Elkwhisper
Well-known member
Well after three years of trying it all finally came together this weekend in the Breaks! As many of you have no doubt read, my wife and daughter decided in 2015 that they would really like to do a sheep hunt in the Breaks. Once I explained to them the odds of drawing a ram tag, they both agreed that they wanted to start off with ewes first and then tackle the challenge of drawing a ram tag. In 2015 my wife drew a 680-30 tag, and our plan was to use Bullwhacker road (when it was still open), to get us into sheep country and hunt from there. We gave it hell for 3 days, but ended up only seeing a couple of rams, but not ewes.
2016 had us back in the Breaks when my daughter drew a 680-31 tag. This time with the help of my uncle, we accessed sheep country via the river with a jet boat. We camped at the Judith Landing campground and ran the river for three days, glassing all the way, and hiking deep in to any likely looking canyon's. Again, we found rams, but no ewes on the correct side of the river.
This year it was my wife, Jessica's turn again with a 482 tag.... and as we began to make plans for this trip, MFWP called and offered my daughter a 680-30 tag that someone had turned in. Now we had tags on both sides of the river, and were optimistic that this would be our year.
My uncle Joe and I, headed over Friday afternoon with the plan of getting the camper set up, and assessing the possibility of getting the boat in the water at the Stafford Ferry. We also spent the evening glassing from the top, down into some likely looking sheep holes, but could only turn up deer. My wife and daughter made it to camp late that night, and by dawn on Saturday, we were backing the boat into the Mighty Mo. With no ramp, it was quite the challenge getting it launched, but after a few attempts, we got it floating.
The river is pretty low, but we were able to idle down stream glassing into each draw..... our plan was to make it down to Ervine Ridge and start putting some miles on the boots. However, only about 3/4 of a mile from the ferry, I spotted some sheep on a sheer face, about a mile above the river on the south side. We beached the boat on the North side and set up the spotters. What we saw was on nice 170's ram with 3 ewes. We surveyed the country and our approach options, and made a plan. From where we sat the sheep were at 1900 yards, and using my Kilo 2400 I was able to range various ridges to try and pick one that would put us within rifle range. We crossed the river, and started our hike up into the canyon.
It only took about 40 minutes to cut the distance, despite some pretty tricky terrain and side hill crossings that had us using both hands to cling to the hillside.... I was pretty proud of both my wife and 14 year old daughter for sticking with it, and getting to where we needed to be.
When we reached the ridge I wanted to get set up on, I peaked over and the sheep had moved further up the canyon.... and I could only see 2 of the ewes, and just caught a glimpse of the ram diving into a ravine. A quick check of the rangefinder showed 457 yards. With approach options very limited from here we decided to make it work from where we were. My new Christensen Ridgline has been shooting really well, and I was very confident it was up for the job, particularly considering we had zero wind. My wife eased in behind the gun, but had quite a bit of trouble finding the sheep due to the sun shining directly in our eyes. Eventually, she was able to locate the ewe I had the spotter trained on, and she was giving her a very slightly quartering to, angle.
At the shot, the sheep staggered and Jessica jacked another one in.... but it wasn't necessary. The first round had found it's way directly into the center of the ewe's heart and with one step, she cartwheeled toward the bottom. As we watched here fall, another 7 sheep appeared out of the earth, and we watched as 2 big rams, pushed the ewes up and over the ridge. One of the ewes was wearing a big radio collar.
From where we sat, it didn't look like we would have any trouble finding her, but when we got over there it was amazing how steep of a face those sheep were on. It wasn't exactly safe or responsible, to ask my wife or daughter to scale there way up to where she fell, so I did my best Spiderman impression and clawed my way up to where she lay. A quick nudge with my boot, sent her to the very bottom of the washout, where we shared some hugs and high fives, took the obligatory grip and grins, and set to work diving her up into packable pieces.
After three years of trying we finally had found some success. I have hunted all over the west, to include Alaska and B.C several times, and went into this adventure with the assumption that this would be a walk in the park. What it turned into, was a great challenge that I shared with my girls..... While we were packing out Jessica's sheep, I proudly proclaimed "Teamwork makes the dream work"... which was quickly followed by the kind of groan one would expect from a 14 year old daughter, who thinks her dad is giant dork! It was a great moment for our family, and it was awesome to be able to share it with my Uncle Joe.
I wish I would have taken more pics, but we were focused on the task at hand.... Here are a few of Jessica's sheep and the area we were in.
2016 had us back in the Breaks when my daughter drew a 680-31 tag. This time with the help of my uncle, we accessed sheep country via the river with a jet boat. We camped at the Judith Landing campground and ran the river for three days, glassing all the way, and hiking deep in to any likely looking canyon's. Again, we found rams, but no ewes on the correct side of the river.
This year it was my wife, Jessica's turn again with a 482 tag.... and as we began to make plans for this trip, MFWP called and offered my daughter a 680-30 tag that someone had turned in. Now we had tags on both sides of the river, and were optimistic that this would be our year.
My uncle Joe and I, headed over Friday afternoon with the plan of getting the camper set up, and assessing the possibility of getting the boat in the water at the Stafford Ferry. We also spent the evening glassing from the top, down into some likely looking sheep holes, but could only turn up deer. My wife and daughter made it to camp late that night, and by dawn on Saturday, we were backing the boat into the Mighty Mo. With no ramp, it was quite the challenge getting it launched, but after a few attempts, we got it floating.
The river is pretty low, but we were able to idle down stream glassing into each draw..... our plan was to make it down to Ervine Ridge and start putting some miles on the boots. However, only about 3/4 of a mile from the ferry, I spotted some sheep on a sheer face, about a mile above the river on the south side. We beached the boat on the North side and set up the spotters. What we saw was on nice 170's ram with 3 ewes. We surveyed the country and our approach options, and made a plan. From where we sat the sheep were at 1900 yards, and using my Kilo 2400 I was able to range various ridges to try and pick one that would put us within rifle range. We crossed the river, and started our hike up into the canyon.
It only took about 40 minutes to cut the distance, despite some pretty tricky terrain and side hill crossings that had us using both hands to cling to the hillside.... I was pretty proud of both my wife and 14 year old daughter for sticking with it, and getting to where we needed to be.
When we reached the ridge I wanted to get set up on, I peaked over and the sheep had moved further up the canyon.... and I could only see 2 of the ewes, and just caught a glimpse of the ram diving into a ravine. A quick check of the rangefinder showed 457 yards. With approach options very limited from here we decided to make it work from where we were. My new Christensen Ridgline has been shooting really well, and I was very confident it was up for the job, particularly considering we had zero wind. My wife eased in behind the gun, but had quite a bit of trouble finding the sheep due to the sun shining directly in our eyes. Eventually, she was able to locate the ewe I had the spotter trained on, and she was giving her a very slightly quartering to, angle.
At the shot, the sheep staggered and Jessica jacked another one in.... but it wasn't necessary. The first round had found it's way directly into the center of the ewe's heart and with one step, she cartwheeled toward the bottom. As we watched here fall, another 7 sheep appeared out of the earth, and we watched as 2 big rams, pushed the ewes up and over the ridge. One of the ewes was wearing a big radio collar.
From where we sat, it didn't look like we would have any trouble finding her, but when we got over there it was amazing how steep of a face those sheep were on. It wasn't exactly safe or responsible, to ask my wife or daughter to scale there way up to where she fell, so I did my best Spiderman impression and clawed my way up to where she lay. A quick nudge with my boot, sent her to the very bottom of the washout, where we shared some hugs and high fives, took the obligatory grip and grins, and set to work diving her up into packable pieces.
After three years of trying we finally had found some success. I have hunted all over the west, to include Alaska and B.C several times, and went into this adventure with the assumption that this would be a walk in the park. What it turned into, was a great challenge that I shared with my girls..... While we were packing out Jessica's sheep, I proudly proclaimed "Teamwork makes the dream work"... which was quickly followed by the kind of groan one would expect from a 14 year old daughter, who thinks her dad is giant dork! It was a great moment for our family, and it was awesome to be able to share it with my Uncle Joe.
I wish I would have taken more pics, but we were focused on the task at hand.... Here are a few of Jessica's sheep and the area we were in.
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