DonV vs. G5 goats
Mountain Goat
My points are 0 and it is sinking in I drew G5 mnt goat as a NR. Unreal. Drew sheep in S44 years ago and gave it HECK and grazed a good ram that was 2 yards further away then I thought after 17 hard days of solo backpack hunting.
I am not eating this tag. Period.
I am really stoked and will be asking more questions etc once I dive into the research. I have followed this unit for years and know the basics and about kill sites etc on G&F and had CO big game cd etc.
I just had to post since I am still in shock and really excited.
Congrats buddy. And AZ elk to go with it. Hope you have a great time.
My tag wraps around my unit 27 AZ bow elk tag 9/13-9/26 which works out perfect (which I did consider when applying). Not sure if I want to hit goats that early (hair). Might take a short trip in, then out and to AZ then back to really launch an assault.
It is going to be a good year!
Far and away the hardest part about goat hunting is drawing the tag! Got my goat first try. Took three seasons to get my ram.
Good luck!
Don,
At what distance does 2 yards of misjudgement turn a lethal hit to a "graze"?
Congrats I'm officially jealous.. I'm a resident been putting in for years and still have not drawn either tags. Good luck on your hunt brother
Congrats! Great tag to have. I'd put everything else second to this hunt. Good luck!
Congrats! Goat hunts are tough. Period. Been on mine and helped my dad, much tougher than any of our 7 CO ram hunts by far. You'll get it done I am sure.
Get the best guide available!!
Congrats Don, if you draw a gator tag your screwed now!!!LOL, Mike
Hey Robb thanks for once again taking the time to take a shot at me! At least you are consistent. From my story on S44:
Here is the story from my 2008 sheep hunt. Statistics: 3100 – miles driven roundtrip 16 – days hunted until I got my shot 24 – total rams seen (many were probably the same rams different days) 15 – days spent in spike camp alone 2 – days spent in main camp alone 2 – days spent in main camp with my dad 2- days spent sleeping on benches at rest areas (1 coming and 1 going) 100 – approximate hours spent glassing 7 – most days I went without seeing a ram
Sorry I was off by one day after 5 years I made a mistake.
2 yards at 55 yards my arrow drops 1.5" per yard 3" was the difference between grazing just under heart and heart shot.
To everyone else thanks. I was training 5 days a week, that is going up to 6. Pat I remember your story, all of it clearly!
FM I have not applied for gator yet, this likely will change my plans.
Congrats on the tag! Can't wait for the story and pics!
Don, you sure have been lucky w/tags the past few years! Congrats on the goat tag. I've been on around 10 or 11 mtn goats over the past few years with family and friends. I had problems locating much goat info prior to my first hunt and wrote up a facts sheet that explains a lot about goat habits, hunting techniques, gear, and how to tell nannies from billies. Email me and I would be glad to send it to you. Congrats on your tag!
Congrats Don, I'll be interested in hearing how the AZ27 hunt goes. HJ
Congrats on the tag. Good luck on the hunt!
Hey Don, That's great news! Happy for you too.
I know you'll make the best of this tag! Good Luck. Jim
Wow, good luck on this hunt. I hope you share the details of the preparation and hunt, like you usually do.
Congratulations!!! Good luck and I'm sure you'll have more fun than what should be legally allowed!
Congrats on the tag! Looking forward to your pictures and story!
Right on Don! Been getting a lot of bad news lately so its nice to see someone with some good news! Good for you man!
Nick
Don, So I guess the gator hunt we were going to go on is off! Good luck buddy.
DJ
Thanks guys, to be honest the unique nature of this hunt intrigued me a lot.
Not a typical hunt in 3 ways (for me).
1. Train ride in! Awesome! Get off train in backcountry and start hiking. Neat. I have flown in, hiked in, camped at the road, boated in but never a train.
2. Possibly the highest hunt in the US? Where else are you most likely to kill at over 13,500? AK & Canada game is always well below that. In the US nothing but goats are that high and CO is the highest state and G5 the highest unit.
3. Mountain goats, neat and have always intrigued me and over the past 10 years I have been wanting a goat tag more then almost any other tag.
I have been lucky the past 2 years and I am very thankful. I love new hunts, new game and new places and this really fits the bill!
It's official! Co website:
GOAT SUCCESSFUL LIMITED LICENSE FOR 1ST CHOICE: GEG05O1A 3 9 2013
Congrats on drawing a great tag! I hope to draw it someday myself as a NR. I've got 3/9 points going into next years draw so I'm hoping there's a chance. How many points did it take for you to draw? Best of luck on your hunt
Congrats Don! G5 and AZ elk tags in one fall, high class problems to have! Enjoy!
WOW have a great hunt kill a monster!
I had 9/3 like you I figure my odds were about 3%-4%.
Thanks guys, rode the bike for an hour today, shot and then did my should/ab workout.
I leave in 3 hours for my trip. I am hunting AZ for elk (bow) first then heading to G5. I will likely head into Chicago Basin between 9/20 and 9/25 I have until 10/1.
I will post when I can which likely means on my trip home!
Go get 'em Don! Good luck, be safe, and enjoy your trip!
Don, My ole man killed his in the same basin last week with the Recurve I made for him. Feel free to contact me and I'll get you both in touch so he can give you some info. Let me know buddy and good luck... here is a picture (though not great) as his camera broke on the mountain. Pretty proud of him. Completely by himself.
Stands, thats pretty cool! Congrats to your dad.
Don, good luck on both hunts. Let me know how it goes.
Rick m
Put those blades to work...
WOW Stands, thats great and awesome you made him the bow. Thatts as good as it gets.
Go get em Don. Good Luck !
Bill V.
Good luck Don! Glad to see a fellow Ohioan get two great tags!
I was up there (for goats) a few days, AZ elk hunt took longer then anticipated, different story.
I am heading back in next week, hopefully the weather holds out. I can get a goat with a nice coat or I can fly out, find snow and turn around a fly home!
More reports in 2-3 weeks.
Don, you are really pushing the envelope on access to goats in that area. I wish you well and let me know how you do. We got all the Bowsiter's there speed "goats" that came in for the Bowsite hunt from a far. Several took theirs at Bubbles where you did and a couple got theres at the Wallow where we sat together the day after you got yours. Good luck and be very careful up there!
Have a great bowhunt. BB
The snow ground cover map I saw didn't look good for the area, BUT the one I saw was not terribly precise. Forecast shows small chances for snow a few days and predicted highs in the 30s (or <). Hopefully you can catch a break. Good luck man.
We've already got a lot of snow with more coming today...aint looking too good right now down here to access the high country. Several outfitters already quit the high country and came in last night cause of fears of getting caught in deep snows like they did several years ago...
Don, did you post about your hunt in AZ for elk? Just wondering how that turned out.
DJ
Where do you find a snow cover ground map? Where is the best weather info that is current?
Find a local or give the local Biologist or Game Warden in the area. Those guys are out daily and live close to the areas they enforce.
Good luck and be safe. The peaks have be getting snow on a regular basis.
Hey Don, When's the hunt? Thought you would have killed him by now;)
Never mind, I see you are heading out next week. Good luck, shoot straight.
I think Liv2Hnt said it best (contact someone local), but here is what I use most frequently. Not the most precise, but you can get a general idea of location and know that the snow depth pretty well follows elevation lines.
One of the best guides in the area said snow will shut that whole hunt down. Wish you luck but it sure seems the elk should have been secondary.
Don, If you are going to start a thread, the least you could do is answer questions when posted! Lol What happened with the elk in AZ?
DJ
DJ give me a little time chief! Busy getting ready to head out. Good story!
Don, It was good to meet you on the trail and talk with you later about our hunt. Here is the young billy my dad shot up in there. I sure hope you dont get snowed out.
After all of the posting, and questions no response? What happened or are you still hunting?
Did you see the gal he had modeling his pack on the other thread?
Assuming its not his sister.....he is probably busy.
Who's Don V? TV personality?
Snuffer,
Don V is a guy who has been sharing his stories on Bowsite for as long as I've been here. He generally checks in quite a bit on here with his preparations and hunt results. Haven't seen him on TV but he seems like a genuinely nice character, who some of hope he had a good hunt.
So out with it Don!
Nick
It's gotta be fre...fre...fre... really cold up there right now.....
My guess is he is up there somewhere looking like the guy Jeremiah Johnson got his Hawken from...
Sure hope not, that would be a bad day.
My guess is he had a rough hunt and was longing for his rifle as usual.. To be honest why you would go on an elk hunt over a goat hunt strikes me as strange.
You draw two very special tags in one year....well, let me know how you schedule your life.... and which one you feel like tossing away...
Not like it's ever happened to me or anything, but personally I'd try and find some way to make both hunts pan out. I'd have to go back up to the top and check it out, but I think the goat tag was kind of a low odds surprise. And a much longer season as well.
Goat tag or not, if I have an AZ 27 tag, I'm NOT going to skip that hunt.
I believe he had a great Ak moose tag last year too. He burned up all his luck drawing the tags I guess. I'd like to hear how his goat hunt ended... I'm on the list for a G-5 tag... Ed F
Seeing as he has posted multiple times that he is Retired----(or is it an Ohio term? that self-employed is called Retired??)
Why the half azz gig?? on these tags??
I really was looking forward to all the Train ride, backpack into G-5, the self serving Solo bivy hunter pix/thread??
Toss in his dad (Don Sr.) and the 52 bow bull N.Mex & 76 Colo. bow bull tags......no help for dad.....sad deal for sure.
My hell--I spend more time in multiple states helping guys (no family relation) on all my own earned vacation time! ha
I love doing that for guys across our USA .
Good luck, Robb
Myself and 2 friends hunted 27 this year but no one mentioned meeting Don V. We didn't see a lot of people but lots of bulls and a few big ones.
He's probably writing articles for various magazines!
bump....hello Don, paging DonV
Sorry guys. I was up there twice, first time not very long second time for 5 days. Saw goats, got within rifle range but never got within bow range. Last trip was mid Oct. and was brutal. Hike in rough took me 6-1/2 hours I went in with bare minimum gear. Cold. 20 at night 40 during the day (or less). Snow depth depended on slope, and elevation. Anywhere from none to 2 feet.
Snow was to deep and everything over 13,000 was pretty much to risky to hike because of snow. I did not see any goats until the last day when I saw 5. I saw tracks, mostly high - they never came down low enough. I glassed until I was crazy - really hard to spot those devils with snow - rocks exposed everywhere. The group I did see were spectacular and a sight I will never forget. A mature billie and some nannies/kids literally on a peak at 13,500 surveying the world below. They had their winter coats and were gorgeous. There was no way I could risk going up that high. I tried a few times before coming to my senses.
It was really tough to get around, snow was crusty and it took me forever to go 1/4 mile up or down. Hike in had crusty snow, several bad deadfalls on steep trails, ice etc.
I was the only one up there the entire time, one person came out 2 days before I did. No one else in the entire basin - it was even more remote then when I was in AK (there were hunters within a couple miles in AK, not the case in Chicago Basin). Tracks were easy to see so I know no one else was in there.
I waited to long and I was able to get up there but the goats never came down to where they are typically - if they had I could have hunted them. It was an amazing experience I was very lucky to go.
Mid October solo over 5 miles in as the crow flies camped at 12,500 with bare minimum gear is amazing!
My water would have ice chunks in it as soon as it went into my container - as soon as it stopped moving. I had to use handwarmers to keep it from freezing most nights.
Waiting for train - amazing things is train "feels" like you are back but to any road is another 7 miles!
View down to treeline where I camped most of the time.
This face has had a ton of goats taken on it, I glassed it like crazy and never saw any.
After hunting elk for 2 weeks I was in great shape and got up the trail fast. My second trip was not the same!
My personal trainer/packer:)/girlfriend who supported and motivated me throughout my trips.
Trailhead at train "stop"
the most impressive aspect of this entire thread is wearing pink shoes. Hubba hubba. Don, you are now my idol. And don't think I didn't notice that hula hoop on the floor. I can only imagine...
Beautiful scenery shot. And the mountains are awesome also!
the most impressive aspect of this entire thread is wearing pink shoes. Hubba hubba. Don, you are now my idol.
Norseman... you're a mind reader... Ed F
Quite the adventure! Thanks for sharing your story and pics Don. Sorry it didn't turn out the way you would have liked.
Quite an adventure, Don. That will be the most important thing when you look back on this 20 years from now. Cool trip.
That's what I'm talking about.
Dang good read and photo's.
Good luck, Robb
Mind the gap! Chive on!
Even those who didn't know what that meant were thinking the same thing......
Great pics and beautiful country Don.
Bummer you couldn't connect. Cool pics thou.
Don, glad you didn't end up like that guy on Jeremiah Johnson that was mentioned earlier. Thanks for sharing pics.
