LoganWolfe
FNG
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2021
My wife and I both pulled road system goat tags last fall. We successfully filled both tags on billies. Hers during the opening week (August 23rd) and mine on of the last weeks (October 15th). The difference in the two hunts was pretty cool to observe throughout the fall. This was my second road system goat and her first.
For Jessie’s goat we decided to hike in a few miles to the alpine and setup camp in an area we often hunt for blacktail and subsequently see a lot of goats. We had five days of hunting set aside after my I flew my mom in to spend time with my daughter. We went in on the 21st and setup camp. We glassed up some nice deer that day but ultimately decided to focus on goats the rest of that evening. The 22nd came with the standard mountain fog and low vis, while we saw a few goats the fog kept us low and out of shooting range. We did relocate a nice buck we’d seen the previous evening and she made a great shot on it. The angle was quite steep at around 45 degrees but she was able to get comfortable behind the bipod and made a clean 200 yard downhill shot. We processed the deer and hung it in the cliffs for its trip out, hopefully the next day.
The 23rd came with more fog. We knew where the goats were so we decided to hike up a route I knew was safe and would bring us within range of the goats. We hiked into our spot and waited for the fog to clear. Lo and behold around noon it did just that. As the fog broke it uncovered the herd that was lying below us a few hundreds yards. We picked out the biggest billie and waited for him to stand. After thirty minutes he did, and she made another awesome, steep downhill shot at 235 yards. The 150grain Hornady SSTs out of our .270 did exactly what we hoped for. It took us awhile 2.5 hours to get down to the goat because we had to backtrack down and around the mountain vice descending the cliffs we shot from. Once we did she was elated as was I. We processed the billy and headed for the tent. It sounds simple but all-in-all about a six hour process from the shot to the tent. The hike out was steep and heavy. We got back to the tents (I had another close couple with us to enjoy the hunt) and decided to grab the blacktail and head back to the house to return the next morning for the tent and extra things as there was a storm moving in for the evening. The billy measured roughly 42” B&C (unofficially) with horns a bit of 9”. She’s getting it mounted in a Trapper Nelson style pack mount.
I spent all of September trying to unsuccessfully kill a moose on the haul road with the DM922 tag. I returned to Kodiak with most of the goat season behind me and only a few opportunities left in the season. We saw a clear weather window on the second to last weekend and had a friend come over early to babysit for us as we departed for the mountains in the dark. We hadn’t gotten any snow at this point in the year which was indeed odd being it was well into October. We started our hike in the dark and as we climbed in elevation quickly realized we’d had our first snow of the season. It wasn’t much but certainly a few inches here and there and it made for a very unique morning. We were nothing short of blessed as there wasn’t an ounce of wind or hardly a cloud in the sky. We were in the alpine by day brake and Jessie quickly spotted a mature billy as I was distracted by some ptarmagin flying around. The goat was above us so we kept our heads down, acted unassuming and hiked out of his domain. We circled back once we were clear of his vision and got above him. He didn’t seem to have a care in the world as I settled in behind the same .270 that had killed Jessie’s goat. Again, similar circumstance but not as sharp of a down-hill shot or nearly as far. At a cool 70 yards I slowly squeezed the trigger and watched the goat as he took his last breath. The 150grain Hornady did the job. While about half and inch smaller than my wife’s goat I was extremely happy with the winter hide. We took our time, enjoyed the beautiful weather and quartered the goat out before hiking back to the truck. All said and done we were driving home by four pm.
The experiences I shared with my wife this year were some of the most rewarding ones yet. I never knew how much enjoyment one could get off of someone else’s success. To be clear, this wasn’t beginners luck in some sense. She worked hard for the goat and deer. She hikes more than anyone I know and typically crushes mountains year-round. I’ve drug her along on every hunting venture I’ve thought of for the last 14 years and she’s never said no. Always a willing participant. I couldn’t be more proud of her than I was this year to kill her first deer and . To have her there for mine was purely icing on the cake.
Cheers everyone and thanks for reading if you made it this far. Best of luck this coming season.
For Jessie’s goat we decided to hike in a few miles to the alpine and setup camp in an area we often hunt for blacktail and subsequently see a lot of goats. We had five days of hunting set aside after my I flew my mom in to spend time with my daughter. We went in on the 21st and setup camp. We glassed up some nice deer that day but ultimately decided to focus on goats the rest of that evening. The 22nd came with the standard mountain fog and low vis, while we saw a few goats the fog kept us low and out of shooting range. We did relocate a nice buck we’d seen the previous evening and she made a great shot on it. The angle was quite steep at around 45 degrees but she was able to get comfortable behind the bipod and made a clean 200 yard downhill shot. We processed the deer and hung it in the cliffs for its trip out, hopefully the next day.
The 23rd came with more fog. We knew where the goats were so we decided to hike up a route I knew was safe and would bring us within range of the goats. We hiked into our spot and waited for the fog to clear. Lo and behold around noon it did just that. As the fog broke it uncovered the herd that was lying below us a few hundreds yards. We picked out the biggest billie and waited for him to stand. After thirty minutes he did, and she made another awesome, steep downhill shot at 235 yards. The 150grain Hornady SSTs out of our .270 did exactly what we hoped for. It took us awhile 2.5 hours to get down to the goat because we had to backtrack down and around the mountain vice descending the cliffs we shot from. Once we did she was elated as was I. We processed the billy and headed for the tent. It sounds simple but all-in-all about a six hour process from the shot to the tent. The hike out was steep and heavy. We got back to the tents (I had another close couple with us to enjoy the hunt) and decided to grab the blacktail and head back to the house to return the next morning for the tent and extra things as there was a storm moving in for the evening. The billy measured roughly 42” B&C (unofficially) with horns a bit of 9”. She’s getting it mounted in a Trapper Nelson style pack mount.
I spent all of September trying to unsuccessfully kill a moose on the haul road with the DM922 tag. I returned to Kodiak with most of the goat season behind me and only a few opportunities left in the season. We saw a clear weather window on the second to last weekend and had a friend come over early to babysit for us as we departed for the mountains in the dark. We hadn’t gotten any snow at this point in the year which was indeed odd being it was well into October. We started our hike in the dark and as we climbed in elevation quickly realized we’d had our first snow of the season. It wasn’t much but certainly a few inches here and there and it made for a very unique morning. We were nothing short of blessed as there wasn’t an ounce of wind or hardly a cloud in the sky. We were in the alpine by day brake and Jessie quickly spotted a mature billy as I was distracted by some ptarmagin flying around. The goat was above us so we kept our heads down, acted unassuming and hiked out of his domain. We circled back once we were clear of his vision and got above him. He didn’t seem to have a care in the world as I settled in behind the same .270 that had killed Jessie’s goat. Again, similar circumstance but not as sharp of a down-hill shot or nearly as far. At a cool 70 yards I slowly squeezed the trigger and watched the goat as he took his last breath. The 150grain Hornady did the job. While about half and inch smaller than my wife’s goat I was extremely happy with the winter hide. We took our time, enjoyed the beautiful weather and quartered the goat out before hiking back to the truck. All said and done we were driving home by four pm.
The experiences I shared with my wife this year were some of the most rewarding ones yet. I never knew how much enjoyment one could get off of someone else’s success. To be clear, this wasn’t beginners luck in some sense. She worked hard for the goat and deer. She hikes more than anyone I know and typically crushes mountains year-round. I’ve drug her along on every hunting venture I’ve thought of for the last 14 years and she’s never said no. Always a willing participant. I couldn’t be more proud of her than I was this year to kill her first deer and . To have her there for mine was purely icing on the cake.
Cheers everyone and thanks for reading if you made it this far. Best of luck this coming season.
