RE: WA Mountain Goat/Picture
LAST EDITED ON Oct-19-05 AT 06:25PM (MST)[p]http://usera.imagecave.com/tnhkunch/netgoat-copy.jpg
First of all, I need to thank some people. My wife, for putting up with me for the last three months. My father who at the age of 65, helped me pack out half the meat. Jaxon - IdahoSpot&Stock, who turned me on to this awesome web site. Drue Collins, who graciously shared with me all the information that he could about the area that I hunted in. And finally Todd and Tina Peyser, Tina drew a big bull elk tag in the same area and they did two weeks of scouting for me.
The first time out my father and I saw eight goats on the first day, one being a billy, but not a shooter. The second day out which was my last day to hunt that week, we saw the billy that Todd said was a shooter, but it would have taken a day and a half to get him out. I was able to take some great pictures of him at 250-350 yards. We went home empty handed but with high hopes that he would be there the following week.
The following Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we looked for the big billy but never did find him again. We got a hold of Todd and drove to his taxidermy shop where he drew us out a map of where he thought the billy might go. That evening we drove to the spot and found fifteen more goats. Two more billies but neither one a shooter. The next morning we drove back to the same canyon and found a lone billy up high away from the others. You could tell with the naked eye that he was quite a bit bigger body wise than the rest of the goats. After looking him over for about an hour, I figured he shoot go over 9 inches and have a really nice full coat with a yellow tint to it. I left my dad with the spotting scope across the canyon and worked my way down and across the canyon to him. When I finally did get to him, he was right at 300 yards and he was still bedded down. After about an hour wait, he finally stood up and the hunt was over! After the shot he only slid about 50 yards and came to a stop in some vine maples. Dad worked his way down to me and we worked our way across the canyon. After taking some pictures I caped him out for a full mount and boned out the meat. We got back to the truck right at dark.
When we got back to camp that night, my father in law had brought my 12 year old son over for the rest of the week. It was pretty special to have my dad, my father in law and my son all with me. The following day, we took the hide to Todds and then went and showed my son and father in law some more goats and took alot more pictures.
Thanks to everyone who made this once in MY lifetime hunt come true.
PS: He is right at 9" with 5 1/2" bases.
This is the billy that we saw on our first trip and were never able to find again. It was taken through an adapter on my spotting scope at about 250 yards
