August sheep hunt gear questions

[huntcoop]

Sure. Use the one you own. It’ll be fine.

Thanks, appreciate your comments.

[KodiakHntr]

Thanks, appreciate your comments.

Ok. Evidently you aren’t picking up what I am laying down. Try this again.

So my first sheep hunt was spurred by a trip to Liard Hotsprings with my GF on the August long weekends over a decade ago. Coming back we stopped to get a cinnamon bun at the galactic center of the universe. And in the back of a pickup there was a set of horns poking out of a backpack. I nattered at her about sheep hunting and backpacking and the mountains all the way back.
Got back and talked to my hunting partner about it as well and we started making plans for the following year that week. GF offered to buy a smaller backpacking tent for my birthday if that was something I wanted to do.

Came back to work after the weekend and my hunting partner said “how much holiday time do you have? What are you doing next week? Want to hunt sheep?!?!?!”
Had the time, and couldn’t come up with a reason to not go, so we bought some mountain house and I borrowed some gear and we eye****ed some google earth and 4 days later we headed out for 7 days of sheep hunting.

That first hunt I used my Coleman Peak1 backpack to carry an MEC -20*C down bag, my Remington 700 XCR 300 Ultra, and a bushnell $150 spotting scope. I borrowed a heavy thermarest and a whisper light, and wore some columbia zip off pants and an UA shirt and the same scarpa boots I wore for work. And some of the same pisspoor rain gear I work to work every day. The only reasonably acceptable gear I owned for sheep hunting was a pair of Zeiss 10x42 Binoculars, and that new MSR Hubba Hubba.

And there was rain. And bugs. And hot. And we saw sheep and caribou and elk and moose and grizzlies. And we loved every minute of it.

As soon as I got back I started upgrading and changing out the gear that didn’t work for me. First thing I did was start looking at glass, and researching and looking. And then bought a Swarovski spotter (I just couldn’t justify the $4500 for a Leica). Over the years I have bought and sold top shelf packs, and have tried pretty much everything available, or seen it in hard use first hand. I have spent weeks and months researching and buying and selling gear. The only things I still use from the first couple of sheep seasons are my Jetboil Sol (no longer available), my Sea to Summit long spoon, and the swarovski spotter and tripod.

It has been a long and expensive journey getting to this point, and I still change gear as changes to technology occurs and I find something lighter/stronger/better and more reliable, but that is purely for comfort.

HOWEVER, the number one thing that will make you successful as a sheep hunter (or a hunter period), is being ok with being uncomfortable. Don’t have the best glass? You are going to have to walk more. Don’t have the best tent? You are going to be cold and wet. Don’t have the toughest lightest pack? Your back is going to hurt.
Accept that, and do the best you can with what you have and you will be successful.



And you will either be a sheep hunter or you won’t. I’m a sheep hunter. It’s how I identify as a hunter. Right from that very first trip, relatively late in life,I was hooked. And you will be too, or you won’t. Some guys go on a sheep trip and come back and say “yeah that was ok. We saw some ewes. Was different.” And they will maybe go again some time, or maybe they won’t. Those guys have hunted sheep, but they aren’t Sheep Hunters.

When you spend your months daydreaming about sheep hunting, planning for sheep hunting, looking at gear that will let you get a little farther, a little quicker, in the hopes that you might see sheep, then you are a Sheep Hunter, and the gear questions will be more pointed, more researched, and the responses will be of more value to you. Or maybe you won’t want to be a sheep hunter after you try it.

[Bustercluck]

It seems like there's some experience on this thread, so I'm going to shoot out another question. Does everybody in the party carry a rifle? I went last year and I'm going again this year, but there's probably going to be 3 of us, maybe 4 and we were discussing bringing two rifles. Thoughts?

[KodiakHntr]

Have contemplated it more than once. Makes it tough to split up though.

The issue I have with it personally is that I’m right handy with a rifle, and I wouldn’t want to be the one holding a can of bear spray in a stiff breeze while a sow and 2 year old cubs are bouncing across the alpine.


That said, I used to hunt with a close buddy and his wife, and she didn’t carry a rifle.

[porthunter]

When you spend your months daydreaming about sheep hunting, planning for sheep hunting, looking at gear that will let you get a little farther, a little quicker, in the hopes that you might see sheep, then you are a Sheep Hunter,

Amen to that!

[mooseknuckler]

When you spend your months daydreaming about sheep hunting, planning for sheep hunting, looking at gear that will let you get a little farther, a little quicker, in the hopes that you might see sheep, then you are a Sheep Hunter, ...

Sounds like some sort of sickness...

[KodiakHntr]

Sounds like some sort of sickness...

I think you are correct.... How else does a guy go from asking about which pants are best to buy to trying to explain to his spouse how there came to be a $80k skinny water jetboat or diesel 1 ton with stock trailer and a string of ponies in the yard over the course of a few short years... Sheep fever is the only “rational” reason.

[Talltimber1]

I must be infected. And I dont mean the virus. Haha
Never been sheep hunting but all I do is look at gear and play with gear, work out, watch and read every sheep video or gear list out there, and shoot shoot and shoot some more. I hike with a pack every second day. Sometimes light sometimes heavy.
I've lost 54 pounds and sheep shape has consumed my thoughts.

[eatram]

Sounds like some sort of sickness...

It has cost me more business than this "here today, gone tomorrow" virus. Truly I have lost contractors over this "hobby". Never regretted it..... never looked back. I am a sheep hunter. I have a problem....

[REMINGTON JIM]

I’m no expert but I spend 25 bucks on the convertible pants at Costco and never look back

Are they water resistant-waterproof ?? RJ