jwatts
Well-known member
Good luck.
2025 Colorado Bighorn Sheep Hunt
- Thread starter npaden
- Start date
BAKPAKR
Well-known member
Safe travels, and good luck!
BuzzH
Well-known member
Good luck! When I had my wyoming tag I passed a shit load of rams and in all spent 26 days. There were times I regretted passing rams, but about halfway through the hunt I settled on being ok not shooting one. Thankfully though, that didn't happen. The friend that helped me reminded me that its about the experience and "getting your money's worth". He guided sheep hunters for a long time.
As he said after I passed a bunch of rams the first 10 days, "you cant call it a sheep hunt unless you've almost died a couple times". Some of the places we rode horses, I feel lucky we didn't.
Enjoy it, the opportunities are few and far between these days.
npaden
Well-known member
Climbed about 2,000’ of elevation in about 2.5 miles tonight so only have another 1,500’ or so to go in the morning.
Saw another hunter on the ridge over from us setting up a spike camp.
Brought the wrong phone cord to charge my phone so will be sparing on my phone use.
Saw another hunter on the ridge over from us setting up a spike camp.
Brought the wrong phone cord to charge my phone so will be sparing on my phone use.
npaden
Well-known member
Headed up the mountain the rest of the way this morning. Hoping to see some sheep!
WNC2500
Well-known member
npaden
Well-known member
Big ram spotted 1,144 yards away on the other ridge with the hunter on top of it.
We are still going to check out the ones we were hiking up to. The one to the south is bigger than any the guide has seen so far.
Would be a big move to go after the big one but not out of the question.
We are still going to check out the ones we were hiking up to. The one to the south is bigger than any the guide has seen so far.
Would be a big move to go after the big one but not out of the question.
npaden
Well-known member
4 more rams spotted further up in the drainage between the ridges. Still see the other group to the south, they are dropping into the bottom it looks like.
npaden
Well-known member
Pretty sure the other hunter shot one out of the group of 4 rams that was up higher in the basin. Heard a shot and then saw a hunter moving around where the sheep had been.
Sitting at 12,000’ glassing and haven’t seen the group of 4 that the guide has been seeing up here.
Can see the big ram from earlier. We are actually above him now although he is up the other side a ways. Trying to figure out what he is going to do.
Sitting at 12,000’ glassing and haven’t seen the group of 4 that the guide has been seeing up here.
Can see the big ram from earlier. We are actually above him now although he is up the other side a ways. Trying to figure out what he is going to do.
txco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2017
- Messages
- 319
Good luck!
seeth07
Well-known member
He must be a death march towards a Ram as there has been too much time between updates!
npaden
Well-known member
Put a long stalk on the big ram and got to about 150 yards. As I was getting set up for a shot (I knew where they were but still couldn’t see them) they figured something was up and started getting out of dodge. They climbed up right where I could see them and stopped. I didn’t have my shooting sticks on and couldn’t see anything to use for an improvised rest so I just chambered a round aimed and fired offhand. Heard a hit and he started down but kept his feet and disappeared out of sight. I figured it was about a 200 yard shot so I had aimed just a little bit high but I ranged where he was at the shot after the fact and it was 247 yards.
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npaden
Well-known member
My guide was 800 yards away spotting and right about that time an afternoon rain storm was coming in so I hustled over to look for blood. I looked about 5 minutes before the rain and hail hit and just hunkered down.
It took the guide about an hour to get over to where I thought I had him the ram and we looked for blood and couldn’t find any. I started down in the direction they had gone and heard something moving off and kicking up some rocks. I head that way and don’t see anything but about 5 minutes later I thought I heard something moving off again with some twig snaps.
I wait some more but don’t hear anything so I start heading back to the guide and my backpack and on the way to him just randomly stumble on a pretty good puddle of blood. There are several in one spot and with the rain we just had it seems like at least some of it is after the rain.
This seemed real promising and we got on the blood trail for about 50 yards and then it petered out. First is was more like splashes and then toward the end it was more like drops.
We decided that he wasn’t dead and we didn’t want to bump him out of there so we ended up skirting around and coming back to town before heading back up in the morning with some extra help to look for him.
Alarm is set for 4:45 and we have some hope but not sure. The blood was muscle blood and didn’t have any smell to it. He was obviously hurting to hang out bleeding for 1.5 hours before I bumped him looking but the trail going cold so fast wasn’t very encouraging.
It took the guide about an hour to get over to where I thought I had him the ram and we looked for blood and couldn’t find any. I started down in the direction they had gone and heard something moving off and kicking up some rocks. I head that way and don’t see anything but about 5 minutes later I thought I heard something moving off again with some twig snaps.
I wait some more but don’t hear anything so I start heading back to the guide and my backpack and on the way to him just randomly stumble on a pretty good puddle of blood. There are several in one spot and with the rain we just had it seems like at least some of it is after the rain.
This seemed real promising and we got on the blood trail for about 50 yards and then it petered out. First is was more like splashes and then toward the end it was more like drops.
We decided that he wasn’t dead and we didn’t want to bump him out of there so we ended up skirting around and coming back to town before heading back up in the morning with some extra help to look for him.
Alarm is set for 4:45 and we have some hope but not sure. The blood was muscle blood and didn’t have any smell to it. He was obviously hurting to hang out bleeding for 1.5 hours before I bumped him looking but the trail going cold so fast wasn’t very encouraging.
BAKPAKR
Well-known member
Good luck in the morning!
You're gonna find him. Thanks for sharing your story here. We enjoy following along.
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