MT Sheep HD 482

[Danders134]

Very interesting. Let's see how this first trip from the ground attack goes. Should have something to report back next week.

I know of at least one person who has already killed a ram in the unit.

I shot my ram on Nov 6, at that time the biologist said there was only one other tag and the governors tag unfilled. Most everybody, myself included, missed the greatest show on dirt. Really tough to hold out that long hoping the weather holds. I spent 26 nights over 3 months, in a camper solo, enjoy every second cause it might be your one and only chance.. Good Luck!

 

[MT_elk]

Great pics so far. Looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

[JLS]

Listen to these guys and don't get in a hurry. Watching those rams in November is really something special.

 

[HSi-ESi]

Cool thread and pictures. I would echo the comments above on "milking" this. I've talked with about 6 guys who have had these tags - and all have said they wish they would have spent more time up there. It can be tough depending on your personal situtation....

Make it what you can - and keep posting pics!

 

[The Hedgehog]

A 200" giant was taken this week. But I if were a betting guy, I'd bet that "next year" a similar ram or two will be taken, that will be rutting along the river this year in about 7-8 weeks when nobody has an un-notched permit.

 

[JLS]

I talked to a guy one year that had this permit. He drove his camper out from Missoula, killed the first good ram he saw on the first day of his hunt, and then was fretting and obsessing about it making B&C. It was a nice sheep, taped out at about 181" green, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for the dude that he couldn't take some time and enjoy what this permit has to offer. That same year in mid-November I saw several rams in the unit that were easily bigger than his. Patience....

 

[Fire_9]

I talked to a guy one year that had this permit. He drove his camper out from Missoula, killed the first good ram he saw on the first day of his hunt, and then was fretting and obsessing about it making B&C. It was a nice sheep, taped out at about 181" green, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for the dude that he couldn't take some time and enjoy what this permit has to offer. That same year in mid-November I saw several rams in the unit that were easily bigger than his. Patience....

I think that happens quite often with the big 3 permits. We put so much pressure on ourselves that we forget to make the most of a possible once in a lifetime tag. If I had my goat tag to do over again, I would in a heartbeat because it was just a weekend trip into the mountains. I should have lived up there the whole month of September. Milk this tag for as long as you can because you will probably never get to do it again....

 

[phutch30]

The rut makes a big difference in ram sightings. I would see more rams in any given day 1st week of Nov than all my other trips combined

 

[JLS]

I think that happens quite often with the big 3 permits. We put so much pressure on ourselves that we forget to make the most of a possible once in a lifetime tag. If I had my goat tag to do over again, I would in a heartbeat because it was just a weekend trip into the mountains. I should have lived up there the whole month of September. Milk this tag for as long as you can because you will probably never get to do it again....

I completely agree. I shot my goat the second day of my hunt. If I had it to do over again, I would have planned several weeks worth of hunting.

 

[MT2011]

I have updates.

We made it into the HD Thursday afternoon in time for an abbreviated hunt.

Since we did not have much time, we just took a quick hunt into an area where we saw several rams when we scouted. We did not end up seeing any sheep Thursday evening, only several groups of mule deer.

We did note boot tracks in the area made in the mud from the previous weekend's wet weather.

 

[MT2011]

So Friday morning we awoke to a light rain.

We had a good sized group, with the tag holder (my dad), myself, my twin brother, as well as my dad's brother and his son, my cousin.

While we were eating breakfast in camp a pickup rolled by in the dark heading the direction we intended to hunt.

Of course, the truck ended up parking right where we were thinking we might start our morning hunt. So we headed down to another spot we had scouted. We hadn't even shut off the engine before spotting sheep feeding about a mile out. It turned out to be a group of lambs and ewes.

We headed down into sheep country and it was not long before my uncle spotted a nice lone ram feeding in a deep draw about 500 yards away.

 

[MT2011]

We were able to get the spotter on the ram and give him a good look.





He was a great ram but we saw enough to decide he wasn't what we were after.

 

[MT2011]

I'll see if I can get it to post my pictures the right way up.

 

[MT2011]

Here is a shot of team sheep.

 

[MT2011]

After seeing our first good ram with the season open, we decided to divide team sheep and look into separate major drainages down to the river.

Dad and I went left in the direction we had seen the sheep from the pickup and my brother, uncle and cousin went to the right.

Dad and I saw several groups of lambs and ewes and got all the way down the the last point overlooking the riverbottom.

We decided we had gotten more into the lamb/ewe predator avoidance country and maybe the rams were back up towards the heads of the canyons. So we headed back toward some fresh draws.

When we got to a high point we could see the rest of our team. One look through the binoculars and it was obvious they were waving us to get over there to them as quick as we could.

 

[Idahoarcheryhunter]

Best of luck guys, sheep is on my bucket list.

 

[Big Fin]

Good luck.

 

[MT2011]

About 25 minutes later we got over to the other guys.

We learned they had located a group of about 30 sheep, a mixture of lambs, ewes and rams. They had backed off them and left them for us to get there with the gun and the spotting scope. They believed there were some rams worth a closer look.

We agreed dad and I would creep over the edge with the spotter and rifle and see what we thought, the other 3 stayed about 50 yards back out of sight.

Here is a shot of the group of rams we found.

 

[MT2011]

After taking some time to look, knowing we probably didn't have long before one of those sheep spotted us, we decided the ram bedded to the left was certainly the biggest in the group. Range was 325 yds. We could also tell he was a beautiful dark chocolate brown color and his horns looked like what we came for. Judging sheep is difficult for us amateurs, so of course you are never 100% sure just how big he is, just the real question has to be, am I going to be happy to put my tag of a lifetime on that sheep, regardless of what anyone else thinks or what the tape measure says. Dad knew the answer was yes.



The problem was, with the sheep bedded like he was, dad didn't have a good shot, and the steep angles made things awkward at best. Long story short, when the sheep finally went to move, they went quick and the shooter ram went from bedded to butt in one quick movement. The whole group of maybe 30 sheep was off and moving down across the draw.

When they stopped moving again they were in a mass of bodies across the canyon, ranged at 350. We had to wait for the biggest ram to separate himself from the group. The other problem was, the second biggest ram was also dark brown and difficult at a glance to tell apart from the ram dad has his eye on.

Finally, the ram cleared the group and stopped at 380 yards. Dad let him have it, and it was immediately obvious...."you hit him, great shot". He started the long roll and slide downward.



After the high fives with everyone, it came time to assess the recovery. We quickly determined there was no way we were dropping straight down to him, nor were we bringing him out by going up. That country is hard to believe unless you are there looking over the edge for yourself. Our only choice was to come at him from below and take him out along the river bottom.

 

[MT2011]

Almost exactly 5 hours later, we finally arrived to the ram and laid hands on him. We had to carefully slide him downhill another 80 yards just to get him somewhere we could begin breaking him down for the ~4 mile pack out.











As far as I am concerned, the recovery effort was so much fun; all that work, and I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on that part of the hunt and would never have traded it for dumping a ram off the road.

I am really proud of my dad and know we were really blessed to have the opportunity for this experience, and to do it together with family just made it that much more memorable.