thecrittergitter
Well-known member
Well, my 2012 Sheep hunt was quite a success to say the least. Figured I would post the story and pics.
Main mode of transportation was the good ol boots but our secondary method was sure helpful
Once we were into our "lower" camp, we fixed up some mountain houses and tried to get some rest for our hike up to "upper" camp the next morning. We hiked to upper camp and pretty much spent the next day stuck to the tent with socked in fog and non stop rain. A guy can still hunt in the rain, but having visiblity less than 100 yards makes sheep hunting pretty tough
On the third day, we were able to catch a weather break in the afternoon so we put on a good hike to go look for a ram. Awesome country, and lots of blueberries this year so we had some good snacks!
Finally got to sit on my first good perch to search for that full curl ram.......
Like I said awesome country....
Considering this was my first real good day for hunting, I didn't expect a lot in the way of sheep, not sure why, guess I figure that a guy has to hunt for days before seeing a trophy ram
Well, 4 hours into our hunt, I glassed some rams coming out onto the hillside about 1000 yards away. 7 rams in total and one looked clearly better than the rest. With my little sheep experience, I totally would be relying on my guide and great friend Harold to tell me whether he thought it was a shooter or not. As soon as Harold looked in the spotter, he says "I think were going to be shooting that ram on the bottom". I looked in the spotter and it clearly looked better than in the binos
I told Harold that the dividing ridge between us and the rams was 350 yards and if we could get there, I would feel perfectly comfortable taking that shot of 600 yards. We packed up and made the hike around the basin and out on the dividing ridge. We knew we would have to set up rather quickly as the wind turned and was starting to head their way. Harold said he was going to set up the spotter and take another look to verify 100% that he was legal......About three seconds after his eye hit the spotter, I hear........."uh, you need to shoot that ram". I was assuming that meant it may have been better than the average sheep. I hit the rangefinder and it said 608 yds. After shooting a group less than 2" at this range just a few days prior, I was perfectly confident I could make the shot. I settled in on the last ram and as he was quartering away I put the bead right behind the shoulder........Boom! About 2 seconds later I hear that confirming thwak! Harold said I hit it absolutely perfect from watching in the spotter. I was excited as heck that we had pulled this off so early in the hunt.
The first time I've ever shot something where the animal is actually way bigger after I've shot that before. Normally ground shrinkage hits a little but not this time! I was just blown away that not only did I take a ram, I was lucky enough to take a HUGE ram! He was a 10 yr old ram, that ended up with 14 1/8" bases and double broomed. Even broomed he was 38" and 36" which for me was far better than I expected.
I definately want to go again for sheep sometime but doubt I will get a chance to top this ram.
I definately thank my other good friend Brian Lyles for building this custom rifle for me. Thing shoots like a dream and has really built my confidence in shooting longer distance when needed.
Once we had the sheep all deboned and caped, I started loading the pack for the trip back to "upper" camp. just as I started strapping on the cape, I hear "grizzly bear!, Grizzly bear!!....and of course after being attacked once, that sound to me means that I'm about to get rolled by a bear. I'm scrambling like crazy to get to my rifle and as soon as it hits my hands i'm looking franticly to see where he is coming from............turns out they were 350 yards away which was quite a relief Two bears both about the same size. Beauty blonde and a dark chocolate one. I could fill my griz tag less than two hours after my sheep tag!! I elected to pass on the bears just because we thought there was a chance it was a sow with a really big cub. Pretty dang cool though to see two bears already!
After the bears winded us, we loaded up the packs and headed out.
Main mode of transportation was the good ol boots but our secondary method was sure helpful
Once we were into our "lower" camp, we fixed up some mountain houses and tried to get some rest for our hike up to "upper" camp the next morning. We hiked to upper camp and pretty much spent the next day stuck to the tent with socked in fog and non stop rain. A guy can still hunt in the rain, but having visiblity less than 100 yards makes sheep hunting pretty tough
On the third day, we were able to catch a weather break in the afternoon so we put on a good hike to go look for a ram. Awesome country, and lots of blueberries this year so we had some good snacks!
Finally got to sit on my first good perch to search for that full curl ram.......
Like I said awesome country....
Considering this was my first real good day for hunting, I didn't expect a lot in the way of sheep, not sure why, guess I figure that a guy has to hunt for days before seeing a trophy ram
Well, 4 hours into our hunt, I glassed some rams coming out onto the hillside about 1000 yards away. 7 rams in total and one looked clearly better than the rest. With my little sheep experience, I totally would be relying on my guide and great friend Harold to tell me whether he thought it was a shooter or not. As soon as Harold looked in the spotter, he says "I think were going to be shooting that ram on the bottom". I looked in the spotter and it clearly looked better than in the binos
I told Harold that the dividing ridge between us and the rams was 350 yards and if we could get there, I would feel perfectly comfortable taking that shot of 600 yards. We packed up and made the hike around the basin and out on the dividing ridge. We knew we would have to set up rather quickly as the wind turned and was starting to head their way. Harold said he was going to set up the spotter and take another look to verify 100% that he was legal......About three seconds after his eye hit the spotter, I hear........."uh, you need to shoot that ram". I was assuming that meant it may have been better than the average sheep. I hit the rangefinder and it said 608 yds. After shooting a group less than 2" at this range just a few days prior, I was perfectly confident I could make the shot. I settled in on the last ram and as he was quartering away I put the bead right behind the shoulder........Boom! About 2 seconds later I hear that confirming thwak! Harold said I hit it absolutely perfect from watching in the spotter. I was excited as heck that we had pulled this off so early in the hunt.
The first time I've ever shot something where the animal is actually way bigger after I've shot that before. Normally ground shrinkage hits a little but not this time! I was just blown away that not only did I take a ram, I was lucky enough to take a HUGE ram! He was a 10 yr old ram, that ended up with 14 1/8" bases and double broomed. Even broomed he was 38" and 36" which for me was far better than I expected.
I definately want to go again for sheep sometime but doubt I will get a chance to top this ram.
I definately thank my other good friend Brian Lyles for building this custom rifle for me. Thing shoots like a dream and has really built my confidence in shooting longer distance when needed.
Once we had the sheep all deboned and caped, I started loading the pack for the trip back to "upper" camp. just as I started strapping on the cape, I hear "grizzly bear!, Grizzly bear!!....and of course after being attacked once, that sound to me means that I'm about to get rolled by a bear. I'm scrambling like crazy to get to my rifle and as soon as it hits my hands i'm looking franticly to see where he is coming from............turns out they were 350 yards away which was quite a relief
Two bears both about the same size. Beauty blonde and a dark chocolate one. I could fill my griz tag less than two hours after my sheep tag!! I elected to pass on the bears just because we thought there was a chance it was a sow with a really big cub. Pretty dang cool though to see two bears already!After the bears winded us, we loaded up the packs and headed out.
