I drew a Mtn Goat tag for my native CO in 2001. It took me 22 years to pull it. My tag was for unit G13 in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area north of Buena Vista. Since it took so long to get the tag, I decided to cash in all my saved leave from the Navy and hunt the entire season. I was on shore duty at the time so my request was approved. Hunts like this go better with company so I had a die hard hunting buddy who was unemployed at the time go with me.

We hunted hard and saw a lot of goats, but early on all we could find were bunches of nannies and kids. Nannies were legal, but since I knew this was probably the only goat tag I would ever draw, I wanted a billy. This was a pure backpack hunt so we were surrounded by good goat country all the time. If the breeding season isn't going on, billies will normally be found in really rough country by themselves. Every day we got up high and sat behind spotting scopes picking the hillsides apart. We finally found a couple different billies at long range, which is the norm for this type of hunt. However, after stalking close and looking them over, I passed on them because they simply weren't big enough to put such a hard to get tag on. We moved camp several times and continued this process. There was a lot of water in the form of creeks and seeps so we could easily stay up in the country but we did have to go to town once for resupply of food. You can only carry so much on a backpack hunt.

Finally one morning I was looking at a distant peak through a 60x Leica spotting scope my buddy had. There were a lot of patches of snow, some small and some pretty big, on the peak, which was named Mt. Huron, and I suddenly realized one of the patches was moving. There is only one thing that would be white and moving that high up and it is a goat. Since it was all alone and the peak looked spooky rough from about 3 miles away, I was pretty sure it was a billy. So, off we went.

We had to drop down about 3000 feet in elevation to a saddle between the two peaks and then cross the saddle and begin to climb Mt. Huron. During this time we were out of sight of the billy but I had watched him bed below a big snow patch and knew if he stayed put, and there was no real reason for him to move, I could find him again. After about 6 steady hours of walking and climbing we got to a place where we could see the snow patch and the billy was still there. By this time we were around 700 yards from him. My buddy stayed put to keep an eye on the billy and I finished the stalk alone. Sometimes on a stalk over loose rock, 2 people moving is simply 1 too many.

After closing the distance to about 300 yards I got behind a boulder and wadded up my jacket to pad my rifle and waited since I didn't want to risk a shot while he was bedded. 20 or 30 minutes later he stood up and turned broadside to me. My first round hit him high and broke him down. He struggled back up and turned to face me and the second round took him in the center of the chest and exited his right flank. That one put him down for the count and I walked up on a once in a lifetime animal. In the pic you can see the blood from both bullets.

We only had time for a few quick pics and then had to cape and bone him. The sky looked like it was going to rain and I didn't want to get caught in the open on that peak if lightning started popping. It took a little more than an hr to get him boned, rough caped and loaded and we went down. By the time we got to camp it was nearly midnight. Talk about tired!!! Later I looked at a topo map for Mt. Huron. It is one of Colorado's 14ers and as near as I could figure, I took that billy at about 13,800 ft.

The rifle I used was an old Rem Model 700 ADL I've had since I was 14 and I used a handloaded Nosler 160 Gr Partition over 59.3 gr of IMR 4831 powder. In my rifle this is a very accurate load and is what I use for most of my hunting. In CO, all Mtn Goats have to be inspected by the DOW, so I took him to DOW office in Salida which is about 30 miles from Buena Vista. There they took a tooth out of him, recorded the kill and measured the horns. The left horn was exactly 9 inches and the right horn was 9 1/8th. He had 6 annual growth rings. I later found out he was the oldest and biggest billy taken in G13 that season. There have been bigger goats taken before mine in that unit and bigger goats taken after mine in that unit, but that year he was in the top place.

Here's the really interesting thing. I took this billy the day after the World Trade Center was brought down. That's right, he went down on 9/12/2001. Since we were backpacking, we had no way of knowing that the world had forever changed. By the time I got to Buena Vista to head to the check station with this billy, those buildings had been on the ground for 5 days. I was on active duty and had absolutely no idea we had been attacked.

Everybody remembers where they were on 9/11. Me, I was hunting Mtn Goats in the Colorado Rockies!

I know the area well. I live in Buena Vista. Did you see any elk?

Not yet, but it's on my bucket list........ if my achy knees can get me up into goat country.

Yep. We saw a couple herds of elk and also a few really good muley bucks. A bonus were the 3 or 4 bear we saw in the areas where avalanches had swept away the trees. It looked like they were feeding. I'm guessing they were eating raspberries. But all I had a tag for was goats so all I did was spot elk/deer/bear, watch them for a few minutes and go back to glassing for goat.

By the way, here's what he looks like now after the taxidermist got done with him. The bighorn ram is another story for another day.

I'm with you. Way too old for goats. Elk is hard enough.

To answer the question. I wasn't hunting on 9/11, but getting ready for the elk hunt.

Hunts are even harder for you. You have to carry out those heads.

Not the whole head! Capes and a skull plate most the time. But the goat and the sheep I had to bring out the skull less the bottom jaw since the DOW wants a tooth. I quit mounting stuff several years ago. For deer, elk and pronghorn I don't even bring out antlers/horns unless the law requires it. You can wrap up a lot of money in taxidermy especially if you toss Africa into the mix. I've done 5 safaris and the wife says I have more than enough "dead things" on the walls.

But I would like a cinnamon bear skin to go with the chocolate and black I already have. LOL

I hear you about the taxidermy. My wife tells me I should just "saw the horns off" and nail them to the barn wall like everybody else does. I think she has a point.
If she had her way I'd just shoot does and cows to fill her freezers.

Ive seen them around Mt Rushmore in Sd...but never hunted them. Congrats though!

flags, Congrats on a fine billy and a great report.

To answer your original question, yes, I have hunted mountain goats. I got my billy in November of 1978 on a solo, DIY hunt in southwest Montana. When I left my truck the temperature was -20* F, and when I climbed up to where the goat was, the snow was between 2 to 3 feet deep.

I climbed to about 100 yds from an old, yellow billy, and a 180 gr Partition from my .30 Gibbs ended my hunt. I completely skinned him out where he dropped and it was so cold that I did most of the skinning blind by keeping his skin over my hands. I put the whole skin in my pack, and dragged the carcass down the mountain.

My taxidermist told me that he had mounted over 100 goats and that mine had the largest body that he had seen. He wanted to do a full body mount, but back then I didn't have the room for that large of a mount. My taxidermist even offered to do the full mount for 1/3 less than he normally charged, but I sad no. I had him done in a half mount. I've regretted that decision for over 35 years.

I've applied for another Montana goat tag every year for the past 36 years and have not drawn. I've also had the maximum number of "bonus points" every year that they've had them. Every year when I apply for a goat tag I wonder if I can still climb up into goat country. I'm beginning to realize that I'm not 32 any more.