TBinKodiak
Member
Maybe a better title would be "The Striding Man Strikes Again" :hump:
Very tired and sore today, more to come tomorrow.
Very tired and sore today, more to come tomorrow.
2009 Dall Sheep Hunt
- Thread starter TBinKodiak
- Start date
the nikster
Well-known member
tease! do tell....
Dinkshooter
Well-known member
Now that is a pretty sight, especially if the photo was taken at the air strip.
sweetnectar
New member
There are those legal rams Lawnboy was looking for.
Ridge Runner
New member
Congrats! looks like a great hunt can't wait for the story and more pics although that pic kind of say's it all.
Lawnboy
Well-known member
Your making me sick seeing those things. I want to go back and give it another shot. Great mass congratulations.
Ultrahunter
Active member
That is a sweet picture!!!!
TBinKodiak
Member
This hunt started last fall when I got to talking to a friend of mine that is a commercial fisherman. He was over to the house and saw the ram I got back in '05 on the wall. We talked about it and put in for some draw hunts without success. He got some info from a friend of his dad's though and we booked a hunt in an open tag area. Due to fishing he couldn't go until August 21st and his wife was due to have a baby on Sept 15th. I booked the hunt for the 21st and had a pick up on the 31st. That would give us 9 days to hunt.
We left on the ferry Friday the 20th and barely made it out on the 21st due to a front coming in. Here's what we saw when we hit the ground. Although anybody familiar with sheep knows rams don't hang with ewes and lambs.
We had spotted 5 rams on the way in though so we took off in that direction after getting our bear container set up. One looked legal but needed a closer look so we closed the distance by a little over 2 miles. Unfortunately the rams fed over to the other side of the mt. That wasn't the real bad news though, that was that there was an inpassable ditch between us and them (400 foot vetical walls). So we camped for the night with hopes we could find a place to cross in the morning, which was our first day of hunting. Well the storm hit in the middle of the night with snow and sleet. Here's how I spent the next day.
I told Ray that this snow may work in our favor and drive the rams out of the crags. It also made glassing for white sheep a difficult task. Anyway, it cleared a little in the afternoon and we poked our heads out to find another band of ewes and lambs 200 yards from the tent.
We made it up the mt a ways so we could look up valley. The sides were near vertical and didn't look passable so we decided to head down river the following morning. We passed base and picked up another days worth of food so we had 5 on us and took off. Decided to set up camp at the head of a side valley on the way down to dry our tents and take a look. Hiked up in about 2 miles and climbed up on a glacier to see around the corner.
Nice pictures, but nothing else (looking back down towards camp)
Thought about dropping into a cravase to see where it went, but just figured we'd end up right here, just a little colder and wetter.
We left on the ferry Friday the 20th and barely made it out on the 21st due to a front coming in. Here's what we saw when we hit the ground. Although anybody familiar with sheep knows rams don't hang with ewes and lambs.
We had spotted 5 rams on the way in though so we took off in that direction after getting our bear container set up. One looked legal but needed a closer look so we closed the distance by a little over 2 miles. Unfortunately the rams fed over to the other side of the mt. That wasn't the real bad news though, that was that there was an inpassable ditch between us and them (400 foot vetical walls). So we camped for the night with hopes we could find a place to cross in the morning, which was our first day of hunting. Well the storm hit in the middle of the night with snow and sleet. Here's how I spent the next day.
I told Ray that this snow may work in our favor and drive the rams out of the crags. It also made glassing for white sheep a difficult task. Anyway, it cleared a little in the afternoon and we poked our heads out to find another band of ewes and lambs 200 yards from the tent.
We made it up the mt a ways so we could look up valley. The sides were near vertical and didn't look passable so we decided to head down river the following morning. We passed base and picked up another days worth of food so we had 5 on us and took off. Decided to set up camp at the head of a side valley on the way down to dry our tents and take a look. Hiked up in about 2 miles and climbed up on a glacier to see around the corner.
Nice pictures, but nothing else (looking back down towards camp)
Thought about dropping into a cravase to see where it went, but just figured we'd end up right here, just a little colder and wetter.
Last edited:
TBinKodiak
Member
We did spot a band of about a dozen ewes on the way out and a band of 3 small rams, one a little over 3/4 curl. Things weren't looking good for us since we knew the 2 parties that had been dropped in before us by our transporter hadn't even seen a legal ram. Well if they aren't where you are hike to where they are is my moto. So we camped for the night and took off in the morning. It isn't too hard hiking on the river beds, but some of the stream crossings required hipp wadders, glad I brought the Wiggey's 11oz hipper's along.
So we get down river another 3 or 4 miles and spot a small band of rams across the river from us. The 60 power Swarovski spotter (glad my buddy is an assistant bear guide for his dad and has some cool toys) showed he might be legal. While studying him between fog banks I spotted a sheep behind us. Further investigation showed 8 more rams bedded in the snow. Now were in business.
We hump up to a little knob that gives us a good view of both bands of sheep and settle in for some serious glassing.
The weather clears some and we are able to make out 4 legal rams and one maybe. We also spot 2 more for a total of 10 rams in the group behind us. Now the blood's flowing and we discuss the next morning's assault. Of course everything is riding on them being there in the morning. Another restless night.
So we called this mt but cheeks for obvious reasons. We put the rams to bed on the left cheek right above the small shale slide.
The next morning they are there feeding lower on the mt in the grass. We wait them out and they bed just below the shale about 9am. It's time to move, because we have some bush wacking to do just to get to the base of the mt. Our plan of attack changes as we make it up to the first step and realize we can't make it to the rock outcrop without being spotted. We drop back off and head towards the "crack". Now we can't see the rams, but they can't see us either. The sniper loft is 350 yards from the knoll hiding our rams. Time to hunker down and see what transpires.
About an hour later 3 banana horns show up over on the right cheek head our way. The wind is blowing right up the crack so I tell Ray to chase them off before they wind us and run through the bedded rams. He tries, but they aren't impressed by his show of dominance. We figure, heck if they are that dumb they probably won't spook anyway. So I snap a picture so I have the culpits on record anyway.
The day passes slowly and Ray is snoring next to me, at least one of us is getting plenty of sleep. Growing up hunting whitetails I'm able to stare at nothing for hours and keep myself amused.
So we get down river another 3 or 4 miles and spot a small band of rams across the river from us. The 60 power Swarovski spotter (glad my buddy is an assistant bear guide for his dad and has some cool toys) showed he might be legal. While studying him between fog banks I spotted a sheep behind us. Further investigation showed 8 more rams bedded in the snow. Now were in business.
We hump up to a little knob that gives us a good view of both bands of sheep and settle in for some serious glassing.
The weather clears some and we are able to make out 4 legal rams and one maybe. We also spot 2 more for a total of 10 rams in the group behind us. Now the blood's flowing and we discuss the next morning's assault. Of course everything is riding on them being there in the morning. Another restless night.
So we called this mt but cheeks for obvious reasons. We put the rams to bed on the left cheek right above the small shale slide.
The next morning they are there feeding lower on the mt in the grass. We wait them out and they bed just below the shale about 9am. It's time to move, because we have some bush wacking to do just to get to the base of the mt. Our plan of attack changes as we make it up to the first step and realize we can't make it to the rock outcrop without being spotted. We drop back off and head towards the "crack". Now we can't see the rams, but they can't see us either. The sniper loft is 350 yards from the knoll hiding our rams. Time to hunker down and see what transpires.
About an hour later 3 banana horns show up over on the right cheek head our way. The wind is blowing right up the crack so I tell Ray to chase them off before they wind us and run through the bedded rams. He tries, but they aren't impressed by his show of dominance. We figure, heck if they are that dumb they probably won't spook anyway. So I snap a picture so I have the culpits on record anyway.
The day passes slowly and Ray is snoring next to me, at least one of us is getting plenty of sleep. Growing up hunting whitetails I'm able to stare at nothing for hours and keep myself amused.
TBinKodiak
Member
So if it had just been me I' have cut to the crack and shot up to the shale slide at 11 then belly crawled over to them. Ray figured we'd be better off waiting them out. I didn't like sitting there with our sent blowing up hill so close to them though, but waited since I had offered him first shot since I already have one on the wall.
The rams should have started feeding around 3:30 and we hadn't seen anything by 4:30 so we went on the offensive. We cut over to the crack and shot that up to the bottom of the shale slide, gaining another 5-600 feet in elevation. We took turns hiking while the other one did lookout duty just incase they popped over the burm. Once we reached the bottom of the shale we need to decide if we should go over it or try to put the sneak on them at the same level, if they were still there of course. Ray's summer was spent at the wheel of his boat barking orders to his crew so his upward motion wasn't as good as it would have been had he just got done crewing for cod so we decided to stay at the same level. We dropped packs and snuck around the contour of the mt belly crawling as we came to burms. Just as we were running out of mountain side we spot two whit backs about 80 yards out. Things are getting dicey as the wind is swirling and our time is running out to make this happen. The bottom ram's head shoots up and he stares in our direction, that's the bad news the good news is it's a full curl. I'm hoping to pull two rams out of this situation since I'm second shot and belly cral up a little ways to see what's ahead of them. Sure enoughthe rest of the band is all line out looking nervous, but the lead ram is one of the two we pegged as well over full. I tell Ray to crawl up there and say shoot that first ram, he's full curl, I'm going to drop down and shoot that back ram.
So I drop down a couple feet, but get in front of his muzzle break, and rise up on my knees. Well I got 5 rams in sight now and they are all staring at me. The 2nd to last ram is the other FC+ ram we scoped out, but I can only see his top 2/3 because he is standing over the lip of the cliff. I make a snap decision to take the back ram because he's still on the grass. When Ray's gun goes off I'm a little dissoriented (damned muzzle breaks) and rush the shot taking him through the gut and far back ham. My second shot flies over his head as I try to re adjust. My 3rd shot counts as I settle down and take him front on through the neck. he drops to the grass but his head is still up. I put my final shot in the same spot as the 3rd and realize my mistake. Instead of lying down and expiring he kicks and rolls. My gun is on the ground and I'm doing the 40 yard dash. He only goes 2 or 3 rolls and he stops so I start walking but still vividly see him as he makes one last kick to free his back leg and does 3 rolls over the side of the cliff. I run to the edge and no ram, just a few spots in the shale where he bounced on his way down.
Well we still have one ram on the mt so we do the hand shakes, take some photos, and get him boned out for the haul back to camp.
This photo shows the side my ram went off.
We hit camp about dark and I'm in for another restless night wondering where my ram is and if we can get to him.
The rams should have started feeding around 3:30 and we hadn't seen anything by 4:30 so we went on the offensive. We cut over to the crack and shot that up to the bottom of the shale slide, gaining another 5-600 feet in elevation. We took turns hiking while the other one did lookout duty just incase they popped over the burm. Once we reached the bottom of the shale we need to decide if we should go over it or try to put the sneak on them at the same level, if they were still there of course. Ray's summer was spent at the wheel of his boat barking orders to his crew so his upward motion wasn't as good as it would have been had he just got done crewing for cod so we decided to stay at the same level. We dropped packs and snuck around the contour of the mt belly crawling as we came to burms. Just as we were running out of mountain side we spot two whit backs about 80 yards out. Things are getting dicey as the wind is swirling and our time is running out to make this happen. The bottom ram's head shoots up and he stares in our direction, that's the bad news the good news is it's a full curl. I'm hoping to pull two rams out of this situation since I'm second shot and belly cral up a little ways to see what's ahead of them. Sure enoughthe rest of the band is all line out looking nervous, but the lead ram is one of the two we pegged as well over full. I tell Ray to crawl up there and say shoot that first ram, he's full curl, I'm going to drop down and shoot that back ram.
So I drop down a couple feet, but get in front of his muzzle break, and rise up on my knees. Well I got 5 rams in sight now and they are all staring at me. The 2nd to last ram is the other FC+ ram we scoped out, but I can only see his top 2/3 because he is standing over the lip of the cliff. I make a snap decision to take the back ram because he's still on the grass. When Ray's gun goes off I'm a little dissoriented (damned muzzle breaks) and rush the shot taking him through the gut and far back ham. My second shot flies over his head as I try to re adjust. My 3rd shot counts as I settle down and take him front on through the neck. he drops to the grass but his head is still up. I put my final shot in the same spot as the 3rd and realize my mistake. Instead of lying down and expiring he kicks and rolls. My gun is on the ground and I'm doing the 40 yard dash. He only goes 2 or 3 rolls and he stops so I start walking but still vividly see him as he makes one last kick to free his back leg and does 3 rolls over the side of the cliff. I run to the edge and no ram, just a few spots in the shale where he bounced on his way down.
Well we still have one ram on the mt so we do the hand shakes, take some photos, and get him boned out for the haul back to camp.
This photo shows the side my ram went off.
We hit camp about dark and I'm in for another restless night wondering where my ram is and if we can get to him.
TBinKodiak
Member
I'm up way before the sun and ready to go. We assess the situation and decide to try to go right up the base of the valley he rolled into, since going down from the top is out of the question. He's in that hole somewhere.
The valley isn't bad with a small stream running through it. We make good time and when I spot him as I come around a corner my spirits are restored. We shot the rams at 4700 feet and found him at 3600 feet so he was a little rough for wear, but had both horns and we were able to salvage almost all the meat.
Here's where we found him.
I gut him there since he's a mess and drag him down hill a good 300 feet. That cleans him up some and gets us out of that tight spot with rocks dropping from above. His cape is ruined, but I'm fine with a Euro mount anyway since I already have a bigger one on the wall. He's over full curl at 35" with 13.75" bases, the unfortunate part is he was only 6.5 years old and would have probably been well over 40" in just a couple years. I wish I could have taken the larger ram in the 37-38" range but played the odds on not dropping one in the hole. It didn't work out, but I'd do the same thing next time.
Anyway, here he is.
So we get him cut up and head for camp. Ray capes his ram out and we prepare to pack up for the haul back to base.
One last pic before the real work begins.
We pack down to the river and have dinner. We hear shots and watch as the ram across the valley takes a roll. I should mention there were two planes in the valley harassing every band of rams for two days. Gutsy guys with their flying, but I don't agree with buzzing sheep to judge if they are legal. Luckily our band of rams had been bedded in the snow and went unnoticed by the cub caddets.
So we pack up our 110+lb packs and start our slow grind back up river, making about 2 miles before darkness overtakes us. The next morning we are back grinding away at 7am, but at 9 I spot a plane in the bushes and we figure that must be the lower landing strip. We drop packs and Ray uses his sat phone, so he can keep in contact with his boat and wife who is 9 months pregnant, to call the pilot. He says maybe, but call back in 4 hours. I'm feeling good and the weather report is looking iffy so I volunteer to hump up to the upper stip to get our base camp.
It takes less than an hour to make the 2+ miles to base and I load up the pack and strap the bear box on the back of my pack. The 75lb load feels good because I know my cigars, a six pack of beer, a bottle of Johnnie Walker and Glenmorangie are pushing me along down valley. Of course we were on our last day of food too so the resupply was necessary...
2 hours and 4.5 miles wasn't much of a price to pay to enjoy a little civilization again. Here I am feeling pretty good about myself...
Little did I know at this point that the weather was coming and Ray's flight out was going to be the last run until the following afternoon. I did meet up with the two guys who took the ram the night before though, about a 31 incher with 12" bases, we weren't sure so it was nice to see him on the ground for future reference. These guys pissed us off during our trip by buzzing the groups of rams, but in person they seemed decent, just different ethical standards than we held I guess. They flew up to the other landing strip and I hunkered in for the night. Things turned bad and I got cold and wet, but the weather broke the next morning and it was just a matter of drying out and waiting for the fog to clear back at the airport so the pilot could take off.
I made it out Saturday afternoon around 3:30, we got an early ferry into Kodiak and I'll be packaging meat tomorrow morning.
F&G tallied our rams as follows. Ray's ram was 9.5 years old with 34 3/4" on the longest horn 34 1/2 on the shortest, both bases were 12.5"
My ram went 6.5 years old with both horns right at35" and one base at 13.5" and the other at 13.75"
Total miles travelled was around 34 in 7 days, which only averages out to around a little less than 5 miles a day. Maybe I'm getting smarter in my old age or just got lucky....
The valley isn't bad with a small stream running through it. We make good time and when I spot him as I come around a corner my spirits are restored. We shot the rams at 4700 feet and found him at 3600 feet so he was a little rough for wear, but had both horns and we were able to salvage almost all the meat.
Here's where we found him.
I gut him there since he's a mess and drag him down hill a good 300 feet. That cleans him up some and gets us out of that tight spot with rocks dropping from above. His cape is ruined, but I'm fine with a Euro mount anyway since I already have a bigger one on the wall. He's over full curl at 35" with 13.75" bases, the unfortunate part is he was only 6.5 years old and would have probably been well over 40" in just a couple years. I wish I could have taken the larger ram in the 37-38" range but played the odds on not dropping one in the hole. It didn't work out, but I'd do the same thing next time.
Anyway, here he is.
So we get him cut up and head for camp. Ray capes his ram out and we prepare to pack up for the haul back to base.
One last pic before the real work begins.
We pack down to the river and have dinner. We hear shots and watch as the ram across the valley takes a roll. I should mention there were two planes in the valley harassing every band of rams for two days. Gutsy guys with their flying, but I don't agree with buzzing sheep to judge if they are legal. Luckily our band of rams had been bedded in the snow and went unnoticed by the cub caddets.
So we pack up our 110+lb packs and start our slow grind back up river, making about 2 miles before darkness overtakes us. The next morning we are back grinding away at 7am, but at 9 I spot a plane in the bushes and we figure that must be the lower landing strip. We drop packs and Ray uses his sat phone, so he can keep in contact with his boat and wife who is 9 months pregnant, to call the pilot. He says maybe, but call back in 4 hours. I'm feeling good and the weather report is looking iffy so I volunteer to hump up to the upper stip to get our base camp.
It takes less than an hour to make the 2+ miles to base and I load up the pack and strap the bear box on the back of my pack. The 75lb load feels good because I know my cigars, a six pack of beer, a bottle of Johnnie Walker and Glenmorangie are pushing me along down valley. Of course we were on our last day of food too so the resupply was necessary...
2 hours and 4.5 miles wasn't much of a price to pay to enjoy a little civilization again. Here I am feeling pretty good about myself...
Little did I know at this point that the weather was coming and Ray's flight out was going to be the last run until the following afternoon. I did meet up with the two guys who took the ram the night before though, about a 31 incher with 12" bases, we weren't sure so it was nice to see him on the ground for future reference. These guys pissed us off during our trip by buzzing the groups of rams, but in person they seemed decent, just different ethical standards than we held I guess. They flew up to the other landing strip and I hunkered in for the night. Things turned bad and I got cold and wet, but the weather broke the next morning and it was just a matter of drying out and waiting for the fog to clear back at the airport so the pilot could take off.
I made it out Saturday afternoon around 3:30, we got an early ferry into Kodiak and I'll be packaging meat tomorrow morning.
F&G tallied our rams as follows. Ray's ram was 9.5 years old with 34 3/4" on the longest horn 34 1/2 on the shortest, both bases were 12.5"
My ram went 6.5 years old with both horns right at35" and one base at 13.5" and the other at 13.75"
Total miles travelled was around 34 in 7 days, which only averages out to around a little less than 5 miles a day. Maybe I'm getting smarter in my old age or just got lucky....
DRAFTSTUD
Well-known member
Great Adventure. Congrats to both of ya'll. John
smalls
Well-known member
Awesome story TB. Thaks for sharing.
elk_hunter
Active member
Absolutely fantastic story and pics! Thanks for sharing that and congrats to you both! Beautiful animals; I'm jealous!
Nut
New member
Congratulations and thanks for the story and pictures. I enjoyed them much
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