PDA

View Full Version : Sheep Hunts 2009



Yukon280
10-08-2009, 03:22 PM
A few shots from my Sheep hunting trips this year.
First trip was a 5 day fly in in my buddys C-180. Spent 5 days in a very remote area. Arrived late in the day in heavy smoke, and spent the next 2 days trying to find the rams, as it was mostly Caribou hills we were in. We moved 1 drainage south, and bingo, rams. Found a nice group late in the day, and decided to come back the next morning to hunt them.
Up early the next AM, and by noon we had found them in a very steep spot below us. Things never did work out, as we were hesitant to shoot and maybe loose one due to the cliffs below. Too bad, as there were two in the group that looked quite big.
Next up was a week long trip up a remote river into Stone country. Took the jetboat, and spent 8 hours getting into the mountains. Rained all night, but it started to clear early on, and we spent 4 hours in soaking brush getting to the alpine. Fantastic Sheep country, lots of trails, scat, beds, but could we find a Sheep? No way. Nothing. What was especially frustrating was that the sign was very fresh. Anyway, had a great day out. Woke up the next morning to cloud on the river, and hard rain. Used the sat phone to get a weather forecast, and it was continued bad weather for the next few days, so we loaded up and headed home. Spendy trip fuel wise, but got some good intel for next year in the same spot.
Finally, the last trip was a simple overnighter with my wife in September. Found a nice group of rams straight away, and 2 looked really nice so off into the alpine to try and get into position. Worked my way above them, and they were bedded down, and i couldn't tell which was which from that angle. After an hour, i was freezing, and they weren't making any signs of moving. I was considering throwing a rock to try and get them up when a helicopter came by. I thought "thats it, i'm done", but the Sheep stood up, didn't bolt, and slowly began grazing across the bowl away from me. By this time i was shivering and could not get a proper look through the scope, so i crawled back to the rim and made my way along and above them for a closer look. I made my way down a grassy ridge, and peered over the last tussock, and there they were, maybe 50 yards away.
Found the big feller, confirmed he was 100% legal, and one 139 gr. interbond from the 7mm and he was down and rolling. Fortunately, he stopped in a scree pile. This was about 1PM. We had him dressed and won the mountain by 6, and home for pizza and beer by 10PM, 12 hours after leaving home. Wish i had taken some more shots before dressing him out, as he went 39" at 7 years old.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5bGoJMBII/AAAAAAAAADI/pguRI4CJ0KE/s800/DSCN0857.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5bPwNlj2I/AAAAAAAAADM/X8ynN8Eg4UQ/s800/DSCN0867.JPGhttp://lh6.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5bUiBlEmI/AAAAAAAAADQ/VRX2XCjd6Hw/s800/DSCN0873.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5beNcCD1I/AAAAAAAAADU/A3WM2WTsa8Y/s800/DSCN0886.JPG
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5fJzoKEbI/AAAAAAAAAEI/_Hz8nAq6u2s/s800/DSCN0897.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5fRSpRbRI/AAAAAAAAAEM/S_kRoXC0Efk/s800/DSCN0905.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5fd9Vc8MI/AAAAAAAAAEU/EDrIgubzI00/s800/DSCN0927.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5a-soWZxI/AAAAAAAAADE/S-3wIve-5cU/s800/DSCN0943.JPG
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_-PoGgZg2WxU/Ss5ETNp3NgI/AAAAAAAAACg/N6-h8-SLohw/s800/DSCN0946.JPG

PGK
10-08-2009, 03:35 PM
Awesome ram! 39'' @ 7yo is wicked!!

plumbob
10-08-2009, 03:40 PM
Sounds like you had a great season for sheep for sure and a beauty ram in the end,congrats.

WKCotts
10-08-2009, 03:45 PM
Can't believe you guys let the wolf come so close!

Great looking country! Nice ram!

6 K
10-08-2009, 04:02 PM
Really nice ram, congrats.
Sounds like you put in some time over the year.
39" in seven years wow! Someone has ben dropping fertilizer in those rams' feed.

EVERYONE OR NO ONE !

325 wsm
10-08-2009, 07:53 PM
congrats on the nice ram. spent 5 days at the beginning of august looking for stones, saw 65 ewes & lambs but the rams must have been hiding in all the smoke. Good to see more Yukon stuff on this site.

Yukon280
10-08-2009, 09:19 PM
It seems that when those Stone rams don't want to be seen, well, they stay unseen. Being grey, and hiding in the timber, its pretty rare to find them. You just have to have the time to hang out and glass a lot of terrain. I stumbled onto a huge old feller up in the Hart River area a few years ago, wasn't hunting season yet, and no rifle anyways. He was absolutely enormous. I took a pretty good picture of him, and reviewing it later, common consensus was that he would have probably gone 42-43 easy.

leadpillproductions
10-08-2009, 09:42 PM
great looking ram

whitetailsheds
10-09-2009, 07:27 AM
Thanks for the photos Yukon. Pretty nice country. That is a dall right? I'm all twisted up as u mentioned "stone country" early on. And nowadays, there have been quite a few real light colored stones coming out of the woodwork. Either way, nice ram!