Balearian Boc

[parshal]

Went to Mallorca on a week's vacation and discovered the Balearian Boc. I found a guide and decided to hunt a day. Really cool animal in beautiful country found only on Mallorca. That's the Mediterranean Sea in the background.

 

[bobinmi]

that is too cool. Can you fill us in on the hunt story a little?

 

[Keptwalkin]

Beautiful animal. Is it good eating?

 

[parshal]

Yeah, I guess I should've given that, huh? LOL

The guide and his interpreter picked me up at the house we were staying at 7:30 AM on Wednesday. We drove about 45 minutes to the area we'd hunt (stopping for the obligatory coffee and croissant on the way) which was about 6,000 acres. The property actually produces over 50% of the bottled water for Spain so that was pretty cool.

We drove up the winding roads to the area and passed the bottling facility and then up a winding single track through the forest. I saw my first goat there which was a nanny and kid. A few weeks before they'd had a historic snow storm and most of the trees were broken with limbs everywhere. They had crews gathering the limbs for burning. We actually ran across a cow that had died in the storm.

Once we made it through the forest we came to open, rocky hills above treeline. We started seeing goats in singles and doubles before finally seeing quite a few spread out about 400-500 yards away.

The guides got out and started look for bocs (which are the males) in the group. We spotted a few and then, all of a sudden, there was a group of about 50 that came down the far hill, through the drainage and across the road we'd just driven up. We got out and started hiking to cut them off. When we got to the top we found the bocs were running up another mountain and the nannies were all headed down the drainage into the trees.

There were about eight goats headed up the mountain so I grabbed the guide's rifle (Blaser R8 7 Rem Mag) and started looking. They were trying to decide which one and identify quality since there were about three good looking bocs in the group. I was on the biggest. I never heard them say to shoot so I didn't. All this happened within an hour of starting up the single track road. It was at this point that I told them they're going to have to tell me, directly, to shoot. Otherwise I wasn't going to.

We got back to the truck and started heading up the road again. We were still seeing groups of 1-3 all along the way. They mentioned that they were surprised by that large group and said that was pretty rare. We basically came to the end of the road where there was a long rock wall dividing the property and a reserve of some sort. I couldn't quite figure out what it was due to language barrier.

We got out here and walked up a small ridge and saw some more goats. The goats are in and amongst large rocks so they disappear quickly. They aren't tame and leave fairly quickly when they see people moving around. We sat for a while and saw two bocs disappear behind some rocks so we waited to see if they'd come out by some nannies we saw.

I started hearing a kid calling and looked out to see it jump up on a rock looking for its mother. The kids were less than two weeks old at this point. Having goats of my own it's really fun to watch them run around and act like goats.

About this time the guide says he sees another small group with a boc but he couldn't get a good look. To make a long story short it finally came out on a rock and he told me to get ready. I set his rifle on a rock using the sling under the forend and got on the goat. It moved off and came back up a bit later on another rock when I touched off the shot. Not having shot a non-braked/suppressed rifle in a long time I didn't see a thing after recoil. I saw the goat running with the naked eye and figured I'd missed low but he said it was a good shot. Shot was a little over 100 yards and the goat ran nearly 200 yards. It was factory ammo with a 160 Norma Tip-Strike bullet. Shot was perfect.

They rate goats in four classes. Representative, bronze, silver and gold. The difference between bronze, silver and gold is, literally, inches. So, not much. This one is a bronze. He counted growth rings and said it was between 11-12 years old and was as big as it was ever going to get. The meat isn't good at all especially on an older male so they kept the rear quarters and loins that they'd feed to their bird dogs.

I'm having the skull done as a euro and will have the hide made into a rug to go with my mountain goat rug.

I learned all about the Boc's history and how they've managed to cull all the hybrid goats from the genetically pure ones. It wasn't 25 years ago that there were only one or two areas left with genetically pure goats. Now they've got 11 areas with pure Bocs. The Boc was introduced to the island by the Phoenicians roughly 2500 years ago.

 

[adamkolesar]

Thanks for the story! I did this hunt pre- pandemic while on a family vacation in late July during an insane European heat wave.
It was quite an "adventure". I was also talked out of grabbing back straps. (I would at least try braising them). The goats were brought to Majorca by the Phonecisns as a food source after all!
If you're looking for a perfect family vacation, off season hunt opportunity at a reasonable cost this happens to be a good one. I got mine taxied in Majorca and shipped to me without too much hassle.

 

[parshal]

How long did it take to get your taxidermy done?

 

[adamkolesar]

It wasn't bad. My thinking was that the outfitter would be more invested in expediting the export of a fully taxied specimen rather than a euro or horns and hide.
I wanted a shoulder mount as the boc is a unique looking animal. The results were decent and the cost fair. Total time to NY's JFK airport was about 9 months.

 

[Mt Al]

Great story, thanks for sharing. Bet that will be a cool mount.

 

[ohiodope16]

Awesome nice animal

 

[TxxAgg]

Cool!

 

[Suera]

Congrats, I'm happy you enjoyed this hunting in my country, many times here for people balerian boc is an underrated hunt because are similar like domestic goats, but the true is that is a great hunt in an amazing landscape. Now you can try to hunt Spain ibex is other Ligue

 

[NRA4LIFE]

What a plus for your vacation! Very nice and thanks for the writeup. Hmm, my wife would love Mallorca, she lived in Spain for awhile.

 

[Starbailey]

They are a fun little critter to hunt.

 

[Mojave]

Beautiful animal. Is it good eating?

No, it's a feral goat.

 

[adamkolesar]

I wished I would've insisted on taking the back straps and loins on my goat. With l long braise, I bet they would be just fine.

 

[Mojave]

Yeah, they smell like a urinal taste like a urinal

 

[Mojave]

I’ve killed about 20 feral Billy goats in Australia. They are nasty.

 

[adamkolesar]

I'm sure you're right. Would've been an interesting culinary challenge. The game manager I hunted with told me they'll harvest a lamb or two occasionally for the table.

 

[Suera]

Male boc meat is very strong, has a lot of testosterone and if you hunt it in rut you can dead haha. The only way we eat this meat is in a kind or jerky that we make with lots of spices and also in " chorizo" a traditional Spanish sausage with paprika and other species, it is a bit spicy but very good. With this species you hide the smell and flavor.
The same apply for Spain ibex and mouflon always in mature males...