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Thread: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
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    Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    Stone Cold – A Sheep Hunting Story

    It’s about that time of the year again. The time when plans are made, training starts and the accumulation of mountain house rations is both exciting and worrisome. Sheep season is only a few weeks away. As I sit here and plan for this years hunt I can’t help but look back over the last few years of successful sheep expeditions and ponder the lessons learned. From enjoying the harvest of my first ram with my father, to watching a good friend and his son shoot great animals together. I wonder what this year’s trip will hold and what I will learn from a 3-week stay in the backcountry chasing sheep. But for now I will have to be content with reliving the tale of our 2018 Stone Sheep story so sit back and enjoy.

    The date is September 7th, 2018. The truck is packed and we're on our way north. We have already been delayed due to unforeseen circumstances, which has shortened our trip but finally, after months of planning the diesel starts and we are heading out. I think about the trip I had with my Father and Johnny last year (Also Chronicled as the “Stone Zone” story here on HBC) and wonder what is going to happen in the next few days. Unfortunately, dad could not come this year so it was Johnny, his son Cam, and myself. We leave the Thompson around 7 pm and plan to drive through the night, hopefully arriving in at our destination around 9 the next morning if all goes well. Time ticks by as the miles pass and the Shania Twain albums roll. Gas stop in PG, mild flurries through the pass and cool weather as we roll into FSJ for another gas stop before the trek continues. Before long we find ourselves at the launching point ready to go. The trip has shrunk from 10 hunting days to 7 at this point due to events out of our control but we are excited to make the best of what we have.

    Fast forward hours later sees us on the banks of the river hanging our base camp gear high in a tree away from inquisitive visitors. We then begin the long walk back to the Sheep Mountains. We moved about 3 hours back off the river that afternoon and made camp in a thick mossy bunch of timber that was tracked with elk sign. With camp set up and a small fire going we enjoyed the peace and quiet of the mountains. There were a few bull elk around camp bugling back and forth so we gave a few cow chirps to get them fired up. One bull came in very close and continued to circle our camp and scream at us despite our low conversation and the crackle of the fire. The sleeping bag felt good that night as we listened to the elk talk.

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  3. #2
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    Apr 2014
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    81

    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    Yee ha....looking forward to the story. We were up in prophet area a few yrs back... looking forward to this!

  4. #3
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    Jul 2015
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    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    As dawn broke we found ourselves packing up camp again and headed deeper into the unknown. Around lunch we were breaking out of the first tree line and hoping to see sheep. An hour later we spotted some ewes and lambs but nothing to get too excited about. We had camp on our backs and decided to slowly work down a long ridge and glass as much as we could while keeping an eye out for a camp spot. That evening found us perched high on a rocky ridge under a high rock shelf that acted as a perfect windbreak. We made dinner and watched the sun sink behind the mountains as we glassed the mountains around us hoping we would see something to get the blood pumping but without success. The temperature was dropping as we climbed into bed and zipped up the tent. What tomorrow will bring we didn’t know. Stone sheep tally is currently 2 ewes, 2 lambs.

    It was a calm cold night that night. When the alarm went off in the morning and I stuck my head outside the tent I immediately saw….. Nothing. Despite the lack of light I could see a thick haze of fog limiting visibility to only a few feet. And what I could see was white with snow. I zipped up the tent and hit snooze on the alarm. If we couldn’t see anything, why get up? About 45 minutes later as the sun began to turn the lights on we continued to watch as the thick fog rolled by. We were praying that we wouldn’t get socked in. Our trip was already cut short and we didn’t feel like sitting in our tents on the top of a mountain when we could be elk hunting the peak of the rut in the valley below. Now it was only our 2.5 day in the mountains but after a couple hard walking days and all the effort to get back here, waking up to those conditions can really push your drive to sheep hunt. The temperatures that morning were also very cold. Every water bottle we had and water bladder was completely frozen. We discussed whether we should pack up and head down the mountain to go chase elk or wait it out up here and being the eternal optimists we were we decided that we needed to continue sheep hunting. We got up, thawed out and got our day hunt equipment together. As we did we could see “fog free” pockets drift by which gave us some hope that this would burn off.

    I decided to go for a little walk and take the spotting scope with me to see if I could get out of this fog and not 30 seconds over the ridge from camp I found good visibility. I set up the scope and looked to where we saw the sheep yesterday. It was so cold that I could only look for about 30 seconds between “warm up” sessions even though I was wearing every layer I had plus my puffy jacket. I was just about to go back to camp as the final fog was rolling out when I looked over the last grassy patch on the edge of the mountain. I saw 2 sheep feeding away seemingly untouched but the cold. Immediately I could tell they were rams but didn’t look too good. I watched them for a minute and then looked just down the slope to find another one lying in a small bush. This one had much more mass then the other 2 and a low flaring curl. BINGO! We have our first good group of rams spotted. I duck back over the rock edge and run the 30 seconds back to camp where Johnny and Cam are having breakfast while making the universal big ram curl motion with my hands. Seconds later we had the Swaro set up and we zooming in to take a better look at this guy. We decided that he needed a better look as one side looked to break the nose so we made our way down an adjacent ridge to get around 500 yards of the band.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
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    46

    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    That moment was one of the most incredible moments of my hunting career. We were sitting on the edge of a grassy ridge looking at a legal 8 year old ram across the cut feeding with his friends while just below us about 700 yards in the edge of the timber was a beautiful 6 point bull elk bedded watching us like a hawk but completely relaxed. In fact as we sat there and went over our options he starts to bugle to us which starts several other bulls in the neighborhood. We sat there for about 30 minutes gauging the rams and watching the big bull. We made a plan to go around the other side of the mountain and come down on the rams from above to see if there were any others with them as our spirits were now lifted and we were ready to see what else the mountain hid. The next couple hours found us sneaking around the mountain glassing into the grassy basins while we work into the rams last known position. As we crest the ridge where we last saw rams we discover that they have either been bumped or have moved off and there is no trace of them. Being mid afternoon we take the time to have lunch and glass the mountains around us. Below us is a large burn and Cam spots a herd of elk moving through. I’ve been fortunate enough to see quite a few Northern BC bulls in my relatively short hunting career but nothing like this. He was probably a mile away but through the spotter you could see that by body size alone this bull elk looked like a moose. He towered over all the others and his large sweeping rack almost toughed his rump while he was bugling. We named him “Elvis” and took the next few minutes to admire him push the cows around and run off the other little bulls around.

    Johnny and Cam decided that they were going back to camp a bit earlier to get dinner ready and watch the surrounding country from a more sheltered position. I decided that I would continue to torture myself and stay out as long as I could in hopes of glassing the farthest ranges of the area. I found myself a seat and started glassing. As the sun was starting to descend and looking at most of the surrounding country I thought I would look at the last mountain the sun was lighting up as it disappeared. The minute I put the scope up on the only small illuminated grassy patch I saw them. 4 dark specks that I knew could not be rocks. It didn’t take long to turn up the power on the spotting scope and see that I had spotted not one, not two, not three but 4 heavy horned rams. They were still a very long ways off and even on 60 power they looked fairly small in the scope but sometimes you “just know” when you see a good one, and there were a couple good ones over there. Immediately the feeling of the cold wind, dropping temperature and scattered showers did not bother me. I spent the next 30 minutes watching the rams feed across the hillside and bed down for the night. There were 2 dark grey rams, one lighter grey and one that was jet black from head to toe. The only white on his body was his muzzle and as luck would have it, that was the one that looked the heaviest and longest out of all of them but I was a too far away to be sure. I put them to bed and wandered back to camp letting Johnny and Cam know what I had found and showing them pictures I had taken through the scope. We had dinner and went to bed all the while thinking about what tomorrow may bring.

  6. #5
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    Jul 2015
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    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    The morning had us up early and camp packed in a matter of minutes. Our plan was to bring 3 days food back and go get one of those rams from the back ridge as fast as we could since we didn’t have much time. About 45 minutes later we were on our glassing knob trying to locate the rams. It didn’t take long and we had them all accounted for. We had all 4 initial rams spotted plus another band of rams far lower on the mountain that contained a very light colored, broomed ram.




    We made a plan to climb down our current mountain, make camp at the base of the ram ridge and climb up there in the afternoon. Fast forward 3 hours had us pitching our new camp and emptying our packs. The chute we originally planned to walk up Cam spotted a Grizzly and her cub feeding in so we had to take the long way around and climb the farther ridge to get into position. We worked our way up what looked like a grassy ridge with small pockets of brush, but when we got into it we discovered it was chest high willows the whole way. Slowly but surely we ascended the mountain while glassing for the bands of sheep containing the rams. 2 hours later we shed our packs just shy of the summit.

  7. #6
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    Jul 2015
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    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    Taking our guns and spotting scope we crept over the ridge top to see if the rams remained in the same spots. At first we couldn’t see anything but as time passed we started picking sleeping sheep out of the rocks. Ewe, Ewe, Ewe, Ewe, RAM! There was one of the big rams we had spotted earlier sitting on the ridgeline looking over his world. He was a pretty one. Dark grey, heavy horned and just slightly broomed making it to the bridge of his nose.
    .
    He was 550 yards away so we set up the spotting scope to have a better look. Upon closer exam we determined him to be only 7, possibly 8. I thought he must have been one of the dark grey rams I had spotted while I was across the valley so we knew we had another 3-4 rams somewhere close by, one of which was the massive Black ram. As time passed, we laid behind some rocks watching sheep get up and feed here and there. I decided I better have a look into a small rock cut in front of us 50-75 yards so I took the gun and binos and belly crawled the distance. I lay looking into a small rocky cut only to find nothing. As soon as I started to turn to go back back to Johnny and Cam I caught movement and directly behind me about 5-7 yards away were 3 ewes staring straight at me. Crap! The gig was up. We sat in a Mexican standoff for what seemed like an eternity. The wind was in my favor so they did not smell me however they must have been wondering what the human-like slug was doing on the ground. I was hoping if they ran they would not run in the direction of all rams, but that’s exactly what happened. With one quick wind change those ewes shot across the hillside and in about 8 seconds the whole hillside erupted with sheep running in every direction and what sounded like a landslide of shale falling. I scrambled back to out look out and tried to identify rams as they started to run around the side of the mountain. At last I saw the black ram! He was on a dead run leading the band of others and he was not stopping for anything. As he crested the ridgeline I could see clearly through the spotting scope 2 lamb tips that extended well beyond the bridge of his nose and straight out horizontally from the sides of his head. By that time he was already 5-600 yards away and too far for a shot. In about 60 seconds we were now sitting on the mountain and not a sheep in sight. We screwed it up! For a few seconds we just sat there looking at one another feeling like crying. All that work for nothing! It was at that moment I remembered the band of rams lower down on the side of the mountain we had seen earlier. All the sheep we spooked went off the other side of the mountain from them and I thought there was a very small chance they might still be there. We put on our packs and made a 600-yard dash to the edge of the mountain to see what we could see.

  8. #7
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    Jul 2015
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    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    As we got to the edge of the ridge we set up the scope and much to our surprise the band of rams was still there! About 6 rams feeding in a patch of grass seemingly unaware of the ruckus that had happened minutes before. Johnny set up his gun and we took a long hard look at the rams to see which one was the best. The light colored ram we had spotted earlier that morning seemed to be the biggest of the band and he was at least 9 from what I could tell through the spotter.

    We ranged them at 498 yards. After watching for a few more minutes Johnny loaded a shell and the safety clicked off. I watched through the spotter as I heard a deep exhalation from Johnny and the crack of the 7mm broke the afternoon silence. I watched as the vapor trial made its way over and the ram snap its head back. It took off running but didn’t get too far. We took a minute to enjoy the situation. 15 minutes ago we had just busted what we thought were all the sheep on the mountain and now we had just shot a beautiful white faced Stone ram. After a few photos we packed up and made our way down to the ram. He was beautiful. Light colored coat and low-slung curl that was slightly broomed on one side.


    Not the same caliber as the black ram we had seen escaping earlier that day but a fine specimen nonetheless. We boned out the meat, caped out the ram and headed back to camp, getting there just after dark. That night consisted of sheep tenderloins, whiskey and some turkey tet. We sat by the fire and watched the Northern Lights dance through the sky before hitting the sleeping bag.

  9. #8
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    Jul 2015
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    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    Early the next morning we thawed out the cape and skinned off some unneeded weight, packed up camp and started back to the river on what should have been a 2 day journey but we were hoping to do it in 1. Climbing for what seemed like an eternity we reached the summit of the ridge by around lunch where we had to pick up a few things we left before pursuing the sheep days before. With each of our packs heavily loaded we trekked down the ridge and slowly descended into the timber below. Before leaving the mountain I gave it one more look and we saw the 8 year old ram again that we had previously spotted. He was bedded in the sunshine with another little banana curl ram. Halfway down the final slope and about 2-3 kms from camp we sat down for a break and some water. We were talking and reliving some of the stories from the past few days when not 300 yards away an elk bugle erupted. Even though our packs were fully loaded with sheep and we were still 3 kms from base camp we did not want to turn down an opportunity for elk meat. In about 30 seconds Johnny had his pack off and was bugling and raking a tree behind while Cam and I set up to be the shooters. A few bugles and out of the trees walks a 6-point bull. Counting 6 I told Cam to shoot him and wasting no time he anchored the bull where it stood! Looking over to give me a high five showed a gash above his eye, which started bleeding profusely. The gash did not dampen his excitement though as this was Cam’s first bull elk. After a few hoots and hollers, hugs and high fives and we were dressing the bull elk out. We decided we would fill a game bag with both back straps for tonight’s dinner and carry them by hand down to base camp along with the rest of our packs. Tomorrow we would come up and get the rest of the meat. After dark we were finally getting into camp where we rolled out the Kifaru, fired up the stove, cracked the Scotch and unwound from the last few days of endless work.



    The next day consisted of resting our feet, which seemed to have been destroyed by our weighted decent down the mountain, and retrieving the remaining portions of elk meat.

    Then we relaxed and finished the sheep cape while enjoying our last day in the mountains. It was a short trip but we seemed to have fit all the walking we planned on doing in 10 days into 6.



    I don’t know what this year holds for me but I can only hope that it can measure up to the last few. To all those heading out on the mountain this year, be safe and shoot straight.

    Romain

  10. #9
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    Sep 2011
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    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    Excellent stuff, and perfect timing to share it!! Thank ya, and good luck to whatever the season brings you!

  11. #10
    Join Date
    May 2012
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    100 Mile House
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    Re: Stone Cold - A Sheep Hunting Story

    Awesome post and story man thanks!
    Getting pumped up for my first sheep trip this year and these stories keep feeding the fire.

    Cheers,
    Andy

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