Goat shot placement

[FishfinderAK]

Hello
My son and I will be going on our first goat hunt in a couple weeks. Drew a tag for the Ketchikan, AK area. I have noticed that a lot of the vids on youtube advise clients to "shoot him in the front shoulder". I assume this is to help pin him down.
Is this where you all try to place the first shot too? As opposed to the vitals area.
Btw I'm shooting a .300 win mag w 180 Barnes TTSX.
Thank you for any help, tips, or advice.

 

[Tag_Soup]

Following...

 

[Nick Muche]

Best of luck on your hunt! Those are some great tags.

I head out this weekend for mountain goat, but in the Chugach.

With a rifle, high shoulder and you should be able to anchor them well.

Have a great time with your son!

 

[KClark]

I'm not a goat expert having shot only one but it makes sense to shoot them in the shoulder, right in the place that "kills them on both ends". In the right spot the bullet will take out both shoulder blades and interrupt the spinal cord ensuring a blang-flop, dead right there, which keeps them from making the 50-100 yard death run over a cliff a heart shot would allow.

Bullet placed a 1/3 of the way down from the top of the shoulder to the bottom of the chest will anchor any animal and make very short blood trail. I used this on my goat as he was on a ledge and would have tumbled 200ft + in one step.

 

[bigeasygator]

How would you all change that advice for an archery hunter? I leave September 7th for 10 days with Bolen Lewis and I'll be bringing along my bow. I've been looking at vital diagrams and they all seem to differ quite a bit. My reaction from what I've seen is that they do seem a bit higher up and I'm leaning towards halfway up the body in line with the back of the front leg (on a broadside shot of course). Any other points of reference I should be thinking of with a bow?

 

[KClark]

Not a bow hunter so can't honestly help with that but sounds like you have it figured out. The stick slingers will chime in with good advice.

 

[GreenNDark Timber]

bigeasy....I don't have any experience hunting goats but I'll be leaving for Idaho on Sept 13th for my first goat hunt and will be using my bow. In my research for the hunt I've talked to a couple other guys that have killed them with archery equipment and told me their vitals are slightly farther forward than deer or elk. If you look at the goat vital pic KClark posted you can see that if you go up from the elbow of the front leg 1/3 of the way up the body (where I'd typically aim on a deer or elk) there's a pretty large void area. A shot just a little low or back and you'd miss vitals all together. Right now my plan is to go up the middle of the front leg approx half way up the body or just a little less. I'll be hunting with a longbow so I need all the margin for error I can get.

I hope some others with experience shooting them with archery equipment will chime in. Good luck on your hunt.

 

[Nick Muche]

Big Easy, right behind the shoulder man.... Good luck on your hunt!

 

[Daniel_M]

I've caught 1 goat, and did so relatively easy but anchored him in the shoulder after a lung shot. The line of thought is they live in relatively rough terrain, and newtons law gravitates them into the worse terrain. Prevent that with a shoulder shot.

 

[FishfinderAK]

Wow what great...and fast advice!
Thanks guys!
I have another question too. But will begin a new thread.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I've only had the good fortune of taking two goats thus far, but I've been on multiple goat hunts and have been involved in 7 goat harvests. Pretty much all of the goats that I've seen shot were the standard broad side and double lung kills. All of the kills, with the exception of one, either fell where it stood or took several steps and fell. The one kill I witnessed, that didn't fall immediately, was one that my buddy shot at approx. 370 yards with a .325wsm, and shooting 200gr ammo, if I remember correctly. The billy was laying down and quartering away when he placed a perfect shot through the chest cavity and out through the right shoulder, completely blowing up that shoulder. The goat jumped up and started running down hill like it hadn't been hit (all the other goats in the bowl jumped up and started running up hill). Long story short, the billy ran a couple hundred yards before piling up in a patch of volcanic ash. If I hadn't been there myself to see it, I never would have believed it. That goat ran like it wasn't even hit, although its shoulder was completely destroyed.

 

[Decker9]

IME, goats are unpredictable. Iv seen goats run and jump after heart/lung shots, and I have seen them drop. Iv also seen shoulder shot goats, death crawl to the ledge and bail, but have seen them drop and not let out a twitch.
Regardless on shot placement, being sure the spot is retrievable is the biggest thing.
One thing to be careful of, goats tend to have a lot of fur on top their shoulders, the high shoulder/spine shot can be deceiving, take your time and pick carefully.

Good luck to all headed to the hills, bigeasy, your going with one of the best outfits in the area, and one of the best areas for big Billy's, be sure to post up some pics when you fellas get back.

See if this photo works, little something to get the goat adrenilin going

https://i.imgur.com/6YdmGdC.jpg

 

[Yellowknife]

I
One thing to be careful of, goats tend to have a lot of fur on top their shoulders, the high shoulder/spine shot can be deceiving, take your time and pick carefully.

Noticed this when I skinned goats too. Between the fur and the spine hump, it would be easy to shoot high.

For what it's worth, I saw one die in seconds from a straight liver hit from my partners .270. 150 gr NPT and he bled out and rolled over in short order. What didn't work well was a low lung / brisket hit. Made that one sick enough that he didn't travel far, but he lived long enough to hole up in the cliffs and it didn't end well.

Only other thing I noticed is that goat's really aren't that thick. Really "tough" bullets may be counter productive, and I leaned toward something rapidly expanding on the two I shot. Seemed to work.