First sheep hunt

[Bustercluck]

Just so there’s no letdown, I’ll let everyone know ahead of time that we weren’t successful. I’d sure like to hear any tips or info from experienced guys on how to chase these things down though.


I’ll start with a little about me and my hunting partner.
We’ve been working in the same shop for about 2 years and we’re both avid moose hunters with a little bit of experience hunting deer. I noticed on Instagram jake bought a new stone glacier pack, so I immediately asked him if he was interested in going on a sheep hunt in the mountains. He said he bought the pack with intentions of backpack hunting mule deer near where we live, but had no intentions of going to the mountains. After some convincing he agreed to go with me. We both have quite a bit of experience outdoors, but neither of us have done any backpack hunting.


A year down the road and we’re ready to go. I worked my last night shift with plans of picking Jake up as soon as I got home to start an 8 hour drive to our hunting spot. As I got home I was noticing a swollen gum along with a little bit of pain in the same area. I’ve never had an abscessed tooth before, but after talking to the wife I decided to stop at the pharmacy and see if they’d prescribe me some antibiotics just in case. Now we’re on our way again. An hour and a bit behind schedule, but we’re off taking turns driving and napping.


We arrive at the parking lot around 6pm and sunset is supposed to be around 8:40 so we make the quick decision to try and punch 5km up to a creek crossing to make camp.


The next morning we slept in a little bit, but we made our breakfast and started our trek up through one range, across several creek crossings and into the second range. As we made our way into the second range, the valley opened up with some of the nicest alpine views I’ve experienced. By 4pm we arrived to the spot where we were planning on crossing the valley and making our way up to the alpine to set up camp. By now we were 20kms from our last camp. The spot we were shooting for had two lakes above the tree line that we had picked out so we knew we had at least one good source of water. After a quick discussion, Jake talked me into trying to make a push up to the alpine before dark. I remember him saying ”how bad can it be? It’s right there”


We make the journey across the valley through waist to chest high brush, across another creek to the base of the mountain and then start our journey up through the trees. It seemed like a never ending hill straight up with no relief, until we popped out in some sub-alpine mixed with some trees and found a nice game trail that seemed to be going in the same direction we were headed. As we pushed further and further our breaks seemed to last longer than the amount of time we were moving, but we eventually made it up to our spot and found out there wasn’t anywhere close to the lake to pitch a tent, so we decide to stay up on the hill a few hundred yards away. As we slumped over on our ass and lean against our packs in exhaustion and look at each other, jake says “do you see that?”


I look up and across the lake 300-400 yards out is a momma and cub grizzly bear. The cub had a bright silver appearance to him so I looked at Jake and asked if he was going to get a pic. He looked at me panting and said “I’m too tired to get my phone out of my pocket”


The sow spotted us instantly and after giving a few sniffs in the air, the two of them took off over the ridge to the south never to be seen again. I asked Jake if he wanted to move camp, but his reply was “I’ll shoot that thing and use it as a pillow before I move from this spot”


We finished the night off with our regular camp duties, gathering water, hang food in a tree and set up the tent.

[Bustercluck]

https://i.imgur.com/xyBgraT.jpg
This where we first spotted them from up on top of the black seam.

https://i.imgur.com/Y5UgW7m.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pOZnRKZ.jpg
Getting closer

https://i.imgur.com/rLSIjxN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1z3oB7l.jpg
Goats

[Bustercluck]

The next morning we made our way heading north thinking that the sheep like hanging out in the southern exposure. We make it up over the first ridge and happen to be in a really good spot for glassing where we can see almost to the end of the range we were hunting. After roughly 45 minutes Jake spots something through his Binos that looks out of place. I move the spotting scope over to what looks like a black coal seam in this small saddle at the base of a rock face and see definite rams basking in the black dirt warmed by the sun. After looking at the map and doing some estimating we figure they’re roughly 4km from us and across two steep draws. We make the decision to advance without our gear and get a better look at them. We worked our way over there side-hilling down one draw, up the other side and through one more almost identical draw. Now we’re a little bit over 1 km from them and can get a pretty good look at them. We can see six rams and possibly a seventh over the back side of the saddle. As we’re looking around we spot six ewes feeding on the grass down below. Now it’s decision time. Do we hang out and sleep in our rain gear and try and get the jump on them first thing in the morning? Or move our camp up to where we are, spend the night and try and jump on them first thing in the morning? Based on how far we are from the truck, we decide to move our camp ahead so we can make a straight shot down the mountain and get back to the truck in a timely manner seeing as how we’re now well over 25 km away.


We dumped the bit of gear we had with us, ditched our rifles and made our way back to the base camp, loaded up the rest of our stuff and went back to where the rams were. As the late afternoon sun closed in on us, all of the rams started their way down off of their perch into the grass below for a feed. At this point in time we can see seven rams and seven ewes feeding in the grass. After inspecting the rams it looks like there’s one that is close to being legal and a second one that is hanging out near the top of the hill and seems to be watching over both sides of the saddle and staying higher than the rest of the band. By this time it’s getting a bit dark and it’s hard to see his horns from a side profile, because they’re blending in with his fur but I can see when he turns his head away from me there’s a definite extra bit of curl compared to the other rams. While we’re sitting there enjoying the night we see 3 goats venture down out of the rocks and start feeding a few hundred yards from the sheep we’re watching. What a night.


The next morning I woke up well before my alarm at 5am. I waited until 5:20 before I woke Jake up and started our day. Our bags were packed and ready to go from the night before so we had a quick snack and waited for enough light so we could walk without headlamps across the next draw to stalk our prey. From the bottom of the draw we worked our way up trying to stay behind a rock knob on the southeast side of the coal seam we could see them on the night before. As we approach this rock knob, we ditched our packs and started to creep over the knob as we’re roughly 200-300 yards from where we spotted them the night before. The wind is in our face and everything seems to be going good, until 3 ewes start making their way back down to feed and stumble across us. We froze in our spot the best we could while they stared at us from about 70 yards away. After 15-20 minutes they didn’t seem too interested in us and went back to what they were doing. We got back to our stalk and started making our way around looking for the rams. A couple of hours later we decide the rams are somewhere else and at about the same time we spooked the ewes down the hill and into the next bowl to the north.


Thinking it’s all over, we move into position and put the spotter on them to watch for a while. To our surprise we can see several ewes and several rams in the bottom of the bowl working their way between a couple of rock knobs. After some more discussion we decided if we chased them any more they’d just bump over the next ridge and be gone. We went for it anyways and started our way down there. It seemed like we put the spotter away, slung our bags on and took about ten steps, when the rest of the ewes took off up the hill and over the next ridge. The whole time it seemed like there was one or two ewes hanging back and keeping tabs on us to warn the rest of them to move on. So we sat and watched some more and decided we didn’t see any rams run up the hill, so we put a plan in place where I was going to be in shooting position in the same spot the ewes ran up the hill and jake was going to work his way around the bottom of the rock face and see if the rams were holed up back there and try and flush them out.


There I am in position and I hear Jake making some cow moose calls. And I’m thinking to myself “there’s nothing there and he’s f*ckin around now”


Then he comes down over the hill and tells me to hurry up because there’s 7 rams tucked up under a rock ledge hanging out. So we literally ran the 6-700 yards uphill to find them just hanging out. They obviously knew we were there, but seemed to feel pretty safe where they were, which was well within shooting distance for us.


This is kind of where the story gets boring. We sat there and stared at them for at least two hours. There was two rams that were close to being legal, but being our first trip we didn’t want to take the chance on shooting one and finding it to be too small. (I should mention that this is an Alberta hunt and the requirements for a trophy sheep are- if you draw a line from the front of the horn to the tip it must cover the eye from a side profile). There was definitely some relief when we got that close and it was a lot easier to pass on shooting knowing we got within range and had the opportunity.


Anyways, as we made our way back to base camp it started to blow and rain. We quickly packed up our tent and headed straight down the mountain to the trail in where we spent the night roughly 25km from the truck. The next day we got up and made a run for the truck. It rained all day. We ran into another set of sheep hunters heading in on horseback and bsed with them for a bit and ran into another group of cyclists trying to tour the old railroad we were following. The cyclists found it to be too wet and were giving up because their tires were too caked in mud to continue. As we made it down to our last creek crossing, the river had probably tripled in size. The cyclists beat us there and they decided they were going to wait a couple of days for the water to drop while me and jake decided to give it a go. We loosened our shoulder straps, unbuckled our belts, left our boots on and went for it. It seemed like we had to work our way at least half a km downstream crossing little islands and stuff to get across. On the last section the water was almost up to my waist and moving fast. It was baby steps all the way across. This probably wasn’t the best idea, but the truck was pretty close and we wanted to get there pretty bad.


That’s where this story ends. No sheep, but good times. We stopped at the first town and had a greasy old hamburger with a side of poutine and drove straight home.


I wanted to share this story, but I was hoping for some other experienced sheep hunters to maybe chime in on behaviour and tactics for my next trip as I’m slightly hooked and will be going again next year. For next season I’m going to try and get out a little bit sooner in August to beat some of the other hunters out there.

[Bustercluck]

https://i.imgur.com/InaJpHs.jpg

The plan was to work our way across this draw first thing in the morning and use the rock as cover to move into shooting range. The other arrow is where the sheep were the night before.

https://i.imgur.com/ZMmj9CQ.jpg

This is the bowl where they went after we bumped them. The ewes went up the arrow on the right. I moved into position on the black x and Jake went up the blue arrow to try and flush them out.

https://i.imgur.com/wMdY72U.jpg
From a couple hundred yards away.

https://i.imgur.com/EsJnhC4.png

[Bustercluck]

A few more pics

https://i.imgur.com/OtQtj2a.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LO3Gplt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/btRRkxf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vB4rNGM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/seZOtDd.jpg

[Bustercluck]

It's pretty hard to capture the landscape and how steep it is, but I tried.

https://i.imgur.com/5eHZRrj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G598SMN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XjpbO6f.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IxpN7xu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cEsQa9Z.jpg

[whitlers]

Looks like a beauty trip! Awesome views.

[ydouask]

Thanks for the story, sounds like you enjoyed your time in the hills... persist and you will connect. A caution I will mention is to NOT go anywhere without your rifle while hunting, for when you least expect to see Bundy, or Momma G … there it is ! :oops:

[Squamch]

Sounds like a good trip, even in the absence of mutton.

Is that a 2 or a 3 man tent?

[Bustercluck]

That’s the 2 man hubba hubba

[downsouth204]

Great pics, thanks for posting!

[boxhitch]

Good pics of a good hunt, tfs
Sheep behaviour has to be experienced, 'never' and 'always' doesn't equate

[Walking Buffalo]

Nice share Buster!

I'd suggest focusing more on Hunter behavior than Sheep behavior.

Going earlier to that place (yes, your pictures give enough info) pretty much guarantees that you will have more hunters in the area.

Those sheep definitely knew you were there on the ridgeline camp.
Sometimes they will stay, others times that is enough to move them.

Getting that close in the dark, you got lucky....

Being as aggressive as you two were, camping in sight, getting in close in the dark, trying to push them, sometimes it works, more often it doesn't.
If you have the time, go into stealth mode, take your time.

The young ram is definitely a squeaker. Looks like there is an older broomed ram....

Have fun next year.

[Jimbob]

I'm a new sheep hunter but always trying to learn, I agree with Walking Buffalo. I thought you were going to blow it and push the sheep away but you made it work so good on you.

[Bustercluck]

Nice share Buster!

I'd suggest focusing more on Hunter behavior than Sheep behavior.

Going earlier to that place (yes, your pictures give enough info) pretty much guarantees that you will have more hunters in the area.

Those sheep definitely knew you were there on the ridgeline camp.
Sometimes they will stay, others times that is enough to move them.

Getting that close in the dark, you got lucky....

Being as aggressive as you two were, camping in sight, getting in close in the dark, trying to push them, sometimes it works, more often it doesn't.
If you have the time, go into stealth mode, take your time.

The young ram is definitely a squeaker. Looks like there is an older broomed ram....

Have fun next year.
Thanks for the input. We definitely weren’t as stealthy as we could have been. Given the same scenario next year, I think we would have camped further away, split up and had one guy go down in the trees and around while the other one made more of a stalk from directly below. It’s hard not to get excited and just charge up after them. I was just happy we tied into them and got a good look, even if it was mostly luck. Lol. We learned a lot more than we would have if we didn’t see anything.

as for that ram on the left... he definitely looked older and bigger, but his horns weren’t close. I’m not sure if they just didn’t grow, or were beat off, but we stared at him for a long time. I’ll see if I have a better pic of him.

[sledhead079]

Great story Cliff. Keep putting you time in on the mountain and you will get a sheep.

[RiverOtter]

Great story, enjoyed reading it. I liked your pics as well.

Gotta second the NOT ever leaving your rifle behind, even for a short walk. I had to reread that sentence a couple times to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding it. LOL.

[Bustercluck]

Great story, enjoyed reading it. I liked your pics as well.

Gotta second the NOT ever leaving your rifle behind, even for a short walk. I had to reread that sentence a couple times to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding it. LOL.
I don’t like to leave my rifle behind either, but there was a couple of steep sections to go up and down and I don’t think I could’ve done it with a full pack. I did have a can of bear spray on my belt just in case I ran into yogi.

[pro 111]

nice pictures . thanks for posting.

[Gunner]

Great story, amazing scenery and wow...you really put in a huge effort ! That’s the same tent used on our sheep hunt, it’s a good one. Hope you get one next trip !
Mrs Gunner :-)

[weatherby_man]

Wow, great story and pics. Love that scenery.

[HarryToolips]

Beauty pics, there's nothing wrong with not shooting one, you got close to quite a few and shot them with your camera..

[Jagermeister]

Those shades you have planted on your melon look like alien eyes, large and quite reflective. Hope you were not wearing them when on the move.
X3 on the rifle.
Nevertheless, 'twas a good read.

[Getbent]

Thanks for sharing man...cool trip for your first one for sure

[Bustercluck]

Great story, amazing scenery and wow...you really put in a huge effort ! That’s the same tent used on our sheep hunt, it’s a good one. Hope you get one next trip !

Mrs Gunner :-)
i like the msr tents. I find the hubba to be a little bit tight quarters for two guys, but it’s way lighter than my elixir 3.

[Squamch]

i like the msr tents. I find the hubba to be a little bit tight quarters for two guys, but it’s way lighter than my elixir 3.

That was where I was going with that question. I have an elixir 2, planning to use it with my buddy. Wondering if we're gonna be snug, or snuggling.

[Bustercluck]

That was where I was going with that question. I have an elixir 2, planning to use it with my buddy. Wondering if we're gonna be snug, or snuggling.
I find the 3 man elixir to be roomy for 3 adults. The 2 man hubba that you see in my pics is tight for two guys.
https://www.atmosphere.ca/categories/gear-by-activity/camp-hike/sleeping-mats-accessories/sleeping-mats/air-pad/product/klymit-static-v-ultralite-insulated-sleeping-mat-332521674.html#332521674=332521676
We both have this sleeping pad. It’s a little bit narrower than my other klymit mat and they barely fit in the hubba. If you want to see some more pics or questions, send me a pm or your number and I can text some pics

[RiverOtter]

Another option is the Hubba NX single person tent. After having my own space on my last sheep hunt, I don't think I could go back to sharing a tight 2 man tent. Found it easier to find 2 small tent spots, than 1 larger one as well.

[ljalberta]

Little late to the party here. Just wanted to say great write up and pictures. As someone else mentioned, it's a well-known spot, but rams do get taken there, so keep at it. That boomer could be a real trophy coming from there if he ever makes it back to legal length.

[156821]

I have been on 3 sheep hunts so far. Found one legal ram but couldn’t get inside 500 yards. Good write up and keep at it.