British Columbia mountain goat hunt 2013

[warnniklz]

So I moved from Vancouver to the North Coast(Terrace) back in 2012. The hunting there isn't the greatest. Except for bears and mountain goats.

I never really did have an urge to hunt goats before. But some One mentioned I should give it a shot. So I figured why not.

So I looked at draw odds, found a zone with good odds and applied. I got the draw and didn't connect. It's the first animal I've hunted without anyone showing me the ropes. I did lots of reading and talked to some guys on behavior and habitat.

[warnniklz]

I put my brother, my buddy and myself in for a region 6 goat draw. Me and my buddy got our draws, while my brother got squat.

While working back in April, I was cruising home from work. Bored and gawking at the run off pulling snow off the mountains, I was checking them out trying to figure out how much longer I had to wait until bears would be popping up. I wasn't really paying attention, but then all of a sudden something caught my eye in a gorge(best way to describe it I guess). I whipped around and drove back. I had seen something just a little off white. Up with the binos(they always ride shotgun) and sure enough there was a couple of goats chilling out. How I seen them with the undressed eye is beyond me. They were half way down the mountain just below the snow line.

So from there on home I started watching for them a little closer. I started seeing more and more.

[warnniklz]

So I started mapping out on google earth, where I had been seeing goats each day I was cruising by the area. It came down to 2 management units and those were the two we all applied for.

[warnniklz]

Same spot, later date... I think I counted 7 in this spot this day.



same spot not through binos



different spot... I counted 8 here. There in the picture... just quite a ways away

[warnniklz]

I started checking google earth looking for access spots(basically non-existent being sans jet boat, but still there). Drove into one spot and started glassing around. Didn't see anything obvious but still nice to get terrain features and the lay of the land



good to know bears are around...







A heavy size 12

[warnniklz]

JULY 23

Found a spot last week that is a good spot to hike in from(will have to cut a trail) up a mountain that I was sure had to hold goats. Glassed for only 20 minutes as I also wanted to check out some other spots, so I didn't spot anything.

So today I went back to the spot I want to go in from and started glassing. Glassed for about half hour. It was foggy at first then it lifted. Trying to determine what was rocks and what was alive was a little tricky. Was willing some rocks into being goats.



I all of a sudden caught some white movement in some alders. I pulled the binos down for a second and back up. I couldn't ever find it again. Kept glassing trying to figure out where I had saw the movement. Then finally a goat came walking out over the rocks. Watched it for fifteen minutes or so, then started looking to see if anything else was moving around. Caught two white spots way up on the ridge line. I'm 80% sure one was a goat. It was a long effin ways away, but I'm sure it was a goat laying down moving it's head side to side. Went back to what I knew was a goat and kept watching for a bit before heading on home.

There's a goat in this picture, but you can't really make him out



On another note... I've been staring at my gun cabinet trying to decide which rifle to take out with me. Last year I had my 6.5x55 out. But after recovering my bullet from my deer last November... I've been hesitant taking it back out for goats. So I've been leaning to my 30_06... which is also lighter than my 264(I could easily drop a lot of weight off of it). But today I came across a box of Nosler Custom ammo with 140 grain accubonds loaded up. So I'll have her at the range to make sure the zero is where I want it, and it'll probably get the nod while I take a dose of toughen the f up.

By this time last year I had already made a couple of hikes up to my area, but I've worked basically every weekend since june, so free time has been minimal. My first trip up will be either august long weekend or two weekends after that(stupid weddings and stuff)... but my buddy and myself are aiming for a week sometime in September to get serious.

[warnniklz]

AUGUST 5

So a guy I met (we'll call him Quesnel Kid) wanted to know if I wanted to go on a mountain mission.

"then the goat alarm will go off"

So Quesnel Kid(QK) got a hold of me a week or two back. He wanted to do some sort of mountain mission. We both picked out a couple of spots to check out and ended up settling on one he picked out. After really only a little bit of planning, it was set we'd head out to explore on August long for GOS goats.

Neither of us really knew anything about the area, but looked good on Google Earth.

Friday afternoon arrived. I pulled up to his house. He came out of the house and I said "are you QK? I'm warnniklz". He asked "ready to go hunting?" and we loaded up and were off. After a fairly short drive we were at the trail head. After a 3ish hour hike in we were at camp.

We got settled into camp and then busted out the spotting scope and binos. It wasn't long until I had a nanny picked out in the scope. She had a kid with her and it was running around with her.



A minute or two later I had another goat in the spotter. Watched it for a few minutes. It was all alone and I was pretty sure it was a billy, but looking across the valley I couldn't be positive. We kept watching and sure enough it stretched out to drain the main vein. Billy it was. We kept an eye on him until he bedded down.



We then started checking the terrain and discussing game plans for the morning. Shortly after we spotted a young grizzly bear crossing the slide and into the valley. Last we seen him he was on our camp side of the creek. We thought we'd have a visitor that night, but we think he made his way down the valley.

The billy bedded down in a good spot for himself, but ****ty for us. We went to bed and in the morning checked the mountainside to see if he was still there. Sure enough he wasn't far from where he had bedded. We had a quick bite to eat and busted up the other side of the valley to make a play

View from our camp

[warnniklz]

We got up the other side of the valley and played the terrain the best we could. We peeked over the moraine and he was gone. It was already scorching out. We thought he may have worked his way into some shade to cool off and bed down. We hid ourselves for a few hours while glassing to see if he'd show himself again.0


(camera got a little damp and went a little ****y... so some reason panorama pictures were the only ones that were turning out... hence I went a little crazy with the panorama cheese whiz)


Hiding out drying the feet out while glassing for goats.



Some time went by and we decided to get to higher ground to see if we could get a better vantage point or if he made his way over the peak. We climbed up to a saddle between two peaks. We came across some serious goat trails and some goat down to boot. We spent several hours watching to see if something would move. But I think we were the only critters that were dumb enough to be moving around in 30 degree weather.

[brownbomber]

Really cool stuff dude. Thanks for sharing!!!!

[bisonhunter]

Man I love threads like this …….carry on.

[Lefty-Canuck]

^^^^^^

Agree with those 2, 100%

LC

[twofifty]

Good story - carry on.

[pickrel pat]

Hell of a contribution to the forum. And welcome!

[warnniklz]

Looking off the backside of the saddle


Mmmm... my best buddy


QK taking in the scenery


Screw Off!, Muskol, Thermacel and all that other stuff... if you want bug repellant, take me. They'll leave you alone and annihilate me. But it's not goat hunting without horseflies and mosquitos.

[warnniklz]

Mountain Molly (QK's dog who went everywhere with us)




So we spent most of the afternoon sitting up in the saddle, hoping to spot something... but it was barren out there. So we figured if the goat did go down to hide in some shade, we'd have to make a play. We headed down and started to work the benches. As we did, we found lots of goat beds and a snow field full of goat ****.




We never did get eyes on him again. We also found out that he had an excellent sightline on us as we crossed a slide. So we made our way back down to camp. We got back to camp, had something to eat and passed out for the night.

[warnniklz]

The next morning we were up at 5am. Sure enough we spotted a goat where we had seen the billy the morning before. We watched it for a bit and it took a squat. Not sure if it was a billy dropping the browns off at the super bowl or a nanny rockin' a ****. The plan was to watch it to see where it would bed down. Of course we missed that event and lost sight of it.

Knowing it to be another scorcher, our plan was to check out the valley that ran to the south east. It was a short and hot hike. Seemed like whenever I was in the sun it just drained me. We found some shade to set up and glass some shady cliff bases.

[catnthehat]

Lots of great pics and a fine story!
Cat

[warnniklz]

QK trying to spot some goats


Me keeping a look out for white dots

[warnniklz]

Selena (yes I name my rifles) hanging out, waiting for action


Drying the feet out... dry feet are happy feet


After a couple hours QK and his dog took off to take a look over a peak while I was going to check out another area. Later we would meet up at a small lake/pond because there was well used trails around it.

[warnniklz]

As I was working an area, I found a goat trail that lead up to some shady green area.


Always steeper when you get about half way up. Pictures don't really do it justice.


looking down


trying to show how steep it is... didn't really work

[warnniklz]

I decided to get off of the trail here


Still didn't get any easier... still a slick slope. Lots of goat hair in here, but no one was home.




I crossed here along the base. Basically holding onto the rocks trying not to slip and fall. I wouldn't say it was scary, but there was a couple instances where I may have puckered up a little.



The redevouz lake

[warnniklz]

This rock was the size of a 1 tonne truck

[CNP]

I'm following..........................but I've already seen the end result on the mugshot thread.

[walking buffalo]

I think there is going to be a Big ending to this one.

[Jamie]

Warn, your right down the road from me. (Summer time anyhow)
I have always wanted to go Goat hunting up on the Nass river in February.
Take one of our big boats and go shoot one off the ocean.

I think we should talk.

Jamie

[martinnordegg]

Excellent story and pics! Thanks very much for posting!! You should submit this for publishing.

[north american hunter]

Awesome pictures and story!

[thegunman]

Killer pics!!! And wicked story!

[buckbrushoutdoors]

Originally Posted by Jamie

Warn, your right down the road from me. (Summer time anyhow)
I have always wanted to go Goat hunting up on the Nass river in February.
Take one of our big boats and go shoot one off the ocean.

I think we should talk.

Jamie

isnt that area LEH?

[warnniklz]

Coming up on the lake


Looking off of the back side of the lake



I made it to the lake around 4pm and waited for QK and Mountain Molly to come back. Spotted this rockface and dubbed it "The Sleeping Samsquanch"