Woke up this morning around 7, which is sadly sleeping in for me, and found that snow had fallen and was still going. While it was a meager 32F outside, there wasn't a lot of wind so it felt surprisingly good.
We ate some breakfast, courtesy of the Hotel Turkey, and headed back out to confirm where my sights were set. This time using a bench rest instead of my own hand. A quick elevation adjustment and then I was ready to ring the bell at the 200 yds mark. Bazinga!, one and done.
Off we went on the SxS ATV to see what there was to see, with billie on the menu first of all. Just for grins I started my stopwatch to see how long it took for us to find success. Not a quarter mile down the road and he spotted a coyote standing in the field. A hard mash of the brakes and power slide I grabbed my boom stick to try and drop Wile E. I guess he must have seen the Roadrunner because he took off pretty quick. Erik tried to get the dog to stop, but no luck. I didn't have a comfortable standing position or lead on him, so that lucky dog is still roaming free. Down the road we went, passed through the gate and into the high fenced stomping ground.
He says there is a solid 400 head of animals within the confines of this region, I think we only saw a dozen.
A little more roving and he spotted one of the dybowski sika standing and staring at us. I had to take a picture of that guy!
There was also a group of mouflon, corsican and Texas dall. We saw this bunch a few different times during the morning stroll.
Several minutes later, still driving the winding trails through the canyons, Erik spotted a trio of catalina goats at a distance. A quick glance where his binos were pointing and I saw them myself. These would be the targets which we'd stalk. He said these all had great horns and were fair game.
Dismount the SxS and scanned the area for the best avenue of approach. I haven't done that many hunts in my past, but I've been Infantry for half of my life. I still find it fascinating that the best approach to hunting follows the same tactics I've used and taught for years. Today we're going to flank left, go down, around and up again to the other side of a near vertical mesa-shaped spur. The snow made it slippery and noisy, each step going crunch crunch. We crossed a few strings of tracks of bobcat, badger, deer and coyote going in various directions.
Down and around the end of a spur we went. Time to get slow and quiet. The trio should be standing right at the top of the hill. We crept up the snow-covered hill to the crest. No critters in sight, so we continued on. I was trying to stay in step and directly behind Erik to minimize the risk of being busted. Then he stopped and half-skipped to his right. The brown billy was standing just behind a bush about 80 yds away. I couldn't see it, but I spotted a black mass further to the right shaking its head around.
The lack of wind meant we could have a short conversation of what the next few moments would hold. I suggested moving left and getting closer under cover of shrubbery, but I noticed the black billy was still standing in the same place while the other two I could hardly make out.
This bad billy was standing in just about the best way he could have been, practically daring me to take the shot. Right broadside, slightly quartered away and looking off into the distance. I could almost hear it shouting, "come at me, bro!" Erik whipped out the shooting sticks, I posted the rifle and double checked where I needed to place the shot. One nice, slow breath to calm the shake, click the safety forward on my muffled R8.
Bang, err ummm, pew. My sights fell back to where they started just in time for me to see this goat simply fall over. It wasn't in the way that I've seen before in videos where the animal took a couple of steps and dropped. You know what those fainting goats do when they get scared? Yeah, that is what I saw. Nothing but a horn in the air and some twitching remained. Handshakes and cheers abound. We watched a few minutes to see what the other two were going to do, and to make sure billy had time to expire. We were both surprised at how smooth this trek went. Erik said this it the first time in a while the plan has gone just as prescribed, or that he'd gotten a goat on the first morning.
.....and then it hit me.....I had my digital camera in my pocket still. I brought that darn thing specifically to get some footage of the hunt, whereas my Florida gator was not recorded because I had my teenage daughter running the camera, and she was...lacking. Here I am yet again without some cool TV show type film. Oh well, I'm still going to remember this hunt for some time.
Gizmo is a blast to hunt with and the Rockin G is amazing. 
Have FUN!
