Thread: Easy goat hunt

Inspired by @Bagheera's recent post, thought I'd write about yesterday's goat hunt.

As you know, we are not blessed with great hunting in Northland. No deer, just pigs and goats. DOC blocks are steep and gnarly and it's difficult to access private land. I'm lucky that I have access to a farm, but it requires a coffee and chat with the farmer before hunting and a beer or two afterwards which is usually nice, but sometimes I just want to get on with it! So in to the bush I went...

I've been working a small DOC block for sometime now and have found a long abandoned track which makes life easier, but this is the usual picture.



I was only about 1km in to the bush when I had a feeling there were some animals about. Didn't see, smell or hear anything, just got that feeling. Weird since I have never seen anything close to that area. Sure enough, there was a white head of a goat bobbing about 25 metres away in a clearing. Used a tree as a rest, got nicely lined up for a head shot and pulled the trigger. Whoosh of a subsonic round and flop. Another white head appeared and I repeated the process to the same effect. At this point, a brown goat spooked which was interesting because I had no idea it was there. I probably wouldn't have shot it anyway, so no drama.

Two goats down. Both head shots with no sign of entry or exit wounds. Just blood from the mouth/nose. I've written before about my disappointment in the Hornady Sub-X subsonic rounds. No good for chest shots and variable on neck shots, but they are good for something it seems.

It turned out that I had shot a young nanny and a female kid. Happy with that as I usually select the kids as they are the best eating. I also kept the heart and will try it for the first time tonight as per @Bagheera. Luckily no balls to tempt me!



Got to work with the knife. Took the back legs and backstraps from the nanny and decided to skin/gut the kid and take it out whole. It folded up quite nicely in to my Pikau!



Home before lunch. I decided to butcher the kid in the same way that I would do a home kill lamb. Got the saw out and utilised everything. Shoulders, back legs, shanks, ribs and cut chops for the first time. Respect the goat! The fridge of dreams was looking happy.



Just a couple of stinky goats from gnarly bush, but it made my day!

Nice work!

I would love to have closer access to goat hunting - they're delicious when you select the best animals as you have.

Well done, some good eating there.
That looks like a handy rifle set up

Nice one, a much under rated meat.

Excellant

Glad to see that you can still get out hunting with all the restrictions up there. Well done

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Well done! Next time if you have the carry capacity, don't spurn the nanny shoulders..Great meat especially slow cooked whole roast. Or chunked for curry or stew. If I'm sharing a goat I always opt for the shoulders over the back legs. And reckon i got the better deal.

That Nothland bush looks sub-tropical compared to down here. Nice.

Originally Posted by rugerman

That looks like a handy rifle set up

I bought it for exactly this purpose and the rifle itself has worked out great, but the subsonic side of things could be a lot better. Haven't decided whether I'm going to persist with them and limit myself to head or well placed neck shots, or switch to supersonic rounds. If I'd used my brain instead of my heart when buying and got a .308 instead of 300BLK, I would have sold my Tikka 7mm08 by now as I like the Bergara that much. To be honest, a BA-13 in .308 would cover most of my needs, even occasional deer hunting trips in the central North Island.

Doesn’t look like you’ve got a problem with subsonics to me. Just keep shooting them for CNS, job done.

I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be using a full power round in that tight bush without ear protection.

Come on mate, if we all bought with our head there would be no second hand rifles for sale on here I buy with my eyes
I would say by the look of the bush there most shots would be pretty close range ? so this rifle should do you fine. You could always buy a 308 as well

Originally Posted by MB

I bought it for exactly this purpose and the rifle itself has worked out great, but the subsonic side of things could be a lot better. Haven't decided whether I'm going to persist with them and limit myself to head or well placed neck shots, or switch to supersonic rounds. If I'd used my brain instead of my heart when buying and got a .308 instead of 300BLK, I would have sold my Tikka 7mm08 by now as I like the Bergara that much. To be honest, a BA-13 in .308 would cover most of my needs, even occasional deer hunting trips in the central North Island.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Doesn’t look like you’ve got a problem with subsonics to me. Just keep shooting them for CNS, job done.

There is an elegantly simple solution. I'll just do that then

I see you have moved up in skill from yakking away with me on a track in the tangihuas with a goat 7m away to actually shooting them

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

I see you have moved up in skill from yakking away with me on a track in the tangihuas with a goat 7m away to actually shooting them

Yes, definite progress. Think I've shot an animal on all my recent trips, but the learning process was slow and painful

Nothing wrong with a cheeky goat hunt.


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Primo! Being just over the hill I'm inspired, but with a 3 week old baby, it might be a while before I can get out and chase a curry.