My mountain goat points went from 15 to 0? Colorado G13! whoo hoo!

[BillyGoatGruff]

BGG - I drew a rifle goat tag in G13 back in 2005. Spent all the summer weekends above treeline through that area. Best summer of my life. Filled my tag with a billy when the season came around.

PM me when you're ready, and I'll share scouting notes and my "lessons learned" with you. I live in the Black Forest area as well.

Until then - start a hiking conditioning routine

Gerald

Gerald,

Thanks, maybe I can take you to breakfast or something and we can chat. I'd love to hear about your hunt and for sure the lessons you learned.

I'm going to start some hiking this weekend by doing some elk scouting and setting out a couple trail cameras.

Maybe I can strap a trail cam to a boulder on top of a mountain up there LOL!

BGG

 

[endorice]

Gerald,

Thanks, maybe I can take you to breakfast or something and we can chat. I'd love to hear about your hunt and for sure the lessons you learned.

I'm going to start some hiking this weekend by doing some elk scouting and setting out a couple trail cameras.

Maybe I can strap a trail cam to a boulder on top of a mountain up there LOL!

BGG

Absolutely. I'm easily bribed. A cup of Starbucks would even make me divulge my notes from that year. I'll follow up with a PM.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Thank you everyone for the reply's and pm's.

Good news. I have a friend who has another friend that hunted the unit and he also has a friend that has hunted the unit.
So two more guys that hunted the unit willing to divulge scouting info. Best part the one guy also lives in Black Forest just a few miles away.
Saaawweeeet!

Keep the info and pics coming. I appreciate it.

All the knowledge I can absorb between now and the time I can actually get on the mountain will have to do until I can physically get up there and lay my eyes on some goats!
Looks like the area got above average snow this winter. Probably going to be mid July before I can get up there.

My next step is to get a good digaicoping setup for my spotter. (any ideas? I'm going to post this in the optics forum too)
So many things to do to be as prepared as possible. Hope I can find time and not forget anything.

Thanks, BGG

 

[kwikfish]

Billy-

I can provide you a bit of intel as well, I killed in G13 in 2008. Goats in this country don't grow exceptional headgear, it's a tough high altitude existence year around. My personal goal was an 8" billy, and I was successful. The CO in Leadville is a wealth of knowledge, don't commit yourself to a backpack style hunt as a large portion of this unit can be viewed from established hiking trails or roads. Stay flexible and go for fast and light with a simple spike camp.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Billy-

I can provide you a bit of intel as well, I killed in G13 in 2008. Goats in this country don't grow exceptional headgear, it's a tough high altitude existence year around. My personal goal was an 8" billy, and I was successful. The CO in Leadville is a wealth of knowledge, don't commit yourself to a backpack style hunt as a large portion of this unit can be viewed from established hiking trails or roads. Stay flexible and go for fast and light with a simple spike camp.

Kwikfish,

I'll take any intel your willing to devulge. I've had some good responce from others on here and I will try to compile it all together and try to make a good descision on where to go. But I kinda have a pretty good idea where Im going to start from past experience in the area and some intel from a few guys I've talked to.

A 8" billy is going to be my goal as well, but I mainly want to kill a mature mountain goat. I'm shooting for a 5+ year old goat. I wont hesitate to take a mature nanny either.

I don't really do the big long backpack trips. I'm more of a minimalist. I like to go for 3-4 days and can do that with a 40-45# pack plus my weapon.

The CO in Leadville?

I was testing out my new scope cam setup on some elk today. I'm going to head up to the unit over the 4th and do some recon. Still a lot of snow up high. but the elk I saw were on the very top

 

[Elk Dog]

Congratulations on drawing a tag. Good luck, shoot straight, grip, grin, post photos and return safe.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

SCOUTING TRIP 1 in the books! encouraging...

Well, I got about an hour and a half of actual on the mountain scouting done on Monday.

Started out Sunday evening glassing some peaks from a far. A disappointing start. Glassed from 4:00 until dark and not one goat? Just one mulely buck in goat country. He was in a chute so steep I'm surprised he could stand...

Stuck to my plan and in the early AM climbed up to a saddle between two high peaks that I liked the look of on the map and google.
2 1/2 hours later i was on my saddle. Spotted my first goat on a far cliff face. No other goats in view from my first perch. Decided to climb up the peak to my south and get a better view of the goat.

Went about 3/4 of the way to the top and found a nice out crop to glass from. Watched the goat for awhile. got a couple pics http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y461/BillyGoatGruf/IMG_0080_zps657fe021.jpg
Got a little cramped up and got up to stretch out and looked over at the peak to the north just as 3 goats came over the top heading toward the saddle I just came from. I started watching them and they were on a mission. They were moving so fast I couldn't get a shot of all three together. Appeared to me to be two nanny's and a kid from last year? Got a pretty good look at them and judging by there faces I think they were nanny's, at least the two bigger ones. http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y461/BillyGoatGruf/IMG_0084_zps3e7fabc3.jpg http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y461/BillyGoatGruf/IMG_0083_zps00c2ccfb.jpg

Since they were on the move they came down the other peak below the big snow cornice on the saddle and started traversing below me heading towards a steep cliffy crevasse coming off the peak I was on. as I was looking over the edge of the outcrop I was on to see if I could see them below me I happened to look up towards the top of the peak and there were two goats bedded right above me at the top.

I got set up on them and took a couple pics and some video before they moved off. They had came over from the other side while I was watching the first goat and bedded right above me. They watched me walk around trying to see the other three that were traversing below.
I got a good look at these two and am 99.9% sure that they were billy's.You guys will have to look at the pics and verify http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y461/BillyGoatGruf/IMG_0088_zps38bd783d.jpg
http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y461/BillyGoatGruf/IMG_0087_zps3ae0a8d8.jpg http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y461/BillyGoatGruf/IMG_0086_zpsd7aae121.jpg
Those two goats moved back to the other side out of view. I looked for the three and sure enough they had bedded on the opposite face of the crevasse. About that time I had reached my time limit and had to pack up and head back home.


here is the video of the two on the snow bank that i'm pretty sure are billy's???

http://youtu.be/a4TRWHzk1cY

All in all a pretty encouraging trip despite the limited time I had.

Enjoy, BGG

 

[jwb300]

great pics and vid - thanks for posting

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

No takers??

I was hoping someone with better goat knowledge would chime in and give me some opinion on the two billy's? Age? horn length?
trying to figure out what I'm looking at for future reference...

Thanks, BGG

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Update,Scouting trip one, lessons learned?

So I learned a few things on my scouting trip???

1st, trekking poles aren't as dumb as I thought when I left the truck. As I left the truck I almost stashed them to get on my way back.
Glad I didn't, They were invaluable scrambling around the loose scree on the side of the mountain.

2nd, I need stiffer boots. I whore my basic hiking boots and they were ok for the short trip I did, but if I go for more than one day and stay up high I definitely need better. I have a stiff pair of all leather boots that will work but I think I'm going to look into something lighter. Advice??

3rd, Finding a flat spot to set up a tent up high is going to be a challenge. The peaks I've chosen to focus on are pretty rocky and craggy. Need to do some more recon for a good camp site. I hate to give up the elevation if I can avoid it. I could camp on the saddle that I described but not much protection. There's really good camping about 1800 feet down, but a good 1 1/2 hours of climbing back up daily. I'll figure that one out later.

4th, water is going to be a problem. I'm hoping some of the snow sticks around all summer and I can melt it. Otherwise it's going to be going down to the nice camp spot where there is a good spring. That will solve the camping spot issue though. I may stash some water during my final scouting trips if I determine that I'm going to stick with the area and hunt it at the opening of the season.

I'll update on my next trip, probably not for a few weeks though, near the end of the month hopefully.

Take care, BGG

 

[Shrek]

Cool ! Sounds like you are getting it all rounded up.

 

[Tanner]

Good to see you found some Billies, BGG. Both goats in your video look decent but it's always tough for me to tell until they are sporting a good coat.

I'd grab some Lowa Tibets if they fit you. Right now I'm using those, La Sportiva Trangos, and Salewa Condor GTX, and I'm liking the first 2 options the most. Both are great mountain boots, but it's going to come down to your personal fit, obviously. Goat country is definitely a place for stiff shanks!

Looking forward to seeing the outcome of your hunt!

Tanner

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Good to see you found some Billies, BGG. Both goats in your video look decent but it's always tough for me to tell until they are sporting a good coat.

I'd grab some Lowa Tibets if they fit you. Right now I'm using those, La Sportiva Trangos, and Salewa Condor GTX, and I'm liking the first 2 options the most. Both are great mountain boots, but it's going to come down to your personal fit, obviously. Goat country is definitely a place for stiff shanks!

Looking forward to seeing the outcome of your hunt!

Tanner

Thanks for the info Tanner.

I'm going to get back up there in a few weeks. hopefully they have shed most of the winter hair by then. I'm going to take as many pics as I can while I'm scouting. I'll post em as soon as I get more.

I was hoping more guys like you with some good goat knowledge would chime in with opinions of the two billy's.

As far as boots go, I'm looking at the saloman quest 4D GTX. There pretty stiff and really light for how stiff they are. Just gotta talk myself into spending the $230 to get em.

BGG

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Update, scouting trip 2

I got up on the mountain again for a short trip. Hiked up and set camp up on the same saddle I hiked to the first trip. Got there just before dark on Saturday evening. I did not see any goats before dark. Got up early and hiked up to the peak to the south again so I could glass the basin on the other side and hopefully cross the saddle over to the next peak and see into the next basin which is much bigger.

Glassing was difficult early in the am do to the haze in the air and the fact that most of what I could glass was looking right into the sun.
Didn't see any goats in the upper part of the basin but did see a nice group of elk in the bottom and a couple nice bucks just below me on a small bench.
Turned my focus towards the north and west and spotted a billy coming down the main ridge line off the next main peak to the north. He was a mile and a half away but working in my direction. So I just watched him since I hadn't spotted any other goats.

He was kinda on a mission and b-lining it down the ridge line, only stopping for a few seconds here and there to look around. As he got closer I started taking pics and some video. I realized that if he continues on his path that he would come right past my tent on the saddle below me.

He eventually made it to my tent. For some reason he decided to stop and nibble on some grass a mere 8' from the tent. He stayed there and messed around for 35-40 minutes.

I had seen everything I could from my vantage point on the peak and had decided to not cross over to the next peak due to a knife ridge saddle between the two. I wasn't comfortable crossing this thing solo, so decided to play it smart.

So Started dropping down the ridge to the saddle where I had left the billy. He had left my tent and had started continuing up the ridge towards me.
I spotted him below and just sat down and started taking pics and video as he came up. He came right up to me passing by at about 7'. Paused for a second to look at me then went on his way up to the peak.

It was pretty cool to see a goat up so close. He was a young billy 2 years old would be my guess, maybe 3

I packed up my gear and headed down to go to another part of the unit and tweaked my knee and it took me twice as long to get down as it did to get up the night before. Think I just strained it a little. It's feeling fine now. At least doing normal activity.

I ended up just driving around and checking out some other access points. I did spot 5 other goats from the road.

SO A FEW OTHER LESSONS LEARNED ON THIS TRIP.
1, the trekking poles that I like so much the last time, DON'T forget them. DOH!!
2, goats can travel a long ways if they want to and aren't as stationary as I had thought they were. I was under the impression that they would hang in an area all summer?
3, some goats have no fear of humans.


Thanks, BGG

http://vid1276.photobucket.com/albums/y461/BillyGoatGruf/MyMoviemp4mtngoat1_zpsdad1632f.mp4

 

[Frosty82]

Great pics, thanks for sharing!

 

[muleman]

He eventually made it to my tent. For some reason he decided to stop and nibble on some grass a mere 8' from the tent. He stayed there and messed around for 35-40 minutes.

Did he stop and eat where you had urinated?

 

[endorice]

While he does look like a young billy, it seems to be the diameter of his base is really quite good. Maybe it's just me.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

Did he stop and eat where you had urinated?

Never thought of that, but maybe. It was dark when I did.

BGG

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

While he does look like a young billy, it seems to be the diameter of his base is really quite good. Maybe it's just me.

Yea, when he was up close. I was thinking he looked to be in the 8.5" range and had good bases. I'm pretty good at estimating length of things at close range due to my work. I can guess that stuff pretty good. When you stare at a tape measure every day for 25 years you get pretty good, but I've never been that close and expected the body to be bigger. I would guess 225-250# maybe?
I figured he was young due to the body size. No horse face, and a flat nose vs a roman.

I think the bigger goat of the two on the snow bank is bigger. (from the first trip) I sent that to a friend who has hunted goats thinks he's in the upper 8 range maybe 4 or 5 years old

BGG

 

[Rizzy]

Nice pics!

He looks bigger and older in the more distant pics. I agree the mass looks good on this Goat and I think they get the majority of their growth early in life. So even if the body features look young, he still might be a nice goat as far as horns.

I read that the dominant goats, both male and female, will get to occupy the best habitat. Is it possible that this Goat was on the move because he got chased out by a bigger Billy?