CANADA: British Columbia Mountain Goat & Mountain Mule Deer

[Chago]

Well its that time of year again here in the North. I am a little late writing this review but I wanted to share it. I joined Tom over at Silent Mountain Outfitters for a hunt back in late September. I had 3 tags in my pocket, Mountain Mule deer, Mountain Goat and Black Bear. I was happy to punch two of the three tags. First off a bit of a review on the outfit. As some of you know I have travelled a decent amount for hunting with various guides. I have seen some good, bad and ugly. These guys were very very good. Well organized, met us in town to lead us to camp. Upon arrival cold beers ready to go, camp fire etc. Nice warm cabin with the fire roaring, and the smells of a great dinner being prepared by a full time camp chef. Those who have had bad hunts before, this all combined led to a immediate huge sigh of relief knowing, ok I am in good hands. Every morning nice hot breakfasts. Lunch was packed for the mountain, typically 2 full sandwiches. And all the fruit, sweets and various snacks you wanted just help yourself. And on a mountain hunt I cant stress how important all of that food is. Then every night AMAZING restaurant quality dinners. Far from what you would expect on a backwoods, cabin mountain hunt. The are is just stunning, every where you turn your head was a post card.

Well the first day of hunting started with the previoulsy mentioned hot breakfast. We drove about 45 mins down some logging roads to the area we were going to hunt. From there its all on foot. We were hiking through a valley glassing mountain peaks on both sides of us the entire way. Making our way along slowly, stopping to glass etc, We are already 7km (4.5 miles) from the truck. And now Tom tells me we are at the base of the mountain he wanted to climb to check for Mountain Mule Deer...... I thought I had already walked to Alaska at this point lol. Now you wanna go up where???? I look at this mountain.... We are down at 4500' the peak is well over 9000'. I am not one to quit so I just complained and cried quietly and began my ascent. We finally got to top of the tree line around 7800'. Tom decided we should just sit here and glass these wash outs above and across from us. I glassed along with him, but felt that delicious lunch start putting me to bed lol. He tells me you stay here I am going to go up about a 100 yards to get a better view. Sure enough as sure as he leaves, I selfishly fall asleep. Anyone who has tented or slept in the same building as me before knows. I can snore with the best of them. More on the snoring later. Sure enough moment later I am awoken by Tom as he sees a Mountain Mule deer bachelor group. After hiking across what felt like 3 time zones, that lunch, nap and Toms excitement gave me a second wind.

We were about 600 yards away. We were able to cross one washout as we had good tree cover. But they were on the opposite side of the next wash out and crossing that would be impossible without spooking them. So we got to the edge and were 330 yards away. We got into position I got nice and prone with my Fierce Firearms rifle. And sure enough they all stepped down into a lower valley and were out of sight. We waited and waited and decided ok we need to get after them. Sure enough Tom took another look through the spotter and saw one coming back out. Just as we were about to walk towards them. Thank god we did not. I layed back down behind the rifle. And sure enough the big buck stood broadside for me. Took the shot, and the 212 grain ELD X did it again. We recovered the deer very close to where we thought he was. He was laying at 7890' above sea level.

Now I am about 10km (6.25 miles) away from the truck. Need to go back down this mountain and walk all that way. Ohhh and I have 200lbs of antler and meat that needs to come back with me.......

Right about now I am debating if I just jump off this rock head first. I can end all this pain right now lol. Regretting every twinkie, big mac, beer, and cigar I ever consumed in my life.

So near the end of the hike back. We are discussing maybe having a rest day tomorrow to recover and go after goats the next day. Well on our way out, about 1 mile from the truck. We look up a mountain and see 2 goats....... Its too late today to go after him. But Tom decides, we need to be here first thing in the morning. I was kinda happy and kinda crying inside lol.

 

[Chago]

So Day 2 begins. I woke up thinking I was going to be sore as hell. But then I remembered.... no that's right. When you get old soreness always starts on the second day not the day after, Its Gods way of letting us have one more day to get out of any situation and then locks every muscle and joint in our bodies for a week lol. So I woke up not in terrible shape. Had my breakfast and we went back to our same parking spot.

We had a short hike and took a seat at the base of the mountain where we saw the goat and began glassing. This picture makes this mountain look like a nice gradual grassy hill. With some pebbles on top. NO! THAT IS A LIE!!! The little grass at the beginning, all that green you see are alders taller then me. So thick and they grow in every direction low to the ground so you are constantly tripping on them, bushwhacking, miserable. The very tip of this mountain is just shy of 10,000'. Sure enough we start glassing. Well, as mentioned earlier I can snore like hell. But my one true super power. And many have confirmed it is a super power. I am not sure if I was bitten by a spider, came too close to a nuclear reactor or am a product of a mad scientist. But my super power is the ability to fall asleep seconds after getting horizontal lol. No I do not have epilepsy I just have the ability to close my eyes, take about 3 breathes and the forth is already running the 5.0 turbocharged nostril engine. My wife has debated divorce I am sure many times because of it lol. So any how I naturally fell asleep. Again I am woken up to Tom saying "there he is there he is". We joked in camp after this that I need to call Primos or Foxpro to record my snoring as apparently within 5 mins it brings in whatever target animal you are looking for.

Well of course we began our hike up this mountain. It was estimated by Tom to be roughly a 3 hour mountain, we got up there in 2.5 hours. I again swore every swear word I knew in my head at Tom when he was out of reach of hearing me. For making me climb up this damn mountain. I had every excuse in the world to quit, but I had one strategy going up. Count 20 steps then stop. I refused to quit and I refused to take less then 20 steps. When you are this tired its easy to stop every step. But by forcing myself to count to 20, allowed me to naturally cover more ground and focus mainly on counting and ignoring that behind me was certain death if I fell lol. I don't care what shape you come into a goat hunt. Your mental toughness will be tested regardless. Tom had a saying, "Goat hunting begins where sheep hunting ends". They live WAAAYYYY at the top.

If you look way back behind me in the picture. You can see a shiny glimmer. That is the river where we were glassing. So you can see how far it is now from where we are. And we are no where near the goat yet at this point. I would say 1/3 at best. It is very deceiving until you start climbing.

Thank god my guide Tom was a phenomenal mountain hunter. And formulated an amazing strategy to go after this goat. Because you can only imagine the planning that needs to take place here. We see a goat miles away, that is "3 hours" hike away. So you need to go where you think he will be in 3 hours from now. Tom had a idea that goat would graze his way up to a area where they like to bed. So we walked up the wash out next to that one so we would have the cover working for us. Sure enough we got up to 8900'. I live at 1000', so for me it felt like someone had there hand over my mouth the entire time up here. Very light headed, which is very handy when standing on edges so steep one mis step and your dead. But again I focused on my 20 steps, 1 rep at a time. Finally we got where we needed to be. We laid on a rocky area where we could just peak over and see up the mountain where the goat was bedded. He was 450 yards directly above us. I have never shot on such a steep angle even in training never mind hunting. It almost felt like I was standing how steep the rock we laid prone on was. Well the goat was bedded and I sent the first shot, it was a hit. Watching the video it looked like it smacked the rock in front of him. But after reviewing all the holes in the hide and watching the video over and over. It looks like it did nick that rock again such a steep upward angle. But it still got him under the shoulder as later you can see his front leg soaked in blood while he's still standing. So he takes the shot, runs a little and then stands facing me. I send a second and boom another hit. Straight into the chest and exit was out back at the end of the rib cage. He stumbles but still doesn't go down. 3rd shot I totally moved and put it over his head. 4th shot he's broadside and I put it through both shoulders. He falls again, makes his way back up, but then eventually beds on a rock. I couldn't believe he took 3 300win mag rounds. All 3 in vital areas and all 3 with nasty exit wounds. Goats are known for there durability and toughness. Well he laid on this rock until he eventually......... started rolling down at million miles per hour.

Sure enough Tom, mountain man extraordinaire. Ran across this scree slide that is on like a 60 degree angle lol and covers like 300 yards in a blink of an eye running across this slide. Where he intercepts the rolling goat and catches this 400-500lb tumble weed making its way down the mountain. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. Well now its picture time.

From here you can see that river again is a long way down.

And here you can see the steepness of where were standing.

Now its time to go ALLLLL the way back down with a even bigger animal in the pack. I told Tom I don't care if we see Smokey the Bear himself on the way out. I am resting tomorrow!!!!

 

[Chago]

Day 3 was a well deserved rest. But with accordance to BC law any goat or sheep needs to be scored and inspected by a provincial game officer. So we decided to go into town, have that taken care of. Re filled the beer and whiskey inventory. And bought A LOT of Advil..... as that second day after the first hike officially begun and I was in the cramp zone!!!! Entire body hurt..... even my face lol

Days 4, 5, 6 and 7. We would enjoy the mornings making fun of all the other hunters on there way out explaining to them they need to snore to call the animals in. We enjoyed beers before 10 am quite often. Reminisced about the 2 successful days. I would spend 45-60 mins per day complaining about how sore I was. Then in the afternoons we would go looking for bears. Unfortunately we only saw some younger smaller bears. I live in a bear area so I have shot many black bears. So to be honest I was not terribly motivated unless it was something BIG. But none the less we enjoyed our time on the mountain, in the woods looking for whinny the pooh.

Overall we had a great time, many nights around a guitar and cold drinks. Lots of shared stories and memories. Overall a great experience.

 

[Neil Molendyk]

Congratulations on both your animals, and a great story. You are one of the few to get a mountain goat. Just curious, what was the nearest town to your hunting area?

 

[gillettehunter]

Great job. That looks like one heck of a hike! Goats almost always seem to be tough. Good job on the shooting. Looks like you had a wonderful hunt with some nice trophies. Congrats
Bruce

 

[MarkB]

Great story, by looking at your pics you had the sky filled smoke but hunted before we had the heat wave, no rain and horrible hunting conditions. Good job.

I spent 46 days (2 Sept-17 Oct) up north in many spots in my tent and only came home with a whitetail. This has been the hottest, least game seen year I have ever had. Maybe my 25 days for blacktail will be better.

Glad you had a great hunt in BC.

MB

 

[Nyati]

Well done, congrats

 

[Amphibious]

Great write up. I've taken a few goats in that part of the world. Every goat is earned, but some parts of BC you earn it more than others. It's impressive country and deceptively steep. Find any of our wonderful devil's club?

I liked the part about the Tumble-weed. FYI a very large Billy tops out just over 300lbs. Still, I wouldn't be trying to catch one!

 

[TKessel]

Well done, thanks for sharing

 

[lockingblock]

How do tags work in BC? Outfitter or draw?

 

[Amphibious]

If you are a BC Resident there are Draws and GOS tags for goat.

Canadian citizens who are not a BC Resident can hunt in BC with a hunter host, but are exempt from the draw system

If you are not a canadian citizen you are legaly required to use a Outfitter to hunt in BC. (There are exceptions for close family of a BC resident and they can use the hunter host program)

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Congratulations. Mountain Goat is pretty high on my personal bucket list and this reminds me how I really need to start prepping now, years out

 

[Chago]

Yes I'm a resident of another province. So really for me it's no different then Americans. I need to hunt with a guide and you use their allocation of tags.

 

[MarkB]

Yes I'm a resident of another province. So really for me it's no different then Americans. I need to hunt with a guide and you use their allocation of tags.

Or you find a BC resident buddy and do a "Permit to accompany" and hunt as a resident. Problem is current BC Gov has a problem approving them. Certain minority will not allow. I have done a few in past and all have been amazing and very successful for Ont and Alberta relatives or buddies. Its a much different Province today with road closures, no ATV and antler point restrictions for moose.

MB