Hunting With Goats – the Underdogs of the Backcountry
Pack goats allow easier access to hunting.
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Hunting with goats makes it easier to get deeper into the backcountry and allows access for those with injuries or who find age makes it more difficult.
Matthew Kueffler, 40, has been hunting most of his life; however, after getting injured in a car accident, he can no longer lift heavy weights and experiences balance issues, but that doesn’t stop him from packing out his elk with ease. Like many other hunters, Kueffler has turned to using pack goats as a tool for hunting in Idaho’s wilderness.
Pack goats are making a name for themselves as Western big game hunters increasingly rely on them to get deeper into the backcountry.
Kueffler wasn’t ready to give up hunting, so he began to look for easier ways to get into his hunting grounds. In 2010, Kueffler got his first pack goats.
“Without them, I wouldn’t be hunting. I mean, it’s had a huge impact on my life,” Kueffler said.
Despite being smaller in size than horses, goats can pack up to 25% of their body weight. They typically weigh anywhere from 150 to 250 pounds, meaning they can carry about 35 to 60 pounds per goat. Split between the two sides of a saddle, hunters only need to lift half of that at a time, making the process of pack-outs much easier. Many people can lift 15 to 30 pounds, making goats an incredible option for not only hunters like Kueffler who’ve experienced injuries, but also for hunters who find it harder to pack out meat as they age.
Nancy Tanner, 60, is a sustenance hunter who relies on her pack goats in the field more and more as she ages. Tanner was initially drawn to pack goats because of their affordability and versatility.
“You can have more goats on a smaller property than you can with any other stock pack animal,” said Tanner.
Another selling point for Tanner is that goats constantly have a purpose, regardless of what stage of life they’re in. Depending on the breed and sex, once goats are retired from packing, they can be used as dairy, breeding stock, or even for meat.
Goats are both cheaper and easier to feed than other stock. Furthermore, goats are more readily available at a lower cost, unlike mules and horses. To buy a mule or horse, hunters face a price tag ranging anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000. A quality pack goat typically costs around $300 to $500.
Known worldwide for their sure-footedness, pack goats can trek through anything that their owner leads them through. Pack goat hunters develop such a strong bond with their pack string that their goats don’t need to be tied together. Instead, they confidently follow behind their owner, according to Nathan Putnam.
Contrary to many non goat packers’ initial impressions, packing goats can be a fundamental part of filling tags. While the goats follow behind their hunters, they create the same natural sounds that come from wild ungulates, masking the unnatural sounds of people, and simultaneously making prey animals more comfortable around any hunters. The sounds of hooves walking, sneezing, and chewing on vegetation are sounds wild game produce every day. Hunters packing with goats use these sounds to their advantage.
Pack goats can also subtly alert their owner of animals hunters can’t see or hear. Putnam has filled many elk tags with his team of goats. His goats played a fundamental role in all these hunts. Putnam recalls a backcountry elk trip where his goats helped him locate a bull. He was bugling with a bull, but soon it traveled out of earshot. One last bugle, and Putnam couldn’t hear the elk anymore; however, his goats heard them. In what seemed to be silence, the goats all picked their heads up and looked in the same direction, alerting Putnam to where the elk were.
Putnam has been hunting with his pack goats for around 10 years, with thousands of miles of experience under his belt. Throughout the years, he’s bred and sold pack goats to hunters throughout the West. Like Tanner, Putnam also appreciates the simplicity that goats offer in comparison to other animals.
“We see a lot of guys that are old-time mule packers; it just becomes such a hassle to run their stock back there, so they switch to goats and are like ‘this is the greatest thing in the world,’” says Putnam.
The overarching, most popular trait that hunters seek from goats is their companionship in the field. Hunters create such strong bonds with their pack goats that they act similarly to dogs, or often even better. Pack goats not only carry Putnam’s equipment for him, but they also provide entertainment on his trips. Putnam can carry all of his gear himself, but he brings his goats to the backcountry with him for a less obvious but more important reason. He brings them into the field for companionship. As they get deeper into the wilderness, Putnam experiences fewer distractions from his everyday life, allowing him to watch each of his goats’ personalities more closely than he can at home. The farther down the trail they get, the more their personalities pop.
More and more Western hunters are dipping their toes into the world of pack goats, and their popularity has steadily risen since 2020. Putnam sees no sign of pack goats losing their popularity anytime soon.
“What Covid showed us was that people naturally just want to get outdoors. And so, people started trying to find all these ways that they could get outdoors and go farther and to be by themselves, and they started realizing that goats can be utilized for this,” said Putnam.
Between their affordability, availability, inclusivity, and personality, pack goats are making a name for themselves as the underdog of the packing world. Outdoorsmen across the West seem to experience little to no drawbacks to hunting with goats. However, Kueffler has only one objection about pack goats: “If I could find a goat big enough to ride, it would be the perfect animal ever,” Kueffler said.
You can learn more about pack goats at the North American Packgoat Association.
Madelynn Pandis is a journalism student at the University of Montana focusing on outdoor and conservation writing. In addition to freelance writing, she also produces and edits podcasts for the Montana Kaimin Cast.
Originally published in the October 1, 2025 digital issue of Goat Journal.
