overnight backpack hunt

[ozy clint]

on the weekend i went for a quick overnight trip to a property that has been lousy with goats. it was a bit of a recon trip for this weekend as i have a mate coming to hunt goats for the 1st time. i hunted the place about 6 weeks ago and i wanted to make sure that it was still good.

and yep, it is still good!
i call this, 'goats on oats!' no, the are not farm ones either.
 
no good to the trad hunter there though, so i wait till they head for the hills.
last time i found an ideal spot to setup a salt lick. i've been curious as to whether goats respond to salt so this weekend i packed in about 8kg of the stuff. i parked the ute and set off for the spot. eager to lighten my pack a little. it was good to see that there was still water in the gully. the goats move into the hills either up this gully or up the spur beside it, so it will get noticed. i'll check it out this coming weekend.
 
i wanted to check out a dam in the back of the place, way up in the hills, just to see what it was like and check out any possible activity there. just as i thought.......nothing. the country here is as wet as ever so there is no need for them to be there. handy to know it's there though.
 
towards the end of the day i was near the top of the hill when i spotted a nice billy. too late though, he was on to me. he didn't know what i was though. i called a bit to try and calm him down. then i noticed another billy with him. the next 20 minutes or so was a standoff at about 25m. just couldn't get a shot though. he was either in the clear looking at me, giving me no oppuntunity to move and draw or he was behind bushes. after they both moved off i turned my attention to a mob that had come in from the side. i circled around to get above them and i snuck in to about 15m, but yet again the bush gave no clear shot on any of them. eventually the wind swirled and they smelt me after about 20 minutes of waiting for a shot.
by now it was getting dark so it was time to setup camp.

i got they fly up and started getting dinner on. a bit of goat would've been nice but i settled for good old noodles.
there is a kovea supalite stove in there somewhere!
 
mmmmmm..........noodles.
 
this was camp in the morning.
 

this is 'sunrise over sundown' the hills on the horizon are in sundown NP.
 
'traprock hills'
 

[ozy clint]

in the morning i had a quick follow up in the direction the billies went to see if i could catch up with them....nope.

went down the hill to see if there were goats on oats....a couple.

went back into the hills to see if i could bump into any. walking, walking.....

went past my salt setup....no activity as yet. then i heard 'em. it was on! so, up the hill again. good training for NZ! i sighted a mob above me on the near 45 degree slope but they were moving to fast for me to keep up without spooking them. the were headed down hill to the oats.
i heard another mob to the side of me about level with me. they were headed right for me. after i sighted them at about 60m i had to quickly drop my pack up pick a tree which i thought would put me in there way. a nice shady ironbark was just the ticket. they kept coming and and i was in the perfect spot. there were no big billies so anything that presented a shot 1st was the unlucky one. a small white faced billy walked up to me and at 10m he stopped. too late the shot was away. i hit him front on and the arrow went in to the feathers. chaos ensued! goats were everywhere. after it had calmed down i went to collect my prize.

 

about 20m down the hill lay the billy
 

the broadhead was poking out beside his kyber pass. not too bad for penetration i thought.

 

hmmm.....heavy pack again.
 
i used my 54# bob lee on this hunt with some tusker concordes that ron at KME gave me, thanks mate!
looking forward to doing it all over again this weekend.

[piggy]

Well done Clint, looks like some nice country.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Well-done, Clint! An excellent weekend adventure... Many happy returns of the day to you.

[Wolfkiss]

Way to go Clint, shame you couldn't have had the backstraps the night before,  tasted just as good when you got home though.

Thanks for posting.

You got a NZ adventure coming up then?

[ozy clint]

wolkiss- not to mention the back legs too.

hopefully next may i'll be hunting tahr and possibly chamios.

[cheech1]

looks like you have made the move south there clint they look like piliga pines in your camp.
nice goat clint and goats love salt licks a property in cobar i have been to put them out.

[deertraks]

Well done  

[rastaman]

Nice looking country you have there sir! Thanks for taking us along!

[Bivyhunter]

Reminds me of the ole days hunting Catalina Island off of the coast of Southern California.  I had a blast chasing goats around down there.  Thanks for sharing the hunt with us, looking forward to hearing about the next one.  Some day I'm going to have to make it down there. Keep the adventures and pics coming!

[Elkchaser]

Great job. Great story. Beautiful country.
Thanks for sharing.

[huskyarcher]

[Broken Arrows]

I always like reading your stories and you live in a place I have always wanted to visit, one of these days!!

[Paul R]

Ya gotta love that trap rock country mate, it's tough on boots and ankles. Should be good training for the scree slopes in NZ hopefully. At least you found a grassy spot to camp though.
Nice one Clint.

[wv lungbuster]

Great pics and story.      Congrats

[ron w]

Excellent.........

[MrWinkles]

Ozy Clint

I just got done reading the thread of yours about testing the stone arrowheads on buffalo and then I saw this thread and it made me wonder...

Do you utilize any parts of the animal besides the backstraps, hams and hide?

[DHR]

Hey nice job Clint, goats sure are fun!

[elknutz]

Well done Clint, keep eradicating the feral population.  I enjoy your hunts a lot.

[ozy clint]

wrinkles- if i'm not backpacking i'll take more meat. the horns can be used for lots of different things too.