Just got back from MT last night, it was a relatively short and successful hunt. Short, but tough for an old guy. I got real lucky and drew a tag for the new hunt in unit 361, right on the ID border, west of West Yellowstone.
And I also got really, really lucky in that I had help; Pete Muennich (Founder of Rocky Mtn. Goat Alliance) met up with me and wow that was fortunate; In retrospect I don't think I could have done this hunt alone. As a side note Pete's organization, along with Julie Cunningham (FWP) were instrumental in getting this unit opened to hunting, so thanks to them for that alone.
Pete asked that I write a story of my hunt for his website (http://www.goatalliance.org/) so I will just post a few pictures and a summary here. It might take a few more days or weeks before the story shows up on his site, I'll post an update when it happens.
Even more luck early on, Randy Newberg contacted me back when he found out I drew the tag and told me where he has seen goats when he was previously elk hunting in the unit. That information proved golden, and probably have saved us a ton of hard work, and time.
So, as I entered Montana on Hwy 20 last Thursday afternoon my odometer just clicked over 900 miles (from Albuquerque). I just passed mile marker 2 and looked east to the ridge Newberg had mentioned and thought I saw something that might be a goat. I pulled over and looked through the binos, but it was only a small patch of snow. But 100 yards over to the left were two goats! Wow, pretty dang neat, I was in Montana less than 3 minutes and I had spotted goats. I set up the spotter and found 5. Several looked big, but at 3 miles away I couldn't see horns or really judge them. They were also about 2-3 miles up the main creek drainage, and uphill about 3000 ft,
I met Pete Friday AM and after going over our options we decided to cancel our original plan of backpacking into the middle of the unit and setting up camp, and instead go after these goats on a long day hunt. Well it worked! I told Pete I thought this approach was within my physical limits, but I might not have much left when it was done. That was prophetic.
The approach we took worked nearly to perfection, by 1:30 PM we were within 650 yards of 4 billies, two of which were really big. We didn't have a good method of closing the distance from there so we waited a while. Based on the previous days observations I thought the billies would start feeding in our direction, but by 3PM nothing substantial had happened. When taking another look at our options we spotted 4 more billies closer to us, they had been hidden just by the lay of the terrain. These were closer, about 400 yards. The wind had picked up so I didn't want to take that shot either, we took a bit of a gamble being seen for a brief moment and were able to close the distance to about 200 yards. After looking over these 4 billies for a good while I relied totally on Pete's experience to decide which one to shoot. About 4PM I took one shot and my hunt was over. Well, except for the hard part. After skinning for full body mount and boning the meat, we started on the hike back, taking a shortcut down a 1700 ft chute. I had all the meat, and Pete carried the hide/head. I started running out of gas about 1/3 of the way down, and it got dark. I fell down 4 or 5 times, luckily just landing on my butt, but it was getting harder to get up after every fall. I was also having to rest every 50-100 yards, it seemed like we would never get to the bottom of that damn chute.
I was beyond tired when we got to the bottom, felt lucky I had not hurt myself, and still had 2+ miles to go. So I left my pack at this spot and retrieved it the next morning. Even without a pack I had a little trouble keeping up with Pete, who was still carrying the hide. I guess since I am considerably more than twice his age I shouldn't feel too bad about it.
Here are few photos of my goat. He was much bigger in body than I expected. We had to cram a big rock under his belly to keep him from rolling down the hill, the rock hides some of his girth. Longest horn on left was 9", right horn at 8-3/4". Measured one base at 5-3/4" with a piece of fly line, didn't do any more specific measurement. 8 years old. Extremely happy with him.
The young guy in the photos is Pete, can't thank him enough. And thanks again to Newberg for the goat info.
And I also got really, really lucky in that I had help; Pete Muennich (Founder of Rocky Mtn. Goat Alliance) met up with me and wow that was fortunate; In retrospect I don't think I could have done this hunt alone. As a side note Pete's organization, along with Julie Cunningham (FWP) were instrumental in getting this unit opened to hunting, so thanks to them for that alone.
Pete asked that I write a story of my hunt for his website (http://www.goatalliance.org/) so I will just post a few pictures and a summary here. It might take a few more days or weeks before the story shows up on his site, I'll post an update when it happens.
Even more luck early on, Randy Newberg contacted me back when he found out I drew the tag and told me where he has seen goats when he was previously elk hunting in the unit. That information proved golden, and probably have saved us a ton of hard work, and time.
So, as I entered Montana on Hwy 20 last Thursday afternoon my odometer just clicked over 900 miles (from Albuquerque). I just passed mile marker 2 and looked east to the ridge Newberg had mentioned and thought I saw something that might be a goat. I pulled over and looked through the binos, but it was only a small patch of snow. But 100 yards over to the left were two goats! Wow, pretty dang neat, I was in Montana less than 3 minutes and I had spotted goats. I set up the spotter and found 5. Several looked big, but at 3 miles away I couldn't see horns or really judge them. They were also about 2-3 miles up the main creek drainage, and uphill about 3000 ft,
I met Pete Friday AM and after going over our options we decided to cancel our original plan of backpacking into the middle of the unit and setting up camp, and instead go after these goats on a long day hunt. Well it worked! I told Pete I thought this approach was within my physical limits, but I might not have much left when it was done. That was prophetic.
The approach we took worked nearly to perfection, by 1:30 PM we were within 650 yards of 4 billies, two of which were really big. We didn't have a good method of closing the distance from there so we waited a while. Based on the previous days observations I thought the billies would start feeding in our direction, but by 3PM nothing substantial had happened. When taking another look at our options we spotted 4 more billies closer to us, they had been hidden just by the lay of the terrain. These were closer, about 400 yards. The wind had picked up so I didn't want to take that shot either, we took a bit of a gamble being seen for a brief moment and were able to close the distance to about 200 yards. After looking over these 4 billies for a good while I relied totally on Pete's experience to decide which one to shoot. About 4PM I took one shot and my hunt was over. Well, except for the hard part. After skinning for full body mount and boning the meat, we started on the hike back, taking a shortcut down a 1700 ft chute. I had all the meat, and Pete carried the hide/head. I started running out of gas about 1/3 of the way down, and it got dark. I fell down 4 or 5 times, luckily just landing on my butt, but it was getting harder to get up after every fall. I was also having to rest every 50-100 yards, it seemed like we would never get to the bottom of that damn chute.
I was beyond tired when we got to the bottom, felt lucky I had not hurt myself, and still had 2+ miles to go. So I left my pack at this spot and retrieved it the next morning. Even without a pack I had a little trouble keeping up with Pete, who was still carrying the hide. I guess since I am considerably more than twice his age I shouldn't feel too bad about it.
Here are few photos of my goat. He was much bigger in body than I expected. We had to cram a big rock under his belly to keep him from rolling down the hill, the rock hides some of his girth. Longest horn on left was 9", right horn at 8-3/4". Measured one base at 5-3/4" with a piece of fly line, didn't do any more specific measurement. 8 years old. Extremely happy with him.
The young guy in the photos is Pete, can't thank him enough. And thanks again to Newberg for the goat info.
