DYI- Mountain Goat Area 1

Southpawshooter · Jul 21, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Jul-21-14 AT 09:56AM (MST)[p]I am going over to do some scouting in a couple of weeks and was wondering if anyone had some tips on where to start. I was looking at hunting later in the season so the hair is a little longer. Any feedback and thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

*DIY - It would be nice if titles could be edited.

DoubleDropMuley · Jul 21, 2014

Never been up that way but if ya want to sign it over ill make my way up there. Good call trying for longer hair sure looks good fluffed out !!!!! Good Luck

nfh · Jul 21, 2014

Just keep something in mind. If a good snow comes those goats will move. They settle in one area from august to early October. But 90% of people hunt the clarks fork canyon. Goats pretty much stay in there. a lot of goats migrate from area 3 to the canyon for the winter.

Don't expect to see a monster in the clarks for canyon. Although there is still some nice ones. So many people hunt that the billys don't get a chance to grow. I would personally head closer to the beartooths in search of a better goat.

I had a tag in 2011 but I had a area 3 tag.

npaden · Jul 22, 2014

I have the same tag. I'll be up there scouting next week for a few days. My current plan is to start hunting around September 20th and hopefully be tagged out before my Unit 61-1 elk tag starts on October 1st.

Southpawshooter · Jul 22, 2014

nfh- Thanks for the response!

Npaden- You had a spectacular year drawing tags in WY. Good luck! Maybe we will run into each other.

nfh · Jul 23, 2014

Should be heck of a hunt....

Are you guys going for a nanny or a billy?

After you start scouting you will start to tell instantly which is a nanny and which is a billy. And that end of October they get a very nice coat on them. But in September they have some very nice coats to.

Here is my area 3 goat from 2011. I think they have great coats in September. I got this bad boy on opening day of rifle. He had 9 7/8 long horns and a score of 48...... if ya got any questions let me know. But I don't have a lot of info on which trails to hit outside of clarks fork canyon.

BuzzH · Jul 23, 2014

nfh,

Dandy goat there, congrats! It has decent hair for that early, but its pretty amazing how much more haired out they are in late October-early November.

I hunted horns for the first 16 days in September and early October when I drew Montana. After that I pretty much decided any 9"+ billy with good hair was going to get it.

I shot mine on my 19th day of hunting on November 2nd...glad I was able to wait as long as I did. I hunted elk in the same area in late November and could have easily shot a billy about like the one I took...it had even better hair than mine.

Its a difficult call with goats as the weather can really shut a hunt down or make it a lot tougher/dangerous. If you catch the weather right, and can hunt after the 20th of October, the hair is quite a bit better.

Good luck to you guys with tags, goats are a neat animal and a great hunt.

TOPGUN · Jul 23, 2014

Those are two nice goats guys and I agree with BuzzH that they are a neat animal. The only ones I've ever seen were up in the northern part of Custer Stae Park in SD while out near there turkey hunting one year.

jm77 · Jul 23, 2014

I've mounted two lifesize goats from area 1 and both were taken in the first week of October. Their hair was excellent like yours Buzz. Both scored in the upper 40's, very nice billies.

nfh · Jul 23, 2014

I like your goats back hair over the spine. Very nice goat

npaden · Aug 16, 2014

Southpaw, you get any scouting trips in? See any Billies?

I spent a couple days and turned up some nannies and a couple billies, but a long way away and not near as many as I was hoping to see. Had a few folks tell me that was because it is August and they were hiding out and trying to stay cool, but still would have liked to see some more goats.

Did get a little bit of a feel for the unit though, didn't get to check out everything I wanted, but ran the Morrison Jeep trail top to bottom and hung out on the Clarks Fork Canyon a bit.

I posted my trip on my Hunt Adventure Challenge Thread.

http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID59/4.html#.U-_yRsVdUrM

Southpawshooter · Aug 17, 2014

I didn't get to go. My parents, who are retired, assisted me by going. They didn't see any at all. They received some good information from the G&F Office in Cody. After talking with my parents, I am a little concerned about getting snow as I am set to go Oct 4 thru the 14.