Goat Field Judging

My wife drew a OIL goat tag in Utah. I’ve been out the past 4 weekends scouting. I’m looking for any pointers on field judging goats from a distance to aid us in deciding which goat(s) to put a stalk on. There’s so many other variables like hair length, accessibility, etc. but if all things are equal, I’d like to go after one that’s older with bigger horns than one that’s smaller. I have a pic of a billy from last weekend. Curious on thoughts on his mass and length. My first instinct is that he doesn’t have much mass which makes me think he’s younger but he was a long ways away and I don’t know very well how to judge them.

First, get closer, second, get even closer. Can’t tell much from the pic, but from what I can I’d say that’s a young billy

Pic quality is not great, but I'm +90% confident that he's an 8" billy, maybe a smidge more, and bases will be close to 5". Probably 3 years old.

yotebuster17 said:

First, get closer, second, get even closer. Can’t tell much from the pic, but from what I can I’d say that’s a young billy

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Yeah. Definitely. The hunt doesn’t start until 9/7 and goes until 10/31. We probably won’t earnestly start our efforts until the end of September or first part of October to let them hair up some more. I’m trying to balance how many approaches I take my wife on to keep her from flaming out. It may be that I have to go in for closer looks before deciding if I’m going to drag her up, down, or sideways.

One thing that will help rule out young goats is getting good at identifying the "horse face" look that mature goats get. Young billies have a pretty short face, which will make 7-8" horns look proportionately similar to what a +9-10" horn on a mature billy looks like. But that baby doll face is a dead giveaway once you figure it out.

The horse face advice is very good when looking for a mature Billy. They will normally have much larger body’s and pot bellies. They are difficult to judge from long distances as mentioned above. The big Billy’s will like have eyes on them before the season starts and they will be dead within the first few days of the hunt. The hair can be decent even with a September 7th opener. If you wait until to late you chance difficult access and there is no way I would have wanted to be where I killed my goat with snow on the ground. Just some things to consider. I killed my goat September 8th and he had decent hair. He has a horse face, 10 7/8“ horn length and scored 52 4/8” gross for your reference.The goat you have in your picture looks young to me.

Good luck.

Big block heads.

That's a whopper billy in 2ptdown's 2 photos. The mass is excellent! Just like all horned game, mass is the largest chunk of the score for goats.

I've been on a gob of goat hunts over the years in Colorado and Alaska. There are very few B&C goats here in Colo so a trophy to me is a long coat and older age billy. In fact, I've been out the past few weeks scouting here in Colo. Utah has better genetics for massive goats than Colo. I'd take full advantage of your tag!

I would not use a blocky, mule head as the deciding factor between a nanny and billy. Old nannies often have blocky heads. A mature (5+year old) billie's body dwarfs nanny and younger billies.

Right now about all nannies still have scraggy hair and just about all billies have slick new hair. That is one of the quickest ways this time of year to distinguish nannies from billies. The hair on mature billies right now is fairly short but will be dramatically growing every week for the next month. If it were me and you have a selection of billies I would wait it out for longer hair. The hair on the billy 2ptdown's photo is about double the length of the billies hair I'm seeing right now in Colo. We've had a super hot summer and August so that may be part of it this year?

My guess is that Utah is fairly similar to Colo. It can be a blizzard one day and sunny 70 degrees the next. Snow usually doesn't last long until deeper snows in mid to late October. Just wait for a chunk of nicer weather. If you are flexible with weather it would make life easier. Some road access may shut off but it really depends upon the area. If there is a decent road with access a late hunt is generally easier.

I have written a multi-page document with goat judging, trophy field care, and hunting tips. PM me and I would be glad to send you the document or answer any questions. I've lost count of how many goats I've helped family and friends hunt over the years and have learned a great deal watching, filming, and hunting them over the years.

This one is a 7yr old Billy… twopints is about as big as they come… The smaller the gap between the bases the better… Right or wrong that’s what I try to judge billies…

Great billy Tikka! There's a lot of rings on those horns!

Colo used to have older billies but it's tough to find 5+ year olds any more. Before the CPW dramatically increased tags there used to be groups of 5+ year olds hanging out in bachelor groups together during the summer months. It's pretty sad to see the same thing that happened with goats repeat with Colo's ailing mule deer! It's pretty obvious that the CPW cares more about selling a bunch of tags rather than prospering wildlife. Most units hardly have any billies that reach 2 1/2 years of age. I hate to sour this post but it's reality in all but a few Colorado goat units!

Goats are such a cool creature and live in such awesome country! Enjoy your goat hunts and congrats to those that have been successful in past years!

Thanks jims, you know what’s sad, that was 12yrs ago.., you’d be hard pressed to find a 2yr old Billy on this unit now… Thanks UDWR!

I was just in it yesterday, didn’t even see a goat.,,

Tikka said:

Thanks jims, you know what’s sad, that was 12yrs ago.., you’d be hard pressed to find a 2yr old Billy on this unit now… Thanks UDWR!

I was just in it yesterday, didn’t even see a goat.,,

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Tikka what you said describes the unit I killed my goat out of. I kill mine 10 years ago (2014). The unit is a fraction of what it was. If we are talking about the same unit the peak in the background of my picture is likely familiar to you. There was some big goats on the mountain that year.

I can see both sides of the number of tags issued. Hunters complain when they can't draw highly limited tags. Hunters that finally draw tags with once in a lifetime type draw odds complain when quality of critters is down from issuing more tags.

It sounds like many Western states have fallen into this same trap. I can remember a few years back when 400 class bulls were available in multiple limited elk units across Utah and B&C muley bucks were shot every year in multiple units across Colorado. Both Utah elk hunters and Colo deer hunters complained they couldn't draw tags so more tags were issued.

It's sad to see the long-term impacts the increase in tags has on quality of bulls, bucks, and other difficult species to draw (like mtn goats).

It's obviously extremely tough for Utah, Colo, and Wyo to cut tags even when critter numbers are extremely low. Once tags are increased, what does it take to reduce tags to increase critter numbers and quality? It certainly isn't easy!

twopointdn said:

Tikka what you said describes the unit I killed my goat out of. I kill mine 12 years ago (2014) as well. The unit is a fraction of what it was. If we are talking about the same unit the peak in the background of my picture is likely familiar to you. There was some big goat on the mountain that year.

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Mine was in 2012 Kamas Chalk Creek unit… The peak in your background appears to be one of the Wasatch units?

That is to bad about the Kamas Unit. Mine was from Willard Peak and it used to be a great unit. Hopefully some day it will come back. They are fun animals to watch.