Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Mountain 'Lopes?????????

..............yep....we ran into a herd this last week. They were up high, a long way from the plains. Half dozen does and a bunch of little ones with them, and one big ol' buck. We were in spotted timber on steep slopes with a fair amount of open ,eadows on the steep hillsides, perfect Muley habitat,...but I'm not sure I would have toted a Lope tag up there!....guess you never know!

'Slayer:<P>That's a rare sighting. I've only seen speed goats in the mountains a couple of times. Both times they were in BIG meadows or clearings. They seemed trapped and ran around in circles avoiding the forest.<P>KC

In the high desert ranges, I've seen speed goats as high as 10,000 ft. As long as it's open, they will go there. In Ka., we have one herd that lives in the Bodie area of Mono county. They are always in the high country. E

There's a couple of mtns around here that are open (no timber) all the way to the top. The antelope spend their summers between 9,000 and 10,000. It's not unusual to see 50 + antelope up there.

There are a couple of areas around Fort Rock and Silver Lake, Oregon where you can find speed goats in the forest. A buddy of mine drew tags in one of these units one year with his son. He called the ODFW for some help finding the lopes and they were pretty helpful. They told him which ridge to look on and watch the areas of the forest close to meadows. Both of them collected nice goats- (15 1/2" and 14 1/2",) in the trees about a half mile from the open ground by spotting them in the open and waiting and watching for where they headed after sunup. They intercepted them in a Pine forest at about 5500 feet elevation. <BR>In the Fort Rock area, guys have told me it is more like hunting Mule deer than antelope because of the heavy forest they hang around in. - Sheister

That is very interesting Sheister......I would have been shocked to see them in a forest.<P>These were not in open moutains, but more like KC described,......up the mountain in big meadow....but there were forest surrounding. I guess they just hop-scotched their way up...and when we spooked them,....they just vanished in an instant. We looked for them over the rise, but they were no where to be found......