Olympic National Park Goat Culling Oportunity.

[Buck3]

Says in the request for volunteers that you will not be accompanied by anyone. You do have to sign some waivers and take a marksmanship test.

 

[POORBOY]

I'm a OP resident & some of the largest populations left are not far away from me as a crow flies. Here's my take on the whole thing:

1)The truth of whether they are native to the Olympics is to be debated. I've heard numerous times from relatives of pioneers of the peninsula that there were goats prior to the 20's. Personally I've never understood why they wasted the money to try & remove them.

2)As far as the proposed hunt goes, it's great they are incorporating free removal from the hunting community but they have spent millions of taxpayers money capturing & moving them to the cascades. Most from the ground that would be safely for kill & retrieval. The ground with remaining numbers is deeper in the cliffy nasty stuff. A friend flew it yesterday & said the big population areas are nasty & dangerous looking.

3)Our team applied but the odds are probably gonna be low to get chosen with this going like wildfire on social media. You indeed can take meat, cape & horns out but it will be a grind. The solid bullet thing is kind of ridiculous & their marksman test is an insult to gun guys & hunters.

4) The miles & pack weight is dumb. Your gonna have to cover that much ground getting into where the populations are but spike camping close is gonna be a must & a base camp packed in with livestock would be a benefit especially if the weather turns on you. You will not be successful if the weather doesn't cooperate.

So good luck to those putting in & understand what your up against. It's steep,rocky,brushy & wet but spectacular. It's not for everybody even tho I'm sure everyone would love to harvest a goat once.

 

[antelopedundee]

I love mountain hunting and making camp and doing it my way. But I would not be surprised if a NPS person is mandated to accompany the groups. It's a national park that doesn't allow any hunting, there is now way they are just going to let hunters in there unsupervised. And like others said it may not be much of a hunt if the goats are not fearful of man. I'm actually surprised the liberals of Seattle and PETA haven't freaked out about it.

Or gone to court to get an injunction to try to stop it.

 

[sp6x6]

When my son did the 20+ reeper in Marine boot camp, a guy was telling him to get moving .Excuse me major Im with the unit behind this one.This was a multiple day many mile manuvers

 

[P7M13]

Best of luck to all those who applied. I think the competition will be stiff. In communication the the program director, Patti Happe, sufficient applications were received by April 15, and they were deluged by the close on April 17th.
Our group of five consists of a professional goat hunting guide, a SAR Mountaineer, a physician, a marine and then me, geologist/climber/NF volunteer. Our group ages range from 30-57. I have no idea on our chances, but we seriously hope to be selected. We set Chimney as our preferred unit.

How is it a trophy tag if your shooting it on a trailhead at 10'?

IMO, most of those are going to be removed already in the airlift happening this July/August. They expect to pull out 200 goats this summer. They still expect another 300-400 goats to remain. Spread over 1000 square miles, that's tough hunting.
50# packs for 15 miles every day is doable. Look at what PCT'ers do. I'll do 50 lbs for 8-10 miles in the Jefferson Wilderness every day for a week. As a NF Steward, I'll do 35# and go 15 miles, most of it at tree line. Like @DNADave suggested, we will offload 30-40 lbs at base camp and hunt with bare-bones kits.
Bottom line, everyone in our applicant group is fit, but we are taking this seriously - sprinting hills, running stairs, weight training, because if we are selected, the last thing we want to be is out of gas.
Lead free ammunition is not just because of Kalifornication. As I read in a study on lead-free ammunition, the shedding of a miniscule percentage of lead in game not recovered has caused deaths in the scavenger populations. Fortunately, three in our group are reloaders, and we are already working up loads. That may not be so easy, either. One member shooter, whom I know to be half-MOA or better in all of his rifles cannot get his preferred caliber to shoot better than 1.5 MOA.

 

[entoptics]

...Lead free ammunition...Fortunately, three in our group are reloaders, and we are already working up loads. That may not be so easy, either. One member shooter, whom I know to be half-MOA or better in all of his rifles cannot get his preferred caliber to shoot better than 1.5 MOA.

That's easy. Hammer bullets in a 6.5 Creedmoor. Preferably Proof Carbon barrel.

You'll wanna stay back 2 or 3 thousand yards though, as you don't want to vaporize them...

 

[P7M13]

That's easy. Hammer bullets in a 6.5 Creedmoor.

Nope, didn't jump on that marketing freight train. 7mm-08, check. 6.5 Swede Ackley, check. Only way a Creed will get into my stable is by gift. Do you happen to have a Christensen you want to give me?
So far on deck are Cutting Edge, Lehigh, Barnes and Nosler.
2km? You're a better shot than me.

 

[codyadams]

Nope, didn't jump on that marketing freight train. 7mm-08, check. 6.5 Swede Ackley, check. Only way a Creed will get into my stable is by gift. Do you happen to have a Christensen you want to give me?
So far on deck are Cutting Edge, Lehigh, Barnes and Nosler.
2km? You're a better shot than me.

Seriously though, hammer bullets have given documented better terminal performance than any of the bullets listed. If you having issues getting accuracy, try the hammers. Badlands precision has given good accuracy for me as well, though I am unsure of first hand experience on game. It wouldn't be good to be selected only to be cut out by the laughably easy accuracy test.

When I talked to Patti, it sounded like they had over 1000 applications.

 

[POORBOY]

Best of luck to all those who applied. I think the competition will be stiff. In communication the the program director, Patti Happe, sufficient applications were received by April 15, and they were deluged by the close on April 17th.
Our group of five consists of a professional goat hunting guide, a SAR Mountaineer, a physician, a marine and then me, geologist/climber/NF volunteer. Our group ages range from 30-57. I have no idea on our chances, but we seriously hope to be selected. We set Chimney as our preferred unit.
IMO, most of those are going to be removed already in the airlift happening this July/August. They expect to pull out 200 goats this summer. They still expect another 300-400 goats to remain. Spread over 1000 square miles, that's tough hunting.
50# packs for 15 miles every day is doable. Look at what PCT'ers do. I'll do 50 lbs for 8-10 miles in the Jefferson Wilderness every day for a week. As a NF Steward, I'll do 35# and go 15 miles, most of it at tree line. Like @DNADave suggested, we will offload 30-40 lbs at base camp and hunt with bare-bones kits.
Bottom line, everyone in our applicant group is fit, but we are taking this seriously - sprinting hills, running stairs, weight training, because if we are selected, the last thing we want to be is out of gas.
Lead free ammunition is not just because of Kalifornication. As I read in a study on lead-free ammunition, the shedding of a miniscule percentage of lead in game not recovered has caused deaths in the scavenger populations. Fortunately, three in our group are reloaders, and we are already working up loads. That may not be so easy, either. One member shooter, whom I know to be half-MOA or better in all of his rifles cannot get his preferred caliber to shoot better than 1.5 MOA.

Have you ever been up & around Chimney? I don't think you have to worry about covering 10-15 miles in that ground where the goat populations will be.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Nope, didn't jump on that marketing freight train. 7mm-08, check. 6.5 Swede Ackley, check. Only way a Creed will get into my stable is by gift. Do you happen to have a Christensen you want to give me?
So far on deck are Cutting Edge, Lehigh, Barnes and Nosler.
2km? You're a better shot than me.

We don't have much of a "marketing freight train", but if you can't get our bullets to shoot, we will refund your money.

 

[Rich Coyle]

We don't have much of a "marketing freight train", but if you can't get our bullets to shoot, we will refund your money.

I hope to never take advantage of your policy. I love your bullets.

 

[P7M13]

We don't have much of a "marketing freight train"

My comment was directed toward the Creedmore marketing. If'n I cannot get my choices to shoot nicely, I'll certainly give Hammers a try.
I do like how you have twist rates listed for your bullets. Is this derived from both calculation and empirical data?

 

[RockyMtnMT]

My comment was directed toward the Creedmore marketing. If'n I cannot get my choices to shoot nicely, I'll certainly give Hammers a try.
I do like how you have twist rates listed for your bullets. Is this derived from both calculation and empirical data?

We use the Miller formula and calculate at standard sea level atmosphere. It generally works well, but the longer for caliber the bullets get the less accurate the Miller formula seems to be. As the pure copper bullets get longer for caliber the Miller formula over calculates stability. Our long for caliber bullets are definitely listed with minimum twist rates.

 

[AntiPattern]

Gotta say, how much LEAD do they thing these few groups going after goats can throw? I can't imagine it could impact more 1 one millionth of anything anyone cares about. Pretty stupid and arbitrary requirement. What exactly are the marksmanship requirements? Considering you generally shoot at goats from a fair distance, are they making people hit a target at 600 yds+? Sounds fun. I'd take the helicopter for sure! Good luck to all you hunters who drew out and have the physical ability to do this. Wish I did!