KipCarson
Well-known member
We’re all rooting for you!
Archery Bighorn Hunt in Southern Colorado
- Thread starter Valen
- Start date
Alright guys, quick update while I have signal. Got up to the camp site mid afternoon but had to hang out in the truck for an hour while the hail and lightning passed through. Was able to get camp set up and head up the hill a ways once the storm passed to do some glassing. No sheep sighted but was sort of anticipating that with the storm. Gonna get a sammich made and hit the hay in the next hour or two.
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BuckhunterBen
Well-known member
Gotta be surreal waking up with a sheep tag in your pocket opening morning
Surreal would certainly be an apt way to describe the feeling this morning.
Figured I’d give you guys a midday update while glassing and getting rained on.
Got to my glassing spot before light but turns out the sheep had other plans because where I normally have been finding them, nothing. After glassing awhile I decided to move around a bit to see if I could find them. Got up above treeline and to the highest ridgeline that runs South/North. I spotted a lone ewe up top trotting off to the north so that’s the way I headed thinking she might be with a larger group. Went to the very northern peak of the mountain that drops to a large bench before dropping into the trees. If she was with a group I have no idea, wasn’t able to locate her again.
At this point, especially on top of the mountain, the wind started screaming from west to east. I know some weather is supposed to blow in later (this the rain I’m sitting in now), I figure that some of the sheep are probably over here on the north side but are in cover. I opted not to wander thru the trees blindly since it’s day one still. I decide to follow that high ridge to the southern summit glassing everything I can, the stuff to the east is much easier to glass as the half the mountain on the west is steep cliffy scree. As I get to the southern edge I dropped off to the east to get a reprieve from the wind. I was hopeful I would get eyes on something over there because it was the only real practical area I could get a shot with how much the wind was whipping. Alas, nadda. I round the southern peak to the west side to drop onto a trail to cover some distance and head back to the north side to glass in the afternoon with hopes the sheep will show themselves. I start thinking maybe I should stop to take a break and eat something (in my excitement this morning I may have skipped breakfast), I stop walking for a moment to check OnX, I look up at the edge of the scree field and what do you know, there’s a shaggy ass ram bedded down 146 yds away from me napping. I glass him up and confirm what I already knew, not legal. He was bedded on a ridge and I couldn’t see if there were any other sheep with him behind the ridge. I decide I should treat this as though the legal ram is hidden from view but there (spoiler alert, he ain’t lol). The pack comes off and I make my approach, at this point the ram is awake and know where I am but doesn’t seem to care since I’m slightly below him, I creep to 76yds and hold not to bump him. (These sheep are definitely acclimated to people with how many hikers recreate in this area). He ends up standing, stretches out, and then slowly walks away towards where I think the other sheep are. I let him get out of sight before creeping up to round the ridge, turns out he was definitely by himself. I go back to get my pack and hikers a few more miles to my glassing point, wind has started to die down but the clouds definitely moved in quick. It’s raining now but I’m planning on eating something here and continuing to glass.
Total action so far:
6 mule deer
2 bighorns
29 marmots
More pics and vids on IG
Figured I’d give you guys a midday update while glassing and getting rained on.
Got to my glassing spot before light but turns out the sheep had other plans because where I normally have been finding them, nothing. After glassing awhile I decided to move around a bit to see if I could find them. Got up above treeline and to the highest ridgeline that runs South/North. I spotted a lone ewe up top trotting off to the north so that’s the way I headed thinking she might be with a larger group. Went to the very northern peak of the mountain that drops to a large bench before dropping into the trees. If she was with a group I have no idea, wasn’t able to locate her again.
At this point, especially on top of the mountain, the wind started screaming from west to east. I know some weather is supposed to blow in later (this the rain I’m sitting in now), I figure that some of the sheep are probably over here on the north side but are in cover. I opted not to wander thru the trees blindly since it’s day one still. I decide to follow that high ridge to the southern summit glassing everything I can, the stuff to the east is much easier to glass as the half the mountain on the west is steep cliffy scree. As I get to the southern edge I dropped off to the east to get a reprieve from the wind. I was hopeful I would get eyes on something over there because it was the only real practical area I could get a shot with how much the wind was whipping. Alas, nadda. I round the southern peak to the west side to drop onto a trail to cover some distance and head back to the north side to glass in the afternoon with hopes the sheep will show themselves. I start thinking maybe I should stop to take a break and eat something (in my excitement this morning I may have skipped breakfast), I stop walking for a moment to check OnX, I look up at the edge of the scree field and what do you know, there’s a shaggy ass ram bedded down 146 yds away from me napping. I glass him up and confirm what I already knew, not legal. He was bedded on a ridge and I couldn’t see if there were any other sheep with him behind the ridge. I decide I should treat this as though the legal ram is hidden from view but there (spoiler alert, he ain’t lol). The pack comes off and I make my approach, at this point the ram is awake and know where I am but doesn’t seem to care since I’m slightly below him, I creep to 76yds and hold not to bump him. (These sheep are definitely acclimated to people with how many hikers recreate in this area). He ends up standing, stretches out, and then slowly walks away towards where I think the other sheep are. I let him get out of sight before creeping up to round the ridge, turns out he was definitely by himself. I go back to get my pack and hikers a few more miles to my glassing point, wind has started to die down but the clouds definitely moved in quick. It’s raining now but I’m planning on eating something here and continuing to glass.
Total action so far:
6 mule deer
2 bighorns
29 marmots
More pics and vids on IG
Attachments
Alright gents, probably my last update tonight. Glassed up that same dinker ram from earlier and have been watching him for the last 20 min. Still no other sheep spotted but with some nicer weather tomorrow I am hopeful. Gonna sit here and glass till dark then head to camp for a Hershey bar, a colors banquet, and some sleepy sleep.
Great day overall, this is so much fun I’m grateful that at the end of opener I still have a tag in my pocket.
Also just want to say, you guys are all cooler than the other side of the pillow. The words of encouragement and good luck wishes are not something taken lightly. HuntTalk has shown me time and again that real community can exist online. Appreciate you all, thanks for tagging along!
Great day overall, this is so much fun I’m grateful that at the end of opener I still have a tag in my pocket.
Also just want to say, you guys are all cooler than the other side of the pillow. The words of encouragement and good luck wishes are not something taken lightly. HuntTalk has shown me time and again that real community can exist online. Appreciate you all, thanks for tagging along!
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SC Living Outdoors
Well-known member
Keep after it!
ChaseH6883
New member
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- Apr 1, 2024
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- 13
Great read. Thanks for taking us along!
jwatts
Well-known member
Well, guess I know what thread I'm refreshing at work all day tomorrow. Good luck.
Alright, day two yesterday was a good one. Glassed up the dinker ram from the day prior pretty quickly once first light hit. He was headed to the north. After a lil while I spotted a couple ewes off to the south. During my scouting it’s been a 50/50 on if I find the legal ram with the larger group of ewes and young rams or if he’s by himself. I ended up chasing the ewes to the south and caught up to them after an hour or so. They were below me going single file through the scree continuing to head south. They went out of view but I had an idea where they were headed. Turns out they stopped short of where I thought they were going to bed down and settled in an area that made it pretty impossible to drop in on top of them. I crossed that saddle to the southern summit (spotted two more sheep bedded down below the summit on the west side).
I should pause here and add a detail from day one.. my dang binos fell out of the harness and though they look alright, something got messed up because now I have to mess with both focal dials whenever I’m changing the distance I’m glassing at and even still they aren’t focusing like before. I’ve got a back up pair at home but I’ve just been making these work in the meantime. Sucks because I got to be a real fan of how light my pack is without hauling the spotter.
Okay back to day two.. I was riding the saddle over to get a better look at the group bedded to the north of me now. Without getting the binos to focus right I was able to determine (to the best of my ability) that the ram I was after wasn’t in this group. I then dropped over on top of the other two sheep to the south, they ended up being two very young rams.
Decided to take the trail under the larger group to get a better look and then head back to the trailhead to then go check out the north side. Some weather blew in and instead of waiting out the hail and rain I got back to the truck and headed back to camp to refill my water and glass the north side.
the weather got weird in the evening, short bursts of rain and hail, windy as hell, and then calm for 15-30 min.
I hiked through the timber to where I’ve cut some ram sign before on the north side but just turned up a handful of muleys.
Set up to glass this morning so will post this shortly. Hoping I find this ram but if I don’t turn anything up by early to midafternoon I’ll be headed down to break down camp and get home to my wife and kiddos. I’ll be back out Tuesday night to hunt Wed thru Sun next week. Looking forward to some mid week days in the field, hopefully will be quite a few less people.
On the trail yesterday I was delayed cause I was stopped by 4 different groups of hikers (all were cool, only one guy made a sort of smart ass comment “hope you’re training with that bow cause I don’t know if you know but there ain’t a season open”, just replied with a smile and let him know it was actually bighorn season. He ended up giving me his number and was adamant if I get a ram down to give him a call so he can help pack it out lol)
I should pause here and add a detail from day one.. my dang binos fell out of the harness and though they look alright, something got messed up because now I have to mess with both focal dials whenever I’m changing the distance I’m glassing at and even still they aren’t focusing like before. I’ve got a back up pair at home but I’ve just been making these work in the meantime. Sucks because I got to be a real fan of how light my pack is without hauling the spotter.
Okay back to day two.. I was riding the saddle over to get a better look at the group bedded to the north of me now. Without getting the binos to focus right I was able to determine (to the best of my ability) that the ram I was after wasn’t in this group. I then dropped over on top of the other two sheep to the south, they ended up being two very young rams.
Decided to take the trail under the larger group to get a better look and then head back to the trailhead to then go check out the north side. Some weather blew in and instead of waiting out the hail and rain I got back to the truck and headed back to camp to refill my water and glass the north side.
the weather got weird in the evening, short bursts of rain and hail, windy as hell, and then calm for 15-30 min.
I hiked through the timber to where I’ve cut some ram sign before on the north side but just turned up a handful of muleys.
Set up to glass this morning so will post this shortly. Hoping I find this ram but if I don’t turn anything up by early to midafternoon I’ll be headed down to break down camp and get home to my wife and kiddos. I’ll be back out Tuesday night to hunt Wed thru Sun next week. Looking forward to some mid week days in the field, hopefully will be quite a few less people.
On the trail yesterday I was delayed cause I was stopped by 4 different groups of hikers (all were cool, only one guy made a sort of smart ass comment “hope you’re training with that bow cause I don’t know if you know but there ain’t a season open”, just replied with a smile and let him know it was actually bighorn season. He ended up giving me his number and was adamant if I get a ram down to give him a call so he can help pack it out lol)
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Glassed up the legal ram around 6am feeding above the trail going up the mountain. Moments after hitting send on the prior reply lol. He had another lil ram with him. With them being content feeding I decided to head up the trail to see what happened. They ended up moving below the trail and when I spotted them they were at 178yds. I got down and dropped my pack and started inching my way towards them. The big guy spotted me and promptly scooted off through the scree to the north peak. I lost sight of them as they rounded the ridge but it seemed like they slowed their pace after getting some distance between us. I climbed up to the top of the peak and have dropped off to the other side. Hunkered down to see if these guys round the ridge or not so figured I’d give y’all an update
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txco
Well-known member
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- Apr 27, 2017
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- 335
Fingers crossed you were up late packing meat off!
Unfortunately that was not the case. Wasn’t able to relocate the ram so called it a day after 9 miles and headed back to camp to break down everything and head down the hill. Will be a quiet two days while back at home and working but will be back on the mountain on Wednesday for a 5 day stint.
Khunter
Well-known member
bring some digiscoping gear to show off the sheep you see!
jpc01101
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- Jan 14, 2021
- Messages
- 1,013
+1 on the request for digiscoping updates 
Just have to get thru one more work day, will be headed to town to resupply and pick up some digiscoping gear 
Gonna have a nice dinner with the fam and then head up the mountain for an early start tomorrow. My ankles and quads are sure grateful for the couple days of rest but it’s weird missing scree fields.. I think I’m officially a sheep hunter lol
Gonna have a nice dinner with the fam and then head up the mountain for an early start tomorrow. My ankles and quads are sure grateful for the couple days of rest but it’s weird missing scree fields.. I think I’m officially a sheep hunter lol
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Well.. a flat in town is better than a flat on the mountain. No morning hunt as I’m stuck in town for the next hour or so but should be able to get up the mountain and set up camp with plenty of time for an afternoon/evening outing.
jpc01101
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I bet it puts you in the right place at the right time...
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