8-03A ashnola sheep draw

[humble hunter]

We just returned last night from hunting the past week on this draw very frustrated. I am wondering if anyone has any advice on what else we could have done.
We drove all the roads and put the tracks into our rhino's as well as drove highway 3 and stopped every 200 yards and glassed the hills. We then hiked down from the top into larcan creek and glassed and saw no sheep sign. We then hiked up into the top of crater mtn glassed and hiked around there and saw nothing. I then hiked down from the base of crater through the timber and over the bluffs right along the edge of the indian reserve down to the ashnola river. No new sign there at all. I then hiked from highway 3 up into the east side of larcan creek. No new sign there as well. We then hiked from the crater mtn road up to the base of the cliffs and walked through the timber on the edges below the cliffs and no new sign there as well. I feel like I did everything I could but we only saw 2 sheep the whole week that were in our zone. The rest were in on the 8-07 side or right on the highway.
Everyone else that had the draw pulled out on thursday but we stuck it out and to no avail. We scouted the area on sept 3 and saw lots of sheep on crater but by the 22nd there was nothing. I can't imagine that there was that much shooting going on to push them away. We only saw 1 other truck hunting the whole week. Thanks to my buddy elkmasterc for sticking it out with me all week even though we were seing no deer after i regaled him with stories of the huge bucks we would see up there when i was a kid. On the plus side we did limit out on blue grouse. Any advice for next time from the master sheep hunters on this site?

[Brambles]

They moved to the timber by then

[humble hunter]

That is the answer I keep getting but what timber? I still hunted the timber around crater from the top to the bottom and no sign . Do they move farther than this? All the other sheep we were seeing were in the same place every day.

[Iron-Head]

I had the same draw as you, and although I did not shoot anything, I learned a hell of allot.

We started up high then made our way down closer to the timber, after 3 days of seeing nothing I started hunting them as I would deer.. i.e. playing close attention to small draws, pockets of timber and water sources..

On the fourth day I came upon a band of 4 sheep, all banana rams and ewes, but I knew I had done somthing right.. After an additional 4 more days of hunting I had seen a total of 60+ sheep and a very promising band of 6 rams. One squeeker that taunted me for hours with a half corked head that made him look 3/4 curl.!!.

I am no expert, but as long as you feel you tried your very best with the knowledge you had.. then the hunt is a success in my books.

Im sure there are many other opinions on how to hunt the Ashnola sheep but that be my .02 Cents..

Iron'

btw this was 2 years ago ^^

[Stone Sheep Steve]

That is the answer I keep getting but what timber? I still hunted the timber around crater from the top to the bottom and no sign .

That's the problem.

They're sheep.

Not deer.

Trying to still hunt sheep and quickly determine if a ram is legal is a tough job to do....not to mention pretty risky.

Think differently.

SSS

[humble hunter]

I am no expert either but I would sure like to be. Hence the reason for this post. As far as the hunt being a success it would have been nice to get into some more sheep but as my screen name explains i was humbled again.

[humble hunter]

That's the problem.

They're sheep.

Not deer.

Trying to still hunt sheep and quickly determine if a ram is legal is a tough job to do....not to mention pretty risky.

Think differently.

SSS

So should I have kept on glassing? even though all advised they were in the timber. Aty least if I had found sme fresh sign we would have then focused on that area. And you are definetly right, we saw 3 rams right near Hedly on the reserve and one was close to legal. It took us quite a while to deside that he wasn't even though we would not have been able to shoot if he was. I can see why hunting them is addicting!

[MichelD]

Yeah, I saw lots of sheep on my draw 2 years ago.

Spent 2 days stalking close enough to a band of six (and sometimes seven) rams only to determine they were not legal.

Actually put a stalk on three more that came out of the timber to to water in an opening several days in a row, but still, could not determine if the biggest one was legal.

Well, I have some issues with my buddy who insisted '"let's rush 'em before they get away" the first day and spooked them into the next time zone.

Fortunately he left so I could sneak into a hidey hole and watch 'em the next day. But I still wasn't certain the big guy was legal so no shot.

[aggiehunter]

You can thank the quad guys with chainsaws cutting trails for your limited success, lazy no good for nothing mothers. If people payed attention to the road closures the hunting could be good.

[humble hunter]

You can thank the quad guys with chainsaws cutting trails for your limited success, lazy no good for nothing mothers. If people payed attention to the road closures the hunting could be good.

Not looking to blame anyone just some info. You can always get away from quadable areas especially in sheep country. I did not bring mine but after washing my truck today I sure wish I did. The upper part of the crater road is brutal.