You bastards! I'm supposed to be writing my Easter sermon!

friar

In 2003, I went on my first guided goat hunt. I bought the lightest rifle I could find, a Bansner Sheephunter in 7mm WSM. I practiced dutifully at the range (only 200yds available to me). My first shot at a goat was just over 300yds, and I think it was laying down, and I just cut skin across his chest. If it weren't for the superhuman effort on the part of my assistant guide, Bobby Warren, that goat would not have been recovered. I hate to think of what that young man went through, returning to camp many hours after dark with the remains (never said a word, to this day). That goat is on display in my study for two reasons:
1) reminds me to practice more, and at the ranges I might shoot at, and
2) Be in good enough shape that you have enough gas in the tank to get in the best shooting position, or to be able to pass on a small specimen and hunt on. I'm comparatively a beast now, and I'm 10 years older. I learned a lot on that hunt.
Last year I was hunting with Bobby, and was about 200yds above a hard-hunted goat, and virtually shot between my feet straight down. That goat was headed for a cliff dive and Bobby hollered to keep shooting even though the first one clearly had staggered him. I hit him two more times (NULA .30-06) and reloaded single shot style and hit him two more times stopping him before he hit the unrecoverable slide. Every shot counted this time, and saved the day.
Live and learn,
Don