Part of the appeal to living in northern British Columbia is that hunts that would be once in a lifetime for most people are relatively affordable. Furthermore mountain hunting is one of the most challenging types of hunts both from a physical and logistic standpoint. With that in mind, I decided I wanted to chase mountain goat. To me, the mountain goat is the epitomy of mountain hunting. They live in the most inhospitable and oftentimes dangerous terrain, above alpine mule deer, elk, and even wild sheep. A DIY backpack hunt for mountain goat is at the pinnacle of western huting.
Finding a Location
The first step of planning a mountain goat hunt was finding a hunting location. Finding the goats themselves is not particularly difficult. Glassing from valley bottoms will quickly reveal the white ghosts perched in contrast with the black rock. Finding a way to get to the goats is another story. Coastal BC mountains are rugged country with few trails and dense forest down below. Careful study of topographical maps as well as many clicks on foot are needed to find a spot.
Maps and Google Earth allowed me to narrow down 3 areas that I knew held goats. After some long days hiking a route to the alpine that took about 3 hours was found. The climb was about 3km and 3000 feet through devil’s club and blueberry bushes before finally breaking into the alpine. The mountain range was somewhat approachable from the west but had sheer cliffs on the eastern side that looked promising. We had our spot.
Gear and Weight
With any backpack hunt, weight is an important concern. However, when hunting the high peaks that goats inhabit it becomes paramount. Fortunately, I already had a good set of lightweight backpacking gear. With a weeks worth of food and 2L of water my pack weight was right around 50 lbs. Due to how difficult it can be to judge goats in the field, I was unwilling to go without a spotting scope. The weight of the added optics pushed my base weight up to 36 lbs. Food, fuel, and water made up for the rest. Although a few specifics changed, a rough outline of my pack can be found here.
For a rifle I used a custom built off of a Tikka action chambered for 280 Ackley Improved. My load of choice was a 150 grain Accubond which chronoed an average of 2971 feet per second. Because of the reputation of goats for durability, a controlled expansion bullet would be best, but not at the expense of a flat shooting load. The Accubond offers a good balance between ballistics and terminal performance. The 150gr version is efficient enough to be a 600 yard mountain cartridge if the wind is willing.
Locating Goats
After a long hike up to the alpine we set up on a glassing knoll to look for goats. Goats tend to feed in the mornings and evenings and go to bed at night and during the heat of the day. We glassed off of the more easily accessible side of a mountain for the first evening and didn’t see much. With about 45 minutes of shooting light we decided to make one last hike for the day to check one final ridge. As we peaked over the ridge we spotted a goat feeding down off of a ledge. Creeping in a low crouch, we quickly stalked to shooting range and set up on a rock. A quick check confirmed what we had initially thought; The goat was a mature billy.
My partner took a quick range and the billy was at 265 yards with a steep downhill angle. In my scope I could see the billy had spotted the top of our heads and was staring straight at us. A steep cliff 30 yards behind the billy made it essential that he dropped where he stood. A slight 0.2 Mil wind hold put the bullet right through the front right shoulder of the billy who was steeply quartering towards us. The billy dropped where he stood, but when it seemed he may rise again to his feet a follow-up lung shot provided an insurance policy.
Remainder of the Hunt
The billy was butchered and buried in game bags in the snow pack on the northern slope of the mountain he was harvested from. We decided that due to the heat wave the meat would keep two days before we had to pack it out. We continued to search for another billy.
The remainder of the mountain goat hunt saw record setting temperatures of up to 25 degrees celcius on the mountain. While we found many fresh beds, hair, and tracks we didn’t see any more goats on our range. After hiking and checking the neighbouring mountains we learned that the goats had headed down to the treeline. After two days, we decided it was time to get the meat off of the mountain.
Packout
The packout was absolutely grueling. Candidly, I am no stranger to heavy packs. However, I failed to appreciate the added difficulty the terrain would add to the packout, particularly side-hilling on loose scree. Additionally, the goat butchered out much heavier than I had anticipated. This led to very heavy packs, with my pack being around 115 lbs on the way down. After a grueling 3.5 hour packout covering 4km we finally arrived back at the truck.
Inspection and Scoring
Per British Columbia law, a few days later we submitted the skull as well as a testicle for the Compulsory Inspection. We knew that we had harvested a mature billy. At the inspection, we learned that the 9 year old billy had horns measuring ten inches, and would likely make the Boone and Crockett record book after the 60 day drying period. After the drying out period the goat scored 50 4/8″ making both the British Columbia record book as well as the Boone and Crockett all time book.
Lessons Learned
This mountain goat hunt was an amazing experience and key lessons were learned to take into next year. First of all, weight matters. I found the added magnification of my spotting scope to be useless due to the better glass quality in my binoculars. Also, a lighter tripod would have been a good idea. These two changes alone would shave almost 5lbs off of my base weight.
Next, mountain goats will go to the treeline in extreme heat. While I was aware that deep winter snow can push them that low, I didn’t expect that heat would as well. This will go into my planning for what time of year to hunt as well as hunting strategies if caught in a heat wave again.
Finally, mature billy goats are much larger than I gave them credit for. One should always prepare for harvesting the largest animal they deem possible. I now know that mature billy goats can get well over 200 lbs. In the interest of safety, next time the packout should have been divided into a trip for gear and a trip for meat.
Closing Thoughts
A DIY mountain goat hunt is a dream hunt for many for good reason. It is one of the most rugged and unforgiving outdoor experiences remaining in the world today. The experience and learning opportunities I garnered from this hunt will help my continue to evolve as a hunter and be more efficient and effective in the years to come.