bullet selection for mountain goat

[AK Troutbum]

My advise would be don't over think it. Use which ever caliber your most comfortable/accurate with, don't attempt a shot on something that you'll be very unlikely to retrieve or will be ground burger when you do retrieve it, and aim for the vitals. Take your time and wait for the right shot, under the right conditions, and in the right spot. IMO, going home empty handed having never taken a shot is much better than going home empty handed having taken a bad shot. My first 3 goat hunts, 3 years in a row, I never took a shot but I gained a ton of knowledge and I never had any regrets. Good luck, and I hope you have a great hunt.

 

[Steve O]

I think the guys who shoot tough bullets because goats are so tough are the ones that have them most trouble. I used plain Jane 140g CoreLokts out of my 264 Win and it was a thing of beauty. If I ever did it again I’d use any Ballistic Tip type bullet; nothing mono or “controlled expansion”

 

[S-3 ranch]

LOL so true
“‘Pay attention to where they are at when you shoot, make the first shot count, do whatever you can to prevent a pile of white snot at the base of a cliff after they run/jump/walk/roll off. Be prepared for quick a follow up shot, regardless of how good the first one was. I personally haven't seen one just "drop", they all moved/stumbled a certain amount. IMHO, hardest part of goat hunting, finding them in a "killable" location.“”

I never had the opportunity to hunt mountain goats, but Aoudad have a tendency to run/ jump / roll off some rocks in too many spots you just can’t get to or die a extra 1/2 day down a canyon, my favorite bullet is the federal blue box , 130gr 270 , 140gr 6.5 .. ect are killing mothers
Last couple of years I switched to Norma ammunition, both whitetail & oryx loads in 6.5 - 30cal are good pills for general use on goats, sheep, deer , elk
Do your best to knock them out with a boiler room or shoulder shot and you should have a cape In the salt and meat in the cooler

 

[tylerb4613]

I have had great luck with Interlocks over the years.

If you haven’t already, you should start a new thread and tell your story. I, for one, would love to hear it.

I might just do that!

 

[AK Troutbum]

As far as bullet selection, I think a lot of it has to do with what you trust and then what you tend to use the most often. For me that’s tipped mono’s, and in particular Barnes TTSX bullets. I absolutely love these bullets out of pretty much every caliber I’ve used them, but then again, you tend to use more often what you have faith in.


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[AK Troutbum]

.308 win

6.5CM

.280AI

.300wsm

.325wsm

.270win

All with mono’s and all but one with Barnes TTSX.


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[Steve O]

@AK Troutbum that .308 pic is EPIC! By chance did you use the 130g TTSX in the .308?

 

[AK Troutbum]

@AK Troutbum that .308 pic is EPIC! By chance did you use the 130g TTSX in the .308?

Thank you, and yes, that's the bullet I used.

 

[Steve O]

Thank you, and yes, that's the bullet I used.

Awesome. I just got a few hundred of those to try out for a sweet little .308 I picked up. Looks like a bang flop? How about shot distance and placement? That looks a lot like a lake I got dropped on a couple Augusts ago to deer hunt! We saw 10x more goats than deer.

 

[tkat]

I’ve seen and killed a lot of goats with both calibers, either will do fine. What I would say is bring the lightest one because you’ll be carrying it up some steep country. It’s also going to get beat up a little so make sure you have a solid scope that won’t move around if it takes a bump here and there.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Awesome. I just got a few hundred of those to try out for a sweet little .308 I picked up. Looks like a bang flop? How about shot distance and placement? That looks a lot like a lake I got dropped on a couple Augusts ago to deer hunt! We saw 10x more goats than deer.

I think that one was just over 200 yds and he took two steps and tipped over. Quartering away shot in the vitals and I was able to retrieve the bullet from just under the skin of the opposite armpit. I took the bullet home, cleaned it up, and weighed it on my reloading scale and it had retained about 99% of its original wt. That was in early Nov. of 2020 and my son and I just kind of threw the trip together last minute when we found out that Island Air would still fly us out during the height of covid. We actually saw a fair number of deer and ended up taking home 3, if I remember right.

 

[waspocrew]

@AK Troutbum that .308 pic is EPIC! By chance did you use the 130g TTSX in the .308?

Agreed - awesome photo! Would love to chase goats someday!

 

[TristanJH]

I ran my 6.5 PRC with a 135-grain Badlands (semi-fragmenting copper mono) for mine.

Tons of good advice and great goats here. I would repeat what others have said; shoot what you're confident in. Practice building positions and shooting angles. Practice your wind calls, and make special consideration of recovery post-shot. Enjoy your hunt!

 

[mtnbound]

ELDM or X’s


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[westrnwild]

I just killed my goat in Alaska with a 6.5 PRC with 143 gr ELDXs this week. It was absolutely devastating. I've killed elk, antelope, mule deer and now MTN goat with that bullet.

 

[PWCGray]

Shoot the caliber you feel most comfortable with. Shot placement is key, as with everything.
As a lot of folks have mentioned... goat hunting and recovering goats is about judging if you can get to where they are at now AND where they might end up. it's amazing how a big furry beast can turn into an apparent soccer ball rolling down the mtn.
That being said, the concept of "anchoring" and terminal ballistics is a good one. Goats will do a death run to parasail. I have seen goats shot on flat benches 50-80 yards wide... then goat dead sprints across and jumps into the abyss. Crushing the goat on the shot is nice in those situations. In my experience, all else held equal, bergers do the best on that front.
I've almost died on goat hunts, roped out goats, had my heart almost hop out of my chest skinning them in nasty terrain and, unfortunately, even lost them. tricky at times.

 

[Grisha]

I used 141 burgers. One shot to vitals had legs up in the air. Damage was...intense.

 

[Marbles]

243 with 108 ELDM, goat died in its bed and never took a step. First shot killed it, about 30 seconds in the twitching legs looked like he was trying to stand up and I shot him again.

Same gun, same bullet, two shots that were too high on another bedded goat, goat bailed off a 20-40 foot ledge and rolled 500+ feet vertical down a steep slope. About 15 minutes in, as we worked our way down and after we spotted him on the snow at the bottom, he stood back up. He never traveled more that 20 feet on his own power, but he did require a finishing shot.

As said above, shot placement is key.

On my goat, the 108 ELDM pulverized 3 ribs going in and 3 on the opposite side going out and partially separated the offside shoulder from the body. My shot was higher in the vitals than I wanted. My takeaway is that on a beded goat, aim lower than you think. Both goats were in small depressions that hid part of them.

 

[Theringworm]

My only goat was a couple of years ago. Early November hunt. The original plan was to take a 6.5 PRC with hand loaded Berger 156 EOLs, but my gunsmith wasn’t able to get it done in time. So instead, I took my 28 Nosler and hand loaded Berger 195 EOLs. If memory serves me it was around a 45 degree angle up, just under 580-590 yds with a shoot to distance of around 410 or so. He was perched on a smooth domed rock outcropping. If he slid or jumped off there was what appeared to be a small sized willow bench he would land on. So we weren’t overly concerned about his position. It would likely save us an hour if he did slide off the domed rock. I will chalk up my spined shot to not judging the left to right wind as accurately as I had thought. But it didn’t hit where I was hoping. It was a 2.5 hour climb to him but we were certain he was spined from the video and knew he was not going anywhere. As suspected he was bedded waiting on us, not able to get up. I finished him off. Less than stellar job on my part, but it happens. I was confident on the that distance and have shot several animals close to that range before and had practiced a lot. Always like to get closer but chasing goats form below them limits your abilities.

The Berger did indeed fragment. We found several pieces on the opposite side underneath his coat. I am confident if it would have hit him in the boiler room it would have definitely killed him. No idea how quickly obviously. But the bullet did its job. The nut pulling the trigger did not. I would definitely shoot the Berger’s again. Just prefer make a better shot next time.

 

[Northern Safari]

Have yet to shoot one but will be bringing either Winchester's 165gr Accubonds or Browning's Sierra Tipped Gameking's in my 6.8 Western when I do.