Idaho Sheep 2025

[Miller]

Well after 22 years of applying....here we go!

Figured I'd start this thread now that I'm work and today is my 13th wedding anniversary

I'm not on social media but have read and gathered a ton of information on this site and believe that there are a lot of accomplished, intelligent and good hearted people on this forum.

With that said, this story will only be posted here and I WILL finish this story whether I'm successful or not.

I have 3 1/2 months to get my self in serious sheep shape....current sheep shape is needing fleeced then slaughtered!

All joking aside, I hike well for a medium fat guy and normally do about 4.5 miles a day in prep for elk season. I will be amping this up....

So far, it will be myself, my wife and a long time friend from Boise that are planning this adventure.

I have three options for accessing this unit. Fly into the southern part (which I believe is too much time wasted hiking into the unit,) floating across the river on the north side and backpacking in ( most likely going to do) or raft the river to the East and get flown out ( not gonna do that either.)

Not naming the unit, most guys/gals probably know what unit I drew.

I'm going to leave it that for now and keep you all posted weekly on this endeavor.

Any feedback, help or otherwise motivation is appreciated and I do appreciate all that you all have contributed to this forum!

Cheers,

Joey

 

[Bowhunt_406]

Congrats on the tag! Hope you find a good one!

 

[It’s Bucky]

Good luck with your tag! 22 years will be worth wait here shortly.

 

[Jake.]

Congrats, I’ll be following along! Best of luck!

 

[duckhunt]

Looking forward to following along.

 

[Miller]

Thanks to those that have reached out. I truly appreciate your time and wisdom!

Also...my "new" raft came.....with PATCHES already put on the bottom....this is being returned!

Back to square one for a raft.

 

[Tripcky]

Congrats, best of luck! Can't wait to see the pics!

 

[fulldraw]

Congrats on the tag. Looking forward to following along.

 

[buxnbullz]

Congrats on the tag & good luck. But, most importantly, go have fun & make some great memories!

 

[MTGomer]

Figured I'd start this thread now that I'm work and today is my 13th wedding anniversary

you have your priorities straight which is half the battle for most guys when they get a sheep tag.

Best of luck and keep us updated.

 

[Miller]

Spent last week bear hunting with my brother. He drove up from AZ for redemption due to missing one last year at 108yds We seen six, passed on three, two were a sow and Cub....the shooter gave us the slip.

Time off has been granted for the sheep hunt....I've quit jobs for less! First scout will be beginning of July around the 4th.

Going through our backpacking gear and making a list of new things to add and stuff to get rid of.

Any wisdom on solar banks to charge cameras and phones? I ordered a couple to test out before our scouting trip.

Been hiking 2.4 to 4.8 miles a night with an elevation gain of a little over 750' depending on my schedule and weights in the morning.

I'll keep posting nonsense until this hunt is over. Thanks again to all that have reached out!

 

[cgasner1]

It isn’t nonsense at all this is the best part of the hunt the planning and prep work

 

[duckhunt]

It isn’t nonsense at all this is the best part of the hunt the planning and prep work

Agreed

 

[Miller]

Well..........I hate typing and am definitely not good with words, just ask anyone here that has spoken with me on the phone!

Anyway, the year started out pretty rough in April. My mom passed away the week before I drew this tag, so there has been a few hurdles in the way of this hunt. We were not able to scout on the weekend that I had planned, so between that and having to fire two employees here at work, I doubt I'll make it down there before season opens.

In the mean time, the only thing that I am really focusing on right now is super $hitty hikes every weekend along with the normal ones during the week in order to prep myself and the wife for this.

Gear and new equipment has been fun but the mental and physical aspect of the adventure I believe is the best......just wanted to give you an update so you didn't think I disappeared.

More to come.

There should be at least two good rams coming out of the unit by @Spitz and hopefully myself!

 

[Miller]

Well.............that was absolutely one of the hardest hunts I've ever done. Mentally and physically it will wear a person down for sure, makes my elk hunts look like a walk in the park!

Opening week was more of a scouting trip than anything trying to get the lay of the land, figure out trails or lack there of, where water sources were and hopefully see a ram. Checked all those boxes except seeing a ram. Spent 7 days in there and had a great time. We then planned to come home for two weeks and return to spend the last three back in there.

For the final trip, my other buddy from Boise ended up bailing out on me coming up with crazy excuses....my wife said I shouldn't have sent him pictures from our first trip! So now the two friends that "said" they would help out on this hunt essentially tucked tail and hid.

Food and time in was the big discussion with the wife. She did not want to hike back out to grab more food due to distance and elevation gain with the amount of time we wanted to stay in there. So after a bit of arguing, she insisted that she carry the extra food/weight due to me carrying the weight I already had. Now I know that this seems like a lot for the time duration but you need to remember that we are medium fat so we planned on a calorie deficit knowing that we had the reserves to maintain and not fall apart. This actually worked just fine.

It took us five days to even turn up a ram that was bigger than a banana headed one. He wasn't a shooter and I guessed him about a 4-5 year old. What I couldn't get past was that he was by himself....I watched him all day on day 6 to see if he had any buddies but did not turn up any other rams.

Day 7 I rolled my ankle the worst I have ever since high school. I would like to tell you it was something cool but unfortunately I'm kinda dumb. I shot another grouse that morning out of a tree with my sling shot and when he hit the ground, he started flopping down hill. Being low IQ, I went to chase after him not realizing the steepness of the hillside and got my medium fat weight moving faster than it should. Realizing this was not good, I tried to stop myself and my ankle decided to end the situation right now!

The next day was spent in camp icing my foot in the creek and keeping it elevated. On day 9 we moved around in some other drainages to glass taking it pretty easy. I then returned to my glassing point on day 10 to check back in on the smaller ram still questioning why he was alone. This time I found two other rams 500yds lower than him. The biggest one was not huge but I felt that I would be good with punching the tag on him. We formulated a plan and stalk for the following morning.

That night a big rain storm came in and proceeded to rain for the next 6 days. Stalk was executed flawlessly yet long, just around three miles due to the terrain.....wind was good, thermals were good and we got into position by first light. No rams! We stayed in the area until about noon and then proceeded to back out to glass the basin but unfortunately could not find any of the three rams. My guess is that the weather moved them.

That week we proceeded to try and relocate the rams in the surrounding areas but never did turn them up. At this point I did not want to move further into the unit looking for possible other rams. After 18 total days back there, I decided to pull out and call it a defeat...........

In all it was one hell of an experience being in the Frank for 25 days. We saw over 30 ewes and lambs, 7 rams, 11 bears and two crazy groups of elk hunters packing out bulls. I told them there are easier places to kill an elk in the state. All I can do now is cross my fingers and keep applying for another chance to sheep hunt!

Thanks again to all that reached out to me with wisdom and I'm glad the other tag holders had a great experience and we all made it out of the unit safely!

 

[npaden]

Sounds like a terribly great time. One heck of a wife to be the one buddy that stuck it out and hung in there with you.

Sorry you didn't end up getting one. Sounds like great time spent in a great place though.

 

[brymoore]

Excellent effort! I have a couple unfilled Frank Church sheep tags in my desk drawer.