After defying the drawing odds and being lucky enough to draw a tag. I started making calls to get info on the area since I've never been in the area. Ron Niziolek, Jason Stafford, and the Cody WY Game & Fish office where very helpful and really helped a lot. I really appreciated their help.
This is not my first goat hunt. I got tired of trying to draw a tag in the lower 48, so I booked a hunt with Bolen & Lewis in 2011 and took a great goat see attached picture.
My main goal was to have a good time and enjoy the experience.
I did three separate scouting trips before the archery season opened on the August 15th. This is a 7 hour trip just to get to the area from my home in Cheyenne.
I hunted 7 days solo and covered a lot of ground. I saw goats everyday. Also this is grizzly bear country.
All the pictures are not the greatest Like BB or Paul at the Fort), but it was really windy and hard to hold the camera steady most of the time.
I get to my glassing spot and after about an hour of glassing spot some goats.
It was later in the day and I didn't have time to put a stalk on them.
There were two groups of billies. The one group had two B&C caliber billies. I forgot top bring my digitize scoping attachment so I free handed it.
I hunted the rest of the day trying to locate some other goats but no such luck.
I look about 400yds left of the people and there is a billy going over a hill. I hurry and scramble to the top, but no goat. I looked for this goat for over 3 hours and could not find him. He sure pulled the vanishing act on me.
I get to my spot and as close to the edge as possible and I can see one of the goats about 35yds away. It's a nanny. The wind is really blowing and at times swirling. All of a sudden the wind swirls and the nanny stands and looks up and I'm busted.
They all get up move a little ways and stop & look at me. There is one billy with them but it's 59yds and way to long of a shot in the wind.
He gets to olive another day!
So I decide to got back to where I saw the fives goats on day five in the afternoon.
I hike down to where I can glass the basin, and I spot 14 goats bedded in a rise. There is two billies with them.
I had to hike down a nasty rocky draw to stay out of there sight. I circle around a peek around a rock and there still bedded and about 250yds away. All of a sudden the lead nanny gets up and and the rest stand and start feeding. I had feeling this was going to happen since it was lat in the afternoon.
They go down in a ravine out of sight but the wind is wrong to make a move. I re-position and I see their coming up the same draw I'm above watching them.
I moved to where I see the draw they're feeding up. I hope they feed up my side.
They bed down about 90yds on the opposite hill. I'm stuck behind a small rock. I pretty well pinned down and the sun is going to set in about an hour. The only way I can maybe get out of there is by low crawling on my belly 150yds over a rise. It works and they never saw me.
I'll be heading back in the AM to hunt them again.
Finally I spot them above the basin across from me about a mile away. They're headed for a pile of rocks. I scramble and get there and they didn't see since I was in they wide open.
I snap and around on range a few things and wait. Finally I see the lead nanny at about 60yds. They all file past me, but the wind is howling again and it's way to far to shoot.
They head over the hill and towards the main road and bed down. All the tourist see them and pull over and start taking pictures. Game over again!
I get to my glassing spot about 11:00am and after about an hour glassing I spot a lone billy bedded on a rock.
I carefully look and only see him. I grab my stuff and start hiking up the hill after him.
It's really dry and noisy and the wind is gusting at times. I get to the top and drop my pack and start crawling down through the rocks to were the billy is laying. I only move when the wind gust.
I get to the huge rock and know the goat is just on the other side. The only problem is I can't get on top of the rock above the goat. I decide to go to the left of the rock and hope I can see him before he sees me.
I step around the big rock and onto another rock and there is a goat laying about 8yds away with only about 10 inches of it's vitals showing. It's head is behind a big rock. It has no shaggy looking fur which from all the billies I've seen are all clean and not shedding like a lot of the nanny's.
I come to full draw settle the pin and the arrow is gone. The goat stands up and I immediately see it's a nanny. The arrow hit her in the heart and I put second arrow in her vitals for insurance. She runs to my right behind a big rock and out of sight.
All of a sudden a billy comes from that direction and is standing there wondering what happen and keeps looking back. The billy stood there the whole 30 minutes I waited and I could have shot him numerous times.
After the thirty minutes I stood-up and he looked at me like where you come from and climbs down a steep face and out of site.
I go over and check and her milk sack is dry so she had no kid thank goodness!
Before this trip my goals was not to harvest a nanny. In hindsight I should have waited too verify if it was the billy. I was totally unaware there was another goat with the billy. I though he had just moved positions prior to me getting there. It happens!
It was fun trying to butcher it on a ledge.
Also there was fresh grizzly bear scat about 3/4 mile away from where I shot the goat.
Overall it was a great adventure and wouldn't have it any other way!
Great goat and thread! Keep it rolling!!!
Mark
Thanks for taking the time to post.
Best of Luck, Jeff
My best, Paul
Good looking goat.
I forgot to post this picture. It's way up on the side of a sheer cliff. I think it might be an old weather station back in the day?
I forgot to post this picture. It's way up on the side of a sheer cliff. I think it might be an old weather station back in the day?
DJ
Congrats
Good luck, Robb
LOL! "Cecil".... too good.....
That box on the cliff is a peregine falcon release station. We still have some here in the Bighorns from when they where trying to reestablish populations 15-20 years ago.
I saw zero Grizzlies during my hunt. I think they were all hanging out near the campgrounds or Yellowstone trying to prey on the tourist lol.
Now I just need a lot of luck to draw a tag!
