325 wsm
01-09-2009, 05:38 PM
She'd never been hunting before, let alone for Stone Sheep. I told her we would be going into an area where I thought we had about a 30% chance of getting a caribou and about a 10% chance at getting a stone ram.
The area I was taking her to I had hunted several times over the years and only taken 1 ram out of it. my friend got it 10 years earlier. we were drinking our hot chocolate first thing in the morning when my dog Benny lets out a little whimper and whoa... nice ram 60 yards from the tent. 7 day hunt finished the 2nd morning. 10 mile pack out over 2 mountains to the truck.
I had told her this story but also let her know that we would'nt be going that far back in as this was her first time hunting. I was thinking of it as more of a camping trip as the area is so beautiful I don't usually care if I get anything.
First day we walk in about 5 miles through an alpine valley on an old cat trail. Pretty cushy as far as sheep hunting goes. We had gotten a late start on hiking after a 4 hr. drive and so proceeded to set up tent, do a bit of glassing and call it a day.
Day 2... nothing but sunshine so we head north about 2 miles to the top of a pyramid shaped peak. Time to take a break and do some glassing. A few small caribou a couple miles away on another peak but no sheep. Getting hot out, almost 30 degrees so to hell with hunting lets just hang out and eat and glass.
A couple hours later and here comes 4 rams over the top of a mountain about 2 miles and 4000 vertical feet away. After scoping them out I decide 2 are definitely legal maybe 3 but no hogs. After humming and hawing a bit I decide that those rams are far enough away they can stay there. We just sat on the top of the mountain and watched them for a few hours until they dissapeared over another ridge. On the way back to the tent that evening we came across a small bull caribou but he was about 2000 feet below us. Caribou meat is good but not that good....he can live another day.
Continuing on back to the tent M.C. say's "I think we should hunt that valley that runs southwest .....it looks good." I explain to her that the sheep are usually north of here a few miles and it's not likely to see them south of the tent. Tomorrow we will be going back to the pyramid and after glassing decide what to do from there.
Wake up in the morning, make my hot chocolate and step outside the tent with bino's in hand. In less than 30 seconds I spot the same 4 rams we had seen the day before. They were on a ridge just overlooking the valley that runs to the southwest. After telling M.C. of the situation at hand she has no problem reminding me that she suggested yesterday we should go that way to hunt.
Well the sheep are bedded down a mile away and we have to hide in the tent to keep out of site of them. After about an hour the rams get up and start feeding. But something is wrong they are coming my direction. Nothing was after them but it felt weird to have the sheep coming at me instead of away. I gather up my gun and ammo etc. and start my belly crawl....from the tent. After 30 minutes I'm about 100 yards from the tent and they are still feeding in my direction. About 250 yards in front of me is a steep draw that drops off the side of the bench the rams and I are at opposite sides of. I know that if they go down it I probably won't get a good chance at them so I have to prepare for my shot. Problem is the rams are not seperating enough for a clear shot.
After judging the rams from the tent I knew which 1 I wanted of the 4.
He wasn't the biggest, but I wanted to leave the one that was similar in length but heavier for future breeding purposes and take the 1 with genetically smaller horns.
All the while M.C. is in the tent 100 yards away praying that the rams will keep coming closer and the 1 I want will step from the group for me to shoot it. 50 yards before hitting the drainage guess what. The ram I want steps out from the rest of the group and gives me the opportunity I'm waiting for.
Boom .... $hit that drainage must be more than 250 yards. The 4 rams have done a 180 and are now heading the other way. my ram is still to the side a bit and stops after about 50 yards. Boom....$hit... how far are they. The shot felt good. Another 75 yard sprint away from me and they stop again. I know my gun so it must be the distance I'm miscalculating ( no rangefinder). A nice clear shot in front of me and no other rams in the way so better give it 1 more try. Put the crosshairs 4 feet over his back ....Boom....Finally ..... the 180 gr. ballistic tip from my 325 wsm killed him before I could recover from the recoil. Paced the last shot out at just over 450 yards and the first 1 at @ 350 or about 100 more than I thought.
After the first 2 shots I was thinking. What is M.C. gonna think about this great hunter she's up here with. meanwhile she was thinking how she was going to tell me it was her idea to hunt that direction today. As well as the fact that if she hadn't guided the sheep to our tent with her mindpower I would'nt get 1 anyway.
After reaching the ram I did my normal procedure. Get out the camera, knife and a bit of snack food for before the work starts. M.C. was still being a trooper but teared up a bit as we began taking pic's. After a few pic's she headed back to the tent and packed up everything there as I skinned and quartered the ram.
Well....the ram died 50 yards off the end of a cat trail. I packed the meat, horns and full cape and M.C. took all of our gear. In just over 2 hours we had the sheep in the Jeep. Never had it easier. Problem is now she thinks sheep hunting is easy. Mostly because of her abilities to know where to hunt and of course the mind power to herd sheep to the tent.
I still say it's all about the hot chocolate!
http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq293/mountaindog68/scan0001.jpg
The area I was taking her to I had hunted several times over the years and only taken 1 ram out of it. my friend got it 10 years earlier. we were drinking our hot chocolate first thing in the morning when my dog Benny lets out a little whimper and whoa... nice ram 60 yards from the tent. 7 day hunt finished the 2nd morning. 10 mile pack out over 2 mountains to the truck.
I had told her this story but also let her know that we would'nt be going that far back in as this was her first time hunting. I was thinking of it as more of a camping trip as the area is so beautiful I don't usually care if I get anything.
First day we walk in about 5 miles through an alpine valley on an old cat trail. Pretty cushy as far as sheep hunting goes. We had gotten a late start on hiking after a 4 hr. drive and so proceeded to set up tent, do a bit of glassing and call it a day.
Day 2... nothing but sunshine so we head north about 2 miles to the top of a pyramid shaped peak. Time to take a break and do some glassing. A few small caribou a couple miles away on another peak but no sheep. Getting hot out, almost 30 degrees so to hell with hunting lets just hang out and eat and glass.
A couple hours later and here comes 4 rams over the top of a mountain about 2 miles and 4000 vertical feet away. After scoping them out I decide 2 are definitely legal maybe 3 but no hogs. After humming and hawing a bit I decide that those rams are far enough away they can stay there. We just sat on the top of the mountain and watched them for a few hours until they dissapeared over another ridge. On the way back to the tent that evening we came across a small bull caribou but he was about 2000 feet below us. Caribou meat is good but not that good....he can live another day.
Continuing on back to the tent M.C. say's "I think we should hunt that valley that runs southwest .....it looks good." I explain to her that the sheep are usually north of here a few miles and it's not likely to see them south of the tent. Tomorrow we will be going back to the pyramid and after glassing decide what to do from there.
Wake up in the morning, make my hot chocolate and step outside the tent with bino's in hand. In less than 30 seconds I spot the same 4 rams we had seen the day before. They were on a ridge just overlooking the valley that runs to the southwest. After telling M.C. of the situation at hand she has no problem reminding me that she suggested yesterday we should go that way to hunt.
Well the sheep are bedded down a mile away and we have to hide in the tent to keep out of site of them. After about an hour the rams get up and start feeding. But something is wrong they are coming my direction. Nothing was after them but it felt weird to have the sheep coming at me instead of away. I gather up my gun and ammo etc. and start my belly crawl....from the tent. After 30 minutes I'm about 100 yards from the tent and they are still feeding in my direction. About 250 yards in front of me is a steep draw that drops off the side of the bench the rams and I are at opposite sides of. I know that if they go down it I probably won't get a good chance at them so I have to prepare for my shot. Problem is the rams are not seperating enough for a clear shot.
After judging the rams from the tent I knew which 1 I wanted of the 4.
He wasn't the biggest, but I wanted to leave the one that was similar in length but heavier for future breeding purposes and take the 1 with genetically smaller horns.
All the while M.C. is in the tent 100 yards away praying that the rams will keep coming closer and the 1 I want will step from the group for me to shoot it. 50 yards before hitting the drainage guess what. The ram I want steps out from the rest of the group and gives me the opportunity I'm waiting for.
Boom .... $hit that drainage must be more than 250 yards. The 4 rams have done a 180 and are now heading the other way. my ram is still to the side a bit and stops after about 50 yards. Boom....$hit... how far are they. The shot felt good. Another 75 yard sprint away from me and they stop again. I know my gun so it must be the distance I'm miscalculating ( no rangefinder). A nice clear shot in front of me and no other rams in the way so better give it 1 more try. Put the crosshairs 4 feet over his back ....Boom....Finally ..... the 180 gr. ballistic tip from my 325 wsm killed him before I could recover from the recoil. Paced the last shot out at just over 450 yards and the first 1 at @ 350 or about 100 more than I thought.
After the first 2 shots I was thinking. What is M.C. gonna think about this great hunter she's up here with. meanwhile she was thinking how she was going to tell me it was her idea to hunt that direction today. As well as the fact that if she hadn't guided the sheep to our tent with her mindpower I would'nt get 1 anyway.
After reaching the ram I did my normal procedure. Get out the camera, knife and a bit of snack food for before the work starts. M.C. was still being a trooper but teared up a bit as we began taking pic's. After a few pic's she headed back to the tent and packed up everything there as I skinned and quartered the ram.
Well....the ram died 50 yards off the end of a cat trail. I packed the meat, horns and full cape and M.C. took all of our gear. In just over 2 hours we had the sheep in the Jeep. Never had it easier. Problem is now she thinks sheep hunting is easy. Mostly because of her abilities to know where to hunt and of course the mind power to herd sheep to the tent.
I still say it's all about the hot chocolate!
http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq293/mountaindog68/scan0001.jpg