The Red Rock Billy - Kegan Smith - 2008
This Hunt took place on the 9th of Aug
It was the kind of hunt that was organized over the phone and as a spur of the moment thing. Rory sent a text message to Mozza saying ‘Kegan and I are going for hunt on Saturday, you in?’, a phone call later and a goat hunt was planed for the up coming Saturday. Saturday morning rolled around, Mozza turned up, a quick cuppa, the drive and the direction of the property was worked out and we were off. A three hour drive gave plenty of time for Mozza and I to give Rory plenty of ribbing, so many a laugh was had at Rory’s expense just on the drive there.
We arrived at the property mid morning, a quick hello to the property owner and he told us where the goats were last spotted, the evening before. The camo was thrown on, bows in hand and Rory set a scorching walking pace in, much to Mozza and my amazement.
The first mob of goats was spotted sunning themselves on a hill above us, so the first of many slow stalks was on for the day. As we were climbing over the last few boulders we spotted the mob heading in our direction and about a 100 hundred meters away. We quickly fanned out, Mozza on the left flank behind some shrubs with the trusty Black Widow curve in hand and Rory and I on the right flank taking cover behind a gum tree. A few quick hand gestures were exchanged between us and we were ready for the mob to keep walking and feeding until they got within shooting distance.
Rory started recording some footage and gave me a tap on my leg meaning ‘get ready’, and said ‘shoot when I pull the closest one up’, but that ever changing wind wasn’t on our side, and gave us away just when the mob was about 30 meters away. The mob took off back around the other side of the hill.
We stalked and followed there hoof prints, until we decide that we would give them a chance to bed down again, so we sat had a couple mouthfuls of water and took in the view for 5 minutes.
As we sat I herd the sound of bush and rocks moving, a small mob of about 2 or 3 kids and 2 nannies ran behind us, so that got the blood pumping again!
We worked out the direction that we would take around the hill on towards where we thought the bigger mob might be. On the way a small mob that we had just had run behind us when we were taking a break were spooked again, but we hoped that they were not part of the bigger mob that we were heading for.
15 minutes later, we smelt the stench of billy goats. Rory told Mozza and I to stop as he peered over some rocks, and he quickly looked back at us with a big smile, we had found the bigger mob. They were bedded, and over looking the valley that we walked in on. Rory pointed out a nanny about 20 meters away, by her self with two kids. Mozza motioned for me to move in front, and try to get a shot off, but a clear shot never presented itself and she moved off back to the mob. We had another quick talk about where we were going to have a shot at these goats, and once we decided it was planned that I would go in front with Mozza and Rory would stay behind and get some more footage.
Mozza and I started the slow crawl to get to a better spot to shot from, as the ground wasn’t littered with to much leaves, sticks, thorns so we didn’t have to clear to many things out of our way. Mozza and I kept crawling for about another 15 meters before we decided that where we were sitting was as good as any spot to shoot from.
We picked out a nice black billy with a clear 30 meter broadside shot, I took my time getting to my feet, finally draw back and let the Gold Tip shaft with the trusty old Magnus broadhead do the rest. I hit the billy straight up the front leg as he was in a bedded position.
After leaving the mob run off, we started to take up the blood trail. We found this only 15 meters along the trail.
The billy had taken off with the mob not making a single noise. They firstly took off up the hill for about 25 meters where my billy pumped out the blood on the rock pictured above, (which later got nicknamed the red rock) then the mob decided to run back down the way they came up and kept on running around the hill, but the black billy was lagging behind the mob and died just out of sight.
We had a really good blood trail to follow, as we figured that I must of hit the billy in the chest, but also the arrow angled out the front of his neck severing the jugular. The billy only made it about 40 meters before expiring in a perfect spot to take some happy snaps with the cameras and for Rory to get some footage of me describing the stalk, the shot and where the billy ran to.
After we removed the horns and the backstraps we again tried to catch the main mob but goats seem to walk up hills and cliffs slowly but some how walk 10 times faster then humans! We arrived at the top of the opposite hill of where I shot the billy so Rory and Mozza got could get some shots off with the curves but those goats disappeared into thin air.
Many different points of views about the black billy, the stalk, my shot and the mob of goats were talked about on the drive back to Rory’s house. The billy was measured at 28” spread and 84 dp if I remember correctly. Big thanks to Rory for the hunt, the footage, the drive there and back and being a top brother, and Mozza for the tips on the stalk and following the blood trail, and a big shout out to Rory’s girlfriend for putting up with me for the week.
