GotBowAz Report post Posted November 27, 2012 Naturegirl, I just saw your response here to my post and I want to thank you for your offer. I may just take you up on that one day. Also, you have some solid advice when it comes to putting dead animals on packers. I was wondering how your horse were taking to that type of training. I hope it all works out well and you have a great experience with your buddy’s hunt and your horses. I now have two 6 month old goats, thanks to southernxpress, that I plan to train for packing. I will take them on hikes with me but with no packs at first then graduate them as they get older to packs and a little weight. I'm really looking forward to it. In the meantime I am still trying to find 3 or 4 adults I can get trained to pack by next summer and I will be sure to add the dead animal factor to their packs. A couple of pictures of the two 6 month old's. Here is Bonny, female all dark face and Clyde with the white head when I first brought them home. The back ground are my pigmys. And here is Clyde jumping through the irrigation in the back yard. He took to the water very well. Looks like he can fly too, ha ha ha LOL! I am an archery hunter that likes back pack hunting so my goal isn’t to hunt with the goats as much as is it to get camp in and back out. I may try to take them in a week or so early and stash most of my camp in advance. For deer I am pretty sure right now anyway I can debone it and bring it all out including the head in one trip. Obviously I can’t do that and carry my bow and camp too. So the camp would again get stashed as I bring the meat out and go back in the following weekend with the goats and bring camp back out. What I'm looking into right now though is maybe bringing in a hot wire with a battery and solar power to keep it charged. Then I can fence the goats in or any would be predators out while I am hunting. If they close my elk hunting roads off I really hope to be able to pull the hot wire fence thing off as I would want the goats to help pack out the meat as well but again I don’t want to hunt with them. If anyone knows of some adult goats I can get fairly reasonable please let me know. I have been checking craigslist and some of the prices are a little out there. Thanks for all the advice here and pictures too from everyone. I will post pic’s as I go. This weekend may be the first trip for the little ones just to hike in and out to see how well they do. GBA Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GotBowAz Report post Posted November 27, 2012 Tony, Im also looking forward to seeing your write up on Scott's goats. Hope you get a chance to post it here. Thanks GBA Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MULEPACKHUNTER Report post Posted January 16, 2013 I am kind of set on the mules myself. Great for scouting, packing, and freindship alone in the hills. Pack camp in, drop mules off at home, backpack in, kill, and hang meat, then grab mules and pack it all out the next dAy. No tag drawn and I have a lot of freinds to help out. I havnt yet but I may try taking one mule and leading him with my gear like the goat and lama guys do it. Honestly its almost too much work packing yourself and hunting. Much easier packing for someone else. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PackerMenges Report post Posted March 24, 2013 Wow, I would really like to check out a goat pack string if anyone is using them still, just to see it and ask a few questions. I love packing horses and mules and its my bread and butter, but it would be pretty rad to have a couple goats to pound the hills with. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GotBowAz Report post Posted March 26, 2013 Thanks to Southern Express I have put together a pretty darn good pack goat group. We ( the goats and I) are all still in training and I learned a few things along the way but I must admit Im pretty impressed. These goats are still too young to pack too much on them but even at that I didnt have to carry my lunch or water and I was able to have some camp stuff packed out. I even brought some irrigation boots along to keep our feet dry as a couple of places it was impossible to stay out of the water. My grandson and I took them on a 10.4 mile round trip hike and they did awesome. They were a little tired at the end but none the worse for wear. GBA Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rcdinaz Report post Posted March 26, 2013 That is very, very cool! good luck with your team and your hunts! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Couzer Report post Posted March 26, 2013 Wow, glad to see they went to a good home! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GotBowAz Report post Posted March 26, 2013 Thanks Vowell, they have a half acre of burmuda grass andabout 10 nnavel seedless orange trees in thier pasture. So they eat the leaves and oranges nearly every day. Gice them a great veriety to go along with a good diet. GBA Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PackerMenges Report post Posted March 29, 2013 That is all truly awesome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GotBowAz Report post Posted March 29, 2013 A heads up for anyone thinking about doing this. I recently lost the young white and brown goat with the white patch on his face which is why you don’t see him along on the trail pics. I found him hung in my back pasture from his collar on an orange tree branch. He apparently stood on his hind legs to get to a leaf and got caught on a limb. I felt so horrible about the whole thing and it still bothers me, he was a great pet and would have made an excellent packer. As a result from that lesson all collars have been removed until we go on the trail. But now with this insight I am very watchful with them around trees or brush when on the trail. It was a freak accident which may never happen again but I'm not taking any chances. These guys are now my pets as well as my working buddies. I learned with the black female that she will tell me if someone or a goat is hung up on the trail or is lagging behind. This includes myself. I let my grandson go ahead of the pack and lead up so I could take some pictures. As long as I stayed up with the pack everything was good, but as soon as I stopped to take a picture she would turn around and talk to me to get moving. Once I caught up she would fall back in line. Funny how quickly they excepted me into their pack/herd. I recommend pack goats to anyone who can do it. It’s pretty awesome. Side note, I will most likely not hunt with them. I will have them haul a camp in and stash it then bring them back out depending on the hunting I will be doing. Then after that hunt reversing the process. If I get something down I will probably hang the meat high in a tree to cool and pack some of the camp and return with the goats to retrieve the rest. If I can have my truck at camp then that may be another matter and I may have a hot wire set up or a stock trailer to put them in. GBA 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted March 30, 2013 awesome!! thanks for the update. I am really sorry to hear about the accident. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GotBowAz Report post Posted October 14, 2013 Thought Id add some pictures of just the boys out with me over the weekend. We took a tough uphill 3 mile hike to check out some new country and a spring in a burn area. They were tuckered out by the end of the day. Even though i didn't care for the area after looking it over it was still a very nice day to pack and great exercise for the boys. GBA 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted October 14, 2013 Love it, thanks for the update! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Couzer Report post Posted October 14, 2013 Right on!!! Looking good Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Meyer Report post Posted October 17, 2013 Cool Pic's and an awesome thread Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
