few days goat hunting.

[hiddenmongoose]

New to the forum so I said I would post some hunts of some goats Iv been hunting recently.Im using a remy sps 223 with 50gr fiocchi on them mainly but sometimes Il bring the 40xb 308 .

Im going to tan the pelts keep the horns as trophies and using the bigger goats meat for feeding dogs and drawing predators (as the meat is stink lol)here is the result of a few of my last hunts.

day one was an early start,up at half 4 and on the road before 5, met a friend at 6 and loaded the gear into his van.We were hunting in the early brightness and it was a rough morning with wind and rain.We covered a fair bit of land in what was really promising looking hunting grounds but saw no goats or even signs of recent goat activity.After a couple hours hunting we decided to get some breakfast and my mate would ring some landowners to see if there had been recent sightings.We had a fine big fry and my mate spent that half hour taking ticks off himself(I think every tick in the county was on him!!,I havent a single one lol!!) anyway no recent sightings but he made a call to another permission and we were told come on down there is plenty here.
We took a short spin to a new spot, met the farmer and he pointed the goats out on the mountainside.It was a beautiful permission with plenty of goat and some serious spots for long range shooting too,(very envious !!) we put in a big long stalk in on a large herd of probably 40 goats.No massive heads but plenty of lovely pelts to choose from and lots of kids for my mate to choose(he wanted one for the table).As we were in a shooting spot scoping the herd, the herd suddenly got spooked, moments later a fine big fox makes it way across the hillside and through the herd,followed shortly after by a mangy fox(so bad he was scratching and shaking his head every few yards) we moved location and stalked up through cover to a rocky bank 130m within the closest part of the herd.I picked a puck with a nice shaggy pelt and my mate picked a nice kid.we counted down from 3 and fired together , the result is below.

Day 2 took me to another county and a different friend,

being a fine sunny day we were hoping to catch them out in the sun grazing.we met up and went for a spin up some forestry tracks bordering the side of a mountain,and came across a small herd,I was looking for a large goat with a nice pelt and my friend was hoping for a kid.there was a few kids and a couple of larger goats with nicely colored pelts but what stood out to me was a nice billy with a fine white pelt that was very shaggy.the herd got spooked as we glassed them from the road and they made for up the hill,we decieded to drive on a bit ,park up and get up above them from the left. After a steep climb and a small pause to admire the amazing view from the hill side we closed in on the herd .We were slightly above them and made a plan for my mate to stay put and me stalk further left,the plan was for me to take my billy and the herd would run to the right across to my friend.in the end my stalk brought me too close to them and the spooked, crossing in front of me and back towards my mate,it made for an unsafe shot so I let them head on.we regrouped and stalked onto them again.we got about 100m away from them and i lay down behind some heather and waited for my billy to present himself for a shot.The 223 firing 50gr fiochhi vmax took him in the neck and dropped him like a stone. the herd bolted like lightning for some forestry and dissapeared and unfortunately my mate didnt get a shot.I was delighted with my animal ,his horns will make a nice trophy his pelt a rug and the meat will be butchered up for my dog.He looks brown in the pic but that is due to the ground i dragged him across, he is actually very white .

The vmax broke his neck/spine and i could only recover slivers of jacket from the neck .The pelt weighed a ton, very long hair and thick skin.he was a large beast and will make a big rug.here is the pelt laid out

day 3

Got a call from a farmer who is having goats dumped on his lands by landowners from a few villages away. So I was asked to put a dent in the herd,suited me fine as I wanted a few anyway.I brought my friend along for the hunt, I ran my 223 he shot a 308.We arrived at 12 and met the farmer, he stayed with us for the hunt which wasnt ideal as we were making a fair bit of noise between talking and walking.After a half hour of wandering his lands I spotted the goats in some briars and woods, we spooked them and couldnt get a shot, this repeated itself with us finding them and spooking them several times.Eventually we got in on them and my mate fired at a big puck at 100m dropping him with a neck shot, the herd ran out and across us in an open patch at 100m and we opened up freestanding on them.we dropped 6 in total and were happy with it for such a short brief window and the fast running and standing shot scenario.
the farmer was delighted as we had taken about a quarter of that herd down.We gralloched them and pulled them to a track where the farmer brought his tractor to collect them and bring them to my jeep.When we got home we took pics and I quickly ran a tape on 2 of them,they will both make bronze medals and one of them may just sneak silver.Another great days shooting .The farmer even put me in touch with a man that is over ran with deer for the coming season!!
The 6 goats and our rifles

got this guy after a long hard stalk through brush and scrub, I eventually came to just over 100m away on a slight hill above him.he will make bronze medal class.

went and got a kidd for the bbq,

parted him up and coated him in olive oil,jack daniels sauce, salt pepper and meat rub.turned out delicious

no need for knife or fork lol

Wasnt planning on going shooting this day, but weather cancelled my other plans early this morning...so I went hunting.I tipped down to my new goat permission,large area and I have only been there once ,the farmer showed me his land and I culled a few handy goats in his meadow.Today I planned to stalk up the mountain and find a big puck as I knew there was some really big ones in the area.
The morning actually looked good when I got there, no rain(lashing at home when I left!!)
Pic of the fields at the bottom of the hill

Parked up the jeep and scanned the hillside for goats,Seen a large herd of 80 or so animals on part of the mountain I havent yet got permission but no sign of any others,so up I went to explore the new permission.I climbed for an hour till I reached the top and had passed a few nannys and kids,the odd small puck too.scanned a far valley outside my permission and saw a herd of 50 or so with some large pucks of high silver/low gold standard,watched them for 30 mins or so then moved on again.Rain started down heavy then and after a half hours walking and seeing no goats it turned to a thick cold mist.Visibility was down to about 250m and I headed for a valley and decieded I would call it a day if nothing there.took half an hour to reach a view point to scan into the valley and I was dissapointed as visibility was so poor I could barely see 200m with the binos
This was what my views were like

Just as I was about to give up and head for the jeep I spotted shapes in the fog,I moved in by a long rocky ridge and was delighted to see a large herd of about 100 goats, I watched for a while as they grazed away in the fog ,searching for a big puck.Just on the fogs edge I spotted a group of billys about 10 or 12 large pucks together slightely seperate from the herd.I made a plan to move out and away due to the chance of the large herd spotting me and back in on the billys from another angle that would bring them into view from the fog.after about 30 mins of stalking I got to a little rocky outcrop and could see the heads of the billys grazing across from me ,I set up preparing for a shot when in came the fog thicker than ever!visibility closed into about 50m !I couldnt believe it,I sat there for over half an hour only hearing the out noise of a bleat or hoof on rocks shivering and trying to keep my lense dry ,I almost gave up when the whiteout began to clear and come in go in patches that allowed a view from 100m to 300m at times.I got a good look at the billys and they all seemed to be similar in size so I picked one with a nice pelt(as the skin will be used for rugs) and got ready for a shotI ranged him at 167m and made a bark so they stopped and looked up,I hit him with a 223 55gr vmax in the high neck and he dropped like a stone.the others ran off up the hill into the fog, all I could hear was hooves on rock thundering away.Nearly straight away in came the heavy mist again.I didnt get a pic there and then due to the rain .I took his head off and carried that and pulled the body on my rope as he would be hard to drag down the hill with his horns snagging in everything.About 10mins into the drag the rain stopped so I took a quick picture before moving on as it was miserable enough out at this stage.

Im still cleaning some of the skulls for mounts and will get the 2 larger ones scored officially .here is one of them

[Akeld]

Welcome to the forum, that was a really good write up and some great pictures

[Chris-NZ]

Bet the Missus was thrilled you arriving home covered in eau-de-stinky. Can't beat an old billy for smell.

 

I avoid them like the plague when I'm catfood collecting

[goldie]

That looks awesome

[Bangbangman]

Welcome!

 

Great first post!

[DW58]

Be-Jayus I can smell them from here.

 

I've put pay to a few of those my myself back in the eighties, no wish to smell "Eau-de-billy" ever again.

[Strangely Brown]

Were the pictures taken in the Burren? Looks slightly familiar from holidays there.

[hiddenmongoose]

Were the pictures taken in the Burren? Looks slightly familiar from holidays there.

one of my permissions ,is down that direction although not in the burren itself.Land is hard and grass is scarce down there so landowners are delighted to let you control goat numbers for them.

[trucraft]

welcome.

Nice opening write up, very envious. I do like love goat hunting.. up until i get to the kill.

[Cumbrian 1]

Some nice heads there, well done.

[Montey]

Thanks for the write up and pictures I like the taste but not the smell!

[dogfox1]

Great write up.

 

Goats can be real fun, got to shoot few a while back in Queensland Australia. On that permission there was more feral goats on the hills than sheep.

 

I was limited to 3 goats a day? but the feral pigs more than made up for that.

 

G

[gaz6br]

Welcome

 

Looks a dream

 

Cheers for sharing

 

Gaz

[Chris-NZ]

... Queensland Australia. ...

I was limited to 3 goats a day? .

 

 

Three? Surely they're plain pests.

 

There are herds of the damn things round here. About a decade ago, three of us gave up counting at 100 and it didn't knock a dent in them. The place we were on was a well maintained farm but the adjacent natives' place was 80% scrub. The goats overnight in the scrub then spend their days feeding on the decent farm. Be rude not to help the farmer out, right? Stupidly I took my old .270 and that session wouldn't have helped the barrel life.. Use a .223 these days

[hiddenmongoose]

Iv been chasing a gold medal goat for a while now.I knew there was a few on my permission as I had glassed them far in the distance one day when the weather was rotten and I was on my way down off the mountain.
Anyway today I was bringing a friend up as I had promised him a day up here for a silver medal as there is dozens of them .I hadn't planned taking a goat unless I came across a gold as I had already got a fine silver.On arrival at the permission we glassed a herd of about 80 animals high on the hill,there seemed to be a couple of animals that were worth possibly taking.We made a plan to hunt up the mountain further right of them (to gain the wind)and check a spot Iv noticed the big billies like to hang around ,then hunt down onto the first herd.An hour and a half later we were up near the summit and spotted a nice silver in a small herd of 10 or so animals off in the distance.we decieded to stalk in on them.On the way in we could smell goats ,it was coming from above us and was very strong.I was sure this ment a large herd higher above us over the false summit.We climbed again and sure enough we spotted a herd of about 100 animals.There was a better silver in the group than the last group we had been stalking so my friend decieded to take him.
We stalked to a little mound and both lay down with our rifles,we scanned the herd again and confirmed the big silver.My mate made a neck shot with his 243 at just over 200m and the billie dropped dead....then out of a hidden dip rose a monster!! I quickly got on my 223 and dialed for 200m,the herd was running away but the billie stopped to see what was causing the panic,I dropped him with a shot to the neck and down he went.We were thrilled !!! a silver and a gold down!!
I got a pic of my gold and my mate took a pic of his silver and then we began pulling for back towards our jeep at the bottom of the mountain.here is my gold,

We brought the 2 animals to the halfway point then stopped to glass 2 silver quality billies rutting.They were jumping up on 2 legs and crashing down into each other.A serious battle and it was amazing to watch,then as we were sitting there catching our breath watching the fight I spotted another monster!! I quickly got my friend guided onto him and we planned a quick stalk.We got within 150m of the big puck and my friend dropped him with another neck shot.Amazing another gold quality goat down !!! we couldnt believe it ,a gold each !!this guy had slightly shorter horns but they were so much thicker in mass than my puck.Two top quality trophies.Thrilled we struggled down the hill back to the car with our trophies,exausted but over the moon.I dont have the pics of my mates gold or silver on the hill as they were on his phone but here is a pic of them together when we got home.sorry about the quality the light was fading.I will update this thread when they are cleaned and officially scored.
Such a day !!

here is the my mates head,

[DW58]

Fantastic heads - I can smell them from here, Yuk!

[hiddenmongoose]

seen this guy,let him go for another year or so

[hiddenmongoose]

[Falconstare]

poor goat

[trucraft]

poor goat

Looking back at you're post history I think you might be on the wrong forum?!

[varminter]

Cracking writeup - really enjoyed it!!!

Went to the Looe music festival last year and me and the Mrs tried the goat curry with babby potatoes done in paprica - it was fantastic eating!!

[hiddenmongoose]

scored gold 368 CIC

[munkjack]

Looking back at you're post history I think you might be on the wrong forum?!

YOUR KIDDING !!! ???