White sheep in my sights

[Bambistew]

Well everything is packed and ready to go, just in time to unpack it and load it in my backpack and put on another plane. Headed out the door this afternoon and should be hunting white sheep tomorrow morning if all goes well.

10 days in the Brooks will be a welcome reprieve from the brutal life of living in Alaska.

A good friend of mine put the smack down a nice ram two days ago, I'm hoping his luck will rub off on me a little. If anything the caribou and grizz better watch themselves.

This has the making for an epic trip. With a little luck, a plane load of critters could be following me home.

Sheep and caribou for me, and grizz and caribou for the GF.

Wish us luck.

 

[Oak]

Sounds like more fun than this. Good luck. Say hi to Ovis. He's in the Brooks too, so you'll probably see him.

 

[mconway951]

Good luck to both of you take pics cant wait to see

 

[ashersdad]

Good luck. Can't wait to see pics and hear your report. Be safe.

 

[indian larry]

Good luck! Cant wait to see pictures. Hope we can get a critter or 2 under our belts too.

 

[Bambistew]

Finally back to civilization... two less critters in the Brooks, one white one brown, both on day 9 of a 9 day hunt. Pics and story to come later.

 

[Dinkshooter]

Great, another person to hate on HT

So Far
1. Ovis
2. Lawnboy
3. Bambi

 

[Lawnboy]

Don't be a hater You've gotten some white ones. I'm the one who should be hating you I'll admit it is one of the funnest and most challenging animals I've ever hunted. Someday.....Someday.

 

[lilbiggun]

Good luck bambi.

I fly out friday for sheep/griz.

 

[thecrittergitter]

You will enjoy Bambi's pictures, after skimming through them today, looked like he had an absolute blast, as well as killing some great animals!

Congrats Bambi!

 

[Spitz]

Let's see them!

 

[noharleyyet]

Bambi

Ovis has taught you well the craft of suspense building trickle journalism.

..looking fwd to the story.

 

[Bambistew]

Here's a rundown of the trip. Sorry the picture quality sucks. There must be some conversion when uploading pics here...

After 8 days of not seeing a legal ram, but seeing animals behind every bush it seemed, 24 rams, over 100 ewes, 15 grizz, wolves, wolverines, fox, caribou… and 2 days stuck in a tent due to weather, we were about to call it quits. I called up the transporter to get picked up and he said he could move us to a different spot if we wanted about 15-20 miles away. I agreed.

We packed up and made the march up the hill back to the strip. He picked us up later that evening, and we flew the new area I’d hunt, spotted 5 legal rams. The bad news was they were 5-8 miles from the landing strip. It was going to be a marathon to get to them… and frankly after spending countless miles hiking the hills, I wasn't looking forward to the long bushwhack to get to these sheep.

We awoke the next morning, to 100 yards of visibility, ground fog had settled in. Great, the last day of my hunt will be spent in a tent. Awesome, and we may not even be able to fly out the next day… I hit the snooze button and went back to sleep for a bit. We woke up about 9:30 and decided that the fog would probably lift and started making a plan and cooking up breakfast. The new camp was perched on a river bank with a decent view for 3-400 yards in each direction.

I spotted a nice grizzly walking up the river about 200 yards away. My girlfriend really wanted to kill a bear, and I told her that this would likely be the one… I told her to grab her rifle and get ready. When I first spotted him he was on the other side of the river, I wasn't looking forward to a swim, but for the last day I would have made it happen if I needed to. Luckily he swam the river and walked into camp, literally she smoked him at 15 yards, and only 50 yards from the tent. The first shot was a lunger, as he was rolling around on the gravel bar, she put a finisher between his shoulder blades and it was lights out. I was glad I didn’t have to go chase him in the thick bush that was surrounding the river, or have to drag him out of the water. The day was looking better and better!

We delt with him for the next 4 hours, ate some lunch, took a short nap and was finally prepared to make a marathon run to try for the rams. I was not looking forward to the hike. I was nearly worn out and to make this happen was going to take everything I had left. I packed only the essentials and headed for the sheep at 4:00PM. The first 3 miles was no fun, took about 2.5 hours or more to go through 10-12' willows, tussok swamps, alders, and brush along with many creek crossings. When I finally reached the mountains there was a few caribou trails to follow and the hike got 100% easier. I took my time looking up each small drainage I passed. There was other sheep in the area, and ya never know what you might see around the next bend.

I kept heading in the direction of where we'd seen the rams, up over a pass about 1800' up. At the crest I spotted a ram bedded on a lime stone cliff about 350 yards off. I quickly ducked and back away hiding behind a small rise between us. I dumped my pack and inched up closer. As I peeked over, the ram was gone. I skirted the cliff hoping he had got up to feed in one of the chutes nearby. No luck. Discouraged I went back for my pack and continued in search of the rams. Was my mind playing tricks? After going another mile or so around a long ridge, I stopped to give my feet a rest and change socks. It was about 9:30 or so, and would be getting dark soon. I wanted to top over the next ridge about half a mile away before dark and spend the night there if need be. I gathered my pack and headed for the next ridge.

I side-hilled about 300 yards and just as I topped a small ridge to drop into a chute, I spotted a ram feeding on the hill about 150 yards away. I quickly ducked behind a boulder dropped my pack and peered over the ridge with the binos... Its a legal ram! Now to see if he's alone, I inched up a bit more, and another ram is below him, this one broomed on both sides with a nice flare and good mass... AWESOME, on a hunch I assumed the ram I really was looking for was with them so I inched a bit more and sure enough there he was below them eating blue berries. The heavy dark horns were unmistakable. I told myself to get it together and calm down, they're 125 yards away and don't have a clue, the wind is right and I have an hour of day light... I waited for what seemed like 10 min for him to finally offer me a shot. It was probably more like 30 seconds…

 

[WV Hunter]

Moar! Moar! :hump:

 

[Goldtip]

Great lookin bear, great looking pics and great story so far.....Looking forward to MORE!

 

[Bambistew]

I flicked the safety off the 325, lined it up on his ribs and squeezed the trigger. He jerked his head up looking in my direction, the other rams were looking at him for guidance… he took two steps down hill and I hit him again, and down he went, he tumbled about 250' down a chute to hang up on a small alder. The other two rams watched him tumble down the hill, and then went back to eating Looking back I wish I would have kicked him an had him fall the next 4-500'. The sun was setting so I got to work, I knew I was going to be spending the night on the mountain with him.

 

[T Bone]

Wow! Great ram Ivan.

And we all scream, "More Bambi, More!"

 

[Oak]

That looks like a stud of a ram. Nice bear, too. Post more photos of the ram if you got any.

 

[AKDrifter]

NIce shots. In hindsight, getting it done at the end of a trip is pretty rewarding albeit nerve wracking at the times considering you have the chance to walk so much country without the burden of a load. Love to see more pics of your ram, looks nice. I leave Sun morning, walking in with packboats. Thanks for added inspiration

 

[thecrittergitter]

Nice job Ivan! Great story and pics, i didn't see the one of you with your ram though?