This bow hunter is the GOAT, or mountain goat to be more specific. An Alaska man bags the world’s largest mountain goat while bow hunting.
The mountain goat’s measured 53-4.8 inches making it the largest mountain goat horn in North America.
Kaleb Baird feels at home with a bow in his hand. Before his solo hunt, Baird spent half a year studying maps of the area and researching. He had never been mountain goat hunting before, but he’s experienced with a bow, hunting deer and birds. Baird had visited Petersburg, Alaska for years. But didn’t become a resident until last year.
He decided to use a bow for his mountain goat excursion.
“I could’ve used a rifle on this hunt but growing up a bow hunter. I’ve just kind of been a bow hunter my whole life,” Baird told KFSK. “But comfortably, me shooting at an animal, I’m usually 50 yards and inside. And on a hunt like this, 40 and closer, where you’re looking at uneven terrain, and big tough critters, you want to make a good, clean ethical shot.”
The Bowhunter Killed the Goat in September
“So, I killed him and I found him that day–I think it was day four of the hunt—and he dropped off of a pretty significant avalanche chute,” Baird continued. “And he lost about 7-800 foot in elevation from where I shot to where he died and probably did it in a manner of seconds. He basically dove off an avalanche chute.”
After a few hours, the bow hunter finally found the goat. He’s unsure of how much the goat weighed before he quartered it to carry it down the mountain. Official measurers confirmed the record of the horn and the bow hunter’s accomplishment.
“Right now personally, I’m still kind of trying to wrap my head around it,” Baird said. “It’s pretty surreal. Like I said, this was my first time. It wasn’t like I went up there—I did joke over the summer with some friends and family, I think, that I was going to shoot a world record but that was (laughs) completely in jest. I didn’t really think that that was ever going to be a possibility.”
