Colorado has some good goats!

[taylorce1]

My buddy has had an awesome opening season in Colorado. He has been goat and bear hunting this last week I'm still waiting for him to come down from the mountains to give me details.

He found this guy on one of his several scouting expiditions.

Then he hammered this big billy on opening day around 13,000 feet. Still don't know the details but I'm pretty sure he used his .325 WSM.

I was supposed to be in on this hunt to help with the pack out but the new job got in the way. I imagine that he will fill his bear tag before long if a decent shooter walks infront of his sights.

 

[DrMike]

A fine looking moose. I wasn't aware that Colorado had any population of moose; I'm glad to see it, however. I had seen the goat in an earlier post, and it is a good one.

 

[taylorce1]

Colorado has had a huntable population of Shiras moose since about 1986 IIRC. It is a difficult tag to draw however, we on a points system and it takes a minimum of three points to draw and after you get the three points minimum the points you earn after that are weighted points. With the minumum of three points you have less than 1% chance of drawing a bull tag. I'm sitting in the 2% range with my weighted points, my buddy in the picture and his brother are sitting on max points and still only have a 3% chance of drawing.

The good news is that the moose population is expanding and new GMU's open up every few years, we got a new one last year. Bad news is something like 17 bull moose were killed out of season by elk hunters last year that the DPW knows of. That sure doesn't help my chances of getting a moose tag drawn.

 

[DrMike]

Bad news is something like 17 bull moose were killed out of season by elk hunters last year that the DPW knows of.

Ouch! Mistakes? Or deliberate kills by slob hunters?

 

[gerry]

That's a really nice moose. Congrats on your buddies goat they are one of my favorite animals. It is amazing how tough they are and what kind of terrain they can thrive in, on some of the cliffs they walk on you woundn't think anything could ever walk across it but somehow they do.

 

[taylorce1]

Bad news is something like 17 bull moose were killed out of season by elk hunters last year that the DPW knows of.

Ouch! Mistakes? Or deliberate kills by slob hunters?

I'm sure more than a few were shot because they thought they could get away with it. Some the hunters turned themselves in on, so I guess they were mistakes. I just don't know how you could possibly mistake a grown moose for an elk, unless you are not hunting safely or ethically. I've seen way too many people at elk camps that are "if it's brown it's down" and they'll sort out the tags later.

 

[FOTIS]

Great pictures man and thank you for sharing

 

[sask boy]

Those are 2 great photos of animals. It is to bad when a hunter can't tell the difference between a bull Moose and a bull Elk

PS. That is just my opinion though.
Blessings,
Dan

 

[Oldtrader3]

Last time I hunted in Colorado they paired me with some guy from Pennsylvania. I guess that nobody told him that he could not shoot every deer that he saw. So, he shot two bucks the first day and wanted me to tag one. Then he got in my face for refusing (I had never seen this jerk before) to tag his second deer. All this during a guided hunt!

I shot my deer the next morning and the guide let this guy go out along with me again, with a rifle, and he first thing, shot another deer (that makes three)! Again he got pissed, when I shot my own deer and and tagged it and refused to tag his. He was making a big scene with me again and I told the guide that I would shoot him (the poacher) if he did not get him out of my face, tout suite! I got really unhappy about the entire scene, tossed my deer in my truck and beat a hasty retreat back to Utah, paid $2500 plus license fees paid to be put on the spot, but I did get a decent deer.

I never called that guide again. I guess the moral is: be careful about who you book with. This is the lesson learned. I do not totally blame the guide. I do not think he knew what a out-of-control jerk this guy from PA was, shooting all those deer which were the Guide's livelyhood on private ranches.

 

[JD338]

Nice!
Congratulations to your buddy on his goat.
Nice bull moose too.

Mike,

Walden, CO is the moose capital of the west.

JD338

 

[DrMike]

Mike,

Walden, CO is the moose capital of the west.

I was clue free! Good to know this, however.

 

[wildgene]

Nice!
Congratulations to your buddy on his goat.
Nice bull moose too.

Mike,

Walden, CO is the moose capital of the west.

JD338

...Walden is where CO planted the moose, Saratoga WY is where all the moose CO planted ended up... :mrgreen: :twisted:

 

[Greg Nolan]

Nice animals. Lots of steak on that moose. MMMMMMMMM

 

[ridgewalker]

Wish you guys hadn't said something about the @#@$%^&* Colorado preference point system. I have lived here for 36 years. I got up to 6 preference points for goat and sheep, then lost them all when they changed the rules that you had to apply every year. Now I am back up to I believe 8 preference points. By the time I draw, I'll be 75-80 years old and won't be able to hunt anyway.

I am thinking of going to AK for goat. You can get a nice one withing 1500 feet of sea level there. Cruise around in a boat until you find the one you want, then stalk up the mountain side. Not easy, but still nothing like backpacking in to 13,000 ft hunting and then having to haul one down the mountain. Not easy for a 40 year old, much less a guy 65 years young.

I just have to save all my social security checks for the next 7 months to pay for it... :roll:

 

[taylorce1]

I got the rest of the story finally!

Very fun and exciting Goat hunt! We spotted this Billy on Friday and watched him every day until he disappeared on Monday (season opens Tuesday!) We scrambled on Monday and found him in the next basin in impossible cliffs, then Monday afternoon he disappears again!, My brothers sick with the flu throwing up Sunday and Monday and even sicker when the Billy Goat keeps disappearing. Minutes before dark Monday night we spot the Billy yet again on the summit of an un named Peak in an un approachable location not because of harsh terrain but the opposite, kind of rounded terrain and he has 360 degree visibility for 800 yards every direction.
Rick is feeling better because of the good news, at least the Billy is found. Well after dark and in the starlight the Billy (we named him the "Polar Bear" because he was so white and fat like a white bear) moves back into the cliffs he’s been in for 4 days, great news. My brother stops throwing up!

We are there at the basin at daybreak and get a friend (Graybird from AR) in position to spot and our cousin Alex in position to watch from an alternate spot a half mile to the north (2 perspectives cant hurt if the goat goes on a walkabout again).

Rick and I head off around the backside or shoulder of the basin, getting behind and above the Billy. Once we gain all the elevation we need and moved in above him we creep to the edge of the cliff, ditch the packs and belly crawl to the edge and as soon as the tops of our heads and eyeballs are looking over he looks right at us!. I range him and another Billy (alternate Goat we’ve been watching called “slide Goat” he has a habit of bedding in rockslides strangely happy in the open). "Polar Bear" Billy is 242 yards and slide Goat is 312 yards. We freeze until he averts his eyes and try to make a lateral move to a shooting rock about 12 yards away. I tell Rick if that Goat stands up you should too and walk straight to the shooting rock fast get a rest and kill him. But it all works out and the Billy eyeballs us but doesn’t panic and Rick creeps to the shooting rock aims nearly straight down and puts a shot in him as he’s bedded then the Goat jumps up and he’s got another one in him before I can say a thing. (fast second shot).
He humps up flips and rolls a few times and hangs up in another Goat bed.
At the time of the shot we were at 13,200 ft elevation.

It takes us an hour to pick our way down the cliffs to him even though it was 242 yards. Alex and Graybird join us hiking up from the bottom.
Then its all over but the pictures and tag punching, skinning and a pack out.

The Goat has the biggest body I've ever seen on a Billy Goat and great hair!
My brother Rick used a 325 WSM in a Browning Micro Hunter 200 grain AccuBond factory Winchester ammo. Rick drew the tag with the maximum points.
Rick took advantage of this summer by scouting diligently, not only did it get him in good shape but the more Goats you look at the more you know about Goats, there is no substitute for field time. Rick also recruited our cousin Alex to scout, Alex put in the hours and miles this summer scouting and reporting his finds.
I feel fortunate to be able to hunt with my brother and help how I could on his once in a lifetime Goat hunt.
Our buddy Graybird was also a great help as a set of eyes and as a pack mule on the way out.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. We all had a great time.

View from the shooters perspective, Goat is down after the shot in the green foreground.

Getting down to the Goat, my brother Rick pictured. Rick said he doesn't like this photo because he looks winded, at 13000 feet everybody looks winded unless they are laying down!

 

[DrMike]

Excellent account of a demanding hunt. Thanks for sharing the hunt.

 

[CatskillCrawler]

Great story, pics and hunt. Sounds like quite the challenge.

 

[.300winmag]

Congrats! Thanks for sharing!

 

[SJB358]

Wow! Awesome pictures!

 

[ridgewalker]

taylorce1...ooops Sorry for my rantings on the preference point system.
You did great...I am just jealous.
Thanks for sharing your awesome experiences!