ryanb
01-01-2012, 10:22 PM
I decided to post this story because as I felt a little bit guilty about enjoying everyone elses stone sheep stories posted this year. Stories that people were nice enough to share despite a lot of the BS that always seems to crop up on sheep hunting stories posted on HBC.
As we all know a sheep hunting partner is hard to find...and I found myself without one this year after booking my vacation in early August for the purpose of going on my first sheep hunt. For a while I contemplated going solo, but on a far less ambitious hunt. Perhaps a hike-in off the highway. This held little appeal to me. I've never been a fan of competing with lots of other hunters. I decided to post a "personal ad" on HBC to try and find someone with similar goals to myself who might also be looking for a partner. I was lucky enough to find a great partner in Vip_Ruger .
After a lot of talking over the phone to make sure we were on the same page, we came up with a plan. July 28th saw me hitting the road early in the morning for the long drive to the north country . Fast forward 2 days, and the 30th saw the both of us making our way into sheep heaven. We got a late start to hiking on the 30th and made it about 4 hours up the mountain. As darkness fell we found a comfy spot to camp.
The morning of 31st was beatiful and sunny, and we were on the way up the mountain by about 5:30 am. Right at dawn we saw our first sheep, a big band of ewes and lambs. A good sign. Some 12 hours later we found our way into the valley we planned to hunt. Despite a lot of glassing along the way, no further sheep were spotted. Immediately obvious was the fact that water was going to be a big problem. There was none to be found except in valley bottoms. We decided to compromise and make our camp somewhat above the valley bottom but nowhere near the top. As we set up camp a major rainstorm moved in and we got soaked as we scrambled to errect our tents. Tired and with a big chill going we both climbed into our tents and slept for a while.
I woke up at around 9pm and poked my head out of the tent. The rain had moved along and it was a clear evening. I grabbed the binos and had a look around with only my head poking out of the tent. After 5 minutes of meticulously scouring the hillsides I spotted sheep, and it was immediately obvious they were rams, about 7 of them. We climed up the hill a bit behind camp to have a better look with the spotter. The rams were about 2km away, but it was obvious there was one ram in the band worth closer examination.
The next morning we woke up early and confirmed the rams were still where we put them to bed. We made a plan to hike up the ridge behind the face they were bedded on and have a good look at them from above. A couple hours later we peaked over the ridge to find them bedded right where we last saw them, now about 50 yards away. The one good ram was extremely borderline on full curl, I had him about 1/2cm below full and we both aged him at 7. No-go.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/DSC00958.jpg
We hunted onward up the ridge. A few hours later, scouring the mountain range across from us, Vip_Ruger spotted a band of 4 rams. These rams were about 3km away...but there appeared to be at least a couple worthy of closer inspection. We decided it was too late to make a move on them, so we made our way back to camp.
The next day we made our way up to where we had last spotted the band of 4 rams. We found them, as well as another band...but none were legal. The rams were between us and camp, and on our way back we snapped these photos.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/3.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/DSC00976.jpghttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/P1000631.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/DSC00970.jpg
The next day we made our way back up the same ridge, and spotted a couple different bands of rams. There may have been some legal squeakers in the two bands which were both a long ways off, but none really jumped out at either of us...so we decided not to pursue them which would have meant a night without shelter.
As we all know a sheep hunting partner is hard to find...and I found myself without one this year after booking my vacation in early August for the purpose of going on my first sheep hunt. For a while I contemplated going solo, but on a far less ambitious hunt. Perhaps a hike-in off the highway. This held little appeal to me. I've never been a fan of competing with lots of other hunters. I decided to post a "personal ad" on HBC to try and find someone with similar goals to myself who might also be looking for a partner. I was lucky enough to find a great partner in Vip_Ruger .
After a lot of talking over the phone to make sure we were on the same page, we came up with a plan. July 28th saw me hitting the road early in the morning for the long drive to the north country . Fast forward 2 days, and the 30th saw the both of us making our way into sheep heaven. We got a late start to hiking on the 30th and made it about 4 hours up the mountain. As darkness fell we found a comfy spot to camp.
The morning of 31st was beatiful and sunny, and we were on the way up the mountain by about 5:30 am. Right at dawn we saw our first sheep, a big band of ewes and lambs. A good sign. Some 12 hours later we found our way into the valley we planned to hunt. Despite a lot of glassing along the way, no further sheep were spotted. Immediately obvious was the fact that water was going to be a big problem. There was none to be found except in valley bottoms. We decided to compromise and make our camp somewhat above the valley bottom but nowhere near the top. As we set up camp a major rainstorm moved in and we got soaked as we scrambled to errect our tents. Tired and with a big chill going we both climbed into our tents and slept for a while.
I woke up at around 9pm and poked my head out of the tent. The rain had moved along and it was a clear evening. I grabbed the binos and had a look around with only my head poking out of the tent. After 5 minutes of meticulously scouring the hillsides I spotted sheep, and it was immediately obvious they were rams, about 7 of them. We climed up the hill a bit behind camp to have a better look with the spotter. The rams were about 2km away, but it was obvious there was one ram in the band worth closer examination.
The next morning we woke up early and confirmed the rams were still where we put them to bed. We made a plan to hike up the ridge behind the face they were bedded on and have a good look at them from above. A couple hours later we peaked over the ridge to find them bedded right where we last saw them, now about 50 yards away. The one good ram was extremely borderline on full curl, I had him about 1/2cm below full and we both aged him at 7. No-go.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/DSC00958.jpg
We hunted onward up the ridge. A few hours later, scouring the mountain range across from us, Vip_Ruger spotted a band of 4 rams. These rams were about 3km away...but there appeared to be at least a couple worthy of closer inspection. We decided it was too late to make a move on them, so we made our way back to camp.
The next day we made our way up to where we had last spotted the band of 4 rams. We found them, as well as another band...but none were legal. The rams were between us and camp, and on our way back we snapped these photos.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/3.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/DSC00976.jpghttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/P1000631.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y288/rbumali/DSC00970.jpg
The next day we made our way back up the same ridge, and spotted a couple different bands of rams. There may have been some legal squeakers in the two bands which were both a long ways off, but none really jumped out at either of us...so we decided not to pursue them which would have meant a night without shelter.