Our WY antelope hunt (see other post) had been planned all year, but in August I found out that I also pulled an unexpected Montana antelope tag. Given the hunts and vacation time I already had planned, I wasn't sure how I would fit it in. Just couldn't take any more time off work. In fact, I had already turned back my MT deer/elk combo due to lack of time. But Montana is close enough, and I hunted this unit in 2016 and know where some public goats live, so figured I would run over there one weekend with my kid and see if we couldn't find a goat. We took off this last Friday afternoon and arrived at the motel late night. We effectively had Saturday to hunt, needed to drive home on Sunday.
We got up early Saturday and were at my "spot" before daylight. We found several herds around there that morning, but no good bucks. And all of those herds were skittish. This is the third weekend of the antelope season, and the deer/elk hunters are in there pretty thick too, so these goats would pretty much take off the minute a truck got within 1000 yards. The morning came and went, and I realized half our hunt was already over. Time to get serious. By this time, pretty much any mature buck in shooting range would do.
We saw a decent buck with a herd that didn't bust hard, so figured we could put a stalk on them. We climbed about 1000 feet in elevation and got to 450 yards, but eventually got busted when we tried to reposition to get closer. Now it was 1:30, and time was ticking. I felt we had run these herds enough, time to check a couple different spots I had hunted the last time.
We tried another road system on State land, and it didn't take long to find a good sized herd. There were about 20 goats at 400 yards, and others we could see behind them. Probably 50 total within 1000 yards. These goats got nervous when we got out of the truck but didn't really bust. I got set up on one decent buck at 400, and clicked off the safety just in time to see them trot off to join the others in the back. This land was super flat, so really no way to stalk them out of sight. So I took the Mike Eastman approach, and just crouched down and walked straight at them with my kid right behind me. They moved off a bit but didn't truly bust, and eventually held up after a quarter mile or so and we were able to get back within range of the herd. Most of the goats had their heads back down feeding, so I had to wait with the binos until they raised their heads to locate the buck I almost shot before. One by one they would raise their heads, doe, doe, fawn, tiny buck, doe, doe, BIG BUCK! WHERE DID HE COME FROM?
Didn't matter, I got set up quickly and put one through his chest. Couldn't believe how that played out, we had looked at probably 30 bucks that day, and almost shot a couple of them, and none were within 10 inches of this guy. It was 3:00 in the afternoon on our only day to hunt. Very fortunate to have it play out that way. Couldn't be happier with the result. He's about 76" and a little over 14" long.
After getting him skinned and loaded, we had about an hour of daylight left. It was 30 miles back to town on a dirt road through farm/ranch country, and I knew from my last trip it would be great animal watching. On that drive out through the private land, we saw two moose, several hundred each of whitetails, mulies and antelope, and a herd of elk in an alfalfa field with more than 1000 animals. Pretty much like NW Trek out there! Also saw some crazies pull off the side of the road and start slinging bullets at a couple running cows at 400+ yards. My kid watched the dust clouds land yards away from the elk and correctly noted that these guys didn't shoot very well.
All in all, a fantastic but quick trip with my kid. Sometimes it helps to get a little lucky.
Off to the Kaibab tomorrow....
