Bowhunting For Mountain Goats

Bowhunting For Mountain Goats
By: Robert Hidding


It all started 2 years ago with a general desire to hunt for a Mountain Goat with a bow. I started my research on the internet looking for outfitters who specialize in Mountain Goats with a bow. I quickly found that this specialty type of outfitter were few and far between. After some phonecalls I found Bolen and Lewis Trophy Guiding Service in Terrace, British Columbia. Allen Bolen and Mike “Spike” Lewis pursue for their customers all the game animals you would expect in B.C., however their specialty is Mountain Goats with a bow. After speaking with Spike I knew I had found the right guys and immediately booked my hunt for late September 2006.

Now bear in mind I have hunted in many different places with many different outfitters, but, I knew this time I had not booked just an ordinary hunt. This was going to be very challenging process, for a guy my age, (49) just to get within sight of a Mountain Goat much less bow range.

In speaking to Allen and Spike it was made clear that getting into good shape was mandatory for success. So there it was, me in very marginal shape with a Goat hunt already booked for the following fall. Time to join a health club!! I worked out religiously every week on stair masters, countless lunges, weights and running to strengthen myself to the point where my flatlander body could make it up the hills.

Fast forward 1 1/2 years to fall 2006.

Everything I was bringing to the hunt with the exception of my traveling bowcase was going in the bush with me. I had to learn to travel light. I updated my camping gear (mine had not changed since my college days in the mid 70’s) and began to try to get 10 days worth of necessities into one backpack weighing not more than 50 pounds. Mission accomplished. I readied myself for my departure date of Sept 23, 2006.

After stop overs in Denver and Vancouver I landed in beautiful Terrace B.C. and was greeted by our host Spike Lewis and two other hunters from Pennsylvania. All were hunting goats with a bow. We spent the night in Terrace at Spike’s home and then flew out one by one the following morning in a two seated float plane with a local bush pilot. My flight to the hunting area was about 20 minutes in which we flew above and through some of the most beautiful mountain country I have ever seen. You could literally see eye ball to eye ball with goats on various ridge tops as we flew by.


We landed at our base camp at a small mountain lake surrounded by almost vertical mountains. I was met at the campsite by Gary, my guide for the remainder of the trip. Gary was a real mountain guide through and through, preferring to spend time in the mountain bush country than go back to the comforts of town. Our home was a two man tent situated at the east end of the lake. Meals would consist of oatmeal, tea and freeze dried meals for the rest of the trip.

Generally on these hunts the first day out takes the hunter to even higher ground in which a spike camp is set up. From this spike camp daily travels into the mountains were made easier by already being on top of the mountain. Weather concerns prevented us from starting out in this fashion, which we later regretted, however it didn’t prevent us from going on what I would consider the most difficult hike of my life.


We climbed with our packs to the top of the mountain range and scouted several ridges for “billies”. The day produced some sightings but all were on distant ridges too far to make a stalk. As we made our way back to camp late in the afternoon Gary became concerned about the route we were taking and told me that we would have to double back up the mountain and approach camp from the other side. At this point my fatigue level was very high, but I was about to learn how much further you can really go even when you don’t think you can take another step. 3 hours later (about 10:30) that night we staggered into camp. I was spent, I took off my backpack and went directly into my sleeping bag for a night's rest.

The next day, with tired legs and body, we again went scouting for Billies. The hike this day was much shorter (Gary was taking it easy on me) but still both tiring and frustrating because the mountain slopes were very slippery from periodic rains and the ground vegetation that grew all around. I must have slipped and fell on my face ten times. I then started to realize that there was a technique to navigating the slopes. The trick was to dig in and lock your leg in place on the down slope (lower) side, then move the opposite leg up and repeat. Moving slowly and cautiously in a switchback fashion was by far the most efficient way to travel. Once this is mastered, moving along mountain slopes is much easier. Problem was it takes time to learn this technique, time I didn’t have.

The next couple of days brought bad weather which stopped us from making any lengthy ventures outside of camp. None the less we still made some short climbs and did spot some nannies with kids with regularity.

On day 6 Gary got up to get ready for the day's hike. I was still in the sleeping bag when he came in and said to get up now! I could tell from the tone he was serious, so I got up and followed Gary to a site a short distance from camp where he showed me a distant white spot on the side of a distant mountain. It was a large Billie just relaxing all by himself. I looked where the goat was located and asked Gary what our odds were of making a stalk. "Not good" was his response.

I then made a decision that was very difficult for me. I am a bowhunter at heart, but sometimes you do what you gotta do to get the job done. In this case it was switching over to a rifle we had in camp in case of bears. It was a .270 with good optics. I had sighted in the rifle for Gary a couple of days before but never intended to use it. Since time was at a premium we took the direct route straight to the Billie.

Two hours later we were 500 yards out and below the Billie. He was getting nervous and starting to pace on the ledge and we were running out of cover to hide our approach. Gary asked if I could make the shot. Now I have had some sniper training and I consider myself a good shot, but I was not about to take a shot of a life time with a unfamiliar rifle and huffing and puffing all the way to this point. I told Gary we needed to get closer, so on we went.

At 406 yards we completely ran out of cover and I had to either try the shot or forget it. Gary set up the spotting scope and I tried to settle down my heart rate. Minutes later we were ready. I steadied the rifle on my backpack at sighted in on the Billie. It was a very steep up hill shot, yet it was still 400+ yards. I rested the crosshairs just slightly above his shoulder and gently pulled the slack on the trigger. The Billie was standing broadside (perfect) and at the shot we could hear the dull thud of a bullet hitting home. Gary said immediately “you hit em, fire again!”.

Again I steadied the crosshairs and put steadily increasing pressure on the trigger. "Boom!" the rifle fires and again Gary says “hit”. At this point the Billie moved from his position down into some undergrowth that took him out of our line of sight. We jumped up left all the gear we knew we wouldn’t immediately need and took off up the mountain side. About 1 ½ hours later found us creeping along the last ridge that separated us from where we last saw the Billie. Gary spotted him first and motioned me over to his position. Speaking in a whisper Gary said that the Billie was just over this last ridge.

I stuck my head slowly over the top expecting to see the Billie 50 -100 yards away. Much to my shock the Billie was bedded down just 20 feet away. I pulled the rifle into position and tried to pick a spot but being so close the scope was almost useless. Looking through the scope I saw nothing but white. I guessed as best I could and pulled the trigger. Wham! The Billie jumped to his feet, I hit him again immediately expecting him to drop, but he didn’t, he turned towards me and started to walk in my direction. I spoke to Gary “I can’t see anything but his head” Gary, yelling at this point said shoot!! You’ve got to shoot now!! The Billie angled just slightly and I fired again at about 15 feet. He again turned and went back to his original position. I put the final bullet into his shoulder at 20 feet and he finally collapsed on the spot.

Just when you think it’s over, it’s not. The Billie slid off the ledge and fell into the head of a small canyon 50 feet below. It wasn’t that far but we couldn’t approach him from where we were. This forced us to go back down the mountain and come right back up again heading into the canyon. The Billie had come to rest at the bottom of a water fall in a nearly vertical mountain side. Gary suggested that I make myself comfortable for a bit while he figured the best way of getting the Billie out. A while later Gary called and I went up to see that he had already skinned and de-bone the Billie and lowered it down on ropes to a safer location.

We took some post hunt pictures and then packed the meat and hide in the two backpacks and made the long journey back to camp. I was amazed at how much weight you can carry if you take your time (walking sticks are worth their weight in gold) and are properly motivated (fear of staying in the bush overnight). We made it back to camp about 10:00 or so (again) had a much deserved dinner and crashed.


The following day was rainy, so we finished caping out the Billie and got things ready in camp so when we did get good weather, our pilot could come get us in short order. The day after, the weather was nice so we called our pilot and he came and got us in the early afternoon. I loved the rugged mountains, but, I was very happy to get back to fresh food and a hot shower. We measured my billie and found that he had 10 inch horns in length and a over all score of 49 ½ inches, which is a very nice billie anywhere.

I can’t say enough about how well the outfitters help in making this all possible. Without those guys working really hard every day, nothing would have happened. I regret not getting my Billie with a bow, but believe me, when I try this again (and I will) my bow will go with me for another try.

If trying for a mountain goat is your next challenge, look up Bolen and Lewis Trophy Guide service. Then get off the couch and start getting into shape. This hunt is not for the meek, it will challenge you on several different levels!

Fishing with Live Bait

There are many myths that surround using live bait instead of artificial and most of them are not true. Live bait is still used by many anglers. The one factual part of live bait, which no one can dispute, it that is often messy, and it smells terrible. If you can surmount these two factors, you will be in good shape to try live bait on your next fishing outing.

There are some basic principles that should not be ignored when using live bait. None of the principles concerning live bait are clean or nice, but they are mandatory. You should never handle live bait when your hands are dry. Bait has a slimy layer on the outside, which is protective as well as inviting to predators, and if your hands are dry you will risk removing that layer.

If you are running short on live bait, try to save the bait that dies in your live well or in a nearby bucket. When your live bait has run out, you will still be able to use the freshly dead bait on your hook to attract fish. All you have to do is cast your line and bob it a little to give the appearance that your decoy has some life left. Be careful of the weight that you put on a line with live bait. Fish are going to spot a weight if it is too heavy and weighting down the bait. Your weight or sinker should be light enough to give the bait the appearance of free floating in the water.

Seasonal fishing can change the perspective on live bait. For instance, the summer months can be brutal, especially in the South. You may need to adjust your thinking and practices when the summer months hit. Keeping the bait alive will be the hardest obstacle for any angler in the summer. In order to keep your bait living, you will need to change out the water regularly so that the oxygen can keep flowing through to the bait. However, you cant just stop at changing out the water.

The temperature of the water is crucial because the water on the surface is hot and deadly for living bait. Therefore, having ice on hand to put into the live well will be the most beneficial way of keeping your live bait happy until they reach the hook. There is also a bait shortage during the summer months on things like shrimp and live croaker. You will save yourself a lot of time if you call the bait shop the night before to ensure that the bait you want is available. The shrimp are the most common bait in the summertime, but they are not as effective as you may think. When everyone is using shrimp, the fish are not as excited by them because they see them everywhere. Try using a baitfish that is not as often used in the summer months and guarantee a better chance of catching a fish.

Some other tips you should keep in mind when fishing with live bait is to never hook your live bait in the eyes. The reason is that you want the bait to see the fish approach them because they will become more excited and it will cause the fish to latch on better. Another thing is that you should add water softener salt to the water that is holding your live bait. The salt will make the scales of your bait harder while instantaneously preserving the slimy coat that attracts predators.

Lastly, you should make sure that you know how to properly throw a casting net before trying to catch bait. People often times throw the net too hard or too soft and this results in frustration and a net that does not consistently open.

Live bait can come in handy when you are trying to have a big day out at sea. Reason and logic will tell you that a fish would be more attracted to real food as oppose to faux food. However, the live bait does increase the workload so make sure you are prepared to deal with the entire package before committing to fishing with live bait.

Making a bow from a sapling

The Staff

For your sapling bow projects: Try to find a straight sapling of some hardwood about 2" thick where the handle will be. If you can find or borrow a saw, that will help you cut the bow staves and will work out better than chopping and breaking them off at the base.

Most hardwoods are good bow woods. If you avoid conifers, poplars and willows you should be in good shape. The Maples, the Oaks, Beech, Black Locust (Robina Pseudoscacia) or Honey Locust all work, and many other. Out on the West Coast of the United States, people have reported good luck with Juniper and Bay Laurel. The premium bow woods Osage Orange and Yew require special preparation and I am not considering them here.

Cut the staff, let it be as long as you are tall (at least nose height), free of knots and with no spiral twist up the trunk. Split it in half lengthwise. From the end it should look like a "D". The bark side will be the back of the bow. Strip the bark off, but otherwise don't touch it and don't cut into the outer growth ring.

You may be thinking that you could actually get two staves out of this sapling. You can in theory. In practice, I have found it difficult to achieve this by splitting the staff. You might have better luck with a saw. Usually I end up with one staff and some kindling.



Rough Tillering and Seasoning

After splitting, reduce the staff on the belly side (flat side - former inside of the tree) so that the staff is a bit over an inch thick. Do that quickly with a big kitchen knife. You can do this right after cutting the sapling. If in doubt leave it a bit thicker. Reducing the thickness and strength of the staff is the process known as Tillering. This rough tillering will allow the staff to dry or season fairly quickly.

Seal the ends by spreading some glue on or rubber banding some plastic wrap over the ends. The reason this is done is to prevent cracks or checks developing in the ends of the staff as it dries.

Bring it inside and tie the ends to a pipe, your bed frame, a beam, 2 x 4, or something similar. Tie it belly side facing outwards. Take a couple of chunks of wood and slide them between the bow staff and the thing it's tied to, and slide them out toward the ends. This will reflex the tips of your limbs a bit. Tie the middle of the bow to the pipe, post, or bed frame. Let it sit like that for at least two weeks. Longer is better, but a month should be fine.

After a couple of weeks or so you will have a more or less seasoned piece of wood. Green wood, wood with a high moisture content, will "take a set" or "follow the string" with use. This means that the bow will take a permanent bend in the direction it is pulled. This indicates weakened fibers and also will lower the early draw weight of the bow and rob it of cast. Bows that are stressed while the wood is green tend to to last very long.



Laying Out the Bow

Next step is laying out. Use a straight edge ruler and a pencil. With the pencil and straight edge lay out the outline of the bow as it would be seen looking at the back or belly. Make the limbs the same more or less. Keep them wide to within about 8 inches of the ends. Then taper them in to a width of about a half inch. The handle should be about 4" long and between 1" and 1 1/2" wide, depending on your hand (and figure on about 2 inches of fades where the handle transitions into the limbs). Draw all this onto the belly of the bow. A straight edge will help.



Shaping the Profile

This is where you will shape the bow down to the outline that you just drew. Try to get hold of the largest, most aggressive rasp you can find, get a large sharp kitchen knife (if it's dull, you can sharpen it on the bottom of a ceramic coffee mug), and get a few sheets of the coarsest sandpaper you can find. Cut and rasp the bow shape to the lines you have laid out. Rasp out the handle shape. Look at the shape with your eye and try to make the lines elegant and the two limbs of the bow as close to each other in profile as you can. Be careful in reducing the width of the handle section. This should remain more or less rigid, or at most take a very slight flexing. If in doubt leave it beefy until later on in the shaping process.



Tillering

Tillering refers to the process of making the staff into a bow. To do this, start at the area of the fades (adjacent to the handle), and start to incrementally remove wood from the belly of the limbs. I like a rasp for this, but for my first primitive bows, I used a kitchen knife and couple of pocket knives. The rasp works better in my opinion. Other people like other tools. Tying or clamping the staff to something helps. A vice is ideal.

To use the rasp: rasp back and forth across the limb starting at the handle fades and moving out to the end of the limb.

To use the knife: hold the knife at right angles to the staff, start at the fades, and use it to scrape/plane long thing shavings off.

You can eventually also work back from the tips to the handle. Just make sure that with rasp or knife, you keep the number of passes about the same until you can judge whether the limbs are not bending evenly.

Every few passes, take the bow staff out of the vice and put one end on the ground, grab the other end in one hand and the handle in the other and test it for flexibility. Take your pencil and mark the parts of the limb that are not flexing, and work on those. When it starts to bend, put an extra long string on it so that you can begin to pull it a bit. Don't pull it too far yet and never pull it to more than its finished draw weight should be.

Basically this is the process of Tillering. You pull a bit, look where it is not bending, and remove a little wood where it is not bending. Eventually you can string it and put on a right sized bowstring and begin to pull it incrementally a few inches more each time. The idea is that you remove wood where the limbs are not bending enough. What you want is to have the whole of the bows limbs bending evenly with no weak spots and no stiff spots, and to have both limbs bending more or less the same.

When it is all bending evenly, you take another pass at both whole limbs. Then pull it a bit and look again.

The key part to this process is being very patient. As you get towards the end, put the rasp and knife down and use the sandpaper to tiller. Bows have been known to break during Tillering. So go slow and be patient. Another thing to keep in mind is where the bow limb will go if it does break. All the energy it takes to pull the bow has got to go somewhere. Eye protection is not a bad idea either.

What you are looking for is to have the whole limb bending, except the handle and the last 6" out to the tips. The rest of the bow should inscribe a parabolic curve - like that of a satellite dish antenna.

Finish Tillering when you are a few inches short of the finished draw length.



Breaking in the Bow

Leave the bow strung overnight to break in the limbs. Then the next day, gently pull it out to its finished draw length. Pull it short 50 times. Check the tiller and adjust with sandpaper. Then pull it out to its finished draw length 50 times. Again adjust the tiller with the sandpaper.

At this point you should be able to take it out and shoot it. After you have shot a couple of hundred arrows through it, you may need to adjust the tiller. You will want to sand it (not too much because that will reduce the draw weight) and put some kind of finish on it to keep it from absorbing moisture. On my first primitive bows I used fat. Now I tend to use Boiled Linseed Oil or Tung Oil. Most wood finishes that will inhibit moisture penetration are fine.



Adjusting Draw Weight Up

If after shooting and sanding, the bow has lost more draw weight than you would like, you can "spike it" at this point, shortening the limbs by an inch or so - probably no more than 2 inches. Figure roughly 5 pounds of draw weight increase per inch removed from both limbs.

Depending on the wood, you should be able to make a pretty serious hunting weight bow. Store your bow unstrung in a dry but not overly hot place. This way that should last for a good while.

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In case of System Collapse - How to keep on keeping on?

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A big part of what has always motivated me to get into primitive skills was the fact that I was raised with the "apocalyptic" mindset, that being that there would be an end time. where there would be destruction, famine, and a basic total collapse of the system. While this was view came from a religion standpoint that I no longer adhere to I still see the potential of a systemic collapse and so I'm still motivated from that place. It sucks to be motivated from a place of fear but that has evolved over time to integrating appreciation for past peoples and the skills they had, so it's not all bad.

There are numerous tenuous strands that hold the system in place, I can see many vectors from which a collapse might come from, such as the dependency on petro fuels, biological threats such as bird flu, and problems with the environment and mans interference with nature such as the terminator gene of Monsanto, and even the old nuclear threats. Im sure others can point to other similar threats.

In thinking about all the possible scenarios and trying to be prepared for them while also trying to work with the system in place I have adapted a strategy for living in the here and now that tries to be ready for whatever may come. That being said I don�t think I�ll ever really be prepared for any certain possible scenario but I recognize that I am more prepared than most. I have a large amount of dried food supplies and enough knowledge to keep myself and my children ok for some time. Part of my problem is that there are many people who know I do these things and I have been often told if the fecal matter hits the fan that I would be where people would come. This is somewhat disturbing in that I can�t see myself sending people away, nor do I want to starve my family to support those who I see as knowing of the potentials and doing nothing about it, as in learning some simple skills such as gardening or knowing some edible plants etc. Yet, I am also torn in the idea of rejecting people who might come as I know it takes a tribe which I and my wife and my children do not make.

My weapons are light and being pretty much limited to a tricked out .22 I can carry a whole lot of ammo at very limited weight cost. Another advantage of such a weapon is its relative quite shot and its deadlyness.

I believe that tribes won�t happen until people are hungry enough to be forced into such a situation because of need. This idea presents a number of problems such as unrelated folks coming together and the various agenda's that may or may not be so pure along with different values. This would include people who already have some affinities such as church groups and cults, already functioning criminal gangs, and "end timers" who already are prepared for such systemic collapse which Montana has plenty of. Some of these people stock automatic weapons and are paramilitary in nature. It is actually the last group that has me least worried in that they tend to think in terms of wanting to keep the lifestyle they have and have therefore stocked up on what they already know how to use such as canned and frozen foods as well as dependency on generators and such. These groups do not tend to be healthy and could'nt go far in a full on wilderness trek. In my thinking, mobility will be key to avoiding such groups.

I know this all smacks of Mad Max scenarios and even Kevin Costners �The Mailman� and �Waterworld�. What is up with Costner anyway? The point is that there are many possible outcomes to such ideas and being prepared for them is somewhat of a conundrum.

So I think of what it really would take to make a successful, mobile group in such circumstances. The pressures would be enormous given the probability of having both older and younger people involved. I look at history and try to find answers there but I realize that many people don�t remember the way things were done even 100 years ago not to mention 1,000 years ago. In contemplating all this what I�ve come to is that it seems that a successful group would need a key person to act as Dr., farmer, General (understanding the dynamics of basic militaristic ideas) leader. That is a tall order. Ideally there would be a person to fill each one of these slots and others I'm not listing but there would more than likely be one person how had knowledge in all these things that would be able to bring these things together to make good decisions for the group. It is also apparent to me that the only way this person could do what they do is that they come to the position naturally, by the work they do for others and not through rhetoric. The rest of the tribe would see the intrinsic value of such a person and he/she would naturally rise through the desire of the tribe.

There is so much that goes into all of this thinking and I recognize I may just be wasting brain energy but I really do think that if this does not happen in my lifetime that it will possibly happen in my children's lifetime or even their children's. This has been a motivating factor as well for me, the need to teach these skills to my children. Even though they think dads kind of a freak they have learned more than what they realize. Just seeing me do these things has given them the memories that combined with some effort should help to carry them through.