trees. Bill then came along, and while I tried to spot a goat thru the trees as my cover, Bill went up the hill a bit for a better view. I had been using my rifle butt-first on the slope to keep from sliding down. Bill confirmed that the white spot I had seen a portion of thru the tree was indeed the lower goat. He was still laying down where he was when we saw him almost two hours earlier. We decided that if I could get to a rock out-crop about 40 yards further out on the slope, the goat would be very close. So, off I went, after putting a round in the chamber and putting the rifle on safe. That made a total of six rounds in the new Bergara 6.5 Creedmoor, and I told Bill that I might use all of them. In addition, I had emptied my right pocket of everything else, and had five rounds in that pocket it needed. I had also had the sense to turn the magnification on the scope down to five power, and adjusted the parallax adjustment to 100 yards. My reason for the low power was not only that the goat would be close, but that if he were to jump up or move or run off, I would need the wider field of view for a moving shot. With that, I thought that I had thought of everything, having made the decision years before not to shoot another animal that was laying down. I had done that on a large Bighorn ram, and a large six-point bull elk. Neither animal had been hit or killed. I would not make that mistake again!
I eased down below the trees, backing off a bit, then headed across the slope crouching while using my rifle as a walking stick. At one point half way to the rock outcropping, the surface below the scree was very firm, and I thought I was headed down the slope to who-knows-where? It held, while I scampered across. I had told Bill that I would stop a time or three so that my heart rate and breathing wouldn't get away from me. We had also discussed that rocks would be loose and headed down-slope as I walked across, and Bill said not to worry. Goats and sheep are very used to hearing rocks fall and roll as it happens all of the time where they live. It was only a matter of a minute or two, but I got to just behind the rock outcropping and hadn't seen the goat run off. Nor had I seen more than a portion of this white 'snow patch' of a goat since we had left the pass. I didn't need to see him until ready to shoot.
Now it was time to get in position to shoot, which proved a bit problematic. On our hike from the snow rock to the shadow rock, I had slipped and put my left hand down right in a patch of nettles. It hurt and stung, but we were on a goat hunt! Suck it up, it won't hurt that long! Well, on my side of the rock outcropping where I wanted to put my butt, and my left elbow, were two strategically placed nettle plants! This was not going to work! So, on my knees and the nettles under me but not being touched, lifted the scope covers, then I put the rifle barrel on the rock and pointed it where I saw 'snow'. However, I couldn't see the end of the barrel, and was concerned that perhaps it was placed right into a rock. In other words the bullet might travel only inches, instead of to the goat! I had to lift my head enough to see the end of the barrel to make sure, and when I did, I was staring at the goat, eye to eye. Bill would later confirm the distance at 99 yards, but he was close!
The barrel was clear, so I got behind the scope. The goat was looking in my direction, but since we had left our hats with our packs, he would only have seen half of my head and rifle. He was still laying down, quartering toward me about 30% or so. I pondered on the 'don't shoot him laying down' thoughts that I've carried for ten years since my sheep experience in 2008, then determined that I had six shots, would make sure I was ready immediately for any follow-up shots that might be needed, then decided on an aiming point. I picked out a spot just forward of his left shoulder, making sure I was not even close to his left horn, and squeezed the trigger. The report of the rifle was louder than I had anticipated! (The rifle has a muzzle brake and I didn't have ear plugs!) My first action after seeing his head tip to his left was to jack another round into the chamber and get back on the goat. I remember thinking about Anthony XXXX from work or Randy XXXXl when he or them was on a goat hunt in the Beartooth Mountains. The video showed them ready for a follow-up shot for several minutes while I was waiting for him not to flinch or attempt to stand up. After about what seems like thirty seconds now, he raised his head off of the ground to an upright position. I thought about it for maybe four seconds, moved my point of aim just forward of the prior shot and pulled the trigger. That was the last time he raised his head without human intervention. Bill was now standing behind me and said the range to the goat was 100 yards. After the last shot I waited another thirty seconds and when he never moved, I got up. Bill got a better range from where I had been laying and revised the reading down to 99 yards. That really didn't matter to me, since I had the scope set to 5 power and 100 yards on the parallax and the goat was dead.
I couldn't believe it! This was my third trip hunting up Sunlight Creek, and the first trip when we had seen any goats at all. In fact, Bill was even more surprised than I was. Later, after we had the goat on our backs and were approaching the pass on our way up, he told me that he was very pleasantly surprised! After hearing of my no-goat trips, he was mentally not expecting to see any goats, much less get on some or kill one.
Bill suggested that he would go back and get our packs, but that would be a fair distance across the side-hill, which was pretty steep. I had left my hiking sticks with my pack, and had used my rifle as a walking stick, and knew it would be fairly difficult with the load of both packs for him. However, I hesitated, thinking we should both go look at the goat first. He then suggested that I go on over to the goat and get started with cutting him up. I told him my knife and saw were both back in my pack across the hill. He said go ahead to the goat, and he would get the packs. One advantage he has with his pack is that he frame is old-style, and there are basically two parts of the frame that stick up above the bag, one on each side. Over those he was able to loop the shoulder straps of my pack and basically carry mine piggy-backed on his.
As I started to side-hill over to the goat, I gained a little altitude on the ridge running down from the top and was able to stand taller and see across the hill better above me to my right. What is that? Oh – it is the other goat! The one we had watched feed above the larger one that I ended up shooting from a mile or so back when we were on the top of the pass! As I looked, thinking I needed to get my phone/camera out in a big hurry, I realized he was asleep! He was laying down, with his body pointed West and his nose tucked under his leg like a dog. Amazing! We had both walked across the loose rocks to get to where I had taken the shots, then I had fired my rifle two times, then we had discussed next-steps and each walked across the slope again. He was still laying down even now. I was able to get my phone out and take a few pictures, then realized I could take a video! I wanted to be able to hold the camera steady in the wind and standing on the steep slope I wasn't as steady as I had wished. There were some fairly large rocks about fifteen feet ahead of me, so I headed to them. Just as I got there, he heard the ruckus I was making and stood up to see what was causing the noise. He looked right at me for a couple of minutes, and then loped off across the slope directly away from me. Not what I would call a run, but he was not walking.
After about twenty yards, he slowed to a fast walk, and continued across the slope to the next group of trees about 200 yards away. From there, I lost him behind some trees, but as I would see a few minutes later, he headed straight up the slope to our right. I only saw him stop once, and he appeared and disappeared behind the trees until I lost sight of him at the top of the high ridge.
I put the camera back in my pocket and continued to the goat. At one point, as I got above him, the ground was very hard with the loose gravelly rocks on top of it. I scooted across that in four to five quick steps! And then there I was – alone on the mountain with the goat at my feet. I was struck by how white he was – I had shot him in the shoulder that was laying on the ground, so this side showed no visible signs of injury. No blood, and he hadn't slid down the mountain so he was just pristine. Bill later commented on how dirty he was, but at this point I hadn't noticed. I remembered how I had seen him scooping up quite a bit of dirt or dust in the air when we had been watching from the pass. I know dogs will dig down a bit to get to cooler ground on which to lay, and that other animals scatter dust on themselves to combat mosquitoes, flies and other bugs.
Since I had stopped to take pictures and video's of the other goat, I hadn't been with the dead goat very long when Bill showed up carrying both packs, my hiking sticks and our hats. I suggested a path for him to take across the gulley between us, but he just headed across and joined me at the goat. We took pictures of each of us with the goat, and when it was my turn I lifted him by the throat to better show his face and head and there was something hard under his throat! What is that? It turned out that he was wearing a collar, and (according to the report I was sent later by the Wyoming Game and Fish biologist out of Cody, Wyoming) he had been wearing it for about five years. That seemed a bit disappointing, that this very wild animal had once had other human hands on him, and that he had been surrounded by a helicopter, had a net dropped onto him and then been subjected to all of the other procedures that would have been part of the anatomical and biological studies that would have been performed on him at the time of his capture and subsequent release.
I told Bill that we needed to take 'too many pictures' as he had referenced to me when I shot my Bighorn sheep in 2008. He said that most people think that they have taken a lot of pictures, but later wish they had taken more of them. We tried to pull him to where we could tuck his legs under him for the classic pictures, but about four feet behind him was a fifty-foot cliff. Since neither one of us wanted to take that plunge, we did what we could with him where he was laying.
Next, Bill asked what I planned to do with him, as in a full-body mount or shoulder mount. I told Bill I didn't have the energy (remember it has been ten years since my sheep experience, and my 65th birthday was three weeks away) to carry the whole hide and head, so we would cape him for a shoulder mount, but that I was taking the nut-sack and a front foot as well. We started to work on him, with Bill doing most of the cutting and me pulling and holding and keeping fingers out of the way. I told Bill we cape him, cut off the sack and foot – then push him off of the cliff before we gutted or de-boned him.
After getting his cape cut off, we cut the sack off and the front foot, then drug him about two body-lengths north to get him to slide down the gulley on the north side of the little dividing ridge below him. That would save us some distance to haul him when we got him loaded. After we pushed him off, he fell about fifty feet, then continued rolling down the hill about another two hundred yards where he lodged against a large rock in the gulley. As Bill was finishing the job I told him I was going to try to find US a way off the cliff. About twenty yards to our South was where he had been laying when Bill first spotted him, and there was fresh upturned dust in the bed there, along with fresh goat scat or sign. Just beyond that was a cut where it looked to me that we could work our way down off the cliff area.
We loaded our packs and Bill suggested that he would carry the hide and head. I agreed with his logic, and tied my rifle onto my pack, then we were indeed able to get down to where the goat was lodged. It was steep, and since Bill was ahead of me, I was nearly continually hollering 'rock' as I dislodged them on my way down. Because our route was a bit South to North, they rolled harmlessly behind him. When we got to where the goat was stuck, I sat down above him and got him rolling again. He went about another one hundred yards down the hill. We worked our way down to him, considered another push but decided to just de-bone him where he had stopped. Because we were still on the slope, even though it had eased off as we got lower, keeping him in one spot was a challenge. Bill did an excellent job of cutting off the meat, including getting the hips dislocated out of their sockets. Next we did the back-straps, and then he went for the tenderloins, which are inside the gut cavity of an animal. I asked him if had ever done that before, and he said 'no, but I've seen it done'. When he got done, I would be able to answer in a like manner the first time I try to do it. He did a great job!
After we got all of the meat cut off and on a large plastic bag, we cleaned it up a bit and I put it into other large plastic bags. I put the largest two of those three in my pack, with the smallest of the three containing the smaller piece that had come off of the goats left shoulder where I had placed the two shots. The only thing left to do was have a bite to eat and some water or Gatorade to drink before we picked up our loads and headed for the pass.
We helped each other up with our packs on our backs, and headed off! Bill headed directly left, such that we contoured across the hill which was interspersed with pine trees as we worked our way North toward the bottom of the pass. Actually, our target was the left side of the long switch-back that, once gained would make the walking surface better and give us a contoured slope up to the pass. We went quite a ways further than I thought we would go without a break, and my hips were screaming at me about the weight placed upon them! I knew that would go away, or a better way to state it – I would get used to it, just keep going. My right knee had been bothering me a bit for months, and seemed 'loose'. I was careful to place my right foot firmly on the ground at each step. We worked our way across and up, and then came to a small creek to cross. This is the head of the North Fork of the Shoshone river! That was cool – we stepped across this small creek, then had to struggle up the other side to a long, wide sloping portion. Bill had worked ahead of me since his pace was a bit faster, so when I came out on the slope I hollered at him that I needed a break. He heard me on the second or third try and stopped to wait for me. As I continued walking up to where he was, three pieces of rock much different than the rest of them on the ground caught my eye and I (struggled to) bent over and picked them up. When I got to Bill, I suggested a break, and he said he had thought about one at the creek crossing, but didn't think he could get started again. I told him I needed to get the weight off for a few minutes, so he agreed and we dropped our packs. I showed him the three pieces of rock and he said they were Indian chips from Native American activity."
As I approached the pass, I took a couple of pictures then went to the rock pile just South and up a bit from the pass where Bill had his spotting scope set up. He said 'there are your goats' as I got to him and out of the wind a bit. I called him a liar. This was too good to be true, and I miss-read him. After scrunching down behind his Swarovski spotter, I couldn't see anything resembling a goat. Turns out he had it turned up to about sixty power, and I must have bumped it a bit getting behind it and between the rocks and the scope.
After turning the power down so I had a wider field of view, and making a focus adjustment, there they were! This time, instead of four goats one of which was obviously a kid as the day before, there were only two goats and horns were visible! I was able to get a range on what we eventually called the 'snow rock' at 848 yards, so our estimate of the distance from us to the goats was about 1,300 yards.
We determined that the lower of the two goats was the largest. He was laying down, and facing away from us, so hard to tell horn size or confirm (from behind) that he was a male. The other goat was directly above the first, and was feeding while walking up the steep hill. Finally the lower goat stood and turned to face us, and horns were definitely visible. This confirmed all of the information I had received from the Game and Fish with my license, and other information on the web. First, there were two goats, not a bunch of them. They were off by themselves, not with a group. They had what appeared at our long distance view to have larger horns than the nannies and kid we had seen the day before. I decided that we would try to get close enough to theses goats to get a shot. We also glassed seven or eight Bighorn sheep on the slope to our West from the divide. We did not see any rams with this group. They were unconcerned with our presence, although we were probably seven hundred yards from them.
Bill and I discussed the evidences as above, the time of day and he finally said – "Well, what do you want to do?" I told him "We're going to go down there and shoot one of them." He said "OK", and I said "But first, we're going to have something to eat." We got out sandwiches we had made earlier that morning (mine with bread, Bill's with tortilla's) and had a bite and something to drink. We also discussed that things would not appear the same as we approached the goats, and that landmarks from here would not be the same when we were near, on or behind them. We agreed to the 'snow rock' which was a massive outcropping with a snowfield on it, and the 'shadow rock' which was perhaps like an Arkansas razor-back type of formation that had the sun behind it and cast a shadow on our (North) side of it. We decided that we needed to get to the shadow rock, and would then be very close to the goats.
We packed up and headed down the road on its first switch-back on the Hughes Basin side of the divide. At that point we dove off the road and started cross country down to the small creek in the bottom, which is one of the original starting points of the North Fork of the Shoshone river that eventually feeds in to Buffalo Bill reservoir West of Cody. From there we started up the gentle side-hill on the West side of the basin, trying to side-hill such that we would end up at the base of the snow rock. As we went along, the slope got steeper and steeper. I also looked up at what might have been a path across the snow rock if we wanted to be sure to come out above both of the goats. The upper one we had last seen feeding in the scrub pine trees above the larger lower goat, and we were concerned that we might spook the upper goat, who would then spook the lower goat. Worst case scenario was that we wouldn't see either goat.
At one point I told Bill we needed to get to the snow rock, and he told me that we had just passed it! In fact, the shadow rocks were just ahead of us about another 50 yards. We decided to drop our packs there. I led now, so that the rifle would be in the front of our group, and got to a point in several trees. Bill then came along, and while I tried to spot a goat thru the trees as my cover, Bill went up the hill a bit for a better view. I had been using my rifle butt-first on the slope to keep from sliding down. Bill confirmed that the white spot I had seen a portion of thru the tree was indeed the lower goat. He was still laying down where he was when we saw him almost two hours earlier. We decided that if I could get to a rock out-crop about 40 yards further out on the slope, the goat would be very close. So, off I went, after putting a round in the chamber and putting the rifle on safe. That made a total of six rounds in the new Bergara 6.5 Creedmoor, and I told Bill that I might use all of them. In addition, I had emptied my right pocket of everything else, and had five rounds in that pocket it needed. I had also had the sense to turn the magnification on the scope down to five power, and adjusted the parallax adjustment to 100 yards. My reason for the low power was not only that the goat would be close, but that if he were to jump up or move or run off, I would need the wider field of view for a moving shot. With that, I thought that I had thought of everything, having made the decision years before not to shoot another animal that was laying down. I had done that on a large Bighorn ram, and a large six-point bull elk. Neither animal had been hit or killed. I would not make that mistake again!
I eased down below the trees, backing off a bit, then headed across the slope crouching while using my rifle as a walking stick. At one point half way to the rock outcropping, the surface below the scree was very firm, and I thought I was headed down the slope to who-knows-where? It held, while I scampered across. I had told Bill that I would stop a time or three so that my heart rate and breathing wouldn't get away from me. We had also discussed that rocks would be loose and headed down-slope as I walked across, and Bill said not to worry. Goats and sheep are very used to hearing rocks fall and roll as it happens all of the time where they live. It was only a matter of a minute or two, but I got to just behind the rock outcropping and hadn't seen the goat run off. Nor had I seen more than a portion of this white 'snow patch' of a goat since we had left the pass. I didn't need to see him until ready to shoot.
Now it was time to get in position to shoot, which proved a bit problematic. On our hike from the snow rock to the shadow rock, I had slipped and put my left hand down right in a patch of nettles. It hurt and stung, but we were on a goat hunt! Suck it up, it won't hurt that long! Well, on my side of the rock outcropping where I wanted to put my butt, and my left elbow, were two strategically placed nettle plants! This was not going to work! So, on my knees and the nettles under me but not being touched, lifted the scope covers, then I put the rifle barrel on the rock and pointed it where I saw 'snow'. However, I couldn't see the end of the barrel, and was concerned that perhaps it was placed right into a rock. In other words the bullet might travel only inches, instead of to the goat! I had to lift my head enough to see the end of the barrel to make sure, and when I did, I was staring at the goat, eye to eye. Bill would later confirm the distance at 99 yards, but he was close!
The barrel was clear, so I got behind the scope. The goat was looking in my direction, but since we had left our hats with our packs, he would only have seen half of my head and rifle. He was still laying down, quartering toward me about 30% or so. I pondered on the 'don't shoot him laying down' thoughts that I've carried for ten years since my sheep experience in 2008, then determined that I had six shots, would make sure I was ready immediately for any follow-up shots that might be needed, then decided on an aiming point. I picked out a spot just forward of his left shoulder, making sure I was not even close to his left horn, and squeezed the trigger. The report of the rifle was louder than I had anticipated! (The rifle has a muzzle brake and I didn't have ear plugs!) My first action after seeing his head tip to his left was to jack another round into the chamber and get back on the goat. I remember thinking about Anthony XXXX from work or Randy XXXXl when he or them was on a goat hunt in the Beartooth Mountains. The video showed them ready for a follow-up shot for several minutes while I was waiting for him not to flinch or attempt to stand up. After about what seems like thirty seconds now, he raised his head off of the ground to an upright position. I thought about it for maybe four seconds, moved my point of aim just forward of the prior shot and pulled the trigger. That was the last time he raised his head without human intervention. Bill was now standing behind me and said the range to the goat was 100 yards. After the last shot I waited another thirty seconds and when he never moved, I got up. Bill got a better range from where I had been laying and revised the reading down to 99 yards. That really didn't matter to me, since I had the scope set to 5 power and 100 yards on the parallax and the goat was dead.
I couldn't believe it! This was my third trip hunting up Sunlight Creek, and the first trip when we had seen any goats at all. In fact, Bill was even more surprised than I was. Later, after we had the goat on our backs and were approaching the pass on our way up, he told me that he was very pleasantly surprised! After hearing of my no-goat trips, he was mentally not expecting to see any goats, much less get on some or kill one.
Bill suggested that he would go back and get our packs, but that would be a fair distance across the side-hill, which was pretty steep. I had left my hiking sticks with my pack, and had used my rifle as a walking stick, and knew it would be fairly difficult with the load of both packs for him. However, I hesitated, thinking we should both go look at the goat first. He then suggested that I go on over to the goat and get started with cutting him up. I told him my knife and saw were both back in my pack across the hill. He said go ahead to the goat, and he would get the packs. One advantage he has with his pack is that he frame is old-style, and there are basically two parts of the frame that stick up above the bag, one on each side. Over those he was able to loop the shoulder straps of my pack and basically carry mine piggy-backed on his.
As I started to side-hill over to the goat, I gained a little altitude on the ridge running down from the top and was able to stand taller and see across the hill better above me to my right. What is that? Oh – it is the other goat! The one we had watched feed above the larger one that I ended up shooting from a mile or so back when we were on the top of the pass! As I looked, thinking I needed to get my phone/camera out in a big hurry, I realized he was asleep! He was laying down, with his body pointed West and his nose tucked under his leg like a dog. Amazing! We had both walked across the loose rocks to get to where I had taken the shots, then I had fired my rifle two times, then we had discussed next-steps and each walked across the slope again. He was still laying down even now. I was able to get my phone out and take a few pictures, then realized I could take a video! I wanted to be able to hold the camera steady in the wind and standing on the steep slope I wasn't as steady as I had wished. There were some fairly large rocks about fifteen feet ahead of me, so I headed to them. Just as I got there, he heard the ruckus I was making and stood up to see what was causing the noise. He looked right at me for a couple of minutes, and then loped off across the slope directly away from me. Not what I would call a run, but he was not walking.
After about twenty yards, he slowed to a fast walk, and continued across the slope to the next group of trees about 200 yards away. From there, I lost him behind some trees, but as I would see a few minutes later, he headed straight up the slope to our right. I only saw him stop once, and he appeared and disappeared behind the trees until I lost sight of him at the top of the high ridge.
I put the camera back in my pocket and continued to the goat. At one point, as I got above him, the ground was very hard with the loose gravelly rocks on top of it. I scooted across that in four to five quick steps! And then there I was – alone on the mountain with the goat at my feet. I was struck by how white he was – I had shot him in the shoulder that was laying on the ground, so this side showed no visible signs of injury. No blood, and he hadn't slid down the mountain so he was just pristine. Bill later commented on how dirty he was, but at this point I hadn't noticed. I remembered how I had seen him scooping up quite a bit of dirt or dust in the air when we had been watching from the pass. I know dogs will dig down a bit to get to cooler ground on which to lay, and that other animals scatter dust on themselves to combat mosquitoes, flies and other bugs.
Since I had stopped to take pictures and video's of the other goat, I hadn't been with the dead goat very long when Bill showed up carrying both packs, my hiking sticks and our hats. I suggested a path for him to take across the gulley between us, but he just headed across and joined me at the goat. We took pictures of each of us with the goat, and when it was my turn I lifted him by the throat to better show his face and head and there was something hard under his throat! What is that? It turned out that he was wearing a collar, and (according to the report I was sent later by the Wyoming Game and Fish biologist out of Cody, Wyoming) he had been wearing it for about five years. That seemed a bit disappointing, that this very wild animal had once had other human hands on him, and that he had been surrounded by a helicopter, had a net dropped onto him and then been subjected to all of the other procedures that would have been part of the anatomical and biological studies that would have been performed on him at the time of his capture and subsequent release.
I told Bill that we needed to take 'too many pictures' as he had referenced to me when I shot my Bighorn sheep in 2008. He said that most people think that they have taken a lot of pictures, but later wish they had taken more of them. We tried to pull him to where we could tuck his legs under him for the classic pictures, but about four feet behind him was a fifty-foot cliff. Since neither one of us wanted to take that plunge, we did what we could with him where he was laying.
Next, Bill asked what I planned to do with him, as in a full-body mount or shoulder mount. I told Bill I didn't have the energy (remember it has been ten years since my sheep experience, and my 65th birthday was three weeks away) to carry the whole hide and head, so we would cape him for a shoulder mount, but that I was taking the nut-sack and a front foot as well. We started to work on him, with Bill doing most of the cutting and me pulling and holding and keeping fingers out of the way. I told Bill we cape him, cut off the sack and foot – then push him off of the cliff before we gutted or de-boned him.
After getting his cape cut off, we cut the sack off and the front foot, then drug him about two body-lengths north to get him to slide down the gulley on the north side of the little dividing ridge below him. That would save us some distance to haul him when we got him loaded. After we pushed him off, he fell about fifty feet, then continued rolling down the hill about another two hundred yards where he lodged against a large rock in the gulley. As Bill was finishing the job I told him I was going to try to find US a way off the cliff. About twenty yards to our South was where he had been laying when Bill first spotted him, and there was fresh upturned dust in the bed there, along with fresh goat scat or sign. Just beyond that was a cut where it looked to me that we could work our way down off the cliff area.
We loaded our packs and Bill suggested that he would carry the hide and head. I agreed with his logic, and tied my rifle onto my pack, then we were indeed able to get down to where the goat was lodged. It was steep, and since Bill was ahead of me, I was nearly continually hollering 'rock' as I dislodged them on my way down. Because our route was a bit South to North, they rolled harmlessly behind him. When we got to where the goat was stuck, I sat down above him and got him rolling again. He went about another one hundred yards down the hill. We worked our way down to him, considered another push but decided to just de-bone him where he had stopped. Because we were still on the slope, even though it had eased off as we got lower, keeping him in one spot was a challenge. Bill did an excellent job of cutting off the meat, including getting the hips dislocated out of their sockets. Next we did the back-straps, and then he went for the tenderloins, which are inside the gut cavity of an animal. I asked him if had ever done that before, and he said 'no, but I've seen it done'. When he got done, I would be able to answer in a like manner the first time I try to do it. He did a great job!
After we got all of the meat cut off and on a large plastic bag, we cleaned it up a bit and I put it into other large plastic bags. I put the largest two of those three in my pack, with the smallest of the three containing the smaller piece that had come off of the goats left shoulder where I had placed the two shots. The only thing left to do was have a bite to eat and some water or Gatorade to drink before we picked up our loads and headed for the pass.
We helped each other up with our packs on our backs, and headed off! Bill headed directly left, such that we contoured across the hill which was interspersed with pine trees as we worked our way North toward the bottom of the pass. Actually, our target was the left side of the long switch-back that, once gained would make the walking surface better and give us a contoured slope up to the pass. We went quite a ways further than I thought we would go without a break, and my hips were screaming at me about the weight placed upon them! I knew that would go away, or a better way to state it – I would get used to it, just keep going. My right knee had been bothering me a bit for months, and seemed 'loose'. I was careful to place my right foot firmly on the ground at each step. We worked our way across and up, and then came to a small creek to cross. This is the head of the North Fork of the Shoshone river! That was cool – we stepped across this small creek, then had to struggle up the other side to a long, wide sloping portion. Bill had worked ahead of me since his pace was a bit faster, so when I came out on the slope I hollered at him that I needed a break. He heard me on the second or third try and stopped to wait for me. As I continued walking up to where he was, three pieces of rock much different than the rest of them on the ground caught my eye and I (struggled to) bent over and picked them up. When I got to Bill, I suggested a break, and he said he had thought about one at the creek crossing, but didn't think he could get started again. I told him I needed to get the weight off for a few minutes, so he agreed and we dropped our packs. I showed him the three pieces of rock and he said they were Indian chips from Native American activity."
whitetailjunkee
Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2011
- Messages
- 21
Use what your rifle shoots well. Shot placement is the biggest controllable variable in whether you anchor an animal or have to find a blood trail. Breaking both shoulders will anchor most game in their tracks. And even when you do everything right, they sometimes still run or fall into a nasty spot. You can break goat shoulders with about anything from an interlock, eld x, accubond, partition, game king, or hot cor out of any standard deer cartridge.
CBH Australia
Well-Known Member
I would started by saying 7mm,
I shot plenty of big goats in Australia years ago with a .222. I reckon from the pics the Mountain Goat are a heavy build compared to our Feral goat.
I'm a big fan of 7mm now. 7-08 and a lightweight .280ai and never considered mountain goat or sheep to be for me.
I'm changing my mind on the sheep thing but I reckon I need to excercise a bit.
I shot plenty of big goats in Australia years ago with a .222. I reckon from the pics the Mountain Goat are a heavy build compared to our Feral goat.
I'm a big fan of 7mm now. 7-08 and a lightweight .280ai and never considered mountain goat or sheep to be for me.
I'm changing my mind on the sheep thing but I reckon I need to excercise a bit.
Longrangers
Well-Known Member
In Europa abbiamo un'abbondanza di camosci che sono paragonabili alla tua capra. Normalmente uso un blaser pieghevole 6,5 x 57 R con un proiettile da 8 grammi. Quando vado su una montagna dove so che lo scatto sarà oltre i 300 metri, utilizzo un Mauser 66 Cal 6.5x68, paragonabile al 264 w o un Sauer 7 mm RM. Quando ho la possibilità di incontrare dei cervi, utilizzo un Sabatti Cal 30-06 express o un mannlicher schonauer 7x64.
