Mountain goats

[Big6bull]

Anyone real experienced with hunting mountain goats?, their are so many things to consider and to prepare for! Glassing conditions with clouds, snow? . Mid to late October could be challenging time and what are they doing that time of year, just a couple of my first questions.

[Wanttohuntmore]

What do you need to know?  Each hunt is different depending on the unit.

[Big6bull]

I’ve read a lot already but still have lots to ask. When locating goats do they stick to core  areas or do they wonder quite far?

[Big6bull]

Also What type of rut behavior could one expect in mid to late October if their rut time is nov into dec? I’d imagine Billy’s starting to move closer to nanny groups or start grouping

[jackelope]

Biggest thing to consider when you’re talking mid to late October is access. Are you going to be able to get to them?

[jackelope]

Big groups of goats will be nannies and kids. Billies will work their way closer to those groups when they get closer to the rut. Snow did nothing to them when I had my tag. They were in 3’ of snow eating.

I decided that finding the goats was the easy part. Getting to them, then verifying they were a Billy is the part that I found the most difficult.

Weather will be an issue. Even in September. Refer to pic below. Last weekend of September 2017.

[actionshooter]

Guessing you drew a tag? Which one?

Bigger billy's will be away from the groups like Jakelope said.

The biggest piece of advice is to be careful, you can get yourself in trouble rally fast getting into where these guys live.

[Big6bull]

I have the later conflict tag. What I had researched before applying was lots of goats got removed in the last three years. weather sounds like a huge factor. A big billy sounds nice but realistically I would be happy if I shot any billy or lone nanny, since they want them gone and it’s purpose making nanny’s logical to me?? I’ve been reading up on shoulder anchoring shots too… the fine print says less than 100 remain and they expect very low success rates.

[jackelope]

You can still apply for the regular OIL goat tags after this hunt too, right?

[jackelope]

I bet they’ll tell you exactly where to find the goats. Anchor them because you don’t want them running. Next thing you know they’re off a cliff.

[fishngamereaper]

Those conflict tags are going to be tough hunts...

Just be happy to find a goat you can get to within rifle range of. 

[Big6bull]

Yes I can still apply for oil, the bag limit is two goats either sex, wonder if that’s two 300 dollar tags.

There’s a lot of things gotta go right for this one to come together! Going to give it hell

[MtnMuley]

Those conflict tags are going to be tough hunts...

Just be happy to find a goat you can get to within rifle range of. 

 

I didn't even apply this year, because I didn't want to designate the time needed after talking with a few of the guys from different groups that went on the NPS hunts last year.

[BULLBLASTER]

I wouldnt worry about billy or nanny on a conflict tag. Just find goats and shoot them. 100% easier said than done i am sure up there.

[Big6bull]

I’m sure half of my hunt days will not have visibility.

[fishngamereaper]

October is actually a pretty good month in the Olympics..you should see goat's.. don't overthink goat behavior. The conflict goat's are a different animal. Super sketched out .the ones I see might be shootable but recovery will be difficult. I look at those mountains everyday. When time allows I'll throw the spotter up and relay any intel I can pass along. Generally can find goat's if I spend enough time glassing.

[Big6bull]

October is actually a pretty good month in the Olympics..you should see goat's.. don't overthink goat behavior. The conflict goat's are a different animal. Super sketched out .the ones I see might be shootable but recovery will be difficult. I look at those mountains everyday. When time allows I'll throw the spotter up and relay any intel I can pass along. Generally can find goat's if I spend enough time glassing.

I would greatly appreciate that, I’m trying to plan some scouting, I spend a good amount of time on the canal.

[Falcon]

BIG 6,,

Congrats of your tag.  I would not call myself an expert, but I have been lucky enough to have hunted goats twice in washington.   Too many words to type.  Pm me if you want want to talk some night.

Good hunting......
Bryan   

[HikerHunter]

Try reading A Beast the Color of Winter if you want to learn about goats and how they live. Its not from a hunting perspective, but helpful for it. I'd also look at the Rokslide forum for more resources. Good luck!!!

[musketeer]

Congrats on your hunt! I drew the early conflict hunt and will probably spend a weekend or 2 up there hiking,  and if i find a goat or 2 to shoot, then that's a bonus. I will pass along any info from my time there to you.  It's a neat hunt,  but glad i still have my OIL goat points.

[Rob]

We got hammered in October in the Olympics goat hunting.  lost about half our hunt due to Weather.

Recommend going as soon as possible and watching the weather. 

Good to know some basic rope skills as that may open up some recovery options (safety lines, rappel, ascending steep terrain with a prussic, rudimentary anchor building, etc).  Certainly not required but useful.  I live in Monroe and I am happy to go over some basic rope skills with anyone who is interested.

[Big6bull]

Congrats on your hunt! I drew the early conflict hunt and will probably spend a weekend or 2 up there hiking,  and if i find a goat or 2 to shoot, then that's a bonus. I will pass along any info from my time there to you.  It's a neat hunt,  but glad i still have my OIL goat points.

Awesome thank you!

[Chukarhead]

It'll likely be a tough hunt for the conflict tag holders...  Just for reference, here are the stats from the teams in Olympic National Park last year:

"Olympic National Park recruited skilled volunteers to assist with the ground-based lethal removal of the remaining non-native mountain goats from the park in the fall of 2020. The ground-based lethal removal program using qualified volunteers ended in October 2020 with a total of 31 mountain goats culled from the population in the park. Ninety-nine highly skilled volunteers, organized in 20 groups of three to six volunteers per group, volunteered over 9000 hours while participating in the program. Ten mountain goats were removed in the first round, 18 were removed in the second round, and 3 were removed in the final round." (ONP website: https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/mountain-goat-capture-and-translocation.htm)

My team was in the second 10-day period, with the best weather.  First period had heat and smoke, we got rained out for the first three days, and the last period got hammered by rain, snow, and fog.  We saw our first goats on the morning of the last day, having traversed our entire unit, glassing every mountainside and summiting everything along the way.  20 teams for 31 goats...and we all hit it hard.  My team agreed that we were glad we did it, but if asked to do it again, we'd politely decline.

Aerial gunners are up next for two, two-week periods in August and September.  They will be highly effective.  I don't know if they'll operate outside of the park or not, but I presume that they'll be focused on high-density goat habitat around Enchanted Valley and Olympus where most of the remaining goats are hiding out.

[Big6bull]

Yes its a going to be tremendously tough. I believe the start that aerial shooting this month…

[Rob]

My team was in the second 10-day period, with the best weather.  First period had heat and smoke, we got rained out for the first three days, and the last period got hammered by rain, snow, and fog.  We saw our first goats on the morning of the last day, having traversed our entire unit, glassing every mountainside and summiting everything along the way.  20 teams for 31 goats...and we all hit it hard.  My team agreed that we were glad we did it, but if asked to do it again, we'd politely decline.

Aerial gunners are up next for two, two-week periods in August and September.  They will be highly effective.  I don't know if they'll operate outside of the park or not, but I presume that they'll be focused on high-density goat habitat around Enchanted Valley and Olympus where most of the remaining goats are hiding out.

My team was in the final wave and we never even saw a goat - and we hunted hard.  Weather was tough.  The team from wave 3 that got 3 got them on the way out after being allowed to hunt in a different unit due to a sighting (or so I heard).  Could not agree more with your team's assessment of "we were gad we did it but would not do it again!" 

I wonder how the aerial gunners will do - after 3 waves of helo abductions, the goats are totally educated on choppers!  They dive for cover on the first sound of a helo which is one contributing factor to the diminishing effectiveness of the captures.

[Threewolves]

Real experience. My credentials: I have only killed two goats, but I have hunted up high a lot. I also helped guys hunting goats. I have also watched other hunters hunt goats. I also took Joe Want's Sheep and Brown Bear course, a long time ago.

It will be a lot easier to hunt them if you can see them of course. Hiking all over the mountain can work, but it is smarter to locate them first. So, scout look for observation posts OPs. Hike to other OPs. Spend some time glassing, just don't glass for 15 minutes and move on. As a minimum give it at least an hour. If you think the OP is good enough to glass from then take your time, stay there and glass. Countless times in Alaska I have seen animals appear around the hour mark.  Don't just hike to hike. Joe Want had a thing about not going up high unless you spotted something (often spotting sheep from camp), and even then if you spotted (in this case) Dall sheep and knowing they are going to be feeding in the AM, his plan was to wait till they bedded down to make his move which brings up the next point.

     In hunting in the mountains don't go directly up to them. Use the terrain to get above them. Twice I witnessed goat hunters coming up from below the goats only to see the goats leave the area about 20 minutes before the hunters got there. I could see the hunters scrambling around trying to figure out where the goats went. The goats were watching them from another ridge. One set of hunters was wearing over whites, it did not make any difference the goat left anyway.

My first goat I got above him. I pulled the rounds out of my .300, practiced the shot a few times pulling the trigger on an empty chamber, put  a round in and killed him in his bed. It was about 180 yds. straight down hill.  The second goat:, I picked out a spot I thought I could shoot from that was out and to the right away, but just slightly above the goat. I moved to a place I had spotted the goat from across the gorge. When I got there I was 440 out. I knew I needed to get closer, the goat was still bedded down. I got into about 210. I waited till the goat got up and shot it with my 25.06.

Other things:
Don't overthink it.
The closest I have ever been to a mountain goat, well it came to me and it was at the foot of my sleeping bag. This was while I was on an OP with my spotting scope, jet boil and coffee.
I have spent three days in the tent because of fog. It is tuff see when the clouds are knee high. So, have a plan for that.
I have woken up and had it snowing for a couple of days, that will keep you in camp till it clears up. You don't want to be in the rocks with snow. Just relax, you will probably need the rest anyway. All you are going to see in your scope is snow anyway. You can streach/workout in your sleeping bag, you will figure it out.
You can kill them with about anything, you don't have to have a super wiz bang magnum.
Shot placement: through the shoulders, put them down don't screw around. Usually it will be way steeper than Dall sheep country. Watch your steep up hill/down hill angles. And think animal recovery are you going to be able to get it.   
Someone mentioned ropes above, good idea, in the truck, depends how far back in you are,  back at camp, but at least have 550 cord on you so you can secure your beast while you butcher it.

My first I quartered and made two trips out, My second I got smart, took my time and boned it out and made one trip out.
Think about this while you are up there, things seem really far away, but take your time and you will get there and it will not seem so far. Pace yourself, don't push yourself you need to be able to be in such a condition that when you get there you can make the shot, take your time.
Both goats I hunted on my own. If you hunt with a partner, train them up make sure they are committed as much as you are. Be prepared to stay if your partner wants to pack it in, let them go.

Good luck with your hunt, enjoy it.