T
tomgobbler
Guest
Well after 20+ years of waiting for an Arizona goat it is finally over. (20 minutes into the hunt) We?ve watched this goat for quite a while now, made countless scouting trips and lots of video and photos of him. We saw lots and lots of other bucks and this is by far the best I could find. So opening morning found us with the moon just setting and the sun not quite up yet, so we enjoyed a few minutes of quite as the last few straws of night slowly gave way to day. We were glassing the area were we had seen this buck and several others on the many previous scouting trips, and it was just a little early, the binos were pulling in the light, but the goats just hadn't begun to start there day yet. After about 20 minutes or so, as it finally got light enough to see pretty good, my brother (who had worked all night on night shift, and got off a coupe hours early to help me look) says there's a buck and he looks good. About 300 yards out in the tall sage flat was the buck I had been watching all summer long. Is it really him I ask ( there were several other bucks in there and I didn't want to shoot the wrong buck) My 2 friends and brother and I determined that yes it was the right buck, and now game plan was on..... He was close enough to shoot from there, as I had practiced a lot over the summer and had put many rounds through my gun and knew right were it would hit at 300, but about all we could see through the tall sage was his head and about 3-4 inches of his back. He was working his way away from us, to a little drop in the ground and we figured if he went over that, we could make a move on him and maybe have a little bit of a higth advantage, and a little closer to get a shot through the sagebrush. So off we went, and we caught up to him several different times, and he moved off several times as there was just enough rolls in the lay of the land to keep him ahead of us, finally he dropped over another little ridge line and so we hustled to the top of it, he was going left, now back to the right towards a couple of his does a couple hundred yards out. With a little elevation and him just leaving the tall sage and hitting a pocket of grass, I figured it was time, he was quartering away walking, so I hurried and put my bi-pod up and settled the cross hairs as best I could with him moving about half way back his rib cage, aiming for the opposite shoulder and I let her fly. 125 yards walking buck, knocked him on his can, lights out, he never knew what hit him, 270 WSM does it again, man I love that gun. Took out top of lungs, and broke his back and was lodged in the skin in front of the opposite shoulder ( ok he was quartering a little more then I thought) but it was fast and furious for a few minutes. ) My brother got it all on video. My 9 year old was able to be with me and was only late for school about 30 minutes. What a way to end a 20+ year wait. He will make a great addition to the 2 Wyoming bucks I have. He is 16 1/4 with 5" cutters. Hope ya enjoy.
