2 years in Narnia

[Logan T]

Disclaimer: This is the story of my goat from last year, and my buddy’s goat this year. I didnt really know why I didn’t feel like giving a little write up about it last fall, but it worked out great because we had the same story happen again this year.

Here is that thread - https://www.rokslide.com/forums/threads/2021-montana-goat.233940/

Im not adding all of those pictures again to this thread, just a couple.

 

[Logan T]

Last year I was fortunate enough to draw and take a good billy from a unit that I spent my life growing up in. It was my second goat tag for the same area but the first time around I had just started college and ended up taking a nanny over Thanksgiving. Knowing that I had the tag, I was able to schedule my classes so I only had classes 4 days a week. I hunted hard and often but it was the first and only goat I found that season. Ever since the nanny I kept wishing for one more chance to try to find a billy.

After drawing this tag again, I dove into all the research. Books, aging and sexing videos, anything I could that might help increase my knowledge of goats. Unlike the majority of people it seems, I did not find the book “A Beast the Color of Winter” very helpful, but that’s neither here nor there. After realizing that nanny’s do not start to reproduce until the age of 4, and watching a video about what happens to the goat population if you take a nanny vs a billy, and how long it takes the population to stabilize and grow by taking a nanny, my decision of Billy or bust became solidified, and I encourage everyone to pass on Nannies. I believe that video is a RMGA video.

Having quite a bit of knowledge of the unit, I knew goats were few and far between and that the unit is not known for very big billies, even by Montana standards. My goal was simple to say- find a mature billy. I knew it wasn’t going to be a record book billy, I just wanted an old goat with a horse face and big body. Easier said than done. I scouted for a total of 7 weekends, including 5 consecutive weekends leading right up to the season opening. Every time hitting a different drainage and area, trying to locate any goat I could. Unsurprisingly, I never could find a single goat until the first trip my buddy Justin came with me into a totally miserable area, which was the last weekend before season opened. Even then, all we saw were two sub adult goats, and that was it.

 

[Logan T]

Fast forward to the successful 3 day hunt. We had gone up hunting the weekend prior and found some goats that looked intriguing, the only problem is they were almost 3 miles away as a crow flies, and in an area that was so rugged and nasty and beautiful, I dubbed the area “Narnia”. We cancelled our plans to camp and hunt where we had planned that weekend, and bailed out of that area with hopes to get a look at the goats we had seen from so far away the next day. Sunday we found ourselves looking down on a nanny, kid, and two sub adults 200 yards below us, and we turned up a good billy in the same basin, but I just didn’t have time to try and make a play.

We came back after 4 days away and tried to turn up something in the same basin that the goats were in just a few days ago. Finding nothing, we continued along the spine for a mile, peeking into several other little basins but found nothing. We worked our way back to the first basin, repeating the same process and just as we peered into the original basin, Justin found a small billy just 80 yards straight below us. After watching him for a few minutes we continued to the pass to open up more glassing area and a second goat appeared. “That’s a shooter billy” Justin immediately said, and I agreed. Without a doubt it was a mature, sway backed, deep chested, broad nosed Billy. With a ripping wind and the goat at 500 yards facing our direction all we could do was watch him lay bedded above a little cliff until dark.

It was a sleepless night on top of the mountain with the wind screaming up from the drainage below and over the pass we were camped on. 4:30am finally came and we packed up camp so we wouldn’t worry about the wind taking it off the top of the mountain while we were gone. We had breakfast, hung food back in the tree and started our hike back to the high pass to the highest basin in the area I called Narnia. We waited until 15 minutes after legal shooting light before we peeked over the pass. I wanted to make sure it was light enough to quickly identify the different goats that may be there in case it had to be a quick decision. With daylight, the wind had also finally slowed down enough to be bearable. We had just pulled our binos up to glass when we both said “goat”. Just below the cliff from the night before was our shooter billy. He was up feeding, facing away, so I slowly and quietly tried to fall off the top of the pass to get out of the wind and get within range. 75 yards down the slide I was finally able to prop up enough rocks and the pack to be able to get a shot that I felt fairly comfortable with. It was 429 yards and we were out of the wind completely, but it was still the most difficult prone shooting position I’ve been in. Justin was 30 yards above me filming through the spotter on the phoneskope and I gave him the thumbs up. I touched one off and saw some white hair fly, and then heard Justin say “high”. It appeared the billy had not been hit, but luckily he didn’t know where the shot came from, so after some quick communication with Justin I sent another round on its way and the billy dropped and slowly rolled into the rockslide below. I had my Billy!!!

After high fives and pure excitement and gratefulness, Justin said “so I didn’t get the shot”. He was pretty upset- ( it’s not the first time he’s done that to me! ). He said on the first shot, he saw my bullet create a hole/vacuum in the fur just below the top of the back of the goat.…I had barely missed him. Apparently it was a neat thing to watch because he was pretty upset about it but that was of no concern to me - although I made sure to bring it up, A LOT on the hike back out!! He was able to film a couple short videos as I was prepping for the shot, but his phone ran out of space for the video literally 5 seconds before I shot. When reviewing the video you could hear him saying “what’s going on” in response to the camera not working before the video cut off and I pulled the trigger. We made our way down to the goat and we immediately knew he was a special goat for that area.

We took pictures, enjoyed the moment, quartered him up, and dropped down a little further to get water and take in the incredible basin now named “Narnia” before the hike back up the cliffs and back to camp. On the way up out of the hole with the goat on our backs, above us on the skyline with nothing but blue sky behind it, was another goat watching us, like it was saying goodbye and hope to see you again. Little did we know……

All said and done, it was 6.5 hours of heavy packing to get out of there. 2 hours up and down back to camp with the goat, and another 4.5 hours and 4,300 feet down off the mountain and over all kinds of overnight blowdown across the trail to the truck with the goat and camp. Once back at the truck, we measured the goat and it was 9 7/8” on the long side and 9 3/8” short, with 5 5/8” bases. I had gotten everything I wanted out of this hunt and more.

BUT THAT WAS ONLY HALF OF THE EXPERIENCE!!

 

[Logan T]

I was busy with work the following May, doing the exact same thing I was doing a year ago when I found out I drew the tag, when Justin texted me saying he drew the tag this year! I couldn’t believe it but I was stoked for him.

My work was busier this year so I made it out scouting with Justin only once. We were able to turn up 2 different billies on the trip, I found what I called an average billy and Justin found a giant one horned unicorn billy. He made it out several more times and had found a couple goats during his scouting without me. He didn’t know if they were shooters or not due to the distance but at least he had fresh info to go with what we learned last year. His only goal was the same as mine was, find a mature billy.

And once season rolled around, we were headed back to Narnia!! I won’t make this story a whole lot longer, because it played out damned near the same to a “T” as my hunt did. We hiked the same spine and checked the same basins as a year ago and found nothing. We made our way back along the spine, just like last year, and 40 minutes before dark, we found a huge bodied, deep chested, horse faced Billy in the same basin as my goat. The billy was down where we had filled up with water before hiking out with my goat last year. We put him to bed, came back the next morning after a miserably hot and sleepless night and Justin killed his billy within 200 yards of the spot my goat died a year prior.

It was another mature, 8 year old 9” billy. And it was the same 2 hour hike up the cliffs and down to camp with the goat, and the same 4.5 hours and 4,300 feet down off the mountain to the truck with the goat and camp. Just about the only thing different was the name on the tag.… and, I also got the whole thing ON film through the phoneskope! It was a great 2 years back down in Narnia.

 

[mparks270]

Great write up!

 

[woods89]

Great story!

 

[Logan T]

My Goat

 

[Logan T]

Justins Goat Hunt- Scouting

 

[Logan T]

Justins Goat

 

[Clarktar]

Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to share Logan!

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[RCL]

Great write up.
Many thanks for posting.

 

[Firehead117]

Good Goats man! Thanks for teh write up. Congrats

 

[slick]

so awesome!

 

[Decker9]

Incredible!! Excellent writeup and photos, many congrats to you guys!!

 

[skeptic]

Great job, and even better concentrating on the Billy's. Your friends Billy looks to be a really mature goat, at least 8 or 9 years old it looks like, maybe older? I was also of the same mindset that I would eat the tag If I couldn't get a mature Billy. I would love to see what that thing looks like in mid November, but judging by the looks of that country it certainly looks like access could be a real issue if we got weather. Great goat.

 

[Logan T]

Great job, and even better concentrating on the Billy's. Your friends Billy looks to be a really mature goat, at least 8 or 9 years old it looks like, maybe older? I was also of the same mindset that I would eat the tag If I couldn't get a mature Billy. I would love to see what that thing looks like in mid November, but judging by the looks of that country it certainly looks like access could be a real issue if we got weather. Great goat.

He was at least an 8 year old goat. And yes, access could sure drop to limited or zero with some weather, but the biggest factor in getting it done right away was my buddy and his wife expecting a baby. Luckily we got it done early because they just had a baby boy late last night!

 

[Logan T]

After 2 years at the taxidermist, I have my billy home. The taxi did a phenomenal job, I couldn’t be happier. A few pics… at the taxi, at my buddy’s house, with our 2 goats, and lastly the view from my living room chair.

 

[DanM]

Fantastic and thanks for sharing....

 

[Rogue Bay]

Great goats and great mounts! Thanks for sharing the adventure with us.

 

[Boone-In-Wall]

After 2 years at the taxidermist, I have my billy home. The taxi did a phenomenal job, I couldn’t be happier. A few pics… at the taxi, at my buddy’s house, with our 2 goats, and lastly the view from my living room chair.

That's awesome on the goat. Oh, and HOLY SMOKES that mule deer! lol.