2025 Colorado Bighorn Sheep Hunt

[npaden]

Hunt Day 1

Not the best night of sleep I’ve ever had. My 15 degree bag was a little too warm and both of our sleeping pads went flat during the night so that wasn’t the best. I was a bit amped up as well so it felt like I didn’t sleep much at all but Nathan said that I had snored a bit so evidently I must have slept better than I thought. The wind had blown a bit too but not bad.

Up and out in no time, we were planning on running and gunning and not sitting around a stove or anything so we grabbed some protein bars, granola and fruit snacks and hit the trail going steady. We talked quietly as we went, both of us were used to moving as quiet as possible through the woods just in case.







We had just discussed at camp that night about where to find sheep and the biologist had mentioned avalanche chutes and he said he hadn’t ever seen sheep in an avalanche chute and about 20 minutes into our climb and he looks over with his binoculars and spots some sheep in the avalanche shoot on the ridge to our south. 3 young rams at first right in the chute and then 3 more mature rams in the timber to the side of the chute. 2 of the mature rams were bigger than any of the rams he had previously scouted. They are over 1,100 yards away and right under where the guy was camped the night before. No real way to make a play on them that we could see and he had been seeing a group of 4 rams just another 500 or 600 yards up the ridge from where we were so we decided to just keep going.


Yellow is where the dude set up the tent the night before. Red circle is where we spot the 6 rams.


We get another 400 yards or so up the ridge and he spots 4 more rams way up in the top of the basin. After a check with the spotter none of these rams are even close to the mature rams in the group of 6 we had just spotted and not even as big as the best ones in the group of 4 he had been seeing fairly regularly.



We decide to just continue on to the saddle where we had planned on going all along. Not much further along and we hear a shot from up in the top of the basin. We are out of sight from those rams but evidently someone else is not. We continue up to the saddle and finally get there about 7:15 or so. Very pretty saddle but nothing to be seen there. We do see a lone hunter walking at the top of the basin right where the 4 rams had been earlier. We are figuring that he got one and was headed to get it taken care of.





We are in a good spot for glassing and turn up 2 of the 6 rams that we had spotted earlier including one of the no doubt shooters. A very nice ram that through the spotter looks close to full curl and a very nice chocolate colored cape. About that time the hunter from the top of the basin and a buddy come walking up the saddle we are in. We point the spotter in a different direction and hang out as they move through. I stood up and moved around a bit, I assume that they saw us but they never gave any indication. It didn’t really seem like they were on a track but maybe they were. They weren’t hiking steady either, just kind of poking along. They moved right through the saddle and then off to the north and out of sight. Any thoughts of the 4 rams we were waiting for to come through that saddle were gone now.

 

[npaden]

Hunt Day 1 Continued...

With only 2 rams left in the entire basin that we knew about and one of them being a shooter we decided to see if we could figure something out on getting him shot. They had bedded for a little bit right in a rock slide area. Then got up and moved toward some aspens, then moved back to the bottom of the rock slide, then moved back toward the timber a little and then just were standing there on the edge of the rock slide. There was no way that we could put a stalk on them and keep them in sight. We did move closer by going down the ridge into the basin and got to within about 800 yards of them but ran out of real estate where we were not going to be able to get any closer without losing sight of them.

We talked it through and decided that the best play would be for him to stay back and keep on the spotter and let me know if they moved as I went forward on the stalk. We looked over the opposite side of the mountain and it seemed like there might be a place up toward the top of one rock slide area that I might be able to see into where they were and get a shot on them. One thing that concerned us is that they still hadn’t bedded down again. There seemed like there was something down in the bottom that was catching their interest but not enough to make them leave. I thought that might be a good thing because it would keep them focused on that and not me sneaking in from the other side and above them.

I start the stalk at about 1:30 and drop down into the bottom of the creek. I tried not to lose too much elevation and side hilled down to the creek and then started up the other side. I stayed in the trees to be as quiet as possible and was getting pretty close by about 2:30. Last bit was over a rock slide and I started moving even slower. I get to the trees and can see the rock slide up higher than where the rams were at but can’t see the bottom of the rock slide where they were last. I take my pack off and unhook my rifle and about that time I hear the rams making their way up the rocks pretty quickly. I look over and see them come into sight moving up through the rock slide. I’m caught in no man’s land. I haven’t had a chance to attach my shooting sticks to my rifle, I don’t see a tree limb or anything else to rest my rifle on, and the ram of my dreams is about to go out of sight forever.

I chamber a round and shoulder the rifle and get the ram in my scope. It’s on 14x and I’m feeling pretty steady. They stop for a second and I have a slight quartering away angle on him. I had done some measuring on my GoHunt app and I felt like they were around 150 yards away from me when they were at the bottom of the slide so figured they were probably around 200 yards away now. The front ram starts taking off again and the back ram is about to follow and I pull the trigger. I hear an instant thump as the bullet hits and I reload but he is bailing down the rocks into the aspens. I can’t see where the bullet hit and it doesn’t seem like he is limping but it almost seems like he stumbled for a second but hard to tell. I can’t imagine not stumbling running down the rock slide like that even if they were fully healthy. They go out of sight into the aspens and I hear rocks getting kicked loose and clattering and then nothing.

I pull out my binoculars and range to where they were when I shot and get 247 yards. What was I thinking taking an offhand standing shot at 247 yards! I’m already second guessing myself. Guide and I text back and forth, he heard the hit too but doesn’t have eyes on the sheep. He still has an hour to get over to where I’m at and probably not wise to go chasing after the ram since we have no real idea where I hit him. I felt good with the shot, but really wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done to take an offhand shot like that. Sometimes I think that at 57 years old I should get to a point where I quit doing stupid things, but here I am proving that I’m still capable of it.

To top everything else off, we have a pretty good storm coming in. At first it looks like it might miss us, but now it is looking otherwise. I wait 30 minutes and then head over to try to pinpoint where they were standing at the shot and see if I can find any blood. I get over there and it is steep. Everything is steep but this spot is extra steep. Not sure how the rocks stay where they are at it is so steep. I range back to where I shot from and feel like I’m in the right spot but I can’t tell much of anything. No tracks on the rocks and no blood that I can find. There are some wild raspberry fragments that look like tiny drops of blood but no actual blood that I can find. After about 5 minutes of looking the storm hits and it rains and hails for about 30 minutes. I thought I took some pictures after the hail but evidently not. I did take a short video right when it started and I’ll share a screenshot from that.



After the rain and hail, it took Nathan about 45 minutes to an hour to get over to me. We are at 11,500’ where I think the ram was at the shot. We talk it through and decide to just separate and start circling and gridding and looking for blood or tracks. I head down to where I last saw the ram headed and after I get there and start moving around I hear something move off to the east in the rocks. It didn’t run off, just a slow rock getting kicked and rolling down and then another and maybe 2 more. I move that direction but don’t see or hear anything else. I start moving around again and think I hear something again further to the east. I sit and listen but nothing. I had left my backpack up high before I dropped down and Nathan is bringing it down to me and as I’m going back up to meet him I literally stumble on some obvious blood. I ask him if he is following the blood trail and he responds “what blood trail?”. We stop and look at the blood and there are 3 good spots all within a few feet of each other where it looks like the ram stood during the rain and hail and then until we started looking for him and I heard him move off to the east. It looks like a lot of blood, but he probably stood there for at least an hour and a half to two hours so over that time frame it really probably isn’t a whole lot, but it is still significant.



With a little extra pep in our step we move back and forth along the blood trail to determine the direction he is traveling. Going in either direction from the main blood spots the blood gets sparse pretty quickly. We both felt like we hear him moving east so that is the direction that we concentrate on. At first there is blood spatter with several drops about every 2 or 3 feet. Then about every 5 feet, then it is just a few drops each time and about 10 feet. The last blood we can find is about 20 feet apart and just one drop each time. Nathan spends an hour at least nearly on his hands and knees looking for the next blood. I’m circling out a bit wider also looking for blood or for the ram. The decent blood we had found had us pretty optimistic, but now it is sinking in that this is not going to be easy.

Last blood.


It’s after 5 pm now and we have either a 2 hour hike back to camp or a 3 hour hike back to the trailhead. My phone battery is getting low and I ended up with the wrong charge cord at camp and we are thinking that if we are going to be grid searching and looking tomorrow that it would be a good idea for use to have fully charged phones. We are thinking that the ram is still alive and the smartest move would be to let him alone so we don’t bump him out of there and decide that it would be better to just go all the way back to the trailhead and spend the night back in town then be back heading in at first light in the morning. The hike out sucks. A ton of side hilling to get to the ridgeline to drop down and then we drop 2,400’ of elevation over a couple miles. My quads are not happy with that and I’m going pretty slow. Nathan is struggling to walk as slow as I am so he keeps moving ahead and then waiting on me. We get back to the trucks just before dark. I’m beat. A diet coke out of the cooler in my truck tastes great!

I ride with him in his truck back to town and they have a little AirBnB setup that is not being used and I stay there. Nathan cooks me an awesome ribeye steak with some chopped potatoes and it really hits the spot. A hot shower and a good bed is nice too. Again I struggle to actually sleep though. I lay there for hours thinking everything through and trying to figure out what my options are and what we need to do in the morning. My muscles are a bit sore but not as bad as I was thinking on the hike down. I keep referring to myself as the turtle, I am slow but I’m going to get there eventually!

 

[npaden]

Hunt Day 2

Alarm is set for 4:45 and we are leaving at 5:00. It’s about a 45 minute drive to the trailhead and we don’t really see a need to be hiking in the dark but want to be going as early as possible once it gets light. I had forgotten to bring any kind of a change of clothes to town so I’m changing socks and underwear there on the side of the truck before heading up the mountain. The first part of the hike isn’t bad and we are making pretty good time again. We get to the ridge that we had just gone down the night before and start heading up it and I’m turning into a turtle again. It’s not steep but it is steady. I felt like the day before I had let myself get behind on my calories early so I tried to do a better job of that this time. Ate a king size snicker bar on the hike in and tied to keep it going with granola and other snacks after that. We had 2,500’ of climb to get back to last blood and my goal was to get there by 9:00 (we left the truck just after 6:00). I ended up needing to take a couple breaks on the way up this time but we still ended up getting there at about 9:15. Not terrible. On the way up during one of the breaks Nathan hears a cow call and says there are some elk right over there. I’m listening and hear human voices. Archery deer and elk are open so I’m figuring it is some hunters coming up behind us making cow calls. We sit a little longer and hear the voices again. I’m ready to go so we start moving. About 20 yards up the ridge a herd of elk blows out right where Nathan had said he heard the cow call. I feel a little bad for the hunters we had heard below us, but not really anything we could have done differently. We keep moving up fairly steady and the voices behind us start getting closer. Not too much longer and 4 trail runner/hiker type folks come past us with 2 guys and 2 ladies. The guys are just chit chatting and moving fast like they are on a Sunday stroll. The ladies were working harder for sure but they were moving pretty fast, not jogging but very steady hiking. They were headed up making a round about trip of one of the 14,000’ peaks that day. Just for fun. It didn’t make me feel any better about me struggling up the ridge.

The ridge we were hiking really was by far the best way up there and down though. A little sidehilling and we were to the spot where we had marked last blood. Nathan really worked it again trying to find more blood or tracks or something but it was just too rough and the main thing was that the rocks had changed to dirt and the blood was a lot easier to find on the rocks than in the dirt. We work it for a while, Nathan goes back to the west a ways looking over there and then we decide that the only thing really left to do is grid search our way down to the creek.




We start grid searching and as we are doing that I stop and check my phone. I’d been posting updates on HuntTalk and one person posted a link to the Rocky Mountain Big Game Recovery Nonprofit Group that uses dogs as trackers. I checked and there was someone a little over an hour away and I texted them what was up and started gridding again. Within about 15 minutes they texted back and said that they thought they would be able to help but that we should stop grid searching because it could mess up the trail for the dogs. I called Nathan over and we sat down and ate some oatmeal as I texted back and forth to the dog tracker person. It became evident that it was going to be near dark before they could get their stuff rounded up and get over to the trailhead and get hiked in with their dogs. It really didn’t sound like an ideal setup with a long hike back out in the dark and possibly not enough time to even get much tracking done. We texted back and forth for a while and decided that we had probably messed up the trail about as bad as we could back when we spent hours looking for the next blood and that us doing a grid search down the side of the mountain probably wasn’t going to make it too much worse so that was the plan. We were going to get the top blood tracking team in the morning if we weren’t able to find him that afternoon.

We continued to do our grid search after that and did pretty good. It got pretty thick toward the bottom and neither of us really saw anything other than a lot of elk sign in the thick stuff. As we are doing our grids we were shouting back and forth to each other occasionally and not trying to be quiet at all. It takes us several hours but we get to the bottom of the creek around 3:00 that afternoon.




Nathan filters a bunch of water for us out of the creek and we head back up to camp from the first night. It wasn’t a terrible hike, about 500’ of elevation gain from the creek bottom is all, bushwhacking the entire way but nothing too bad. We are back to camp about 4:00 and I’m completely beat. Emotionally and physically. I take my boots off and after a little while decide to go lay down in the tent for a bit. Nathan went over to the ridge and is glassing back over to the side of the mountain that we were just on looking for sheep.

I’m laying there in the tent and Nathan yells to me something like “You got to get over here right now, you aren’t going to believe this!” I go dancing over the rocks in the socks and he says he has eyes on my ram! Sure enough, he is laying there in the avalanche chute where we had originally spotted the 3 smaller rams the morning before.



At the time I posted on HuntTalk that he was 400 yards from where we had seen the last blood but looking at it on the map and measuring it, it was closer to just 150 yards away. Nathan had been on that side when we were doing the grid search and he said at times he could nearly see into that chute and was less than 100 yards from it. We aren’t sure if the ram was laying there the entire time, or if he had been somewhere else and moved there after we made it down the bottom and climbed back up to camp. Retrospectively based on how little he moved after that I think he must have been there the entire time. We both had heard him moving off to the east the day before after I bumped him and we never thought to look to the west instead. Nathan and said that they like to double back and even had checked a little that direction but only about 50 yards.

Needless to say my spirits went from near rock bottom to near cloud 9 in the course of about 60 seconds looking at him through the scope. We still didn’t know how bad he was hurt, but just from the fact that his was still there so close to where I shot him originally and to where we had just been tromping around he had to be hurt pretty bad. We watched him and he laid his head down on the ground and Nathan said that if he had seen him like that first he would have thought he was dead.



We discussed the option of going after him that evening, and after I posted that we found him alive on HuntTalk several people posted that we should get after him right then, but Nathan really wanted to watch him and see what he was going to do. If he got up and started feeding like he wasn’t even hurt and moved off a half mile he wanted to have eyes on him when that happened. It was also going to be a long stalk over there. We were going to need to drop about 500’ of elevation to get back to the creek, maybe able to sidehill up the baisn further and not lose as much elevation, but once across the creek going to have to climb up the other side to get even or above him and he was at around 11,400’ based on looking at the map and ranging him. Originally I had said he was 1,100 yards away based on how far he had been the previous morning, but I hadn’t realized we were a little further away at camp. Using my binoculars I ranged him at 1,400 yards where he was now. The stalk would be close over a mile for sure and take close to 2 hours so it didn’t sound like that best course of action when it looked like if we were patient we should have the whole next day to figure it out.

View of the avalanche chute from camp.


Somewhere in here I get back in touch with the dog tracker people and let them know that we have eyes on him and don’t need them in the morning. It sounds like they are amazing people and for sure have plenty to do this time of year. The crazy thing is that they are 100% volunteers and can’t accept any compensation at all for tracking. You can’t even give them a cup of coffee. Even though I didn’t end up using them it is nice just to know they are an option in the future and I’m going to make a donation to their nonprofit. That’s allowable.

Nathan goes and gets the food out of the bear bag and we start making some mountain houses for supper. The ram still hasn’t moved. We’ve been watching him over an hour and he stands up. At first he doesn’t move at all then he very slowly moves maybe 5 feet over a few minutes. Finally he starts moving and eating, but there is obviously something wrong. He can put weight on both front legs but it is like he can’t move them forward very well. He is taking very small steps and the best way I can describe it is moving very gingerly. He moves around 20 or 30 yards over about 30 minutes and beds back down. Originally it seemed like he was bedded in a very odd spot, but this time he is bedded on a bit of a rise that looks like where you would expect a sheep to bed. We watch him until it gets dark and he is in the same exact spot. He again has laid his head down some and not looking super great. It isn’t looking like he is going to die overnight the way he is eating and moving around, but it doesn’t look like he is going to be moving too far either.

 

[npaden]

I hit the 10,000 character limit on that last post. I was going to comment on how I've never seen anything like all the deadfall piled up in the bottom of that creek. There was a spot above where a pretty good avalanche must have taken out some trees and I guess the bottom of the creek there is where they ended up.

Last bit of Day 2 was just:

We are in the tent trying to go to sleep by probably about 8:30. As tired as I was I sure thought I would be able to sleep but it was another restless night. I had to be getting some sleep but it was in little snippets. We didn’t have to get up early because the first thing we needed to do is get eyes on the ram as soon as possible.

 

[npaden]

Hunt Day 3

It wasn’t more than 10 minutes after shooting light and Nathan calls out that he has eyes on him and that he hasn’t moved even 20 yards overnight. He’s in an odd bed again, just laying in the chute and not looking great. We talk it over and discuss going up the ridge and doing a 100% repeat of the stalk of the first day or staying lower and side hilling more before we decide what to do. We couldn’t remember how much of the time we would have eyes on the ram if we took the ridge option so we decided the best course of action was side hilling and keeping eyes on him as much as possible. It might have been a poor decision because the going through the aspen rock slides was not the most enjoyable thing, but we were able to keep eyes on him. We moved through for a while and actually closed the yardage to 715 yards before we were not going to be able to see him any longer if we continued the way that we needed to.

By this time he had gotten up and moved again and he was behind some small pine trees and all you could see of him was his horns through some gaps in the branches. The only way to be sure it was him was when he moved his head you could see pieces of horns move and sometimes go away then reappear. He wasn’t making this easy on us. We have the discussion again of the best way to go about killing him and again the decision is made that Nathan should stay back and keep eyes on him while I make the stalk. We had all day and it didn’t look like he was going to be moving much so patience was going to be the key. As we are getting ready for me to take off he gets up again and moves into the trees right at the base of the same rock slide where he had been opening day. We completely lose sight of him but Nathan is sure that he is in there. Sitting and waiting here isn’t going to do us any good so I get my stuff together and start the stalk.

Getting down to the creek isn’t bad, but I end up a little lower elevation than the previous stalk and end up having to do a lot more climbing once I get to the other side. Here's the view once I got down to the creek this time.



It is amazing how much effort moving through this country takes. My trekking poles were 100% necessary equipment! They didn’t work as well in the tight aspens with rock slides as if you lost your balance you couldn’t really reach out and stabilize yourself but everywhere else they were life savers. It also really helped climbing and descending just to take a small percentage of the weight off your legs. I was drinking tons of water and sweating it all out and it really wasn’t that warm out.

There were quite a few raspberries and they were perfectly ripe so that was one bonus!


Anyway, I’m climbing up the other side of the mountain trying to get up a little above where the ram was. Everything I had read and heard said that if you approach them from below you are going to be busted but that if you approach them from the side or above you might have a chance.

Looking back toward camp after I've climbed up the other side a ways.


It’s been a little over an hour since I left Nathan and I’m getting close. I’m within 300 yards of where we saw the ram last and I start moving very slow. I quit using my trekking poles so they won’t scrape on the rocks and am just moving slowly on the rocks trying to stay on the largest most stable ones. I put a little weight on them first with each step to make sure they are stable before committing to make the full step onto them. Its slow, but quiet and steady progress. I’m down to about 200 yards and decide I’m not going to make the same mistake as opening day and I drop my pack, get my rifle ready with my sticks attached and left my pack and my trekking poles behind. From here I’m working super slow and steady. Moving maybe 3 or 4 yards and glassing. Moving and glassing. I’m starting to see more and more of the rock slide, but the trees are thick. I find a really good spot that looks like it opens up and is going to be a good option. I start working my way over there the same way, a few yards and glass, a few yards and glass. Really looking into the timber from different angles. There is a rock that I can now see in the avalanche chute that we were seeing just above the ram from the other side and I know I’m very close.

I’m sitting and trying to decide how I’m going to get any closer and I see the ram in the trees on the other side. At some point I’ve ranged around on the other side and the longest range I’ve gotten was 145 yards so he is closer than that. I can’t see his head, but I can’t imagine that there would be another ram in there and the chocolate coat gives him away. I am steady on the sticks and aim and fire.

I don’t hear it hit, but I hear some crashing noise and then silence. I’m looking for him to be coming out of the trees and I can see pretty well above the trees and don’t see him come out there but I can’t see at all below him. I can’t imagine that he could be moving quietly through this country though and I don’t hear a thing. I message Nathan that I am pretty sure I got him and that he can start heading this way. I post on HuntTalk and start second guessing everything and waiting for a while before I go looking for him.

I sit for probably 30 minutes and nothing has moved and I haven’t heard a thing. I eat a snack bar and go back and get my pack and move it to where I took the shot from. I’m looking in the trees and now I can’t figure out exactly where he was when I shot him. Where I first thought it was is only 70 yards away and I felt that it was a further shot than that. I look with my binoculars and move back and forth a bit just can’t see in the trees very well. I wait another 15 minutes and Nathan texts me that he is in the bottom of the creek and that he is going to filter some water so I know it is going to still be quite a while so I decide to go ahead and look for him on my own.

View of where he was when I shot him. The rock slide in the top left of the picture is where I shot him on Tuesday afternoon. I didn't measure it exactly, but I think it was right around 100 yards and 35 hours between the shots.


I leave my pack, chamber a round and put the gun on safety and start looking. I’m moving very slowly again and looking up and down. I can’t believe that I don’t have the spot where I shot him last pegged down solid but it is what it is. I get about 70 yards and he isn’t there. He must have been further like I thought originally. I’m looking down in the timber where I think he might of rolled and then back up just to be making sure I’m covering everything. I’m starting to think I might be looking in the wrong spot and then I just about step on him. I’m literally 5 feet away from him and his is piled up with a little tree keeping him from rolling down the hill!

I took this picture the second I first found him. A few more feet and I would have stepped on him I was concentrating on looking up and down the slope for him so hard.


Pretty hard to put into words the relief that washed over me. I was so happy that I found him! It had been right around 35 hours since I had shot him Tuesday afternoon and I hate that he suffered that long, but I really tried my best. I’ve got quite a while to wait for Nathan to get over to me and the way he is hung up on the small tree I decide that I probably shouldn’t try to move him or he might roll quite a ways down the hill so I just sit down beside him and ponder.



What an amazing 3 days! The highs were high but the lows might have been lower. Both emotionally and physically as we are climbing up and down the mountains! I have done a very poor job of doing any kind of video on this hunt as I was just trying to not fall down most of the time and at some point I just put my little video camera in my pack and quit carrying it around but I pulled it out and recorded a little conversation with myself. At one point I thought I might cry but I held it together.

One thing that was surprising to me was the flies! It had only been about an hour from the time I shot him the 2nd time to the time I found him and there were a lot of flies already on him. I wasn’t sure if some of that was because of the initial shot that was still and open wound or if that was normal for early September in the mountains. Nathan said that it was worse with archery elk and to wait for the bees to show up and they did.

 

[npaden]

Hunt Day 3 concluded

Nathan got over there about 30 minutes later and we moved him down to a spot where he at least wasn’t going to roll all the way down the mountain and we took some pictures and started cutting him up.






2 hours later we had him all cut up and on our packs and were headed down the mountain.







One thing I guess I need to clarify is where I hit him on that first shot. One thing I did not realize is that sheep have a little hump on their shoulders, almost like a buffalo that sticks up maybe 2”. So my first shot hit him maybe 4” from the top of his back which put it right over the top of his spine. It must have gone between 2 vertebra and just clipped his backstrap. On the exit the hole was about the size of a 50 cent piece and I swear you could see the top of the scapula though the hole. I always kick myself for not doing a better post mortem on an animal, but at the time I was quartering him up on the back side with Nathan was getting him caped and he did most of the cutting on that part, but the back straps looked pretty much completely intact when we pulled them off. For sure he was hurt enough not to want to move around much but not enough where he couldn’t move if he had to. I do think he would have lived if I hadn’t found him again.




Okay, so the pack out wasn’t exactly fun but again really not that bad. About 2.5 miles and dropping 2,500’ of elevation. I had shed my spotting scope and tripod before we headed back up on Wednesday morning so I was only about 30 pounds in my pack to start and I carried the head, cape, backstraps, neck roasts and tenderloins so I was guessing I was somewhere in the 75 to 80 pound range. Nathan felt like he was around 60 pounds in his pack to start and carried all 4 quarters out (hinds were cut at the knee and fronts were cut at the ankle) so I think his pack was in the 110 to 120 range. Going across the rock slide right at the start was probably the hardest part of the pack out. I did fall once on that but not bad. Then we had about half mile of side hilling and then down the same ridge that we walked out on Tuesday evening. The mood was a lot better hiking out this time, but with the heavy packs I ended up needing to take a few breaks on the way out. We ended up back at the trucks at 6:30 and both of us were very ready to get our packs off. This pack out made me realize that my days of 100 pound elk pack outs are probably over. On flatter ground I might could do a bit more than 80 pounds but that’s probably a good number for me in the near future.

I guess that’s about it. Got my boots off and put my crocks on and we got the meat in the cooler and headed into town. One thing I hadn’t really thought of is that a bighorn head doesn’t fit in a cooler very well. I brought a 120 quart and 52 quart and the meat fit easily but the head wouldn’t fit in either cooler. Ended up putting it in the 52 quart and just not shutting the lid all the way.

Got to town and showered and went to a nice place in Buena Vista to have a good meal and was back to the room and in bed by 9:00.

 

[npaden]

Headed home and random thoughts

Got up the next morning and got him loaded up and headed to Salida to get him checked in a little before 8:00 and that went really smoothly. They confirmed his age at 8+ and logged him in at 3/4 curl although he said he was close to 7/8 but they don’t log them unless they are for sure at or over that next level. I’m very happy with him! Truly the ram of my dreams. Double broomed and a chocolate cape and 8+ year old. Coming from a unit where I think I have pictures of the last several years worth of rams taken in the unit and he is the biggest of any that I’ve seen pictures of. And a unit with a 17% harvest success rate for the last 2 years I'm really just happy to have got one!




I’m not sure I’ve ever drank as much water and pee’d less than the 3 and a half days I was sheep hunting. I sweated gallons! I was sweating profusely on the climbs even though the temperatures were mild and we had overcast sky most of the time. Like water just dripping off me. My back was soaked. On Thursday I drank a little over 4 liters of water and 2 diet cokes and then several glasses of water at dinner. I pee’d at 4:45 am when I got up that morning and then didn’t pee again until 2:00 am Friday morning when I woke up and decided I needed to move around some or I might not ever be able to get up again.

I’m still not sure why it seemed so physically demanding. I really felt with my jogging and my hiking that I did in Montana with a 14+ roundtrip hike with 2,000’ of elevation and another 10+ mile hike with similar elevation that I was going to be in fine shape. I was always worried about phone battery so I didn’t track my hiking, but the step counter on my phone showed me with 3.9 miles on the day before the opener with hiking up to camp which had about 2,000’ of elevation gain that day. Just 5.9 miles on opening day and looking at the maps probably only had about 1,500’ of elevation gain that day and about 3,000’ of elevation loss. 4.6 miles on day 2, that was probably my biggest elevation gain day with around 3,300’ of elevation gain and maybe 600’ of loss looking at the map. Last day shows at 6.5 miles and it was probably only about 1,000’ of total gain and about 3,000’ of loss. Probably 95% of those miles were off trail some of it wasn’t difficult off trail but some of it was. Those numbers really don’t look like much at all but I was beat by the end of it. I’m sure I could have kept going but it was getting harder and harder each day.

The only other thing that I’m not sure about is whether I shot the right ram or not on the first day. When we were watching them there were 2 rams and one was obviously mature and looked to be nearly full curl or sometime maybe more than full curl. He had a nice chocolate cape. The ram that was with him wasn’t tiny but didn’t look to be much bigger than maybe 5/8 curl and had a much lighter cape. When they were running off I don’t really remember what the ram in the front looked like the but one in the back that I shot looked big and had a chocolate cape. No doubt the one I ended up with was the one I shot on opening day, but looking back at the pictures though the spotter I’m not 100% sure it is the same ram or not. I think some of it may be that the pictures through the spotter are blurry and make it seem like he was bigger than he was. I think the ram I ended up with is bigger than the one that was with the big one. I guess there is a possibility that there was a 3rd ram that we didn’t see but that doesn’t sound right either. I’m pretty sure the ram I shot is the big one that we have pictures of from the spotter but not positive. I don’t think it matters either way, but if anyone has any thoughts on that I’m curious what others might think.





Right now the head and cape is at the taxidermist and as soon as they have him caped I’m going to bring him home and clean the skull and pop the horns on my own. I’m leaning toward keeping the original horns as a euro and having a replica made for the shoulder mount. There’s a guy in Utah doing it and a place in Wyoming doing it. If anyone has used either I would be curious what you thought.

It is amazing thinking back on it, that all of that happened in 3 and a half days! No doubt about it, I had the right guy for a guide and he did an amazing job. He just loves sheep hunting and it shows in everything he did. Amazing guy. I couldn’t have done it without him. It’s a tough unit and I was very happy to be successful.

Think that is about It, but I’m sure I’m forgetting things. Never going to get it all down the first time for sure.

 

[cgasner1]

Lady in Cody does exceptional work. She is about a year out right now

 

[Oak]

Fantastic story. Thanks for sharing.

I was fairly certain as soon as you found your ram that it wasn't the same you had posted live photos of. But absolutely no reason to plant that seed. You killed a great, mature ram.

I know the WY folks do great (expensive) work. I'm not familiar with the UT business.

Edit to add: That unit is not an easy one, as the harvest stats indicate. You definitely made the right decision in securing some help. Imagine doing all of that by yourself. Way to take full advantage of perhaps the only chance you ever get to hunt sheep.

 

[Dave N]

You said it yourself but I did have that thought of "good thing it stopped where it did".

 

[Drake4]

Great ram. Congratulations!
Agree w/ Oak...definitely not the same ram as in the live photos.

 

[npaden]

Had someone ask me a few questions via PM and thought I might as well share it here in the thread.

What gear did you use? I can tell you used Kuiu Vias pattern, but what did you have on? What were the series that you had on? I am assuming the temperature was pretty high?
What boots did you use?
I bet others will be interested in this as well?

I was wearing just some of the attack pants. I have 2 pairs, one of them I bought used here on the classifieds like 12 years ago. I think that was the pair I was wearing. I had one of the lighter weight long sleeve wool shirts with a zip. In my pack I was carrying a heavier weight long sleeve shirt, chugach rain jacket and pants and a down puffy. One of the smaller original ones, not the new burner type ones.

The temperatures really wasn't that high. It didn't ever hit 80 for sure. Highs were in the mid 70's and lows in the mid 40's. Was really blessed with the weather. The day after we packed out it rained pretty good and even snowed up high that day. I didn't ever end up putting on the heavier long sleeve shirt or the rain pants but I did wear the chugach rain jacket the day that it rained and one evening with a breeze going I had the puffy on with the rain jacket over it. I'm pretty warm natured so tend to get hot a lot easier than I get cold but it was surprising that when the sun goes down and there is a breeze you need something to put on. Even on the scouting trip in mid August I ended up wearing my rain jacket even though it wasn't raining and wished I had a little more.

I was wearing my Lowa Renegade GTX boots which were perfect for the weather but suffered a little dealing with the constant up and down and side hilling. Just not a super stiff boot (not designed to be) but I didn't ever end up with a blister but did have some hot spots the day that we did the grid searching which was nearly all side hilling. I have a pair of the old Meindl boots from forever ago but they are a little heavy but probably would have been better on the side hill stuff. The Meindls would have been better on the pack out day as well with the heavy pack but overall probably glad I wore the Lowas the whole time just because of how much lighter they are.

I'm a firm believer in sock liners and think that really helped keep me from getting blisters. My feet sweat (along with the rest of me) and without lightweight sock liners I am prone to blisters especially on the constant up and down and side hill type stuff. Probably should get some different insoles for the Lowas, they are the originals and getting some wear on them.

I was using my Stone Glacier Sky Talus 6900 backpack and I really like it. When it came time for the packout it was real easy to load him up. The gun sling is okay, I like how it carries the gun, it is just not quite as easy to pull off and get to as it seems like it should be. Way better than trying to carry it around on a sling though.

I used the Olin digiscoping setup on my swaro ATS 65HD scope and that was really nice. I just about upgraded my spotter for this hunt but just barely kept from pulling the trigger on a Kowa 883 at a real good price. Then I ended up leaving my swaro 65 back at the truck to save weight after the first day so I am sure I would have left the Kowa too and that would have been a waste to spend the $ to upgrade it then leave it at the truck. Been looking at the Swaro ATC and almost pulled the trigger on one of them also. Just hard to justify the weight of a spotter when you are the one carrying the rifle.

Rifle is a Kimber Montana in .300 WSM. Lightweight and accurate, I really like the VX3i on it for the weight savings, but not having the zero stop really threw me for a loop there. I've read some DIY type stuff on making your own zero stop setup for them and maybe that is the way to go. I think it clicks fine, just need to be able to verify zero better.

I use an Anker power bank that is 10,000 mah that is over 10 years old. It works fine if you bring the correct cord. Maybe I need to upgrade it so if I accidently grab a usb-c charge cord I'm not dead in the water though. Digiscoping used way more battery than I expected. Was just messing around with it and looking at the dude setting up his tent and before I knew it I had burned through about 20% of my battery on my phone in about 30 minutes.

The best bang for my buck was my trekking poles which are some Black Ovis store brand ones that fold up real easy and are very light and strong (carbon fiber I think). They were a life saver.

As Oak pointed out maybe the best decision of the entire hunt was hiring a guide and it turned out that I think I got the perfect guide for me. This is almost certainly the only sheep hunt I will ever do based on drawing statistics and it was well worth the money to have him along. If I had several younger buddies that were willing to give up their vacations and come along and help I might could have pulled it off but the guide putting in the time scouting this summer and having the experience to know at least in general what the sheep are doing really paid off. I'm curious on what the final harvest stats will be for this year for the unit. The last two years with only 1 successful hunter out of 6 and the years before that the best success rates were around 50%. It is tough and if you aren't willing to go after them the sheep are not going to come to you. Having a guide helped with that for sure but you still have to be willing to go to where the sheep live. Just hiring a guide isn't enough, you have to put in the effort on top of that.

Okay, long winded reply to a simple question. I'm no expert for sure but those are my thoughts on the gear that I used and how it worked.

 

[npaden]

Picked up the head from the taxidermist and it is as heavy as I remembered.

Going to soak it a few days then start working on getting the horns off. After I change I’ll go back out and pull the jawbone and take the eyes out.

Trying to decide if I should run the sous vide on it now to help loosen the horns up or just let time do that.

 

[Sandbrew]

Picked up the head from the taxidermist and it is as heavy as I remembered.

Going to soak it a few days then start working on getting the horns off. After I change I’ll go back out and pull the jawbone and take the eyes out.

Trying to decide if I should run the sous vide on it now to help loosen the horns up or just let time do that.

View attachment 385322

I wouldn't soak those horns like that. I think they will get stained. To get them to pop set them in a sealed trash bag in a warm place for a couple of days then drop them in the bag - back down- nose up- just they are in the cooler on a piece scrap carpet on concrete from 2-3 feet high. Do that once a day until the pop off. Or send them to a beetle guy and let the bugs free them up.

 

[Wildabeest]

They are over 1,100 yards away and right under where the guy was camped the night before. No real way to make a play on them that we could see and he had been seeing a group of 4 rams just another 500 or 600 yards up the ridge from where we were so we decided to just keep going.

RJ would have taken the shot

 

[mevertsen]

I wouldn't soak those horns like that. I think they will get stained. To get them to pop set them in a sealed trash bag in a warm place for a couple of days then drop them in the bag - back down- nose up- just they are in the cooler on a piece scrap carpet on concrete from 2-3 feet high. Do that once a day until the pop off. Or send them to a beetle guy and let the bugs free them up.

This.

Let them stink up. My antelope horns popped off in 2 days by hand, just hanging in my lean to.

A rubber mallet might work as well.

 

[npaden]

I wouldn't soak those horns like that. I think they will get stained. To get them to pop set them in a sealed trash bag in a warm place for a couple of days then drop them in the bag - back down- nose up- just they are in the cooler on a piece scrap carpet on concrete from 2-3 feet high. Do that once a day until the pop off. Or send them to a beetle guy and let the bugs free them up.

Thanks. I will go dump the water and put them in a trash bag.

So leave them in the sealed trash bag inside the cooler but no water?

Then drop them cooler and all from about 2 to 3 feet onto the concrete?

 

[mevertsen]

Thanks. I will go dump the water and put them in a trash bag.

So leave them in the sealed trash bag inside the cooler but no water?

Then drop them cooler and all from about 2 to 3 feet onto the concrete?

No. Drop the horns straight down onto a protected hard surface.

Or hit them hard.

You should also be dry enough where you are it won't take long.

 

[npaden]

Got it ready. Put it in the trash bag and set it out to soak up the sun tomorrow.

 

[OverlordBear]

Thank you for taking us along on this sheep hunt. Way to go… this was such an exciting hunt especially reading it live. Enjoy the sheep and I agree with you I would definitely get a replica mount and keep the original horns and skull for a euro