TSW
08-25-2010, 12:00 AM
Plans were made early in the year that Gerrygoat and I would head out for a Stone hunt this August. I was anticipating this hunt a lot and the closer we got to our departure date, it was all I could think about.
On our way out we experienced some mechanical problems, leaving us kind of frustrated and discouraged. We shook it off though when we discussed the fact that many times when a hunt doesn’t start well, it ends very well. We continued optimistically and the thoughts of rams drowned out the distractions.
I will leave out the part about the hike in as I’m doing my best to erase it from my memory...all I know is, clearly, I could have trained more...’nuff said.
We hunted hard for the first couple days without really seeing any rams (maybe a couple of young rams far far away). On Tuesday we headed out for another solid effort and ended up finding a group of at least 20 rams. We didn’t get to stare too long as the wind was threatening to give us away any second, and it was clear we couldn’t get close to these rams where they were located...we would have to be patient...not a specialty of mine. So we headed back to camp and decided we would get up before sunrise and head their way to see if we could find them in a more favourable position.
That night the wind changed and blew hard all night. It was brutal. Our tent buckled a couple of times during the night and neither of us really got any sleep at all. If the wind wasn’t keeping us up, the thoughts of those rams were!!
It was still extremely windy in the morning and we didn’t even know if it would be worthwhile heading out thinking that everything would be hunkered down. We went anyway . That was the best decision we made that trip.
We went back to where we had spotted the rams the previous day, only to find they weren’t there. Soon enough though, Gerrygoat had spotted a young ram feeding away from us in a valley below us about 600yds away. I raised my binos and was watching the ram...and soon we realized we were looking at different rams. And shortly after that, we realized we were onto 8 rams, and a couple looked good. We quickly loaded up and hiked down to a spot that we would drop our packs at. The rams were feeding away from us, the wind, which had seemed like a problem earlier, was working in our favour. We thought it would be a chip shot of a stalk, but when we looked over where we thought we would be able to shoot from, there were no rams. We pursued them further down the valley cautiously, but as quickly as possible. Time after time we came around mounds and bends only to find nothing at all. We thought it was over, that we had been busted somehow and now were just wasting our time, but something within me told me, “go further.” Earlier in the trip Gerrygoat told me about a time when he as the shooter had an instinct and said that when you’re the shooter and you have an instinct, sometimes you need to go with it. I discerned this was my time and told him we needed to press on. Several times we thought it was over but we continued down the valley for over a kilometre. It was clear, the stalk couldn’t last much longer, no matter how it ended as we were getting into more and more cliffs. Then as we crept along, we were busted by a young ram. He stared at us briefly and then went around a corner. In my mind this was our last chance. We pursued and as we came around the bend, there was the band. 8 rams. Gerrygoat put the spotter up, I got into position and we waited. It was intense. We were less than 75yds away and the rams were bunched together, making it difficult to identify and keep track of them. It would not be long and all these rams would be gone, out of this canyon and into the cliffs. Opportunity was now. We deemed one to be legal and fortunately he presented an opportunity for a shot. I didn’t need any convincing. One touch of the 270 and I had my first Stone’s ram.
A huge thank you to Gerrygoat (and others) for making this possible. This trip was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and in turn the most fulfilling.
(sorry about the quality of photos...even though the hunt ended well, we still had a couple of problems...a major one involved a camera!!)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/sheep_1.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=20208&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Sheep_22.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=20209&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Sheep_3.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=20210&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Sheep_5.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=20212&size=big&cat=)
On our way out we experienced some mechanical problems, leaving us kind of frustrated and discouraged. We shook it off though when we discussed the fact that many times when a hunt doesn’t start well, it ends very well. We continued optimistically and the thoughts of rams drowned out the distractions.
I will leave out the part about the hike in as I’m doing my best to erase it from my memory...all I know is, clearly, I could have trained more...’nuff said.
We hunted hard for the first couple days without really seeing any rams (maybe a couple of young rams far far away). On Tuesday we headed out for another solid effort and ended up finding a group of at least 20 rams. We didn’t get to stare too long as the wind was threatening to give us away any second, and it was clear we couldn’t get close to these rams where they were located...we would have to be patient...not a specialty of mine. So we headed back to camp and decided we would get up before sunrise and head their way to see if we could find them in a more favourable position.
That night the wind changed and blew hard all night. It was brutal. Our tent buckled a couple of times during the night and neither of us really got any sleep at all. If the wind wasn’t keeping us up, the thoughts of those rams were!!
It was still extremely windy in the morning and we didn’t even know if it would be worthwhile heading out thinking that everything would be hunkered down. We went anyway . That was the best decision we made that trip.
We went back to where we had spotted the rams the previous day, only to find they weren’t there. Soon enough though, Gerrygoat had spotted a young ram feeding away from us in a valley below us about 600yds away. I raised my binos and was watching the ram...and soon we realized we were looking at different rams. And shortly after that, we realized we were onto 8 rams, and a couple looked good. We quickly loaded up and hiked down to a spot that we would drop our packs at. The rams were feeding away from us, the wind, which had seemed like a problem earlier, was working in our favour. We thought it would be a chip shot of a stalk, but when we looked over where we thought we would be able to shoot from, there were no rams. We pursued them further down the valley cautiously, but as quickly as possible. Time after time we came around mounds and bends only to find nothing at all. We thought it was over, that we had been busted somehow and now were just wasting our time, but something within me told me, “go further.” Earlier in the trip Gerrygoat told me about a time when he as the shooter had an instinct and said that when you’re the shooter and you have an instinct, sometimes you need to go with it. I discerned this was my time and told him we needed to press on. Several times we thought it was over but we continued down the valley for over a kilometre. It was clear, the stalk couldn’t last much longer, no matter how it ended as we were getting into more and more cliffs. Then as we crept along, we were busted by a young ram. He stared at us briefly and then went around a corner. In my mind this was our last chance. We pursued and as we came around the bend, there was the band. 8 rams. Gerrygoat put the spotter up, I got into position and we waited. It was intense. We were less than 75yds away and the rams were bunched together, making it difficult to identify and keep track of them. It would not be long and all these rams would be gone, out of this canyon and into the cliffs. Opportunity was now. We deemed one to be legal and fortunately he presented an opportunity for a shot. I didn’t need any convincing. One touch of the 270 and I had my first Stone’s ram.
A huge thank you to Gerrygoat (and others) for making this possible. This trip was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and in turn the most fulfilling.
(sorry about the quality of photos...even though the hunt ended well, we still had a couple of problems...a major one involved a camera!!)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/sheep_1.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=20208&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Sheep_22.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=20209&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Sheep_3.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=20210&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Sheep_5.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=20212&size=big&cat=)