zoominjr
08-26-2008, 10:36 PM
First Ram
6K has been after me to post the results of my half of our hunt. You will have read the account of his half of the hunt in the thread “First Curls”.
This was my fifth try for a Stone Ram and my second sheep hunt with 6K. We were partners on our first sheep hunt in 2002. It is not easy to get out every year on a sheep hunt with family and other obligations, especially when your wife’s birthday is August 2nd. But I had managed 4 trips in the previous 6 years but was still waiting on my First Ram.
On the drive north we discussed how it would be great if we got one ram but 6K said “wouldn’t that be something if we got two. The boys at home be surprised.” Really though I was hoping for just one, I had come home empty too many times before. The weather wasn’t great but it was forecasted to improve, which would be a change for me as I had had poor weather the last few trips. So if the forecast was to hold true I thought we certainly had a shot at bringing home a ram.
We like to go up a couple days ahead of time so we aren’t rushed getting to the hunting area and it gives us a day to relax before opening day. Opening day started at 5 AM and the weather was pretty much the same as the previous day but this time colder. A good frost was showing on the visible peaks not far above us. But it is opening day, so let’s get at ‘er. We had agreed the night before that I would get to shoot first. We spent the morning glassing the bowl I had tried to glass the day before but again we were only getting peeks between the clouds for most of the morning. Though we did manage to spot two separate pairs of half curl rams feeding in the cliffs on the opposite side of the bowl. As morning went on we moved along the north edge of the bowl glassing when we could. By late morning the clouds seemed to be lifting a little and we were starting to be able to see under them into the bottom of the bowl and further up into the bowl. We had worked our way on to a point near the front of the bowl that allowed us a look back along the slopes that had been below us on the north slope. As we sat there glassing the clouds lifted further and I was beginning to see the glacier right at the back of the bowl. I glassed through the bowl several times looking for anything out of the ordinary, a horn, a slightly different colour in the rocks or that typical upside down white U shape of a sheep feeding with its butt facing me. But nothing. However as you always do, you look again going over same territory 2-3-4 times. This time I did see something suspicious. There way at the back of the bowl, on a grassy bench was a sheep, no 4 sheep. As I looked through my 10X42 binos, those were rams! Better get the spotting scope out. As my partner dug in his pack for the scope I continued to glass, and there on a lower bench were more rams, 4 more, and even through my binoculars I could tell a couple of these definitely had some potential.
The sheep were a couple clicks away but as we got the scope on them we could see there was a light coloured ram and a dark one that looked like they might be shooters. The odd cloud was still drifting in to our view but as we studied the rams the light coloured ram lifted his head and was perfectly silhouetted by a snow patch in the background. Bingo, he was legal, easy. Now the dark one? He was laying down looking away from us. He just laid there, he wasn’t in a hurry to do anything and we just couldn’t get a look at those horns. They looked like they had some weight to them but we were a long ways off. Okay that was enough looking, time to go. We can judge the other ram when we get closer.
It was 11 AM when we started our climb up toward where the rams lay. We worked up along the north ridge of the bowl making sure we were out of sight and using cloud cover when it served our purpose. We wanted to get above the rams and a little deeper into the bowl in case they moved that way we could cut them off. It was a bit of a grunt. Finally we reach the area of cliffs above where we think the rams should be. That is if they haven’t moved. It is now 2 PM. We work our way down to a spot behind a big rock were we can get a look down. I peer over the rock and glass the grassy bench in the bowl where the rams should be. No rams. Damn it! I look again. Where could they be? As I stand up to take a better look, bingo, there they are right there in plain sight the whole time. Three rams lying there facing down hill away from us, looking like three rocks. How could I have missed them, I am lucky I didn’t get spotted. I whisper to my partner “sit down, they are right there”, as he was just about to stand up to take a look. At this point I remember something Jim Shockey said “I’d rather be lucky than good”, maybe it was my time to be lucky. I range the rams at 330 yards, but none of these rams are the ones we are looking for. There are five more rams somewhere. As we glassed below us, sure enough there is another, just a half curl, walking away from the group and heading across the moraine toward the opposite side of the bowl. A little more glassing and suddenly there he is, that light coloured ram, laying there on the same bench where I first spotted him, he has hardly moved. Good, he is still there. I can tell now he is easily legal, both horns go over the nose and the one has that argali flare to it. Nice! Now my pulse starts to really pick up.
I would rather not shoot over 300 yards, besides I think we can make an easy move to a better shooting spot that will be closer. We quickly move to a closer location with good cover. I put the range finder on him, 278 yards. He is below us at about a 55 or 60 degree angle and facing toward us. I don’t dare shoot him there I haven’t got a good look at the kill zone. So we wait. This gives us time to have a look for the other rams. We are still missing two of the original eight. 6K gets out the scope and begins to study one of the darker looking rams lying with my ram. Is this the dark one we thought looked pretty heavy and may be legal? While 6K studies the ram and I wait for mine to move, I lay back and give myself a pep talk, trying to calm the buck fever. I missed a ram once on my second sheep hunt when I got buck fever. About 10 minutes go by and 6K finally says “nope, I don’t think that dark one is legal and I don’t think he is the heavier dark one we saw before”. Then a couple minutes later my ram stands up. Here we go. I got my scope on him. My partner has his rifle and will back me up should something happen. I ask him if he sees the ram. He replies “no I can’t find him in the scope”. The ram is feeding to toward me and I am worried he will slip out of sight below me. He turns almost broad side. I tell my partner I have to take him now. He says “do it, don’t wait for me.” Because I am shooting down on such a steep angle, I aim my Browning 30-06 at about the middle of the back allowing for only a little bullet drop. Crack! It is all over in a split second. The ram jumps and does a 180 degree turn and as his rear legs hit the ground they collapsed underneath him. The other rams all jump up and run over to where my ram has fallen. They glance at him for a few seconds and then turn and run. My ram pulls himself with his front legs a few feet and then it is all over. Beauty, a quick one shot kill, the best kind. Wow! I got a ram. It is almost surreal. My partner shakes my hand, “good shot” I am trying to stay cool but my heart is racing with excitement. I glance at my watch it is 2:33 PM.
We go back to get our packs and then work our way down the slope to the ram. It was a spine shot that exited through the top part of the kill zone. As we set up for a few pictures the sun is breaking through the clouds, just in time. After the pictures, some lunch and the meat is cooled and in our packs we are headed back to camp at 7:10 PM. We choose to go back the same route we came down. It is steep but shorter to just go over the ridge back to camp. We are back to camp by 8:30 PM. And as we are walking down the slope to camp we hear voices from across the alpine valley. It is the local guide on horses with a client. It felt good to walk into camp with a ram on my pack and the guide watching. This same guide had scooped a ram out from under my nose before. The evening ends with a ram at camp and beautiful clear skies. My ram measures 35 on the Right Horn and 36 ¼ on the Left Horn with 13 ½ inch bases. Roughly a 149 score.
The hunting story doesn’t end there. I of course spend the next day skinning out the head and working on the cape. While my partner has to hunt by himself. In fact the next 4 days he hunts by himself. I felt bad he had to hunt by himself but I didn’t want to leave my meat, cape and horns. We had seen grizzly tracks and heard from another hunter that they had seen a wolverine and wolves. On day five I see my partner coming back to camp in the late afternoon so I go out to meet him and walk him in. As I get close, what is this? Are those? Yep, they are. Ram curls. No kidding. We did it a double header who would have thought. Not I apparently. Good on you 6K, you worked hard for your ram. Certainly harder than I did. What a trip the weather was great, we got two rams. Good memories. Though that 100 + pound pack on the way down I wouldn’t mind forgetting. We did get the boys at home talking.
See the thread “First Curls” for the details on 6K’s half of the hunt.
6K has been after me to post the results of my half of our hunt. You will have read the account of his half of the hunt in the thread “First Curls”.
This was my fifth try for a Stone Ram and my second sheep hunt with 6K. We were partners on our first sheep hunt in 2002. It is not easy to get out every year on a sheep hunt with family and other obligations, especially when your wife’s birthday is August 2nd. But I had managed 4 trips in the previous 6 years but was still waiting on my First Ram.
On the drive north we discussed how it would be great if we got one ram but 6K said “wouldn’t that be something if we got two. The boys at home be surprised.” Really though I was hoping for just one, I had come home empty too many times before. The weather wasn’t great but it was forecasted to improve, which would be a change for me as I had had poor weather the last few trips. So if the forecast was to hold true I thought we certainly had a shot at bringing home a ram.
We like to go up a couple days ahead of time so we aren’t rushed getting to the hunting area and it gives us a day to relax before opening day. Opening day started at 5 AM and the weather was pretty much the same as the previous day but this time colder. A good frost was showing on the visible peaks not far above us. But it is opening day, so let’s get at ‘er. We had agreed the night before that I would get to shoot first. We spent the morning glassing the bowl I had tried to glass the day before but again we were only getting peeks between the clouds for most of the morning. Though we did manage to spot two separate pairs of half curl rams feeding in the cliffs on the opposite side of the bowl. As morning went on we moved along the north edge of the bowl glassing when we could. By late morning the clouds seemed to be lifting a little and we were starting to be able to see under them into the bottom of the bowl and further up into the bowl. We had worked our way on to a point near the front of the bowl that allowed us a look back along the slopes that had been below us on the north slope. As we sat there glassing the clouds lifted further and I was beginning to see the glacier right at the back of the bowl. I glassed through the bowl several times looking for anything out of the ordinary, a horn, a slightly different colour in the rocks or that typical upside down white U shape of a sheep feeding with its butt facing me. But nothing. However as you always do, you look again going over same territory 2-3-4 times. This time I did see something suspicious. There way at the back of the bowl, on a grassy bench was a sheep, no 4 sheep. As I looked through my 10X42 binos, those were rams! Better get the spotting scope out. As my partner dug in his pack for the scope I continued to glass, and there on a lower bench were more rams, 4 more, and even through my binoculars I could tell a couple of these definitely had some potential.
The sheep were a couple clicks away but as we got the scope on them we could see there was a light coloured ram and a dark one that looked like they might be shooters. The odd cloud was still drifting in to our view but as we studied the rams the light coloured ram lifted his head and was perfectly silhouetted by a snow patch in the background. Bingo, he was legal, easy. Now the dark one? He was laying down looking away from us. He just laid there, he wasn’t in a hurry to do anything and we just couldn’t get a look at those horns. They looked like they had some weight to them but we were a long ways off. Okay that was enough looking, time to go. We can judge the other ram when we get closer.
It was 11 AM when we started our climb up toward where the rams lay. We worked up along the north ridge of the bowl making sure we were out of sight and using cloud cover when it served our purpose. We wanted to get above the rams and a little deeper into the bowl in case they moved that way we could cut them off. It was a bit of a grunt. Finally we reach the area of cliffs above where we think the rams should be. That is if they haven’t moved. It is now 2 PM. We work our way down to a spot behind a big rock were we can get a look down. I peer over the rock and glass the grassy bench in the bowl where the rams should be. No rams. Damn it! I look again. Where could they be? As I stand up to take a better look, bingo, there they are right there in plain sight the whole time. Three rams lying there facing down hill away from us, looking like three rocks. How could I have missed them, I am lucky I didn’t get spotted. I whisper to my partner “sit down, they are right there”, as he was just about to stand up to take a look. At this point I remember something Jim Shockey said “I’d rather be lucky than good”, maybe it was my time to be lucky. I range the rams at 330 yards, but none of these rams are the ones we are looking for. There are five more rams somewhere. As we glassed below us, sure enough there is another, just a half curl, walking away from the group and heading across the moraine toward the opposite side of the bowl. A little more glassing and suddenly there he is, that light coloured ram, laying there on the same bench where I first spotted him, he has hardly moved. Good, he is still there. I can tell now he is easily legal, both horns go over the nose and the one has that argali flare to it. Nice! Now my pulse starts to really pick up.
I would rather not shoot over 300 yards, besides I think we can make an easy move to a better shooting spot that will be closer. We quickly move to a closer location with good cover. I put the range finder on him, 278 yards. He is below us at about a 55 or 60 degree angle and facing toward us. I don’t dare shoot him there I haven’t got a good look at the kill zone. So we wait. This gives us time to have a look for the other rams. We are still missing two of the original eight. 6K gets out the scope and begins to study one of the darker looking rams lying with my ram. Is this the dark one we thought looked pretty heavy and may be legal? While 6K studies the ram and I wait for mine to move, I lay back and give myself a pep talk, trying to calm the buck fever. I missed a ram once on my second sheep hunt when I got buck fever. About 10 minutes go by and 6K finally says “nope, I don’t think that dark one is legal and I don’t think he is the heavier dark one we saw before”. Then a couple minutes later my ram stands up. Here we go. I got my scope on him. My partner has his rifle and will back me up should something happen. I ask him if he sees the ram. He replies “no I can’t find him in the scope”. The ram is feeding to toward me and I am worried he will slip out of sight below me. He turns almost broad side. I tell my partner I have to take him now. He says “do it, don’t wait for me.” Because I am shooting down on such a steep angle, I aim my Browning 30-06 at about the middle of the back allowing for only a little bullet drop. Crack! It is all over in a split second. The ram jumps and does a 180 degree turn and as his rear legs hit the ground they collapsed underneath him. The other rams all jump up and run over to where my ram has fallen. They glance at him for a few seconds and then turn and run. My ram pulls himself with his front legs a few feet and then it is all over. Beauty, a quick one shot kill, the best kind. Wow! I got a ram. It is almost surreal. My partner shakes my hand, “good shot” I am trying to stay cool but my heart is racing with excitement. I glance at my watch it is 2:33 PM.
We go back to get our packs and then work our way down the slope to the ram. It was a spine shot that exited through the top part of the kill zone. As we set up for a few pictures the sun is breaking through the clouds, just in time. After the pictures, some lunch and the meat is cooled and in our packs we are headed back to camp at 7:10 PM. We choose to go back the same route we came down. It is steep but shorter to just go over the ridge back to camp. We are back to camp by 8:30 PM. And as we are walking down the slope to camp we hear voices from across the alpine valley. It is the local guide on horses with a client. It felt good to walk into camp with a ram on my pack and the guide watching. This same guide had scooped a ram out from under my nose before. The evening ends with a ram at camp and beautiful clear skies. My ram measures 35 on the Right Horn and 36 ¼ on the Left Horn with 13 ½ inch bases. Roughly a 149 score.
The hunting story doesn’t end there. I of course spend the next day skinning out the head and working on the cape. While my partner has to hunt by himself. In fact the next 4 days he hunts by himself. I felt bad he had to hunt by himself but I didn’t want to leave my meat, cape and horns. We had seen grizzly tracks and heard from another hunter that they had seen a wolverine and wolves. On day five I see my partner coming back to camp in the late afternoon so I go out to meet him and walk him in. As I get close, what is this? Are those? Yep, they are. Ram curls. No kidding. We did it a double header who would have thought. Not I apparently. Good on you 6K, you worked hard for your ram. Certainly harder than I did. What a trip the weather was great, we got two rams. Good memories. Though that 100 + pound pack on the way down I wouldn’t mind forgetting. We did get the boys at home talking.
See the thread “First Curls” for the details on 6K’s half of the hunt.