K
KBKILLER
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Nov-27-10 AT 04:08PM (MST)[p]well there are some very experianced sheep hunters here, feel free to guess the score and opinion on the ram.
1st- heres the story- (copy and pasted from another site i wrote it up on, that was a continuation of 2 other awsome hunts)
NOW THE CALIFORNIA BIGHORN SHEEP HUNT!
We got back to colby house with 4 hrs to do are laundry and head out for the sheep hunt.
The sheep hunt was on a 48 mile river float trip. Colby could not make this one, but me and justing joined my cousin, his nephew and older brother, and 2 buddies of his.
This was a whole different hunt, there is no getting out once you put in. If you forget something well, that to bad.
The first day we just floated about 2 miles down and set up a quik camp and started glassing. 5 guys behind spotting scopes and we didn't see anything. We knew we were up river from the majority of the sheep but absolutly didn't want to float past anything, remember- once you float past it, there is no going back!
The next morning we packed are camp and floated down river. After a couple miles we started seeing sheep. We came around one corner and seen the only other guy with a tag up on the hill. Next we seen some sheep and knew he was making a stalk. Not wanting to ruin someone elses hunt we just floated on and left that entire canyon to him. Later we heard 3 gun shots and glassed the guy and his 2 buddies packing out his sheep. It was a nice mid 160's ram with alot of mass. The great new was from this point on, there was still 40 miles of river that we had absolutly to areselves!
We didn't do a great job at keeping track of how many sheep we saw, but that first day of hunting we probably saw 15+ rams. Lots of Rams that a guy would be proud of. But it was early and we really wanted to try and kill a great ram.
That first night was my cousins first hard decition...
We found a ram that we believed would score in the upper 160's, we had him at 300 yrds, with the video camera rolling, and his young nephew with us watching. Very similer to the elk hunt, it was a struggle to decide weather to shoot or pass. finally after 45 minuts+/- , he dicided to pass on this ram, take the tape back to the other guys and see what they thought.
After watching it we decided he was a really nice ram and if givin the chance we MIGHT shoot him in the morning.
The next morning we got up extra early to get to the top of the mtn before light. we had guys in alot of areas trying to find them with no luck. It seemed as if nothing was moving at all. The morning seemed to be a wash when we were finally able to spot up that group 2 canyons down river. We moved in on them and got another great look at the ram. He was really heavy, but was just broomed way to much, probably 5/8 curl. Once again, Josh decided to pass. It's always a tuff decition, you just never know whats going to happen if you pass. But he did, and it turned out to be a great choice.
We were a few miles down river from the rafts and camp so luckly are GREAT crew of guys went down , loaded their camp AND ARE's, and floated down to meet us.
Again, it's always tuff when floating, you dont want to pass up any canyons, but then when you know there is sheep down river, you have to go on.
That night Ryan and Josh , 2 guys that were just there to help also, spotted a really good ram, but he was over 2 miles away on a gps and probably 3-4 river miles. Although we were passing some great looking canyons we had to go!
The next morning we floated early, as luck would have it, we floated right up on 2 really nice rams. (Remember this is day 4 now so the thoughts are crossing are mind that we need to be trying to kill a nice ram.) These weren't the ram we had seen, but deffinatly rams that would fit the bill if we couldn't find are ram. We had ryan and josh cross the river and go see if they could spot the group of sheep with are ram in it. They weren't gone for 15 minuts and they had found them!
Me, my cousin Josh, and Justin hopped in the raft and justin rowed his butt off to get us down there. We finally made it to where we needed to be and josh and I got out, ran across the flat untill we could spot the sheep. This hillside was loaded with sheep, and this was OBVIOUSLY the dominent ram of the mtn!
At are angle we couldn't really tell how big he was, just that he had good mass and carried it very well. Everything else we had to trust are guys who had got a better look at him.
We set up my spotting scope for a rest and my cousin made a couple great shot that put the ram down! The hooping and hollering started again!
We all walked up to the ram together, and was absolutly happy with the ram. It's the first Ram that any of us had accually watched get killed and put are hands on.
He is really heavy horned, and does carry it well. In between 3/4 and 7/8 curl, and just a killer looking ram!
The things that made this hunt a succsess were:
1: all the help- again! Ryan and Josh Hagle were awsome! great glassers and great hunters!
Tony and luke- great camp guys and river rafters, luke even did quit well on the mtn for being 15 yrs old
Justin- again, physically rowed with all his might to get us where we needed to be to shot the ram, also awsome with the spotting scope!
2: and again- shear determination on josh's part to make sure to get up every mtn needed to kill his once-in-a-lifetime ram
To think i never even fired a shot and still had the best couple of weeks i've ever had hunting. What a blast!
1st- heres the story- (copy and pasted from another site i wrote it up on, that was a continuation of 2 other awsome hunts)
NOW THE CALIFORNIA BIGHORN SHEEP HUNT!
We got back to colby house with 4 hrs to do are laundry and head out for the sheep hunt.
The sheep hunt was on a 48 mile river float trip. Colby could not make this one, but me and justing joined my cousin, his nephew and older brother, and 2 buddies of his.
This was a whole different hunt, there is no getting out once you put in. If you forget something well, that to bad.
The first day we just floated about 2 miles down and set up a quik camp and started glassing. 5 guys behind spotting scopes and we didn't see anything. We knew we were up river from the majority of the sheep but absolutly didn't want to float past anything, remember- once you float past it, there is no going back!
The next morning we packed are camp and floated down river. After a couple miles we started seeing sheep. We came around one corner and seen the only other guy with a tag up on the hill. Next we seen some sheep and knew he was making a stalk. Not wanting to ruin someone elses hunt we just floated on and left that entire canyon to him. Later we heard 3 gun shots and glassed the guy and his 2 buddies packing out his sheep. It was a nice mid 160's ram with alot of mass. The great new was from this point on, there was still 40 miles of river that we had absolutly to areselves!
We didn't do a great job at keeping track of how many sheep we saw, but that first day of hunting we probably saw 15+ rams. Lots of Rams that a guy would be proud of. But it was early and we really wanted to try and kill a great ram.
That first night was my cousins first hard decition...
We found a ram that we believed would score in the upper 160's, we had him at 300 yrds, with the video camera rolling, and his young nephew with us watching. Very similer to the elk hunt, it was a struggle to decide weather to shoot or pass. finally after 45 minuts+/- , he dicided to pass on this ram, take the tape back to the other guys and see what they thought.
After watching it we decided he was a really nice ram and if givin the chance we MIGHT shoot him in the morning.
The next morning we got up extra early to get to the top of the mtn before light. we had guys in alot of areas trying to find them with no luck. It seemed as if nothing was moving at all. The morning seemed to be a wash when we were finally able to spot up that group 2 canyons down river. We moved in on them and got another great look at the ram. He was really heavy, but was just broomed way to much, probably 5/8 curl. Once again, Josh decided to pass. It's always a tuff decition, you just never know whats going to happen if you pass. But he did, and it turned out to be a great choice.
We were a few miles down river from the rafts and camp so luckly are GREAT crew of guys went down , loaded their camp AND ARE's, and floated down to meet us.
Again, it's always tuff when floating, you dont want to pass up any canyons, but then when you know there is sheep down river, you have to go on.
That night Ryan and Josh , 2 guys that were just there to help also, spotted a really good ram, but he was over 2 miles away on a gps and probably 3-4 river miles. Although we were passing some great looking canyons we had to go!
The next morning we floated early, as luck would have it, we floated right up on 2 really nice rams. (Remember this is day 4 now so the thoughts are crossing are mind that we need to be trying to kill a nice ram.) These weren't the ram we had seen, but deffinatly rams that would fit the bill if we couldn't find are ram. We had ryan and josh cross the river and go see if they could spot the group of sheep with are ram in it. They weren't gone for 15 minuts and they had found them!
Me, my cousin Josh, and Justin hopped in the raft and justin rowed his butt off to get us down there. We finally made it to where we needed to be and josh and I got out, ran across the flat untill we could spot the sheep. This hillside was loaded with sheep, and this was OBVIOUSLY the dominent ram of the mtn!
At are angle we couldn't really tell how big he was, just that he had good mass and carried it very well. Everything else we had to trust are guys who had got a better look at him.
We set up my spotting scope for a rest and my cousin made a couple great shot that put the ram down! The hooping and hollering started again!
We all walked up to the ram together, and was absolutly happy with the ram. It's the first Ram that any of us had accually watched get killed and put are hands on.
He is really heavy horned, and does carry it well. In between 3/4 and 7/8 curl, and just a killer looking ram!
The things that made this hunt a succsess were:
1: all the help- again! Ryan and Josh Hagle were awsome! great glassers and great hunters!
Tony and luke- great camp guys and river rafters, luke even did quit well on the mtn for being 15 yrs old
Justin- again, physically rowed with all his might to get us where we needed to be to shot the ram, also awsome with the spotting scope!
2: and again- shear determination on josh's part to make sure to get up every mtn needed to kill his once-in-a-lifetime ram
To think i never even fired a shot and still had the best couple of weeks i've ever had hunting. What a blast!
