Hunting territory in Rocky Mountains of BC
Thought I’d throw it out there that I just found out that I’ve got a last minute opening for this fall. Dates are Sept 12-21. The way our quota system works, I will still be able to sell this goat hunt in 2026, but I’ve already arranged for a guide and am ready to go, so while it won’t be a huge discount, I”m looking for my 2024 rate of $12,500US for this hunt.
The picture below is for reference from a Sept. 12-21, 2018 hunt.
I’m getting ready for the season! This year my wife Claire came with me hiking water to the top of the mountain.
My last client of 2024 was Jesse from Minnesota, who was hunting for an archery moose. Jesse has bowhunted for goats with me twice, in 2010 and 2014, and was able to take home a fantastic goat in 2014. This was his first moose hunt with me.
We thought we were going to be finished on the first day, when we were able to get out in front of a nice bull, but even though he was talking to us, he wouldn’t come the last fifty yards to get close enough for a shot. We saw quite a few bulls over the next 10 days, and made a few more unsuccessful stalks, before finally connecting with a nice 40 inch bull on the last evening of our hunt.
My fourth hunter on the third hunt was Nate and Jason’s father Bob, and I was able to talk my dad, Don, out of retirement to guide him on this hunt for black bear and mule deer. It took my dad about 15 minutes into the first day of the hunt to find Bob a nice bear, then after about 5 more days of tough mule deer hunting, they were able to connect with a 4x4 mule deer buck in a clear cut. Congratulations to Bob and Don.
Nate’s brother Jason was also here, and he was hunting Moose with a crossbow, guided by my brother Warren. Despite seeing quite a few moose, including about 5 or 6 bulls of different sizes, they couldn’t find one that they could get to come to a call, and unfortunately they were never able to get within crossbow range of a bull.
I was guiding Josh’s friend Nate on the third hunt as well, and after watching a goat for a while on the first day in an area we weren’t able to get to, we returned to the same area on the second day. After a good stalk to get close, we waited and watched for a while before deciding to take the shot. Unfortunately, he went down immediately and hard, and proceeded to tumble about 150 yards down the mountain towards us before stopping. Once we got to him, we discovered he’d broken a couple inches off the tips of both horns and was pretty bloody for pictures, but I’ll put one up with a good view anyway.
My third hunt was a busy one, with four hunters from Arkansas, so I’ll break it up into a few different posts so I don’t put all the pictures in one. First up is Josh, who Chad was guiding and they were able to shoot a really nice, 9 1/2” billy way up high on the second day, followed by a beautiful 6 foot black bear on the fifth day.
On my second hunt of 2023, Chad was guiding Cameron from PA, also for archery goat. On the very first day, they were able to get close enough to take a fairly long shot in some pretty rugged terrain, but they weren’t able to connect with their billy. After a few more days chasing goats in different areas, and a night backpacking on the top of a mountain, they returned to the same area where Cam had missed on the first day, and were able to harvest a great, 8 year old billy, with 10” horns that ended up officially scoring 48 4/8 in Pope and Young. I expect you should be able to see the story that Cam wrote in Mountain Hunter magazine some time in the next year.
Okay, so I’m really terrible about updates, but it’s around -30 outside this weekend and I’m avoiding going outside. I realized my last post was about a year ago and figured I should finally put some pictures up. I didn’t end up having any spring bear hunters in 2023, so my first hunt was September 1 - 10 with two archers from Wisconsin hunting goats.
Jeff was hunting with my guide Chad, and unfortunately, despite being in great shape, when they were coming down a slippery, brushy creek on the fourth day, he slipped and tangled a leg in a root, which twisted his knee, partially tearing his MCL and causing some miniscus damage. The end result was that he was unable to continue goat hunting, and while he got a couple shots at black bears, he was unable to take home an animal.
Adam and I hunted hard for 10 days, and had two decent potential opportunities at nice billies, although both were pretty long, and the closest we got was a missed shot at about 65 yards. Our other opportunity was around the same distance, but we just weren’t able to convert it into a shot. Adam also got a shot at a black bear, but wasn’t able to take anything home.
Here’s the missed shot. It’s hard to tell, but we were pretty sure it sailed over top.
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great Christmas and holiday season, and all the best in 2023. I’ve got a busy season of hunts lined up starting with black bears in May, and I’ll be sure to try to keep you updated with photos as we go along.
Last hunt of the season! Josh from Wisconsin joined me to hunt goats and had a black bear tag as well. The weather was fantastic, although really warm for October, and goats were a bit hard to find. They were mostly either tucked into the shade on cliffs really high up, or laying down in the timber behind trees. Nevertheless, on day 4 after a few tough climbs, we saw two billies in the morning in a reasonable, but hard, place to get to and went after them. After 4 1/2 hours of climbing, we reached the area where they’d been only to search for them without any luck. After an hour or two of combing the area, we finally spooked one of them, but weren’t able to get a shot. We waited another 10 minutes, and finally the second goat started to move off from where they’d been bedded in the high timber where we hadn’t seen them. I got my scope on him to make sure he was a good billy, and Josh made an excellent shot on this 7 year-old, 9 1/4” billy. We took some pictures, loaded all the meat, skin, and head into our packs, and started down, with the final 2 1/2 hours of our hike in the dark. A couple of days later, we were able to make a 400 yard stalk after this nice 5 1/2 foot black bear in a clear cut.
My second hunt this fall Chad and I were guiding Bob and Butch from the Kansas City area. After riding into a cabin the evening before our hunt officially started, we set off in different directions on horseback the first day of the hunt, and joined back up at the cabin that evening. Butch and I had seen about 20 goats, including 6 decent billies, some of which were in difficult, although potentially reachable terrain. Chad and Bob had gone after two billies in a reasonably reachable area, but had gotten fogged in before they could make it happen.
After discussing it that night, we made the decision the next day to all go together after the two billies Chad and Bob had seen the first day. We were able to locate the goats after a two hour horse ride, but they’d moved a bit, which meant a harder climb. We decided it was worth the effort and gave it a try. Unfortunately, after 5 hours of climbing, we made it to where we needed to be a little bit late, and the goats had disappeared, leaving us with a long hike down and a dark ride back to the cabin.
Unfortunately, the next morning Butch discovered he was having some medical issues making him unable to ride or hike as hard as was necessary to go after a goat, so he and I stayed at the cabin, while Chad and Bob returned to the same area again, and Bob was able to shoot this great, 7 year old, 9 1/2 inch billy.
After riding out the next day, and a lot of thought, Butch was forced to make the difficult decision to head home the following day. It was a tough hunt for him, but he’ll be okay, and he’s looking forward to coming back for another try in 2024.
This one should take you to Part two.
This is part 2 of my awesome Mountain Goat and Mule Deer hunt up in British Columbia. This hunt was great. We saw 60-80 mountain goats, over 20 mule deer, bl...
For anyone that’s interested, Stan did a ton of filming and put together this great video of his hunt here. Some nice animal footage through his phone scope, as well as a good shot of what the mountains and terrain look like. Part one covers the first half of his hunt up to his deer, and Part two includes the second half and his goat. Enjoy!
This is a hunt I've been looking forward to for over 2 years. It was a really tough hunt physically, but it was absolutely fantastic. It couldn't have come t...
Okay, I’ve got another one, after almost two months of guiding, I finally got to go out hunting with my son, and we were able to track down this nice 4x4 Muley buck. Not too bad for a first deer, and he was super excited.
Okay, last hunter of my season this year was Mike from Illinois. Mike has been bow hunting with me a couple times in the past, first in 2015, when he was able to shoot a nice billy on the last day, and then in 2017 for moose. Unfortunately Mike wasn’t able to get a moose at that time, although we had seen quite a few bulls in the 8 days he was here. When he left, Mike let me know that he wanted to try again, and also to hunt goats again when he came back. Between permits and the border closure, it took 4 years, but he finally made it back this fall. Mike is an avid home chef, and decided to drive up in order to take as much meat home as he could if successful. After discussing it, we decided to hunt the last 5 days of archery season and the first 5 of rifle season in order to hopefully maximize our chances of him being able to get a moose, even though his longbow would be his preference.
My brother Warren guided Mike for the first 5 days of his hunt with his bow, and while they did see 3 or 4 different bulls, they never got as close as the 30 yards they needed. I guided Mike for the last 5 days with a rifle, and after two more days of tough moose hunting, we decided to try going after a goat. Luck was on our side this time, when we saw a good billy from the bottom, and spent 3 1/2 hrs climbing up to where it was. We thought it had moved while we were climbing because we couldn’t find it when we got there; only a group of nannies and kids and two younger billies that we watched at around 200 yards for an hour or so. Finally, the goat we’d climbed for stood up from where it had been bedded out of sight above us at 140 yards, and Mike was able to get a rest and a good shot. Unfortunately, while it didn’t fall far, it fell hard, so there was no way to get good pictures, but it was a great 9 1/2” billy with a beautiful coat. We ended up hiking out the last hour and a half in the dark, but it was well worth it on an awesome day.
The morning of the ninth day was spent finishing up the skin on the goat, as well as prepping and packaging the meat to freeze for the journey home. With a day and a half to go, we were still trying our best to find a moose, but with time winding down, we were both starting to lose hope, but just kept going to the places where we’d seen moose and moose sign before. Finally, an hour and a half before dark on our last day of hunting, we looked across the meadow we were watching and a good bull stepped out of the timber at 350 yards. We could tell that one antler was somewhat broken, but with no time left, we took what we were presented with and Mike was able to make an excellent shot. It was a bit of a race to get to it to get it cleaned before dark, as you can tell from the picture, and one antler had been broken off above the brow tines in a fight, but it was a fantastic end to a really good hunt.
It took us all morning and into the early afternoon to get all the meat b***d and backpacked out the next morning, and after getting a government inspection done the following morning, Mike was on his way back to Illinois with 350 lbs. of goat and moose meat, as well as his goat and moose trophies.
All in all, a great way to end my season, and I’m looking forward to seeing Mike again in the spring, when he and his wife are planning on coming to visit the mountains again, and go for a few days of bear hunting while they’re here.
Grant from Mass. was my second moose hunter this fall, also during the archery season. This was Grant’s third hunt with me after two goat hunts. He was able to get a nice billy with his bow on the second one a few years ago. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on our side on this one. We had a couple of small bulls showing some interest and came a little ways, but not nearly close enough for a bow on the second day, then only some cows until Day 8, when we saw the massive bull pictured below at about 350 yards. He had a cow with him and had no interest in coming to a call, so we tried to get closer, but never saw him again. It was a good hunt with Grant once again, but definitely disappointing not to come away with a moose.
My sixth hunter out this fall, and first of three moose hunters, was Jay from Ohio, who was hunting during the rut in an archery only season. My brother Warren was guiding him, and while they’d been seeing a few moose during the first 5 days, they hadn’t seen anything very big, and nothing that had been within range, or even willing to come to a call. On the sixth day, they were returning to camp to get lunch, and while discussing where they were going to go in the evening, they glanced into a meadow that they hadn’t been to yet and could see a bull moose standing in it. Warren and Jay bailed out of the truck with their gear, off the road, into the meadow and started calling. Within 10 minutes, they’d pulled the bull in to a 25 yard range. Jay made a great shot and had a successful hunt. I happened to be a few minutes behind them on the road, and was able to help them pack the moose out. Sometimes its pretty crazy how fast it can happen.
My next hunter, from Sept. 23 - Oct. 2 was Rob from Indiana. Two days in, we were both pretty concerned when Rob had quite a bit of knee pain coming down from an unsuccessful goat stalk. A day or two after that, we packed up some horses and rode into a cabin to stay for a few days to try to find a goat there. We were within 300 yards of a small group of nannies and kids our first day with the horses, but there was nothing we were after in that area. After a night at the cabin, we rode up the valley until we found a billy we thought was in an area we could get to, and where we didn’t think it would fall. After a long hike up the side of the mountain, and a great shot, we finally got to Rob’s billy at 6:30 in the evening, knowing we were going to be facing a hike down in the dark. I was very concerned about Rob’s knee holding up, but it did fine, and we were able to get back to the horses for a 1 1/2 hour ride back to the cabin around 11:00. It was a long night, but a great day that I know we’ll never forget! Rob was also able to get a beautiful black bear on the 8th day of his hunt.
We got a bit lucky with the timing on Jim’s billy. This picture was taken about an hour and a half after the one with his goat below after we’d started the pack down. If we’d have been a bit later getting there, or if the weather had set in a couple hours sooner we may not have need able to see anything once we got to the top.
Congratulations to Jim from NY, who was also on the second hunt; at the same time as Tom from my previous post. After 5 tough days hunting with Chad, I joined them on the 6th day, and we hiked up into an area where they’d been seeing a goat on the side of a peak. After a gruelling 5 hour hike to get into position, we were able to get Jim and Chad into position, and I hiked around the side of the peak to see if I could find and push the goat towards them. Despite the fact that it was starting to snow, it worked perfectly, and the 7 year old, 9 1/2” billy came by them within about 15 yards. Jim made an excellent shot with his bow, and the goat rolled a few hundred yards down the side of the ridge that we had climbed to get there. With the snow, rain and long tumble, he ended up pretty dirty, but nothing the taxidermist won’t be able to clean up for Jim’s full body mount.
Okay, second hunt turned out a lot more successful. Tom came back for his second goat hunt with me. His first hunt was four years ago during the archery season, when he was able to get a shot at a nice billy, but regrettably missed due to some range finder issues. Prior to this hunt, Tom told me that he would like to try with his bow, but would be happy to shoot one with a rifle, even early in the hunt if we could find a good billy. On the evening of the first day, we were able to spot three goats in the area where he’d missed the goat 4 years ago, and decided to make a climb into the area the next morning. After a 4 1/2 hour climb to the top of the ridge above where we’d spotted the goats, we could see three billies bedded below us, so we started down towards them, attempting a bow stalk. Once we got fairly close, we realized they had gotten up and moved, and, concerned we were going to lose them, we backed off and moved a bit farther away to see if a rifle shot would present itself. 20 minutes later, we were able to track down the 9 year old billy pictured below and seal the deal with a rifle at 140 yards. After a 7 hour hike down including 5 hours hiking in the dark we finally got back to the truck at around 2am.
Also on the first hunt was Bill from Missouri, guided by Chad, who’s been guiding for me for the last 5 years or so. Unfortunately Bill wasn’t able to take a goat home, despite taking a shot at one on day 3. As is fairly common with archers, poor footing and steep angles once again combined to cause his arrow to go a little too high. Bill also had a great chance at a black bear late in the hunt that didn’t quite work out the way we hoped.
I know that I’m terrible at Facebook, but now that my season is over, I’m finally getting around to updating my page with the fall’s adventures. The first hunter I guided was Scott from Arkansas pictured here, who was hunting goats with his bow. We had a great hunt overall, but the luck was not with us. Despite being within 70 yards of billies 4 times and within 35 twice, we just weren’t able to get the luck to swing our way, even ending up with a grizzly chasing away the goat we were intending to stalk on the last day long before we were ever even close.
It’s almost time! My first archery goat hunts start on Wednesday, so I was out dropping some water off at a spot I camp on top when I saw this goat about 150 yards from where I normally put up my tent. Didn’t have my optics to save weight for water, but I’m thinking probably a youngish billy.
It’s not official, and will depend on vaccination rates continuing as they have been, but the Canadian government indicated today that the border may open to fully vaccinated US travellers by mid-August, so I’m hopeful that I’m going to be able to have a hunting season this fall. Nothing is guaranteed yet, but it’s the first positive sign of reopening in 16 months, so I’ll take what I can get.
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Okay, so I’m really terrible about updates, but it’s around -30 outside this weekend and I’m avoiding going outside. I realized my last post was about a year ago and figured I should finally put some pictures up. I didn’t end up having any spring bear hunters in 2023, so my first hunt was September 1 - 10 with two archers from Wisconsin hunting goats. Jeff was hunting with my guide Chad, and unfortunately, despite being in great shape, when they were coming down a slippery, brushy creek on the fourth day, he slipped and tangled a leg in a root, which twisted his knee, partially tearing his MCL and causing some miniscus damage. The end result was that he was unable to continue goat hunting, and while he got a couple shots at black bears, he was unable to take home an animal. Adam and I hunted hard for 10 days, and had two decent potential opportunities at nice billies, although both were pretty long, and the closest we got was a missed shot at about 65 yards. Our other opportunity was around the same distance, but we just weren’t able to convert it into a shot. Adam also got a shot at a black bear, but wasn’t able to take anything home. Here’s the missed shot. It’s hard to tell, but we were pretty sure it sailed over top.
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