idahofishnhunt
Well-known member
Good luck, can't wait to hear the story.
Dall Sheep Round 6
- Thread starter Lawnboy
- Start date
Monteman11
Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2011
- Messages
- 192
Good luck, living the dream of many in those mountains.
arffdog875
New member
Good luck!
Lawnboy
Well-known member
Started off heading back to an area we hunted last year. The first day consisted of a 4 hour hike in up a creek bottom then a steep climb to the ridge line that we would camp on . Met a father and son combo partway up and they had seen some sheep so that was encouraging. This trip was going to be with my brother, his wife and my brothers friend who was coming along for support and to just get out. He's shot a few sheep and would be great help judging size. We planned on hunting Tuesday night through Saturday. Pretty short for a sheep hunt. My Sister in law hasn't been able to get a sheep even though she's been out a few times. Last year she had a ram shot from under them by an outfitters client longrange who saw them cutting the distance so she was pretty discouraged and looking for a chance again.
Hiking in
This guy came right by us while walking in
The first night on the ridge. Decided on no tents and to sleep under the stars.
We spent the first night glassing and found 4 rams and some ewes. One of the rams looked decent but wasn't full curl. Just seeing some sheep gets the blood flowing what will the next few days hold?
Hiking in
This guy came right by us while walking in
The first night on the ridge. Decided on no tents and to sleep under the stars.
We spent the first night glassing and found 4 rams and some ewes. One of the rams looked decent but wasn't full curl. Just seeing some sheep gets the blood flowing what will the next few days hold?
Zach
Well-known member
Good luck! Hope you find a big one!
Did you bring an outfit for the hero shots?
Did you bring an outfit for the hero shots?
Lawnboy
Well-known member
Knowing that once we were on this ridge we might not be back to water for another day and night we loaded up with 2 quarts each and slept on that ridge. The next morning we climbed even higher and were excited to see some more awesome drainages. We made it to the top and started seeing more sheep. We noticed some ravens in the bottom of a bowl and glassed up a discouraging sight. A fresh gut pile, dang we just missed a legal ram evidently. We moved along the ridge to another canyon and quickly spotted 5 more rams that looked promising. 2 ended up being close at 7/8's curl which is a inch or 2 shy dang it's looking good.
We ended leaving that area and headed deeper in and spending the night by water which needed by then. The good thing was we ended up spotting 13 more rams on a steep hillside by camp and some look great.
2nd nights camp
Closely looking the rams over we find one that is for sure full curl and 2 others that are dang close if not there. This is great but they are scattered all over this hillside from top to bottom and the bigger ones are closer to the top. We decide the next morning that our best bet would be to make a huge loop around and up to the ridge they are on. This will take another 3-4 hours and a gut buster pull to make it up to another ridge above them.. Again we have to stock up on water and haul it with us. We woke up the next morning to rain and fog. Man we were screwed we couldn't see where the sheep ended up over night but continued with the plan. Fog can be your worst enemy or best friend depending on whether you know where the sheep are. In this case we needed to be able to find them again.
Visibility is 80-yds tops
The fog finally lifted and we had worked our way down the ridge that sheep were on. We used some rock outcropping for landmarks to know when we should be getting close. Sure enough rams start appearing and we are above them. This is good. We couldn't see the big ram so continued down the ridge. I started sneeking down the ridge as my brother and friend stayed back spotting the other rams. As we snuck down the ridge I popped over this rock pile and had a ram staring a me at 100 yds. Dang he spotted me so I motioned to my Sis in law and my brother to hurry down as I was pretty sure the big one must be in this group. She snuck down with him and sure enough they weren't staying put with having seen me. I stayed back and just waited to see what may come around the corner. Not long a shot rang out and I heard that thump and all I saw was another ram come cooking around underneath me. Was this the ram they shot at or one of the others we thought might be legal. I didn't dare shoot as he looked close but I wasn't sure. Eventually I see my brother and his wife heading down below and she has finally done it. What an awesome ram she got.
We ended leaving that area and headed deeper in and spending the night by water which needed by then. The good thing was we ended up spotting 13 more rams on a steep hillside by camp and some look great.
2nd nights camp
Closely looking the rams over we find one that is for sure full curl and 2 others that are dang close if not there. This is great but they are scattered all over this hillside from top to bottom and the bigger ones are closer to the top. We decide the next morning that our best bet would be to make a huge loop around and up to the ridge they are on. This will take another 3-4 hours and a gut buster pull to make it up to another ridge above them.. Again we have to stock up on water and haul it with us. We woke up the next morning to rain and fog. Man we were screwed we couldn't see where the sheep ended up over night but continued with the plan. Fog can be your worst enemy or best friend depending on whether you know where the sheep are. In this case we needed to be able to find them again.
Visibility is 80-yds tops
The fog finally lifted and we had worked our way down the ridge that sheep were on. We used some rock outcropping for landmarks to know when we should be getting close. Sure enough rams start appearing and we are above them. This is good. We couldn't see the big ram so continued down the ridge. I started sneeking down the ridge as my brother and friend stayed back spotting the other rams. As we snuck down the ridge I popped over this rock pile and had a ram staring a me at 100 yds. Dang he spotted me so I motioned to my Sis in law and my brother to hurry down as I was pretty sure the big one must be in this group. She snuck down with him and sure enough they weren't staying put with having seen me. I stayed back and just waited to see what may come around the corner. Not long a shot rang out and I heard that thump and all I saw was another ram come cooking around underneath me. Was this the ram they shot at or one of the others we thought might be legal. I didn't dare shoot as he looked close but I wasn't sure. Eventually I see my brother and his wife heading down below and she has finally done it. What an awesome ram she got.
Lawnboy
Well-known member
It's now Thursday and we are a good 7 hour pack out with her sheep. My brothers friend volunteers to help her pack the sheep out and allow us to continue one more day hunting. What an awesome thing to do as packing a sheep out is brutal. My sis in law was a trooper as well with a solid 45-50 pound pack. Pretty impressive. We stay the night and split up in the morning with my brother and I continuing around a huge drainage and we were going to see if we could find a group of 20 rams that we had spotted on a far mountain earlier. It took us about 4 hours to get around and were discouraged to see 2 other guys heading out a ridge we were going to hunt out. We hoped that maybe they were going to drop off and walk out the bottom but didn't know for sure. We made our way out the ridge and end up bumping into them. We find a group of 12 rams in a nasty hole but they look like 3 of them are 7/8's curl again. Dang our plans are going south in a hurry. It's now 9pm on Friday and the other guys are heading back to there camp and asked us what we were going to do. We decide to hang up on the ridge for a bit longer and maybe stay the night and then head out. About 15 mins after the guys leave we spot a nice looking ram on the hillside we just had walked out. How did we get by him without him spooking. Who cares we notice that he's broke or broomed on one side but dang close to full curl on the other. We now have a group of ewes and lambs scattered across the hill between him and us and we wonder how we can get close enough to see if he's legal or not without spooking them. It's now 9:40 and getting late we make a plan to pretend to just walk out and down but angle toward and under the ram. He's hidden by a small outcropping and maybe we can come underneath him if they don't let him know we are coming.
We bust tail and make it to about 300yds underneath the rock and drop the packs. The hill is straight up and I'm feeling the effects of 4 days of packing on the legs but this is my only chance. We sneek up to the crest of the rock and begin peering over I'm watching my brother next to me as he keeps raising his head. Suddenly he freezes and lowers his head slowly. He says 30yds right in front of us feeding! We still don't know if he's legal so we lift our heads again. The ram must of seen our previous movement and is staring at us. My brother has the binos up and says take him he's legal. I'm thinking he's not quit full curl but Jeff says he's old enough. Suddenly the ram gets nervous and begins to take off and I fire a shot. He rolls a couple times then gets up and takes off down the hill. Crap I made a bad shot. It's now getting dark and I have a wounded sheep. We see him run down the hill to some grass and roll again. We sneek down and see him bedded. One more shot and he's down. It's now dark and the packs are way back up on the mountain. My picts didn't turn out great with it being so dark and on a steep hillside but here they are. He's a cool ram with great mass. I love the broken horn. What a hunt it was. I ended up packing him out the next day and catching my flight at 1am. It took us until 3 am to get him boned and ready to go for the morning. He's 36 5/8 long and 9 years old.
We bust tail and make it to about 300yds underneath the rock and drop the packs. The hill is straight up and I'm feeling the effects of 4 days of packing on the legs but this is my only chance. We sneek up to the crest of the rock and begin peering over I'm watching my brother next to me as he keeps raising his head. Suddenly he freezes and lowers his head slowly. He says 30yds right in front of us feeding! We still don't know if he's legal so we lift our heads again. The ram must of seen our previous movement and is staring at us. My brother has the binos up and says take him he's legal. I'm thinking he's not quit full curl but Jeff says he's old enough. Suddenly the ram gets nervous and begins to take off and I fire a shot. He rolls a couple times then gets up and takes off down the hill. Crap I made a bad shot. It's now getting dark and I have a wounded sheep. We see him run down the hill to some grass and roll again. We sneek down and see him bedded. One more shot and he's down. It's now dark and the packs are way back up on the mountain. My picts didn't turn out great with it being so dark and on a steep hillside but here they are. He's a cool ram with great mass. I love the broken horn. What a hunt it was. I ended up packing him out the next day and catching my flight at 1am. It took us until 3 am to get him boned and ready to go for the morning. He's 36 5/8 long and 9 years old.
Lawnboy
Well-known member
More picts.
Our 2 rams back home
Our 2 rams back home
thecrittergitter
Well-known member
Hey quit screwing around and get back to work........all your lawns are like 2 feet tall now!
Awesome job dude, although I hate you just a little bit
Awesome job dude, although I hate you just a little bit
BiggWimm
New member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2009
- Messages
- 635
Way to go stud!
havgunwilltravel
Active member
Fantastic hunt....working hard..sleeping where you fall..sticking to it..and getting it done..doesn't get any better then that..
ashersdad
Well-known member
Both awesome looking rams!! What an adventure! You guys did great. Nice job!
Mica Man
Well-known member
Awesome job! Congrats to you and your sister in-law.
jryoung
Well-known member
I need to convince my brother to move to Alaska. Awesome work Bart.
B
big28hunter
Guest
What an aweosme story and trophies! Congrats to you both! Round one for me in less than a year. Your pics got me stoked!!!!!!!
mdunc8
Well-known member
Truly sounds like a great hunt. Congrats. I hope I can make it up there some day too.
Muleyfanatic
Active member
Awesome job! Great story!
dustinf
Active member
Great hunt!
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