2023 Wyoming Unit 5 Sheep tag

[poormanslam]

Hey @poormanslam … Have you considered renting a spotting scope? I’ve rented from Todd at optics4rent.com multiple times. He rents Swaros and it’s super easy & affordable.

Optics4Rent Rental quality optics spotting scopes binoculars

Going on Safari or just backyard wildlife viewing, get close to nature without spending a fortune rent the best rated Swarovski binoculars and spotting scopes

optics4rent.com

I got mine back. Swarovski took good care of me and returned it swiftly. I think you can see it in one of the photos

 

[SoCalhunt88]

Great photos, looks incredible. Appreciate the updates

 

[fulldraw]

Great thread and nice pics, looking forward to following along.

 

[poormanslam]

Scouting is done. The roads are rougher and the mountains steeper than I tHought. my ability to find sheep is worse than I thought. Not a good recipe for filling a sheep tag. It’s been a blast. This last trip we found some sheep but no rams. I cannot locate the ram groups I found in June but I think they are still there. I ran into one archery hunter. The archers may move some animals. The GRIZ count is now 22. We watched one sow nurse her two cubs. Pretty cool. Most of the GRIZ are high mothing but I think they will soon drop down and head for berries. The crop looks great. Probably not good for those early and late hikes through the low country. We did finally see one black bear. The variety of wildlife is simply remarkable.

 

[poormanslam]

Can you find my partner glassing in this picture? I walked around the corner and essentially could only see sun reflecting off his cheek. This is a picture that has been enlarged. In the original it would be almost impossible to find him. I think the new camo patterns have really come along way.

 

[poormanslam]

 

[littlebighorn]

Scouting is done. The roads are rougher and the mountains steeper than I tHought. my ability to find sheep is worse than I thought. Not a good recipe for filling a sheep tag. It’s been a blast. This last trip we found some sheep but no rams. I cannot locate the ram groups I found in June but I think they are still there. I ran into one archery hunter. The archers may move some animals. The GRIZ count is now 22. We watched one sow nurse here two cubs. Pretty cool. Most of the GRIZ are high mothing but I think they will soon drop down and head for berries. The crop looks great. Probably not good for those early and late hikes through the low country. We did finally see one black bear. The variety of wildlife is simply remarkable.

Your pre-hunt effort has been impressive to me.
You have not chosen the easy path, but you now probably know most of the obstacles. From my experience, the coming days will drag until you get on the mountain with a tag in your pocket but you have a plan, and now you need to enjoy the rest of the ride.
I'm hoping you keep posting updates because it's already been a very fun follow.
Thanks for keeping us updated.

 

[teamhoyt]

I helped a guy out for sheep in area 5 about 13 years ago. At the end of August and early sept all the griz we seen were above timberline eating moths. Seen 8 at the same time on one mtn. Didnt see any sign of them down low.

 

[poormanslam]

Nobody bit on Where’s Waldo or it was too easy?

 

[Treeshark]

Once you mentioned that he was there it wasn’t super difficult, but had you not said anything I would never have noticed him sitting there. That’s pretty crazy!

 

[squirrel]

Dont get mentally stuck in a rut on where you think you should or have seen sheep. It is hard to find country in there that is devoid of sheep, finding the bachelor rams however can be tougher. Move a lot, if you think you are covering enough ground move more. Those big white rambutts are easy to see from a long ways off as long as they are up and feeding.

It is wildlife paradise, from those giant crickets you step on to the eagles above. Biggest crickets I've ever seen, had to be millions of 'em.

 

[poormanslam]

An update. I headed over for the opener. The windy opener. My goals remained the same for the hunt. Get anyone that helps home safely and a ram of 7 years or more. As I was approaching Yellowstone for the 5th or 6th time in 3 months I realized my excitement entering the Park was much more subdued than in prior years. It occurred to me that I have been so spoiled with what I was seeing in Unit 5 I was somewhat minimizing the glory of YNP. My theory is that when Noah unloaded the animals from the Ark he did it just west of Meeteetse Wy. I arrived for one last day of scouting, my 13th. I found Lots of game but no bands of rams. I ran into an archery elk hunter on the road. He had the Unit 5 tag a few years earlier. He said the area I was in held sheep and rams specifically. I felt like I must be missing them. At that moment I felt like I was making a mistake not going to Kirwin. It’s an area where probably the most sheep out of the wilderness reside. I had stayed away because, as I mentioned earlier I didn’t want to spread myself too thin trying to cover too many areas.
Opening day dawned and I spotted a band of 13 rams about 4.5 miles away (15 x 56 Swaros should be against the law). I thought this was probably the rams I had seen in the summer.

Side note. Lowa will resole and pretty much rework boots for $150. Mine are 18 years old and they said they would still do it. They are sent to Germany and it takes awhile. I decided to have Meyers shoe repair in Pocatello Idaho do it. He did a great job for $80. Probably not as intensive as Lowa but it worked in a pinch.

 

[littlebighorn]

An update. I headed over for the opener. The windy opener. My goals remained the same for the hunt. Get anyone that helps home safely and a ram of 7 years or more. As I was approaching Yellowstone for the 5th or 6th time in 3 months I realized my excitement entering the Park was much more subdued than in prior years. It occurred to me that I have been so spoiled with what I was seeing in Unit 5 I was somewhat minimizing the glory of YNP. My theory is that when Noah unloaded the animals from the Ark he did it just west of Meeteetse Wy. I arrived for one last day of scouting, my 13th. I found Lots of game but no bands of rams. I ran into an archery elk hunter on the road. He had the Unit 5 tag a few years earlier. He said the area I was in held sheep and rams specifically. I felt like I must be missing them. At that moment I felt like I was making a mistake not going to Kirwin. It’s an area where probably the most sheep out of the wilderness reside. I had stayed away because, as I mentioned earlier I didn’t want to spread myself too thin trying to cover too many areas.
Opening day dawned and I spotted a band of 13 rams about 4.5 miles away (15 x 56 Swaros should be against the law). I thought this was probably the rams I had seen in the summer.

Side note. Lowa will resole and pretty much rework boots for $150. Mine are 18 years old and they said they would still do it. They are sent to Germany and it takes awhile. I decided to have Meyers shoe repair in Pocatello Idaho do it. He did a great job for $80. Probably not as intensive as Lowa but it worked in a pinch.

My 15 Swaro's on a tripod are my best sheep hunting tool!
Oh man, that's exciting. Now it's real.

 

[poormanslam]

On day 2 I tried to relocate the 13 rams and of course they were gone. In the middle of another long glassing session I found two young rams only 3.5 miles away. (First pic) Not shooters but at least closer. The way they were acting I felt there were more rams with them. I decided to wait them out. My friend showed up midday and we glassed from 3PM until dark hoping they would show up. Approximately 15 minutes after sundown a group of 8-9 rams entered the basin the young ones were in that morning. It was too dark to age them but I felt there might be a shooter in the group. The plan the next morning was to be in there early and see if we could get close. Where we were headed would also allow us to see the bottom of the basin the 13 rams disappeared in. I was convinced those 13 had not gone far.
Morning of day three we headed to new territory.

 

[poormanslam]

so much more great country had opened up as we hiked in. I was real anxious to start glassing but my partner told me we need to stick to the plan and keep going. Finally we made it to a spot that afforded us a good look at the small basin the rams entered the day before. Within seconds we spotted four rams below us. Ranged at 868 yards. My partner narrates this video.

 

[poormanslam]

We analyzed our situation. We had a 7 plus (possibly 9) year old ram in a decent spot. The hunt had been difficult and ending it with a long shot was not how I wanted to finish it. If we decided to pursue him it would be the difficult way, getting deep inside his bubble. Doing that would be risky with swirling winds. He was also in a spot where we could put meat in the open (make sure bears were not on it) in the event we had to come back for it. We also had the group of young rams in between us and him. Not knowing exactly where they were presented another large hurdle. After some lengthy deliberation I decided it was a Win Win. If we get a shot, great. If not, we get to continue this great adventure. So we started the journey. We would have to be out of sight from the rams from 868 yards until we got inside 200 yards. As we made an our way we spotted more rams, a different group than the previous two groups. 14 rams in this band, 457 yards away. Layne and I commented to each other that regardless the outcome it had turned into a remarkable sheep hunting day. Count total was now 24 rams and it wasn’t even 9:30 AM yet. We stayed and looked these 14 over for 20-25 minutes ensuring there were no better candidates than what we initially chose to pursue. All of these were also not the age we were looking for so we continued the stalk. It was a gauntlet of obstacles trying to get in position for a shot. But to this point the wind stayed in our favor continuously. We finally made it to within 25 yards of the location we felt was best for the shot setup. Just then Layne told me the rams were up feeding and two of them were looking our way. 175 yards from us. We froze and the rams continued to feed. I was able to crawl the last 25 yards and get set up. My last range was 163/152. I made a good shot and the four rams ran about 50 yards where the ram fell over. The other three rams stood watching and waiting for their leader. It was then I had killed the oldest in the group. He had led them for the last time. I was very fortunate and grateful he died quickly. Attached are a few pictures and I will upload more in a few days.

 

[rtraverdavis]

Huge congratulations. You took on a mighty challenge and overcame. Just awesome.

 

[BAKPAKR]

Congrats on a great ram and making the most out of a special tag!

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Congrats man!

 

[Moserkr]

Congratulations on a great ram!!