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02-15-2014, 10:35 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-15-2014, 10:56 PM by IdahoNancy.)
Most of you have seen this story before. Elk hunting 2013. This was my husband's elk. It was a great week long hunt. The Ober boys were beat tired as they were on the trail alot. The weather got tough as the week wore on. I'll post pictures of the meat packing out. It was nasty.
The truth of training goats to go with you hunting is train them to pack, they love hunting. In archery hunting we may move quickly, stalk an elk at an extremely slow pace when in close, or stand still for 2 hours in the snow as in the case of this elk. Goats don't have a agenda. They just figure it is their job to stand by or keep up for what ever you are doing. When my goats got beat up I tried taking one goat and left 2 resting at base camp (no wolves or griz in the Crazy Mtns). They loved to be the goat that got the pack. They hated to stay in camp. This was not light duty hiking. There was nearly a 1000 foot of elevation, snow, wind, rain, mud, and creek crossings. They were always willing to go at the crack of dawn the next morning. The elk don't seem to mind the goats. The elk stand still and stare at the goats. It does not seem to bother the goats, they feed, sleep, or stand around quite relaxed. The goats are use to hearing us blow on an elk bugle and do not seem to mind if the bull makes a similar sound. The goats do seem to pay attention when the bull gets real close but by that time with luck some real hunting is playing out.
This was the nastiest weather I have ever had the goats in. It was snowing about 2 inches an hour, blowing sideways, cold and wet. These pictures were at the creek bottom after after we climbed down the slippery hill side. I kept pushing the snow off their saddles as it was sticky and would pile up. I can't say the goats liked the weather but they never stopped. They looked miserable as we all did. They had about 40 to 50 lb pack of meat.
The truth of training goats to go with you hunting is train them to pack, they love hunting. In archery hunting we may move quickly, stalk an elk at an extremely slow pace when in close, or stand still for 2 hours in the snow as in the case of this elk. Goats don't have a agenda. They just figure it is their job to stand by or keep up for what ever you are doing. When my goats got beat up I tried taking one goat and left 2 resting at base camp (no wolves or griz in the Crazy Mtns). They loved to be the goat that got the pack. They hated to stay in camp. This was not light duty hiking. There was nearly a 1000 foot of elevation, snow, wind, rain, mud, and creek crossings. They were always willing to go at the crack of dawn the next morning. The elk don't seem to mind the goats. The elk stand still and stare at the goats. It does not seem to bother the goats, they feed, sleep, or stand around quite relaxed. The goats are use to hearing us blow on an elk bugle and do not seem to mind if the bull makes a similar sound. The goats do seem to pay attention when the bull gets real close but by that time with luck some real hunting is playing out.
This was the nastiest weather I have ever had the goats in. It was snowing about 2 inches an hour, blowing sideways, cold and wet. These pictures were at the creek bottom after after we climbed down the slippery hill side. I kept pushing the snow off their saddles as it was sticky and would pile up. I can't say the goats liked the weather but they never stopped. They looked miserable as we all did. They had about 40 to 50 lb pack of meat.