rubberfist
FNG
Here's a bunch of photos from my recent solo goat hunt in the Northern BC coastal mountains. I was blessed with epic weather this year, which made the eight day hunt a *tad* more comfortable than it was last year.
Here is a video of my 2011 hunt, which occured during the same time of year:
http://www.rokslide.com/forums/showthread.php?3669-2011-Northern-BC-solo-goat-hunt
There was hardly a cloud in the sky the whole time this year - a little different to say the least.
The plan was to take another goat with my bow, but just like last year, Murphy f*cked me over: despite transporting my bow in a hard case, at some point during the long drive North, the windage post on my Tommy Hogg was damaged, resulting in the sight box breaking off.
Hence I resorted to Plan B, which was to use my 300 winmag (kind of a bummer).
The other two rifles in the picture below are a Rossi Ranchand (shortest legal firearm we are allowed to pack around in Canada, which I keep handy for protection from g-bears) and a 338 Lapua Mag (which I considered using if the perfect situation presented itself for a very, very long shot...Ethics Police please spare me the ear-ache).
Grizzly bears proved to be a serious pain in the *ss, and after three days of attempting to get on the billy that I wanted, I had to give up as there was a sow and cub hanging around the lower benches on one face, and a juevenile a little higher on another face.
I moved to a different location where I eventually bagged the goat below, however the one that I had to pass on was definitely a candidate for the 10"+ club...
In the end, I couldn't have been happier with the stalk, and I closed to well within bow distance before anchoring the billy to the spot with three shots through the shoulders and one through the hips...overkill but I didn't want him going nowhere. The billy turned out to be seven years old and 9&5/8th's.
To go on about the bears, the worst incident was when I was skinning and dressing my goat and caught a glimpse of a grizz walking the bench below me, about 350 yards away.
Instead of caping for a full mount as intended, I changed gears and quickly caped for a half-mount (would have been nice to have the Elk Reaper along so that he could just stuff the whole goat into his pack and ski-daddle). Thinking I was crafty, I then hiked straight up towards the glacier, presuming that the bears have no interest in being up there.
I pretty much sh*t a grand piano when I ended up crossing very fresh grizzly tracks up near the top, which lead me to believe that the bear had circled up and around and was working his way down while I was getting out of the area. Even if that wasn't the case, it certainly gave me the pep-in-my-step that I needed to get moving.
In total, I saw five different g-bears during the trip, which was five too many...they scare me.
I had one moment of stupidity which cost me greatly, and I mention it because you can never be too careful in goat country, and being lazy/sloppy will almost always make you pay.
After shooting the goat, I was pumped and instead of taking the long and slow route, I chose the quicker route to get down to the billy. To make matters worse, I was too lazy to put on my crampons before crossing a steep patch of hard-packed snow.
Needless to say I lost my footing just before making it across and had a bad fall which ended up breaking my left ring finger at the first knuckle, as well as ruining my favorite hunting rifle (broke the scope mount, cracked the stock, and bent the barrel). I was extremely lucky at that, and will never be lazy/sloppy/careless again.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.
Here is a video of my 2011 hunt, which occured during the same time of year:
http://www.rokslide.com/forums/showthread.php?3669-2011-Northern-BC-solo-goat-hunt
There was hardly a cloud in the sky the whole time this year - a little different to say the least.
The plan was to take another goat with my bow, but just like last year, Murphy f*cked me over: despite transporting my bow in a hard case, at some point during the long drive North, the windage post on my Tommy Hogg was damaged, resulting in the sight box breaking off.
Hence I resorted to Plan B, which was to use my 300 winmag (kind of a bummer).
The other two rifles in the picture below are a Rossi Ranchand (shortest legal firearm we are allowed to pack around in Canada, which I keep handy for protection from g-bears) and a 338 Lapua Mag (which I considered using if the perfect situation presented itself for a very, very long shot...Ethics Police please spare me the ear-ache).
Grizzly bears proved to be a serious pain in the *ss, and after three days of attempting to get on the billy that I wanted, I had to give up as there was a sow and cub hanging around the lower benches on one face, and a juevenile a little higher on another face.
I moved to a different location where I eventually bagged the goat below, however the one that I had to pass on was definitely a candidate for the 10"+ club...
In the end, I couldn't have been happier with the stalk, and I closed to well within bow distance before anchoring the billy to the spot with three shots through the shoulders and one through the hips...overkill but I didn't want him going nowhere. The billy turned out to be seven years old and 9&5/8th's.
To go on about the bears, the worst incident was when I was skinning and dressing my goat and caught a glimpse of a grizz walking the bench below me, about 350 yards away.
Instead of caping for a full mount as intended, I changed gears and quickly caped for a half-mount (would have been nice to have the Elk Reaper along so that he could just stuff the whole goat into his pack and ski-daddle). Thinking I was crafty, I then hiked straight up towards the glacier, presuming that the bears have no interest in being up there.
I pretty much sh*t a grand piano when I ended up crossing very fresh grizzly tracks up near the top, which lead me to believe that the bear had circled up and around and was working his way down while I was getting out of the area. Even if that wasn't the case, it certainly gave me the pep-in-my-step that I needed to get moving.
In total, I saw five different g-bears during the trip, which was five too many...they scare me.
I had one moment of stupidity which cost me greatly, and I mention it because you can never be too careful in goat country, and being lazy/sloppy will almost always make you pay.
After shooting the goat, I was pumped and instead of taking the long and slow route, I chose the quicker route to get down to the billy. To make matters worse, I was too lazy to put on my crampons before crossing a steep patch of hard-packed snow.
Needless to say I lost my footing just before making it across and had a bad fall which ended up breaking my left ring finger at the first knuckle, as well as ruining my favorite hunting rifle (broke the scope mount, cracked the stock, and bent the barrel). I was extremely lucky at that, and will never be lazy/sloppy/careless again.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.
