World-record goat certified

Put a bow and arrow in the hands of an overachiever and something is going to fall.

In the case of a Liberty Lake software company CEO, it’s an assortment of big game, the pinnacle of which – so far – is a world-record Rocky Mountain goat.

On April 28 in Lancaster, Pa., the Pope & Young Club officially listed the world-record billy taken by Shad Wheeler, 32, during a February 2006 hunt near Terrace, British Columbia. The certified score is 53 0/8, surpassing the official record of 52 4/8 taken in 1988.

Wheeler, formerly of Wenatchee, moved to Liberty Lake two years ago. He now manages ProVolve Solutions Inc.

After taking up bowhunting at the age of 12, “my participation dropped off with schooling,” Wheeler said, noting that he graduated from Washington State University, went on to Arizona State to get a law degree, then returned to WSU to complete his master’s in business administration.

“In 2005, I started getting back into bowhunting hot and heavy,” he said in a stroke of understatement.

“I was fairly successful on a Montana hunt last fall. In a span of six days, I took an elk that scored 350, plus a mule deer and then an antelope. Then I came back to Washington and got another mule deer.”

But even that fall hunt didn’t quite stack up to February. As usual, Wheeler had a lot going on: Newly engaged and looking at the prospect of missing Valentine’s Day in pursuit of a creature designed to live in terrain that’s too steep for virtually any natural predator.

The mountain goat hunt was scheduled for nine days with British Columbia guide Bob Milligan of Coast Mountain Outfitters.

“We spotted the big goat on the first day,” Wheeler said. “We made two stalks that didn’t work out.”

The hunters were confounded by the elements ranging from rain and fog to snow and ice. Each stalk into the cliffs where the goats were hanging out involved clawing through devil’s club, climbing 1,000-1,700 feet in elevation and scrambling on rocky cliffs that were often coated in ice.

“After some long days of glassing, we finally got into position where we could get into the goat on the ninth day,” Wheeler said. “But as we were climbing up, I slipped and broke the pins on my bow sight.

“I got as close as 27 yards to the billy. There were two of them, and they both seemed distracted by a wolf howling down the canyon.

“My first shot hit a tree. But with the wolf and all the noise from ice falling off the cliff, the goat didn’t react. I was able to adjust and get him.”

A hunter’s work doesn’t end with the shot, particularly when hunting in such vertical terrain.

“He went off a 45-foot cliff onto a bench and then rolled off another 30-foot cliff,” Wheeler said. “We had to rappel down, but all we had was a rope rated to 90 pounds. We weren’t the smartest guys on the block when we did our planning. I weigh 215.”

The hunting isn’t over for Wheeler, who said he bowhunted a mouflon ram recently while visiting his family in Hawaii, and he’s already planning a Middle Fork Salmon elk hunt this fall followed by a shot at filling an elk tag he already has for Montana’s Missouri River Breaks. An Africa hunt is in the works for 2009.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, “Did I mention that my wife and I are going to have a baby?