Got a Mountain Goat (photo)
01-27-2004, 07:41 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 4
Got a Mountain Goat (photo)
Just joined this site. I enjoy reading and seeing everyone's hunting stories so much, I thought I would share mine. As much as I hate typing, it's only right to give back a little instead of just taking by just reading everyone else's stories. Therefore I just signed up, so here it goes.
We drove 30 miles out the road from city of Kodiak on saturday morning Nov 1st. After shooting my bow in for about a half hour due to some equipment malfunctions, I was ready to go. My buddy and I started the long climb up at around 1 pm. Here on Kodiak the low country is filled with alder's, pushkie, and a wonderful plant named Devil's club. Fun stuff to hike through. After about an hour and a half of climbing we broke into alpine and started walking along a knife like ridge that ran for about 5 miles with several saddles that required going down and then back up. The fog was rolling in and out and winds were steady at 25 gusting to 40. Yes, in Kodiak you get wind and fog at the same time. It wasn't until about 4:30 pm we saw our 1st goat. He was a ways off yet, and with it getting dark around 5:30, all we could do was watch it and continue hiking to our camping spot. We actually ended pitching our tarp and bivy sacks within a couple hundred yards of where we saw the goat. Next morning we were out of our bivy's and hunting by 8:30am. No need to get started earlier since the sun doesn't come up until 9:30ish. We rolled up the tarp and bivy's and packed up and continued along the ridge. We learned to hunt with our sleeping gear on our backs over the years. After several hunts where we would start chasing sheep or goats we would find ourselves 7-8 miles from our sleeping bags and wishing we had them with us. That way you could just pitch camp where you ended up that night. So off we went. We climbed the highest peak in the area, which was extremely steep and tricky. Once on top we took off our packs and started glassing. As the sun rose and the fog started burning off we started to see goats. We saw a group of 5 goats with 2 nice billys, a group of 20 nanny's and kids with a few small billy's, and a couple of single billy's. Saw all that within the first 15 minutes of glassing. After about an hour we continued along the ridge to relocate and glass some new area. We got to another peak and poked our heads over to take a look. Below us at about 200 yards was a nanny and billy feed along the ridge in our direction. The fed down off the ridge a little ways and bedded down what looked like about 25 yards from the ridge line. BINGO! We slid back down away from the peak and down the opposite side of the ridge where they were bedded. I quckly put on my whites and off we went. On the way we saw a young goat bedded down 100 yards below us on our side of the ridge facing away from us. So far so good. We got to the point where we thought we were directly on the opposite side of the ridge as the 2 bedded goats, and commenced crwaling up to the ridge. About 40 yards from the ridge we stopped and came up with an idea. I told my buddy to belly crawl up and see if he could range them. So we crawled up anther 15 yards and then he went up alone. As he raised up to his hand and knees to peak over, he suddenly dropped down to his belly and rolled onto his back and held up 5 fingers and mouthed the words "5 yards". The goats had gotten up and were feeding. I quickly stood up and knocked an arrow. Due to the steepness of the ridge, they couldn't see me and I couldn't see them. I slowly stepped forward step by step towards the ridge line. All the sudden I could see the back of one of the goats take off at a dead run to my left. I took 2 quick steps up and drew my bow and took aim at the running goat. The goat stopped and looked back me from 25 yards out. As I was aiming I could see it was the nanny. I stayed at full draw and took a couple of more steps up towards the ridge looking for the billy. All the sudden he comes running up the ridge and right towards the nanny, where he stops and looks back at me also. There they were, 1 nanny and 1 billy 25 yards away staring at a 6'2" tall white goat...(me) That pause to look back resulted in a complete pass through both lungs and a fifty yard run before piling up. Thankfully not off the 900 ft drop off. The rest of the story is just cleaning and caping and camping one more nite before getting back to the truck. Not to mention another 10 yard encounter with a huge bodied billy with both horns busted off about an inch up from the bases. All in all, it was an awesome hunt. Not much of a story teller or writer, but I hope you all enjoyed my story at least half as much as I enjoy reading everyone else's. Take care everyone and straight shootin. Wil
We drove 30 miles out the road from city of Kodiak on saturday morning Nov 1st. After shooting my bow in for about a half hour due to some equipment malfunctions, I was ready to go. My buddy and I started the long climb up at around 1 pm. Here on Kodiak the low country is filled with alder's, pushkie, and a wonderful plant named Devil's club. Fun stuff to hike through. After about an hour and a half of climbing we broke into alpine and started walking along a knife like ridge that ran for about 5 miles with several saddles that required going down and then back up. The fog was rolling in and out and winds were steady at 25 gusting to 40. Yes, in Kodiak you get wind and fog at the same time. It wasn't until about 4:30 pm we saw our 1st goat. He was a ways off yet, and with it getting dark around 5:30, all we could do was watch it and continue hiking to our camping spot. We actually ended pitching our tarp and bivy sacks within a couple hundred yards of where we saw the goat. Next morning we were out of our bivy's and hunting by 8:30am. No need to get started earlier since the sun doesn't come up until 9:30ish. We rolled up the tarp and bivy's and packed up and continued along the ridge. We learned to hunt with our sleeping gear on our backs over the years. After several hunts where we would start chasing sheep or goats we would find ourselves 7-8 miles from our sleeping bags and wishing we had them with us. That way you could just pitch camp where you ended up that night. So off we went. We climbed the highest peak in the area, which was extremely steep and tricky. Once on top we took off our packs and started glassing. As the sun rose and the fog started burning off we started to see goats. We saw a group of 5 goats with 2 nice billys, a group of 20 nanny's and kids with a few small billy's, and a couple of single billy's. Saw all that within the first 15 minutes of glassing. After about an hour we continued along the ridge to relocate and glass some new area. We got to another peak and poked our heads over to take a look. Below us at about 200 yards was a nanny and billy feed along the ridge in our direction. The fed down off the ridge a little ways and bedded down what looked like about 25 yards from the ridge line. BINGO! We slid back down away from the peak and down the opposite side of the ridge where they were bedded. I quckly put on my whites and off we went. On the way we saw a young goat bedded down 100 yards below us on our side of the ridge facing away from us. So far so good. We got to the point where we thought we were directly on the opposite side of the ridge as the 2 bedded goats, and commenced crwaling up to the ridge. About 40 yards from the ridge we stopped and came up with an idea. I told my buddy to belly crawl up and see if he could range them. So we crawled up anther 15 yards and then he went up alone. As he raised up to his hand and knees to peak over, he suddenly dropped down to his belly and rolled onto his back and held up 5 fingers and mouthed the words "5 yards". The goats had gotten up and were feeding. I quickly stood up and knocked an arrow. Due to the steepness of the ridge, they couldn't see me and I couldn't see them. I slowly stepped forward step by step towards the ridge line. All the sudden I could see the back of one of the goats take off at a dead run to my left. I took 2 quick steps up and drew my bow and took aim at the running goat. The goat stopped and looked back me from 25 yards out. As I was aiming I could see it was the nanny. I stayed at full draw and took a couple of more steps up towards the ridge looking for the billy. All the sudden he comes running up the ridge and right towards the nanny, where he stops and looks back at me also. There they were, 1 nanny and 1 billy 25 yards away staring at a 6'2" tall white goat...(me) That pause to look back resulted in a complete pass through both lungs and a fifty yard run before piling up. Thankfully not off the 900 ft drop off. The rest of the story is just cleaning and caping and camping one more nite before getting back to the truck. Not to mention another 10 yard encounter with a huge bodied billy with both horns busted off about an inch up from the bases. All in all, it was an awesome hunt. Not much of a story teller or writer, but I hope you all enjoyed my story at least half as much as I enjoy reading everyone else's. Take care everyone and straight shootin. Wil
01-27-2004, 07:50 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: ......
Posts: 3,643
RE: Got a Mountain Goat (photo)
Awesome hunt ! I aint an expert but DAMN does that goat have like 11" horns or what ?? If he's as big as he looks he'll go way up in P&Y ???
Gorgeous man, congratulations - goats and rams are a dream of mine .....
Gorgeous man, congratulations - goats and rams are a dream of mine .....
01-27-2004, 11:21 PM
#8
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Tygh Valley or USA
Posts: 166
RE: Got a Mountain Goat (photo)
Welcome, nice story and picture!!!
My daughter lives in anchorage, and i'm hoping to go up for a bow moose hunt this year.
Have you ever tried for one of those giant brown bears
...now that would be a rush with a bow.........fishon
My daughter lives in anchorage, and i'm hoping to go up for a bow moose hunt this year.
Have you ever tried for one of those giant brown bears
...now that would be a rush with a bow.........fishon
01-28-2004, 03:11 AM
#10
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Hennessey,OK
Posts: 60
RE: Got a Mountain Goat (photo)
I agree with robin, I believe thats the best pic in a long time. The fog in the back ground just does something to the photo. Great story to. How about your buddy did he have any luck?