12 year old gets his first goat

[AK Troutbum]

My son shot his first mountain goat this last week. It was a nanny, and although it didn't have a kid, I still beat him to within an inch of his life for not holding out for a billy. If anyone knows a sure fire way to get this younger generation to walk the straight and narrow, please let me know.

 

[jherald]

Man look at the load that kid is hauling. Good for you guys. Looks like a good hunt to me. I'll be hoping for the same.

 

[realunlucky]

You guys had an amazing trip.

 

[Broomd]

Congrats on a special hunt! Great goat!

Time and exposure to forums like this (and other hunters) will light that "billy only" fire in him...he's young. As a youngster I would have killed that nanny too without hesitation.

Kudos, he's a tough guy, and will likely be a tough, principled man too. It will take time.

 

[6mm Remington]

Congratulations and he and you have every right to be proud of the great job that he did! Nothing wrong with shooting a nanny, or a cow, or a doe. Those populations need to be kept in check also, and the meats great eating too! What he has is a real trophy! Very nice hair. She would look great mounted, plaqued, or a Europeanmount. That hide taken care of and tanned would look awesome hung on a wall, or on a bed, or bannister.

 

[bobhunts]

I think you have already put him on the Straight and Narrow! Nice job for that young man.

 

[Trial153]

Nice work, congrats to you both!

 

[Shrek]

Congratulations !

 

[AK Troutbum]

So I finally got a couple minutes of free time and thought I would go ahead and tell this story. My son Drew a Kodiak Island (DG 474) mountain goat tag this last winter and we decided to plan our trip between the dates of September 5-13. We chose this time frame because it was over Labor Day weekend and figured that missing four days of school would be a little better than missing five days. After flying down to Kodiak on Saturday morning we went straight to Mack's Sports Shop to purchase jet boil fuel, then headed to the little lake where we would meet up with Taj Shoemaker to be flown out in his super cub. I flew with Taj first in order to find an alpine lake that would be easier to access goat country from. We decided on this little puddle, at 2500' elevation, as we could see good numbers of goats on the surrounding mountains.

After Taj dropped me off, he went back to pick up my son and, I immediately started seeing deer.

Taj arrived back at the lake about an hour later and my son and I started our pack towards a little bowl area and the goats.

 

[shanevg]

Congrats to your son! Love the story so far, keep it coming!

 

[AK Troutbum]

Once we got to the bowl area, we spotted a nice billy, about 800 yards up the side of the mountain, so decided to set up and do a little digiscoping.

This billy appeared to have a fairly large gash on his right hip, and he would not place any weight on that leg, so we dubbed him "Bum Leg Billy"

While we were watching him, my son heard something behind us and turned around to see a nice Sitka Blacktail buck sneaking away. We quickly grabbed the .300 and went after him. After a short stalk, my son set up and put a perfect shot on what would become his first buck.

We quickly cleaned the buck and proceeded up into the bowl to make spike camp.
At 3000' elevation, we were able to find a nice flat, soft area to put up our shelter that was tucked in amongst some little hills and gave us good protection from the wind.

 

[AK Troutbum]

The next couple days were spent, unsuccessfully, trying to get into either a shootable range of "Bum Leg Billy", or catch him in a place where he wouldn't turn into hamburger from a several hundred foot fall.
On day four, weather set in, that kept us pretty much tent bound for the next couple days. Whenever the fog would lift enough for us to see any reasonable distance, we would head out and do a little ptarmigan hunting.

Once the storm passed we immediately got back to chasing goats. Prior to the storm, we had been patterning goats coming into our bowl, from over top of the saddle, around noon every day. So, based on this, we decided to climb up into the bowl, find a good place to hole up, and wait for an ambush. As luck would have it, the day we decided to do this, the goats never showed. So at around three in the afternoon we decided to head out and back towards camp. As we were just coming down out of the rocks and just about into camp, we spotted four goats coming around the side of the mountain towards us. They spotted us also and froze in their tracks. We quickly decided to head down towards a little knob to take cover and hopefully have the goats forget about us. After about 15 minutes or so, the goats went back to feeding and eventually started progressing around the side of the mountain towards us.
It was determined that there were three nannies and a kid, with the kid attached to the lead nanny. After about an hour they started making their way by us with the lead nanny and the nanny in the rear separated by about 100 yards. We decided that my son would attempt to take the nanny in the back of the line, as it was quite apparent that she was not the mother of the kid. When she was directly across from us and quartering slightly away, I gave my son the OK, and he sent a 165 grain, TSX Barnes bullet downrange. Upon being hit, the nanny took a couple steps forward, collapsed, then slid a few feet down the scree mountainside and came to a rest. The bullet entered right behind her left shoulder, through both lungs, and exited through her right shoulder. My son had his first mountain goat and couldn't be happier, well, unless it would've been a Boon'er billy, of coarse.

All in all it worked out pretty perfect. The goat died instantly, we were a couple hundred yards from our spike camp, it was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon with plenty of daylight left, and the weather was good. We were able to take our time skinning her out and packaging her up.

Once again, as luck would have it, "Bum Leg Billy" came down off the mountain and presented us multiple opportunities for close range shots that would've only sent him tumbling down a few yards of mountainside at best. I guess he must've known that our goat hunting was over.

 

[Nick Muche]

Taj is the man! Way to go you two, awesome recap and great opportunity for your son. Congrats you to guys!

 

[JG358]

Thats awesome, Congrats!

 

[AK Troutbum]

We decided to spend the rest of our time chasing deer and trying to fill our other two tags. Over the next few days, I shot two more little spike bucks, and on Sept 12, called Taj (via sat phone ) for our flight out at 10 AM the following morning.

We ended up with a little over 200 pounds of roast, burger, back straps and loins, and although it doesn't fill the freezer like a moose, it did put a dent in it.

Picture of backstrap and loins.

All in all this turned out to be a very special hunt for me, and some great bonding time with my son. I think these will be memories that he will cherish forever, I know I will.
Maybe next year I'll be able to talk my seven-year-old daughter into tagging along.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Here are a few more miscellaneous photos of the trip.

A of couple old bear skulls we found.

 

[mtnwrunner]

Greg, rock on! Man, great story and I would think that he is already going the right direction if he is in the mountains and not texting.
Congrats, great photos and the expressions on that kids face are priceless.

Randy

 

[AK Troutbum]

Thanks guys, we really did have a great time. I sure do love vacationing in the islands this time of year. Thanks again for those bino's Randy, I love 'em.

 

[PNWGATOR]

What a fantastic report! THAT is what it's all about!!!

 

[Becca]

Greg, this might be my favorite hunting story so far this fall! Way to get out there with your son, and please give him my congratulations on his first goat and deer! This trip was quite and adventure, and it is obvious your son's outdoor and hunting skills exceed that of many adults I know. He must have an excellent teacher great job to both of you!