This is a bit overdue but only a couple days after getting home from this hunt I was off on another. I wanted to make sure I had the time to do this right. I booked my hunt with Jake Jefferson owner of Black River Hunting Camps. He goes by "fortyonesix" here on Accurate. Jake had made arrangements to do a mountain goat hunt in the Wrangell Mtns through Paul Claus' Ultima Thule Outfitters. Jake was very up front with me from the start that this was his first time in this area so much of this we would have to figure out on the go. Jake picked my up in Anchorage and we drove to Chitna where Paul would pick us up and fly us in a 185 to his lodge.

We drove Jakes big bad Ford Focus to Chitna.


This pic shows some of Paul's place.


After a hot bowl of soup I signed my contract with Paul and we were off in the Super Cubs and dropped off for the next day's hunt.


The first morning we woke up to some snow and heavy fog. Eager to get hunting we pushed up the mountain hoping the fog would lift and we would find some goats. We pushed about 2.5 miles according to the GPS, not sure how far it was on foot. After hanging out for 6 hours the fog never lifted so we headed back.


Having never hunted this area we didn't know much about the weather. There was heavy fog when we woke up on day two so we elected to stay in camp. You can guess what happened, the weather lifted.



That evening Paul checked on us and said if we didn't find a Billy in the next two days he would move us. While standing there talking Paul looks up about a mile away and asks, "What's wrong with that goat"? Not sure where he came from but it made us look pretty stupid. We watched him until dark and he bedded about 1.5 miles from us. The next morning we looked for him from camp once we had enough light, of course he was gone. The weather was cloudy but no fog so we headed off again. About a half hour into our hike it started snowing again.

We found a goat about 2 miles from camp, and figured it was the same one but didn't know for sure. He was on the opposite side from us on a gorge going up the side of the mountain. We dropped our packs and headed up as fast as we could. We lost him behind some rocks for a minute but decided to stop because we figured he wasn't far. After less than a minute he came around the corner and looked right at us. Again, he is across the gorge from us but we waited for him to move away from the edge as he worked away from us. No doubt he knew we where there but he didn't run. I settled in for a shot and it didn't take long for him to move away from the edge. At one point he stopped while quartering away from us. By this time it was snowing too hard for the rangefinder to work. Jake estimated him at 250 to 275. I shot once in a prone position (didn't have my pack to rest on because we had dropped everything at the bottom) with my 270 Win and hit him right behind the shoulder. He went down pretty fast but not fast enough. He rolled a couple times parallel to the main gorge but then fell into a trench feeding into the gorge. A couple seconds later, KaaBoom! It was a gut wrenching sound. We had waited for him to move away from the edge and I made a good shot but it still wasn't enough. Either way I told myself we had been patient and tried our best to take a responsible shot. If he was broke then so be it.

The trek up to him was a slow one. Here's a view from where he landed looking back down what we hiked up.


Couple hero shots.



Here is a shot of the cliff he fell off.


He did break his skull plate on his left horn but the horns were fine. Jake wanted a more natural looking picture.


We caped him out for a shoulder and boned out the meat. This is me with the cape loaded and headed down to get the rest of our gear.


Paul picked us up the next day and after a couple hours of story telling at the lodge we loaded up and headed back to Chitna.


After working with those lovely people at the airlines I finally made it back to Iowa where the family was waiting to pick me up.

Home sweet home.



Overall it was an awesome experience. Alaska is a wonderful place. Jake was great and I can't say enough good things about him. By the end of the trip I felt like I was hunting with a close friend. I don't think I could have asked for a better first experience in Alaska. Prior to going I worked hard to get in shape but those mountains were tough. Working that had and then filling my tag was a much more rewarding than I had expected. Without a doubt I will be back.

Thats a beauty goat, it looks over 10" was it. Good bases to boot. NIce job thanks for sharing your hunt.

Great pics, and a super hunt. Man you ruffed it on that one, a tarp and one man tents ! Thats how my sheep hunt went last year. Great looking family to!

Congrats! It looks like you earned that goat.

Darn nice goat!
I'm just glad I got mine out of my system. Every time I see pictures like yours it reminds me of what I went thru - just lucky to get back home in one piece!

Goat hunting is one heck of an adventure, isn't it. Congratulations on a nice hunt and EXCELLENT billy.

I have to agree with bluefin to a degree, goats are one animal that most of us won't do a whole bunch of times. I've hunted them 3 times, and it's unlikely I'll do it again.

Thanks guys. My billy was 8.25 and 8.325 with 5 inch bases. No giant but I didn't care one bit.

There were some places that were pretty scary. Once those rocks were covered in snow the footing was pretty bad. I slipped a couple times and was only a few feet from needing to be air lifted out of there. I made it through some terrain I didn't know I was capable of. I still think I have another few goat hunts in me but not before a sheep hunt.

AWESOME goat hunt!! And you were able to bring home a great billy as well for all the hard work. Congrats!

Congratulations on a successful hunt. Good looking family as well.

Brett

Super photos and sounds like a great adventure. Congrats on a fine trophy goat!

Beauty, congrats! Sounds like a ton of fun to me. Love those goats.

Very good report
Way to go on the mountain goat!

Excellent hunt report and photos! Congrats on the hunt and the Goat. I have been on two Goat hunts now. Any Mnt Goat is a superb trophy! Yours is very nice! Too bad they are so hard to hunt, Mnt Goat is great to eat. Did you take any of the meat home with you? Thanks for sharing the photos and the experiance. That is some very rough terain.

nice billy. Sounds like a great hunt.

Congrats, spectacular scenery and a super Billy. Get it done while your young and have the legs for it!

maybe smile next time??

I would be interested to hear about some of the gear that you took with you up there, and how it performed for you.

Thanks for sharing!
Great adventure!

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
I would be interested to hear about some of the gear that you took with you up there, and how it performed for you.

I know a lot of people are pretty hardcore about their gear but this was my first Alaskan hunt so I didn’t have much to start with. I bought some new things but also tried to make do with some of what I already had.

Used a Tuffpak to haul my rifle. It worked great and ended up being my only checked bag.

I borrowed a Barney’s frame pack from Jake. It worked fine and was comfortable.

North Face Snowshoe sleeping bag rated to 0 degrees. Our coldest night was low twenties and I stayed warm enough.

When we arrived at Paul’s place he questioned our decision to hunt this terrain without plastic boots. Apparently they ask that all their sheep hunters wear them and we were in the same area. I bought some Cabela’s Alaskan Hunters, my feed never really got sore but they were pretty tired. Plastics may have been a better choice but overall I love these boots. Good support and very comfortable. Oh yeah, you can’t beat a pair of Crocs for camp shoes.

Black Diamond Carbonlite trekking poles with Flint Lock. At times I put a tremendous load on these and the locking mechanisms never failed. Jake used ice axes which are probably a better choice because they seem to be more versatile. However, if you are set on trekking poles I don’t think you could go wrong with the BD carbons.

Most of the clothes I took were synthetics that I already owned. I guess everybody needs to figure out what works for them. The one piece of clothing I did buy was a pair of Mammut Champ pants. These things are awesome. Lots of guys raved about them so I decided to buy a pair. Best piece of gear I had.

One last thing. I had a pair of 10 X50 binoculars and found myself not wanting to wear them while hiking; too heavy and bulky. My advice would be to find something you like at a reasonable weight, 10 X 32’s or 42’s in the 20 oz range.