Pack is packed, my rifle is dead on out to 600 yards. My brother and I should be out in our hunt unit DG475, on Kodiak on early Friday afternoon. I will post a report and pics when I get back.

The timeing of thie trip is perfect. I need to escape work for a bit.

Curious why you have your rifle zeroed out to 600 yards? Goats on Kodiak are pretty easy to stalk.

Just because I can. The rifle shoots way good enough to take a Goat out that far and I can shoot well enough to make the rifle effective at that distance if the crosswind conditions are right. Just because it is zeroed at 600 yards, does not mean that is my preferred shot distance. My preference is to shoot well under 300 yards. But knowing where it hits out that far really opens up my options. Have you hunted the Goats on Kodiak much? I hunted them once with my brother in 2005. He had a tag I was just along for the ride. It was an amazing trip!

Good luck. Looking forward to the report.

I leave for my AK goat hunt on the 29th, can't wait.

quote:

Originally posted by 458Lottfan:
Just because I can. The rifle shoots way good enough to take a Goat out that far and I can shoot well enough to make the rifle effective at that distance if the crosswind conditions are right. Just because it is zeroed at 600 yards, does not mean that is my preferred shot distance. My preference is to shoot well under 300 yards. But knowing where it hits out that far really opens up my options. Have you hunted the Goats on Kodiak much? I hunted them once with my brother in 2005. He had a tag I was just along for the ride. It was an amazing trip!

I grew up on Kodiak and have killed dozens of deer there. In addition I've done two brown bear hunts and two goat hunts on the island. You'll have more fun and do a better job at judging trophy potential if you get close.

I agree with Chisana, no need for 600 yard shots on goats. If you can't get closer then you may not be able to recover the goat anyway. They aren't sheep, I shot my billy at 45 yards. Then again, I guess I shot my last sheep at 40 yards.

Anyway the weather should be good for a flight out on Friday, but the air taxi's have to be backed up. It's been real foggy and rainy the past couple days, but once this storm blows through tomorrow it should settle down for a few days. Don't waste a good day, you're only going to get a handful so make them count and get after it. Good Luck.

Tonight...Rain. Lows in the lower 50s. Northeast wind 15 to 30 mph.
Thursday...Rain. Highs in the mid 50s. North to northeast wind 35 to 50 mph.
Thursday Night...Showers. Lows in the upper 40s. North wind 30 to 45 mph decreasing to 15 to 25 mph after midnight.
Friday...Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Highs in the upper 50s. North wind 10 to 15 mph.
Friday Night...Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. Lows in the mid 40s. West wind 10 to 15 mph.
Saturday...Mostly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s.
Saturday Night...Rain likely. Lows 45 to 50.
Sunday And Sunday Night...Cloudy with a chance of rain. Highs in the mid 50s. Lows 45 to 50.
Monday Through Tuesday Night...Cloudy with a chance of rain. Highs 55 to 60. Lows 45 to 50.

On my last Kodiak goat hunt we had about one really good day to go up the mountain and that was the day I got my animal. Make the most of it if the weather is decent.

September 13th to the 19th 2009.
Kodiak Island, Alaska
Mountain Goat Hunt.
Guild was my Alaskan Resident brother, Ron Barks.

I have taken my first Kodiak Mountain Goat and all I can say is WOW! What a hunt, what a great time.
I had helped my brother with his Goat on Kodiak in 2005. The big difference was that his goat had an excellent trail leading right up to where the goats were. Mine was 100% bush whacking.
First I cannot thank my brother Ron enough for making this trip possible and being there to feed the fire in me to get a goat. Without my brother as my Alaskan resident guild I probably could not have afforded this hunt. I had an incredible time hanging out with Ron, the camaraderie and sharing the hunt is what life, family and friend s are all about.
We flew in to the hunt area with Seahawk Air Service. I had a great time talking with Roland the owner and our pilot (He is the only pilot) about aviation and Kodiak. Roland and his staff were absolutely the best. I have flown hundreds of hours in high stress situations as a helicopter air crewman. Roland is a great pilot, nice guy and a true professional. His De Havilland, Beaver was in excellent condition (I make my living determining the airworthiness of working aircraft).
We were dropped in to our lake in mid afternoon on a spectacular day. The lake was 629 feet ASL. We set up a base camp, broke down the gear to go up on the mountain and headed out. We got up to the 2000 foot ASL range on the mountain and set up a spike camp, ate dinner and spent the night. Next day we got up and the ceiling had dropped down to about 3000 feet. The mountain is 4300 feet, with the goats in the 3600 to 4000 foot range the day before.
We hiked up and got in to the 4000 foot range and tried to quietly get in to position to take advantage of the terrain and view if the clouds would break. We could hardly see 50 yards most of the day and never more than 100 yards. Around 2 PM we decided to head down and work our way under the clouds and maybe pack it in and hope for better weather tomorrow. Just as we got down to about 3100 feet the clouds broke and my brother took a look over a rocky ridge line to the east side. Low and behold there were about 13 goats above us one ridge over. We dropped in to a trench between two sharp ridges and worked our way back up to the goat’s altitude. When we hit the end of the trench we were above the goats a little. The clouds were starting to swirl back in by now. I tried to range the Billy with my new Leica CRF range finder. The range finder would not function due to the heavy cloud mist and rain. Due to the open expanse of the rock dropping off between me and the goat and the fact that he was laying down and all puffed up in the wind, he looked like an easy 200 yards out. I shot a little high hitting him in the spine. His back legs would not work but he was trying like hell to get going on only the front two. My brother and I were both concerned that he may paw his way off the bench in to a very bad spot. We both fired nearly at the same time. My 260 grain .375 cal NAB and Ron’s 150 grain 7MM Sirocco both hit about one inch apart only a few tenths of a second apart, in the right shoulder and blew a massive hole out of his left shoulder. But he was dead on the bench and just rolled over and was expired. We boned him out and caped him, and headed back to the spike camp. Just as we started to wrap up the photos the weather went south. It got very wet and cold. Crossing the loose rock slide on a tiny goat trail was a bit harrying with wet rocks and wet boots weary legs and a very heavy pack. I just took my time and placed my feet one at a time. It was a long 140 yards.
We spent the night in the spike camp and headed down to the base camp the next morning. The first 2000 feet coming up/ the last 2000 feet going down is absolutely brutal, due to the steep hills, wet grass and Alders. Particularly with packs well in excess of 100 lbs. We made it down and had plenty of time to rest eat and go set up to glass for deer. Due to the heavy and very healthy underbrush we never saw a single deer. The weather went south for the next two days. Roland finally came in to pick us up and said the weather was supposed to get worse over the next few days. We were doing well to get out when we did.
I purchased some new gear for this hunt. Of the things I bought the following were indispensable:
1. Black Diamond trekking poles; Fist time I ever used trekking poles. I will never be in that kind of terrain without them again.
2. Kifaru gun bearer kit; This thing was rock solid and kept both of my hands free to climb the hill, but still made the rifle lightning fast to shoulder.
3. Meindl mountaineering boots from Cabela’s.
4. Sitka Assent pants shirt and jacket; Due to the steepness of terrain, I slid down a lot of hill side on my ass with a heavy pack and never tore my pants. They would dry easily and still keep you warm while wet and the new opti fade pattern blended with the rocks great.
5. Kifaru Pack; Even though this pack seemed a little heavy empty. Once it was loaded heavy and adjusted, it stuck to my body and did not move. It was ultra comfortable and well balanced at well over 100 lbs.
6. Big Agnes Bivy sack; Under two pounds and very comfy/dry even in the rain.
7. Jet Boil Personal cooking system; Super light and incredibly easy and fast to get water going for my Mountain House meals.
8. Spot Tracker; I could let my wife and my brother’s wife know the bears did not eat us each morning and evening without the actual contact to the part of the world I was temporarily escaping from. I also set it up on the help button to have Seahawk Pick us up when we were ready. It worked like a champ!! Also the kids could click on a link with my OK check in email and see on a Google Earth satellite image exactly where I sent the message from. They thought that was pretty cool. It was nice to know we had a 911 link to the world if we needed it as well.
The one item I will absolutely add to my kit on the next hunt:
1. A light pair of crampons to have better footing on the supper steep hillsides covered in chest deep wet grass. Especially on the way down hill when you are supper heavy.
Most useless item I carried:
1. My new range finder.

[URL=

[URL=

[URL=

[URL=

[URL=

[URL=

[URL=

[URL=

[URL=

[URL=
The mountain we killed the goat on is in the back ground.

thank you for the story and photos.

Nice goats....I also recognize rolands Plane (Seahawk Air).....Congrats on a great hunt.

Fantastic!!!

Fantastic photos, must have been great fun.
I would like to have such experience, a different one from hunting in Africa, as i have only hunted in Africa.
Do you have any contacts for me in order to try to see what do i need to book a similar hunt?
Regards
Roberto

Roberto
The only person that I know that may be able to help you would be Abed Radwan.

Here is his contact infromation.
AR Hunting Consultant
PO Box 141444
Anchorage, Alaska
99514, USA
E-mail: abed@gci.net
Tel: 907-338-3629

His web site is: http://www.ibexman.com/

458Lottfan,

That was an aweome hunt you had. Your narrative and photos are as good as your hunt.
Thanks for taking the time to post about the hunt.
It's a post like yours that has all of us sitting on the edges of our chairs...wanting to be there with you..

Don

Congrats on the successful hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by 458Lottfan:
Roberto
The only person that I know that may be able to help you would be Abed Radwan.

Here is his contact infromation.
AR Hunting Consultant
PO Box 141444
Anchorage, Alaska
99514, USA
E-mail: abed@gci.net
Tel: 907-338-3629

His web site is: http://www.ibexman.com/

Thank you very much for your help.
Will follow your advise.
Regards
Roberto

Congrats on your goat.

Interesting report. Sounds like you must have lost quite a bit of meat with over 400 grains of lead going through both shoulders.

I'm not a big fan of the SPOT. They are too ambiguous and offer none of the advantages of a sat phone.

Forrest

Chisana

Unfortunately the off shoulder was scrap. The hole in the hide had to be right at 8 inches.

Thanks for the information and input you gave before my trip. You were right about getting close. I did not know much about the area before we got there.

The spot is a little different in it being one way comm. But it worked perfect and did exactly what I needed it to do. It is probably a little lighter than most Sat-Phones.

Nice write-up, and congrats. There's a hunt you and your brother can daydream back to for the rest of your days!

Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations on your goat - which Kifaru pack did you use?

Congrats on your Kodiak Goat. Got a buddy heading out tmrw. on a draw tag Goat hunt. Excellent narrative & hunt pics. Thanks for sharing.

p.e. n' sitka
(actually now in Kodiak)

Congratulations on your hunt. Thanks for the photos and the gear report.

Congratulations!! Great Hunt, Great pics and Great gear report!

Looks like a great hunt. You got to love Alaska in September.