Gnatboy911
Lil-Rokslider
After 13 years in the draw, I drew my tag this year. Hunted G12 here in Colorado. Finally got one on day 8 in the mountains. Packed in by myself for the week, ended up relocating mid week, and was finally successful on Saturday. Packed the goat out Saturday about 7 miles, then had to go back in Sunday to get the rest of my gear. Thanks to the Rokslide members for the tips and advice along the way.
EDIT: I had some down time, so I added some more hunt info...
It was a tough week, but I was seeing goats everyday. The season started on a Tuesday so I packed in to my first area on Sunday. Spent the evening and Monday glassing and resting from the hike in. I stayed in that area until Wednesday. I was seeing goats everyday, but I just couldn't get to them in the cliffs where they were living. I packed out Wednesday afternoon and into a different drainage early Thursday morning. I went up that drainage about 7 miles before I found goats. It was the head of the drainage. I camped there and glassed them Thursday evening. I tried to make a play on them Friday but they didn't like me trying to get close to them and I had no cover because of how steep the mountain was they were on....they could see everything. They headed over the top that day, and didn't come back until the next morning about 9. I was already posted up waiting for them, and it took them until 2 to get within range. I actually missed my first shot, I guess I was a little excited and jerked the trigger. The next two connected well and down he went. I shot him with my 270 at about 350 yards with 140 grain accubonds that I handload. He hung up in some willows above a cliff. Packed him out Saturday night, and had to go back in Sunday to get my camp and the rest of my gear.
I had a lot of new gear for this hunt , it was only my 3rd backpack hunt, and definitely the longest. Tent was a Seek Outside Cimarron which I really liked. It was great to have so much room compared to my last tiny coffin of a bivy tent. Had a new pad as well, neoair xlite. I slept pretty well, and was much better than my old thermarest that was just the thin one with the foam. As soon as I found out I drew the tag I ordered new boots, which I needed since my old Rocky ones blew out this winter. I went with Schnees Beartooth 2. I really like them. Stiffer than I was used to, but got to like them a lot. I had about 75 miles on them before the hunt. Another new gear piece was water filtration, I bought a sawyer squeeze and 2 CNOC bags. it worked really well. I bought a Garmin InReach Mini to check in with the wife and my folks. I tested it quite a bit over the summer, and overall it worked great for the hunt. The spotting scope was a borrowed Leupold from a buddy, and the tripod was the cheapest one on amazon, 12 dollars I think. It sucked...but worked good enough. I spent way more on new gear than I was planning on. A lot of these items were on my 'wish list' but I wasn't planning on getting them all in one summer. I pretty much blew almost all my savings account for this one. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for the taxidermy!
EDIT: I had some down time, so I added some more hunt info...
It was a tough week, but I was seeing goats everyday. The season started on a Tuesday so I packed in to my first area on Sunday. Spent the evening and Monday glassing and resting from the hike in. I stayed in that area until Wednesday. I was seeing goats everyday, but I just couldn't get to them in the cliffs where they were living. I packed out Wednesday afternoon and into a different drainage early Thursday morning. I went up that drainage about 7 miles before I found goats. It was the head of the drainage. I camped there and glassed them Thursday evening. I tried to make a play on them Friday but they didn't like me trying to get close to them and I had no cover because of how steep the mountain was they were on....they could see everything. They headed over the top that day, and didn't come back until the next morning about 9. I was already posted up waiting for them, and it took them until 2 to get within range. I actually missed my first shot, I guess I was a little excited and jerked the trigger. The next two connected well and down he went. I shot him with my 270 at about 350 yards with 140 grain accubonds that I handload. He hung up in some willows above a cliff. Packed him out Saturday night, and had to go back in Sunday to get my camp and the rest of my gear.
I had a lot of new gear for this hunt , it was only my 3rd backpack hunt, and definitely the longest. Tent was a Seek Outside Cimarron which I really liked. It was great to have so much room compared to my last tiny coffin of a bivy tent. Had a new pad as well, neoair xlite. I slept pretty well, and was much better than my old thermarest that was just the thin one with the foam. As soon as I found out I drew the tag I ordered new boots, which I needed since my old Rocky ones blew out this winter. I went with Schnees Beartooth 2. I really like them. Stiffer than I was used to, but got to like them a lot. I had about 75 miles on them before the hunt. Another new gear piece was water filtration, I bought a sawyer squeeze and 2 CNOC bags. it worked really well. I bought a Garmin InReach Mini to check in with the wife and my folks. I tested it quite a bit over the summer, and overall it worked great for the hunt. The spotting scope was a borrowed Leupold from a buddy, and the tripod was the cheapest one on amazon, 12 dollars I think. It sucked...but worked good enough. I spent way more on new gear than I was planning on. A lot of these items were on my 'wish list' but I wasn't planning on getting them all in one summer. I pretty much blew almost all my savings account for this one. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for the taxidermy!
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