brownbear932008
Well-known member
Look forward to this epic ending of a great sheep hunt.
My Lucky Year!
- Thread starter Mule Kick
- Start date
npaden
Well-known member
Looking forward to the rest of the story. Hope you killed a good one!
Carl 9.3x62
Well-known member
Good luck! Hope you kill a big one!
Appreciate that! I learned just how important good glass is on this hunt! Not always easy to spot those long JohnsI’m just invested in this now… wish we were buddies, I need something to do tomorrow, I have a pile of Swaro glass, a short drive away and a grumpy attitude as always
We saw a couple ewes throughout the day but no decent rams.
Around 1:30 we decided to head back down the trail to our morning spot and glass from there for a while before heading out.
We looked for a bit and finally saw a ewe and lamb. They disappeared.. Eric napped. I told the guys that if we don’t see anything by 3:30 we may as well head out as most of the sheep we were seeing were up above the trail a ways and would require a climb to get to and it was just a slow day over all.
I dozed off for a bit. Jerked awake and asked Norman what time it was?
He replied kind of joking,”3:25, it’ll take a miracle for anything to happen today”.
Man I had sure been hoping it would happen today with 2 of my best buds there, plus Norman sacrificing his deer hunt for me.. Oh well, maybe it would happen next week.
Around 1:30 we decided to head back down the trail to our morning spot and glass from there for a while before heading out.
We looked for a bit and finally saw a ewe and lamb. They disappeared.. Eric napped. I told the guys that if we don’t see anything by 3:30 we may as well head out as most of the sheep we were seeing were up above the trail a ways and would require a climb to get to and it was just a slow day over all.
I dozed off for a bit. Jerked awake and asked Norman what time it was?
He replied kind of joking,”3:25, it’ll take a miracle for anything to happen today”.
Man I had sure been hoping it would happen today with 2 of my best buds there, plus Norman sacrificing his deer hunt for me.. Oh well, maybe it would happen next week.
We started packing up our stuff when Eric whisper yells “sheep, sheep, sheep”!!
I look up and see 3 ewes and a ram literally running across the rocks and cliffs in front of us coming from left to right! I took one look at the ram and saw he looked decent. Said ‘I’m shooting that thing’.. Tripod and Swaros went flying and I got behind the gun. Extended the bipod for the fairly steep uphill shot and Norman started ranging.
They were pretty much paralleling us at 350-400 when they went behind a little patch of trees and stopped. We could see parts of sheep through the trees and could tell they were kind of moving straight up. I was still asking how big he was and they both said he was at the upper end of what we had been seeing. Finally the ewes appeared and as Norman ranged I kept clicking my scope up and up. 440, 465, ram coming up and up, still moving, ok he stopped at 475. Quartering to us a bit. I looked at his horns for a couple seconds- yup he looks big enough to me!
Put it right on his shoulder, breathe, squeeze- click! You idiot, forgot to chamber a round! Ok don’t panic, put one in, he’s just standing there.
Settled in to try again. Deep breath, let it out, squeeze- Boom!
Norman took this pic after the shot. I shot prone, gives an idea of how steep it was.
I look up and see 3 ewes and a ram literally running across the rocks and cliffs in front of us coming from left to right! I took one look at the ram and saw he looked decent. Said ‘I’m shooting that thing’.. Tripod and Swaros went flying and I got behind the gun. Extended the bipod for the fairly steep uphill shot and Norman started ranging.
They were pretty much paralleling us at 350-400 when they went behind a little patch of trees and stopped. We could see parts of sheep through the trees and could tell they were kind of moving straight up. I was still asking how big he was and they both said he was at the upper end of what we had been seeing. Finally the ewes appeared and as Norman ranged I kept clicking my scope up and up. 440, 465, ram coming up and up, still moving, ok he stopped at 475. Quartering to us a bit. I looked at his horns for a couple seconds- yup he looks big enough to me!
Put it right on his shoulder, breathe, squeeze- click! You idiot, forgot to chamber a round! Ok don’t panic, put one in, he’s just standing there.
Settled in to try again. Deep breath, let it out, squeeze- Boom!
Norman took this pic after the shot. I shot prone, gives an idea of how steep it was.
At the shot I lost him in the scope. It echoed through the canyon and I thought I heard a solid hit. The boys barely had time to say ‘Got em’ and I heard rocks rolling! Perfect shot in the shoulder, he turned and started rolling. It ended up working out as Eric was on the phonescope and hadn’t had him in the scope yet when I dryfired but had time to get him on video by the time I reloaded and shot! We did some yelling (my wife said my little girl voice came out in the video) and hugging.
Reviewed the video and could see he had started rolling almost immediately.
This is a cropped down pic to show where he was standing at the shot. He rolled down that chute by the dot a good 75 yds.
A still shot front the video a second before I shot. Yes it destroyed the shoulder…
Reviewed the video and could see he had started rolling almost immediately.
This is a cropped down pic to show where he was standing at the shot. He rolled down that chute by the dot a good 75 yds.
A still shot front the video a second before I shot. Yes it destroyed the shoulder…
Attachments
We left a few things down on the trail, packed up and started climbing up. Got over to the chute and I saw blood below us. He had rolled further than we thought (couldn’t see from our position because of the trees) but it didn’t take long before I saw a white butt!
