Hey guys, thanks for all the nice comments. Hiker - you are definitely right, it's going to be very hard to top this year - God's been good to me.
OK, here's the story. The night before the my season opened, I didn't see a single sheep while glassing. A little discouraging. Opening morning was much of the same. I kept moving and glassing, but didn't see a thing until about noon. I was up pretty high glassing down towards treeline, and the wind was really picking up. I decided to move further down the ridge to try to get out of the wind a bit. As I moved down the ridge, I realized there were 15 ewes bedded directly below where I was just glassing from. I couldn't see them because of the rock outcropping I was sitting on. I found it amusing that they were right under my nose and I didn't see them. A view while glassing:
Later that afternoon, I saw two 1/2 curl rams and a younger 3/4 curl ram. I decided not to pursue them since it was only the first day, and hoped I could find one of the bigger rams I had seen while scouting. Didn't see another sheep that evening. Long, long walk back to camp.
Day two - started off slow again. Spotted about 6 ewes and 2 or 3 small rams in a group at mid morning. Then I heard a shot ring out from the area I was planning on heading to next. Revised my plans and worked my way back to the place I spent the previous afternoon. This time I saw 3 rams that were all about 3/4 curl, but they were quite a ways off. One of the 3 was a bigger, darker colored ram. Just like my mountain goat hunt, I had decided to bring my bow for the first few days of this hunt to see if I could make it happen even though I had a rifle tag. I made a plan for a stalk, and began working my way down towards the feeding rams. I closed the distance to roughly 300 yards when they started getting nervous. They kept looking downhill, but I was straight sideways from them. I wasn't sure if they were getting wind of me, or if there was actually something below them making them nervous. They started walking towards me, and I thought - perfect. Then they stopped, started trotting away, and then it turned into an all out run until they vanished into the trees. I never figured out what spooked them. Tonight it was an even longer walk back to camp. I don't think my legs every fully recovered from my mountain goat hunt, I was feeling pretty tired already.
Day three - decided to change areas, and decided to take my rifle today. Went to a place where I saw rams pretty regularly in the summer, but hadn't seen them in the last few scouting trips I had made. Got up to my glassing area at dawn, here's a picture of the sunrise:
Unfortunately there was another guy near there. He was helping a friend who had a tag, and they had spotted a group of rams the night before. His friend was getting in position, and he was going to try to flag him into range if the rams showed up in the same area. I was a bit bummed, wishing I had gone there the night before. I moved down the ridge a ways to glass in another area. I spotted some sheep a good distance away, but it was too early to get a good look, and they were right on the edge of the trees. I figured I didn't have anything to lose since the guys I ran into had the other side of the drainage covered. I started hiking their way, and heard a shot from the other side of the drainage. I assumed the other hunter got one of the rams. During my hike, I lost sight of the sheep for nearly an hour due to the terrain. When I got to a point where I could see better, they were still there, but I could see they were only ewes and a couple of half curls. I glassed from there for a while, but didn't see anything else appear. I moved back towards where I had started from that morning, and spotted a group of sheep a long way away. With my scope on full power, I could just make out they were rams. I watched them for a little while to determine which direction they were moving, and made a guess as to where they might bed. I took off hiking, and decided to stay high on the ridge and get past the rams so I could come up from downwind of them. After 30 minutes, I could no longer see where they were feeding. It took me 3 more hours to hike to the general location. I came down a shoulder of the ridge, and the wind was right in my face like I had hoped. I covered the last 500 yards to the treeline in slow motion. Worked my way along the edge of the trees one step at a time. I got to where I thought the rams might bed, and nothing. I saw a rock outcropping, and worked my way down to it. While on the rock outcropping, I had a good view of the area where the rams had been, and where I thought they were moving to. Still nothing. I sat down on the rock to contemplate my next move. It was 3 pm at this point. I decided I would hike down to a small creek, and come up the other side to see if I could spot the rams bedded somewhere, and if not, start the long, long hike back. As I started down, I slipped on the loose rocks, and suddenly 10 rams jumped up about 50 yards away! They had been bedded directly below me when I was on the rock outcropping! I can only imagine if someone was watching from the other side of the drainage, they would have been dying laughing as I scratched my head wondering where the rams where, and they were within a stones throw away.
The way the rams took off, none of them looked at me. I had a split second pause where I thought I blew it, but then decided to sprint the last 20 yards to the thick trees near the creek. I slid into the trees, and peered back through the branches. The rams had stopped, and were looking back towards where I slipped. I was pretty sure they had never seen me, only heard the noise. I ranged them at just over 200 yards, but they were grouped up and I couldn't risk a shot. Then they ran a bit further down, and I saw them stop again. I dropped down to the creek, and started quickly moving down towards them. I worked my way to the edge of the trees, and they were still in the same place, looking back at where they ran from. I was too far away, so I dropped back to the creek and ran another couple hundred yards further. I crept to the edge of the trees, and spotted the rams again. Much closer, but I didn't have a clear shot because of the trees. I crawled along until I had an opening, and set up there. I ranged them at 118 yards. The rams were all bunched up, so I had a chance to look them over since I couldn't shoot. There were 2 bigger ones in the group, and the rest were smaller 1/2 to 3/4 curl rams. I was hoping one of the two bigger ones would give me a shot. The bigger of the two turned broadside and stepped out from the group, but one of the smaller ones did the same thing and was just barely in the way. The other big ram started walking up hill, and I could see the group getting ready to move. The smaller one turned out of the way, and I had a clear shot at the big ram. I paused to catch my breath - and boom! The rams scattered and I lost them right away because of the trees I was in. I jumped through the branches but they were already gone. I waited about 1 minute, and couldn't stand it. I went up the side of the hill to look for blood, and my ram was laying about 30 yards from where I shot him. Perfect shot, right through the heart. I couldn't believe it! I was completely floored that I had done it. It was an amazing feeling, I'll never forget it. And what a beautiful animal, big body, create color, and great mass on the horns. His left horn had a pretty good chunk out of it from some serious head butting.
Here are a few more pictures of my ram, you can see the chunk out of the horn in the first one:
It took me 4.5 hours to get back that night. I was excited, but exhausted. Slept in until 7:30 the next morning to hopefully let my body recover a little. Started the long day of getting him out of there. At 7:15 pm, I was getting ready to take off with the last load.
It was good timing, because the wind was picking up and the clouds and snow were starting to blow over the peaks towards me.
I thought the last trip was going to do me in. I could barely move my legs, and my back was killing me. 4 hours of hiking in the dark, and I finally saw the lights of my truck reflecting back at me in my head lamp. 11:30 pm and I thought I was done. Loaded up my truck, and started my way home. Clipped a rock, and it flipped up under my truck and got wedged under there. My front left tire was off the ground, and I was stuck! Ended up having to jack my truck up off the rock, and pull the rock out. I went to lower the jack, and a bolt in the jack sheared off and the jack collapsed! My truck came crashing down and the side mirror hit me in the back left shoulder. I ended up on my face in the dirt, and I thought - sheep hunters are crazy! I was so tired and battered at that point, I think I could have slept there. Ended up with a bent driveshaft, and couldn't get my truck in park. Limped my truck home and then limped myself in the door somewhere just before 2 a.m.
Sorry that's the story. Hope it wasn't too long.
