Looking for a Colorado Bighorn

[Big Fin]

The On Your Own Adventures cameras are in Colorado, getting ready for bighorn sheep season to open on Sunday. Camp is set. Very high elevation for these sheep.

The tag holder is a good friend who drew after nine years, as a resident. Colorado has short rifle seasons for sheep, so we will have to get lucky to get one in that time frame.

Oak and Dinkshooter know a lot about CO sheep. Oak actually helped with the details of some of this hunt, when the tagholder was at the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society orientation course. They are a great group. If you want to learn more about that group, click on this link - Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society.

Colorado has amazing cell coverage in these mountains. Must be due to the close proximity of so many ski resorts. So, I am hoping I can post frequent details of the hunt, with pictures.

This is a rifle hunt, so the trick of getting within 50 yards, as in the last two archery hunts, is not the challenge. The challenge will be finding sheep, and getting to them at these elevations. Some of the peaks we will be hunting will be topping out at 13,000'. Camp is at 11,000'. Most the sheep should be near tree line, which varies depending upon which side of the mountain you are on, but is usually higher than my legs/lungs want to go.

Scouting pics to post tomorrow.

 

[Grizzley]

Looking forward to another adventure! Now that I said that I'm thinking I should create an adventure of my own! This arm chair hunting has improved my typing skills.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Good luck and looking forward to the updates.

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Big Guy, Here is a tip. Run up the steep parts of the Mountain and you will spend longer Glassing for Sheep, Elk, Bunny Rabbits. If your hunt is exciting as the Elk hunt we are in for a fun few days! John

 

[Big Fin]

12,300' and three guys hike in and setup a spike camp in the meadow where the ten rams were hanging out. Hopefully they.will chase the rams closer to us. Would rather walk two miles in this elevation, than three miles.

Headlamps are out. More when back at camp.

 

[Big Fin]

Back at camp. Found a guy here hunting ewes, and he plans to drive his ATV into the meadow where the other guys are camped. Should be a pretty funny situation. He is an old guy, with a lot of "front end luggage," so him getting up the hill without aid of a mechanical device is unlikely.

We will go a different direction in the morning. Plenty of sheep sign, even if lots of hunters around. Such is how it goes with public land hunting.

The weather is supposed to be a big change on Monday, so that should add some interest to the mix. Has been beautiful the last two days.

Opening morning is only ten hours away. Will be fun to see if we can find a ram in these mountains. Sure hope so.


Troy, Courtney (tag holder), and Randy (other Randy, the camera man).



Courtney glassing the basin where the rams have been hanging out. 12,000'+ and very beautiful. About ten minutes after this pic, the guys came and set up camp about a half mile to the right of the photo.



Me showing my sense of humor. as the guys dropped their gear and set up a tent. Oh well, if you don't laugh, you will probably cry.

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Big Guy, You look like you have a Tooth Ache in that last picture! So you now have 2 Groups set up on your spot? Just send those camera men down there and clean em out, if they can carry all that equipment up that Mountain they should be able to carry a six pack of Whoop Butt down there! Good Luck. John

 

[1_pointer]

Big Guy, You look like you have a Tooth Ache in that last picture! So you now have 2 Groups set up on your spot? Just send those camera men down there and clean em out, if they can carry all that equipment up that Mountain they should be able to carry a six pack of Whoop Butt down there! Good Luck. John

I can't disagree with that! Good luck to the crew!!

PS- You've been away from home quite a bit lately, when's the yard sale??

 

[Big Fin]

So far, no sheep. Windy, windy, and spitting snow as I write this. Hopefully a change of weather brings a change in luck. Time for another layer.

 

[Treemutt]

Good Luck Randy Hope the crowd works to yalls advantage.

 

[Big Fin]

Found five of these mysterious Colorado bighorns this evening. Just was we walked out,they were coming out of the timber at 100 yards to our right. We saw them at the same time they saw us. By the time you get tripods and cameras going, critters are long gone.

Very frustrating. We sat on 30+ mph winds all day, glassing this little basin. Finally, when we we getting ,low on light and warmth, they start moving from the timber. I don't think we pushed them very hard, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they are still around. All five were shooters.

Too cold, windwhipped, and tired, to post pics, so that will be my job for tomorrow.

And hopefully it will be a pic of a ram.

 

[Oak]

Sounds like a fun time, except for maybe the wind. I just spent 3 windless days in Wyoming, can you believe it?

Thanks for the RMBS plug as well. It's a great group that has raised much money and done a lot of work for sheep in Colorado as well as other states. I am a bit biased though, as I sit on the Board of Directors.

Good luck guys. I'm sure you'll be able to put it all together on a nice ram.

 

[upper deck]

Good luck and can't wait for the play by play on the adventure

 

[Oak]

Hope you guys aren't getting too much snow up there today. Bet the conditions are miserable...

 

[Big Fin]

Not sure how it is over your way, but it is north of miserable up here.

We glassed four rams during a slight break in the blizzard. Courtney and one camera guy dropped down after them. Within fifteen minutes the blizzard returned and I lost sight of them and the rams for the rest of the day. They just returned and we are heading down to camp to dry out our gear.

If the cameras are working after today, it will be a miracle.

Wish I would have followed rather than stay up here huddled against a litte tree and blasted by 30 mph winds, with gusts much stronger.

Fingers are not worjing good, so I will post more tonight at camp. Mostly pics of whiteouts, so those might not be great pics.

 

[Oak]

Bummer, that's about what I figured. You probably don't want to know that it's sunny and 61 here now.

 

[Buschy]

BF,

I guess I shouldn't have complained about the rain in AZ. I would rather take that by the sounds of it. It will happen fast, a ram will be on the ground and the crappy conditions will be forgotten. Good luck guys!

 

[Big Fin]

As miserable as it is, when you see rams feeding away at 800 yards, completely unaware of your presence, it is still an adrenaline rush. Wish we could have got in on them, with some visibility. One was a very nice ram for most anywhere.

Good news is we have no other hunters here. Everyone else bailed out yesterday afternoon. I imagine they heard the weather forecast and were smart enough to get out of here.

But, like most of you who schedule vacation time for a hunt, you hunt regardless of weather. When we block out a week for the camera crew, we hunt, regardless of weather. Too many other filming commitments to fit in during the season to defer a hunt, just because of tough conditions, whether it be the hunting conditions or weather conditions.

I am sitting in my truck, trying to get warm, while I have my soup on the wood stove inside the tent.

Need to be dry for the morning, as these rams have been within a mile of the same location both days, and regardless of the weather, we are going back up there tomorrow and shooting one of those *&%*&^! My truck thermometer reads 24F right now, so I suspect it will be lower than that when we head out at 5:30 tomorrow morning.

I told Courtney that if he gets it on film, which he had better get it on film, I would skin it, cape it, and pack it down to camp. That is how bad I want to get a sheep episode on film.

Oh well, such is life when the OYOA crew shows up. Don't believe me, just ask Buschy, Bugler, Jereep, NVLongbow, AZRed, Lawnboy, and a few others who have participated in this chaos. Nothing ever comes easy when we are around, especially when you add the dimension of two cameras trying to capture as much footage as possible.

Since I have no ram pics, thought I would post some scenery pics.

First two pics would all into the "What a difference a day makes" category.

Yesterday afternoon.



This morning at about 11:00 am from the same spot.


Walking back to camp about an hour ago. The wind is getting worse, but at least camp is tucked in the trees.


I really am having fun, regardless of the expression on my face.


Arrival at camp a short while ago. Should have put away the groceries before packing lunches this morning. Oh well, nothing has spoiled.

 

[jabber]

Cool looking pics

Keep after'em, I think success will be had shortly. Hopefully the weather will break and work with you for a while.

 

[Buschy]

Soon. Very soon. I love looking at pics of big rams.