Unsuccessful....

I don't think I've blogged about this here on my blog yet, but I've somehow decided that I would like to hunt a mountain goat before I get too old to climb to the mountains where they live.  The problem with that is the only options are to get really lucky and draw a tag, or to spend some bucks and hire an outfitter in British Columbia or Alaska.

So far I'm opting for the getting lucky and drawing a tag, but it isn't working out very well so far.

My first rejection came from Colorado.  I actually applied for a nanny goat tag thinking that there wouldn't be nearly as many people applying for a nanny goat tag as for a billy, and I was right, but there still were enough folks applying for the 1 nanny goat tag that I wasn't lucky enough to draw it.

Here's my first rejection notice.

After Colorado came Idaho.  I did quite a bit of research and felt like I had a decent chance at Idaho, but when it comes down to it nonresidents are limited to a maximum of 10% of the tags in Idaho and what I thought were close to 10% odds ended up closer to 5% odds when it was all said and done.  That's still better than it is for most states, but I pulled another "unsuccessful" result in Idaho.

The next rejection came from Utah.  I really didn't have much of a chance in Utah so I wasn't really suprised, the only reason I even applied there was because I was already applying for elk and it was pretty cheap to add an application for bighorn sheep and mountain goat so I did.  The odds were well under 1% though so it would have been like winning the lottery if I had actually drawn in Utah.  No lottery winner here, some more unsuccessful results.



Those were the only 3 states that I applied for a mountain goat tag, but I'd been doing some research and decided to go ahead and start applying for elk in Nevada.  Of course since I was applying for elk I went ahead and decided to apply for deer and antelope as well since it was cheap to add them, but not to worry I was unsuccessful on all of them as well!

One interesting thing with Nevada is that they list out all the applicants.  I was suprised to see that there were 2 other Padens that applied and had the same bad luck as me.  Not sure if I am related to them but there is a chance that I am.

I still have some applications pending for New Mexico so there is still a chance that I may have another tag in my pocket before it is all said and done, but right now my Wyoming General Elk tag is all that I have other than my Lifefime Texas license.  I have a chance at my 3rd choice elk tag and my mule deer tag in New Mexico but both of those have less than 50% odds so I still need to get lucky.

Hopefully I'll be updating the blog with good news in a week or so!

That's it for now.  Nathan