sray
Active Member
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LAST EDITED ON Oct-10-19 AT 02:20PM (MST)[p]I just thought I'd share my hunt with everyone. This year I drew Mountain goat tag here in Idaho. It's was also my first year owning mules so I had my hands full before the season. I was learning how to hunt and trail ride off these mules along with learning best way to pack them and run a pack string. I started about June going out and hitting some high mountain lakes doing a little fishing, riding, and scouting. I started to really enjoy the mules and before I knew it it was time to pack my goat camp in and start focus on hunting. I ended up waiting for the goats hair to grow out a little longer and focus on archery elk. I did see goats while elk hunting and had an idea what goat I wanted to go after once there winter hair came in. My elk hunt was very exciting but didn't end up filling my tag. Once elk was over I decided to see if I could find the #1 billy I had see the month prior. He never came into the basin I was camping in. He would just sit at the top and look down into it. So I ended up riding the mules around the canyon and up the basin that I thought he might call home. It was a long ride getting up there and a fun trail. We had about 6" of fresh snow which made it really hard to see a goat without using a spotting scope. we finally reached the top of the basin or the end of the trail had a little lunch and started to glass. Just a few minutes went by when I thought I had spotted a dead goat. He was flat as he could get head down and just dead looking. I told the guys I was with "I found a dead goat I've gotta go check it out!" We sat there and talked trying to figure out a way to get up to it. Just as we were looking it over the goat lifted his head. Sweet he's alive! Hahah I wasn't sure that was the goat I was after being over a mile away from him we decided to get a closer look. We ended up being able to ride about 800 yards from him. I looked him over and still wasn't sure if it was him or not. He soon got up and scratched his legs and walk behind a rock out of sight. While waiting for him to come back into view I spotted another goat. He was definitely smaller. We noticed he was headed right to the other goat and thought that he might get the other one back into view. Sure enough he bumped the other one into view and that's all I needed. I was able to compare my goat with another mature Billy and there wasn't a question in my mind that I wanted to pull the trigger on this goat. I pulled my rifle off the pack mule and climbed up a steep cliff to try and cut the distance. I left my buddy's back at the mules and told them they better get it on film. Not even thinking there not going to know when I'm going pull the trigger. Haha I got a good rest dialed my turrets for the shot and waited for a broadside shot. Smack I could hear the bullet hit the goat the goat took a few steps and I shot again hitting him again and finally a third hit to make him roll. I can't tell you how much this hunt means to me. It was so much fun watching the goat run around the cliffs like it was flat ground and just spending time in an area I would probably never hunt and just looking over the scenery. Being able to learn how to hunt from horseback and just everything that went into this hunt was a blast. Fish and game ended up measuring my goat at 9" 5" at the base and between 4 and 5 years old we didn't get back to the house trailer till 12:00 that night it was a 4 hour ride out in the dark without stopping! What an experience.
