Are there any sheep or goat hunters on this site. That is something I have always wanted to do. Would love to hear some stories.

Hey

They are lots of fun. I have two hunts for goat in the works for this work and two or three for sheep. Maybe only one for each if things go well. Running over the mountains with a bow in hand and your home for a week on your back is lots of fun. The only down side I have found is the drive home. Not because you are leaving a great sheep or goat hunt behind, but because after beating your body through the mountains for a week, you get pretty stiff after the hours in the truck.

That's something I would love to try if I had the extra money.

In 2006 I drew a mountain goat tag in Colorado. I would highly recommend it because we had a great hunt. Opening morning we spotted a goat bedded on a ridge line. It took me a couple of hours to stalk within about 125 yards. Unfortunately, it was facing away from me so I had no shot. I was belling crawling sideways to get an angle when it must have heard me moving in the rocks and raised up on it's front legs to try to see behind it. That gave me the quartering away angle I needed. I shot and it lay back down and expired in it's bed. I would paste a photobucket picture here but the site seems to be unavailable. The hunt was the easy part... drawing the tag was the hard part. I also discovered that it's difficult to cape, quarter and bone out a goat on the side of a very steep mountain. Packing it out on rough terrain at 12,000+ feet wasn't a picnic either. Anyway, it was a great experience and now I have a very cool trophy hanging on the wall.

That's an awesome story. I do most of my hunting in Oregon. There is goat and sheep tags in one of the units I hunt, but drawing one would be like winning the lottery. Plus they are once in a lifetime tags. You can only draw the tag once in your life. I can imagine how tough they would be to get off the side of a cliff. I don't know if I would be tough enough.

Photobucket is back up and working so here is a picture of my wife with our goat on the mountain.

http://i489.photobucket.com/albums/rr251/hoopscoach/Goat.jpg

Nice goat, my buddy killed one in BC two yrs ago, it was a 9" and 8 1/2 yrs old.

Nice looking goat there hoopscoach.

I guess I have to say I'm a bit spoiled up here in BC. We have litteraly dozens of general open season (any weapon) for goat and mountain sheep. The area I am heading for goat in a few weeks is just across a lake from the main highway. Quick boat ride, spot goats from the water, and hour up to the top, and back down with a goat (hopefully). There are stone sheep in that area to that we are going to try and get after. Caribou and alaska/yukon moose as well op in the same area. I have good goat hunting less than 2 hours from my front door, and its a general open season, any weapon, any goat, every year. The populations are huge!! Same with sheep hunting. I'll put up some pics when I get back from my next hunt around the 10th of august. And then again around the 25th.

Hey ******, where in BC is it a hour to the top of any mountian ?? lol I huffed up a few and the average was 3 to 4 hrs. I will say BC is the most AWSOME place in the world!! I hope to go back again some day soon!

2Labs


It is an hour and half to where I can park my 2 wheel drive truck and then about an hour to the top in one area. 2 hour drive and a 2 hour walk to the top in another area near me. I am planning a big trip with my dad (newly retired) and some buddies farther north on August 15th. This one is about a 9 hour drive, 20 minute boat ride, hour to the top. That area has goat, sheep, caribou, and moose. 10 days hunting with the bows. Should be a great trip. There is also an area about 2.5 hours drive south of me that has sheep and big mule deer in BC's inland desert. There are lots of areas that are two days in, but the hunting is just as good in other, closer, spots if you know where your going.

The road access in most of BC is pretty good thanks to logging. My hunting partner drew a special limited entry goat tag and his area has a large number of goats, but less access. That one will be a 3 or 4 hour hike up. I live in Prince George BC. Right in the middle (40miles East of the geographic center) of the province so I am not too far from anything, and the hunting on my back step is pretty awsome to.

I drew a non-resident Goat tag in Montana in 2007. The excitement of actually drawing
a tag is pretty cool.

I have my same outfitter for Elk that helped me on this hunt. It was special that he
has been waiting to draw a tag for a long time and rarely gets the chance to hunt them
so he enjoyed it almost as much as me. We waited until early Oct to make sure
the goats were haired up. Long story short we spent 3 days glassing before we
picked the one we wanted to go after. Climbed for 4 hours topped out and there he
was looking at us at 300 yds. It was all over in 45 secs. Really great being on top
of the world with your trophy after all the work climbing up into his world.

Only drawback is I can't do it every year and I like Elk meat alot more.....

How tough is it to draw a tag in Montana?

******, good luck on your hunt. I hunted 2.5hrs (air) north east of Smithers,on a Beautiful lake full of trout. All hunting was hikeing and climbing, very enjoyable hunt .

The year I drew my mountain goat tag I also had an opportunity to hunt a bighorn sheep ewe. I didn't draw the tag but about a week before the season the Colorado DOW called me and said that someone had forfeited their ewe tag and I was the first alternate in the list. Since it was my second choice I didn't lose any preference points and all I had to do was stop by a DOW office and pick up the tag. I jumped at the opportunity and an glad I did because I learned some sheep hunting skills and how to hunt them which will come in handy when I finally draw my ram tag. By the way, it took me a couple of days but I did harvest a ewe.

I drew my Montana tag in my 9th year of applying with buying a bonus point every year.
I know people that have been applying for 15 yrs plus.

The odds are pretty long. The key to all of these special drawing tags is to put in
every year and pile up the bonus points. I am just happy I drew before I got too old.
Climbing after goats is not an old man's game.