Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska TMA Sheep Hunt Report

Time for a post-hunt report. It started with my son drawing a coveted TMA early season

sheep tag back in late February. He did not know if he could pull it off from work, so he was

not able to commit until a full week after the draw results were posted. As a result, we

missed the chance to book the "better" spots to be dropped off by 40 Mile Air - and to be

truthfull, I'm not really sure where all these spots are anyway. My son was able to get time

off for the 2nd half of the early season. Jake at 40 Mile reserved us a spot that they had not

dropped someone off for a couple of years. It was a river bar located at the upper part of the

Tok River

Spent the summer getting my azz into shape. Dropped to under 200# and did a lot of lower

body weight training. I was also rehabbing a partially torn achilles tendon injury from last

summer. I didn't go on a spending spree for lightweight pack, bag, etc., but did get some

Black Diamond carbon fiber trekking poles as I knew this would help with a heavy pack.

Brought a Leica Televid 20-60x65 that paid bid dividends. Did not bother with bino's.

Took the ferry from Juneau to Haines and drove to Tok from there. A nice drive that I hadn't

done in something like 30 years. We arrived in Tok the day before and checked in with 40

Mile Air. Made sure I had contact info in my DeLorme InReach device and did a test before we

left. Stopped by ADF&G and they had just plugged two 42" rams out of the TMA that

morning. They said the number of mature animals was up and we were pretty stoked to say

the least.

Stayed at the Hunter's "Terminal" that nite, so we'd be ready for the morning departure. Next

morning, we were second up. They had to pull some guys out of the field ahead of us. I was

flying with Leif and my son withMa Jake.
Neither of us have ever flown in a SuperCub. We

got dropped off at the gravel bar at 11:00 on Friday. Here's the obligitory plane shot. We

ended up hunting the valley visible above the plane's tail.



Pulled out the spotter to check out some sheep just above the landing spot. No rams, just

ewes and lambs. Crossing the Tok River to the south side looked like a bad idea and not

really necessary for our hunt plans.

Put in 4.5 miles and 1,500 vert to make it to a decent camp spot. This was about 500 vert

above the river floor and on a ridge with good visibilty up to the head of the valley. Set up

camp and did a little spotting. Saw 3 rams with one looking pretty good sized (this was the

one we ending up getting). Plan was set for tomorrow.



Saw the rams again the next morning. Took off for the 2.5 mile hike to get up to them.

Took a "gulley shot" up the moraine to keep ourselves hidden from their view. Some really

nasty terrain and almost like another planet. I dubbed it the moraine from hell.



After a couple of hours of hiking we figured we were pretty close and peeked over the top of

a lateral moraine. Spotted the big ram 600 yds away. No way to close the distance without

exposing ourselves to view. We mulled it over for 1/2 hour while eating some food and

hydrating, then decided to make our break while he was feeding. Got up behind the next

lateral moraine and took a peek - we were busted. Two rams heading up the steep scree

above us. They both took sentry positions and gave us the stink eye.

We decided to back off and head to the head of the valley as we had seen rams moving up

and down this corridor. Made it up to the to the top of the valley and looked off the back of

the pass to see a couple of sub-legal rams. Made the long hump back to camp - 9 mile / 13

hour day. I was pretty whooped. We decided to leave those sheep alone for a while and let

them settle down.

Next day, we decided to check out a couple smaller hanging valleys the next day that were

closer to camp. Saw 5 rams, but nothing close to being legal. At the end of the day, we

decided to move camp further up valley to be closer to the head of the valley.

Monday, the day of the solar eclipse, we got up at 4:30 and started up the river valley at 5:30

to where we had seen the big ram the first day. After a 30 minute walk upriver, my son spots

sheep coming down off the hillside about 1/2 mile ahead of us. We ducked out of sight and

slipped up a side gulley to set up the spotter. 3 rams in the group, with our target ram in the

groom. They milled around in the river bottom for about a half hour and they headed into

the moraine. As soon as they moved out of sight, we crossed the river and started flanking

them. We then noticed they were coming back out of the moraine and towards us. We

ducked into some willow patches for cover. They wind had been coming down the valley all

morning, but started swirling. The sheep were still heading towards us and dropped down

into a gulley out of sight about 400 yards ahead and above us. We made a move thru the

willows to where we could see better. They came out above us, heading towards a grassy

patch. My son shot at 150 yds using my trekking poles at shooting sticks. He thought he

missed on the first shot with his Kimer Montana 300 WSM - the ram didn't look phased. He

shot a second time and it went down!! He actually his the ram solid on both shots.

Ram was 8 years old. Broomed left - full curl right. 36.5" on the FC side. 12.5" bases.







The Montana was shooting 60.o gr IMR-4064 with 150 TTSX's (my handloads).

Very nice! Who did the ring count at 8? Sure looks like more to me...

Congratulations!

L,

Beautiful sheep and a great story. That moraine stuff sure can be hell!

Congrats to your son! Sheep never come easy.

Outstanding ! What greater pleasure than to be with your son on his sheep kill. That's the stuff of dreams


On a side note, no intend to hijack, but I helped unload a float plane for 40 mile air at Midway lake this last week. Guy had what looked to be a 36-38 in ram long but no drop to the curl

Saw something I didn't think I'd ever see. As we were unloading the plane out comes this folding chair, real similar to the ones that came with our patio set. Like an old fashioned lawn chair but heavier duty and well heavier (????)
1 chair, two hunters, 1 sheep

I'll admit it gave me pause

Congrats to your son and good on ya for being with. Really enjoyed the pix and details

Had lunch with Leif and Vern in AK at delta a month or so ago

Beautiful animal, congratulations! Thanks for the play by play. You're blessed by such beautiful country.

Sheep hunting in Xtratuffs is no joke! Congratulations on a great hunt!

Very, very nice ram and hunt! I'd love to do that hunt..............

A pleasure to read! Pics are icing on the cake.

Great Ram! Thanks for the story! Congrads to your son!

Outstanding! Congrats to both of you!

Congratulations. That just went on my bucket list. Thanks for posting, great story.

Congratulations on an excellent hunt and excellent summary! You must be very proud of your son!

That's a good ram!! Conglads to you & your son----memories to last a lifetime!!

Ah Yes.....Juneau tennis shoes........very common at weddings also!

A great experience for a great sheep.

Some very big sheep are coming out of the hills this year.

Great trip! Grats

Wow, fantastic experience. Thanks for posting.

Sweet!

Very nice! Congrats to you both.

Thanks for the adulations guys.



That would be the Tok office of fin, fur and feathers.

Several noticed the Xtra Tuff boots my son was wearing. He has leather hiking boots but they don't work for him. He has a bunion of the bottom of one foot that hurts like crazy with a stiff-soled boot. It is hard to believe as it's so hard to side hill or come downhill in those things.

Can't say enuff nice things about the folks at 40-mile Air. Forgot to mention how handy the InReach was. We scored and made it back to the gravel strip at noon - 4 days ahead of our scheduled pickup. I send a message to Genoa and we were picked up within 4 hours of our initial request! Friggin' awesome.