Wanted: Snowdonia Goat Shooting

[Kane01]

Got chatting to one of the members at my rifle club about the best hunting experiences available in the UK and he turned me onto goat shooting, showed me some excellent footage of a hunt he did back in 2024 in the Mount Snowdon area shooting wild goats, only issue is he doesnt remember the guide details or who he booked with since the trip was organised by someone else, only that it cost about £350 for the day including one goat and the guide fee, you needed .243 cal as a minimum and some of the shooting was near the pyg trail up Snowdon since you could see it in the back of his pictures.

Would be very keen to get setup with the same guide or company, if anyone knows any guides in that area as well it would be a great help.

 

[pendle]

@VSS

 

[Bsmall1521]

Does anyone have more info on this? Sounds like a good time

 

[ca11um]

Any update on this or info? Thanks

 

[nath_]

Did you ever find anymore info on this? It’s on my to do list

 

[Adders]

You need Alex Hatton. He has the ground on and around yr wyddfa.

If you DM me I can share his number.

 

[HonestJohn]

Aren’t they half docile? Everyone’s know who’s been in the goats have said they expected it to be like watching NZ Thar movies or mountain rams, etc. but in reality you could walk in on them to 100yds without them really blinking an eye

 

[Demetrius]

The Snowdon region is criss-crossed with walking trails, so how does that work?
I've spent weekends walking those slopes and never seen any rambo's crawling around.
As for shooting semi-tame goats, words fail me....

D.

 

[artschool]

The Snowdon region is criss-crossed with walking trails, so how does that work?
I've spent weekends walking those slopes and never seen any rambo's crawling around.
As for shooting semi-tame goats, words fail me....

D.

somewhere in those paragraphs is a fantastic daily mail headline

 

[HonestJohn]

somewhere in those paragraphs is a fantastic daily mail headline

Yep

“words fail me.”

 

[Mike1979]

What are you lot on about...they are rare Welsh Ibex and should command £10k a pop

 

[VSS]

Aren’t they half docile? Everyone’s know who’s been in the goats have said they expected it to be like watching NZ Thar movies or mountain rams, etc. but in reality you could walk in on them to 100yds without them really blinking an eye

One of the principal attractions of stalking goats in Snowdonia is the fantastic terrain that you get to hunt over, and the main challenge is not so much getting a shot but getting to the carcass and getting it down off the mountain once you've shot it.
Unlike deer, the goats' defence mechanism is not to flee, but to get themselves into the most inaccessible place possible.
So, having located the herd by spying from afar you stalk in to close the gap just as you would with deer. The goats, seemingly unconcerned, don't seem to be moving fast or far, but rest assured that they will have clocked you and are taking evasive action in their own way.
Eventually you get to the place within range that you had identified as a suitable firing point, and take a look. Only to find that the goats have moved, and are now halfway up a sheer rockface, or are on the other side of a steep-sided gully from where you are.
You take the shot, and then the fun begins! It might take you an hour or more of climbing to close the last couple of hundred yards to the carcass, and several more hours to get it out.
As a "sport" it beats shooting driven pheasants, that's for sure!

It's true that some goats in Snowdonia have become tame as a result of hanging around popular picnic spots in search of food scraps, and others have taken to spending time on enclosed farmland, but I have seen exactly the same thing with wild red deer in Scotland.
Once you get up into the less frequented mountain areas they're properly wild.

 

[Kane01]

Any update on this or info? Thanks

None yet,
Aside from the fact that I should be seeing that member at a fullbore shoot in May so hopefully will get the chance to ask him

 

[Kane01]

Did you ever find anymore info on this? It’s on my to do list

^^^^^

 

[Kane01]

The Snowdon region is criss-crossed with walking trails, so how does that work?
I've spent weekends walking those slopes and never seen any rambo's crawling around.

I could say the same thing about all of Scotland with the right to roam in terms of danger. And as to how it works, the contact I met explained the goats are shot through a conservation scheme run by Natural Resources Wales and the local authorities.

 

[Adders]

Yep

“words fail me.”

I don’t think it was a compliment.