Montana speed goat

[WAcoueshunter]

I've been ducking the Montana antelope draw for about five years, building points by applying for tough to draw units.  This year it caught up to me and suddenly I had an unexpected tag in a unit I'd never been too.  After some other hunts and obligations, finally made a solo trip this weekend, four weeks after the opener.

Going in, I didn’t know much about this unit other than what is published on the Montana website and a sentence or two from Eastmans.  It's goat hunting though, just planned on figuring it out when I got there.  Left home early early on Thursday, was hunting by mid afternoon local time.  I was mainly trying to learn the area on Thursday, but still found a few herds.  Of the 10 or so bucks I looked at on Thursday, I don't think any of them would have gone 60".  Just not very big at all.  After Thursday I was thinking it might be tough to find a 70” goat, particularly with limited hunting time.

Went further back in on Friday and started to see a lot of goats and some better bucks.  Mostly State and BLM land, but some block management too. Probably looked at 10 herds or more.  Late season like this, they are in bigger herds, like 20-40 goats and 3 to 5 bucks in each herd.  But I wasn’t seeing any bigger bucks, seemed like those easier to find herds might have been picked over during the first four weeks of the season.  I maybe had seen one or two that would go 70” by midday Friday, and I’d probably looked at 50 or more bucks by then.

Finally I glassed up a herd of about 30, tucked way back into a pocket probably 2 miles away. It was the kind of spot that seemed like a good buck should be there!  Took me a while to figure out how to get there.  Finally found them again, and they busted hard at a half mile.  But I was able to get the glass on them and see this guy.  He was the only mature buck in the group, could tell he was long, had good prongs and mass.  By far the best buck I had seen.  Took awhile to relocate them after they busted, and eventually found them staring at me from over a mile.  So I parked the truck out of view and figured out a stalk plan that turned out to be about a mile and a half climbing 900’ feet to 7400’ in elevation.  Of course, got to near the top of the stalk, and no goats.  Right about then two trucks with elk/deer hunters come driving through on a closed two track near where the goats were.  Sure enough, I turned around to watch the herd cross the saddle below me where my truck was parked.  So back down I go.

Got back down to where the truck was and figured the goats probably holed up in one of the draws just off the backside of that saddle.  So I snuck around and glassed the different draws, and sure enough, eventually found them all bedded at the bottom of the hill.  Figured out a stalk plan – I could walk out of sight to within about 400 yards, and then I belly crawled to about 310 yards.  I had a doe staring at me then.   The buck was bedded and quartering away.  This was about hour five on this herd, and the sun had just dropped behind the hills.  Between the doe and the hour, figured I better take the shot from there. He’s 14 6/8” long, and right at 78”.  Drove back on Saturday, back to work today.  Fun trip!

[bowhunterforever]

Nice one

[zwickeyman]

Great Buck, congrats

[carpsniperg2]

DANDY BUCK

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Real nice Speed Goat!!!!!

[Bill W]

If you don't want your horns to shrink too much put your head in a freezer for a couple of months.

[270Shooter]

That's a great buck for any unit in Montana congrats

[Widgeondeke]

That's a great buck, especially going public land DIY.
Congrats on a job well done.   

[BullMagnet76]

Nice Buck.   

[redi]

Great goat.

[Jason]

Great Goat!! you beat my Montana Lope by a couple inches.

[WAcoueshunter]

Thanks all, fun hunt!  Admittedly my expectations were pretty low, I've hunted Wyoming goats a handful of times but always think of Montana as having smaller and fewer goats.  So definitely pleased to find a good numbers and a good buck there!

[Bill W]

Over the 20 years I hunted antelope I shot two that were over 70 inches.   You don't know how well you bucked the odds to get yours.    The ones I remember were the big ones that I couldn't get close to for a shot.  One year I spotted what seemed like 5 that would have made B&C.  But could I set up a shot..... no...  Later on I had three good ones in front of me and figured I'd shoot the one that gave me a shot.  Two looked like they would break 14 inches and I couldn't get lined up on them.  The third gave me a shot and I figured he was 13 inches at best.   That's the first time I walked up on an animal and the closer I got the bigger it got.  It was just barely 14 inches and scored 79 7/8's.  The thing I wondered after that is just how big the first two were given the little one I shot was 14 1/8 and real thick.    Went back to the same spot the next year and blue tongue killed almost all the antelope.

The one thing that got me on antelope were the disappearing antelope.  The ones that get behind a hill or bump in the ground and then straighten out and get out of Dodge.  Either that or they crawl in a hole.

[Bob33]

That is a great story, and trophy. Finding an animal in the upper 70s on public land is a remarkable compliment to your hunting skills.

I love reading stories like yours. Thank you.

[go4steelhd]

Nice buck!