Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Sheep Hunt 2014

I tried to condense this year's sheep story, but I didn't do a very good job.

We hunted sheep in the Alaska Range again. We have hunted this area before and had some idea of what the terrain looked like.

I spotted some rams on day one. They were traveling with a black bear.


Better picture of the rams, worse picture of the bear.


They did not really seem to mind the bear, and he fed well within 200 yards several times, but never made a move toward the sheep. They watched him pretty casually while feeding.

We tried climbing up after them on the opener, but got cliffed out with waterfalls after about 5 hours. Bummer, because the route would have put us into good position to see the whole valley and some country we had never seen before. Back to base camp to try again the next day. Watched the rams again when they came out to feed around 8PM.

Climbed up through the alders the next day and set up a little spike camp. We saw the rams again around the same time. Developed a plan where we would hike through the valley that separated us, up the other side, and kill one or two. It appeared that there was a double broomer and a full curl ram in the group, and we had watched him butting heads and generally being a pest to the double broomer.

At the last minute, we decided that it would be a good idea to bring sleeping bags and pads. We have been in situations where you are waiting for sheep to appear before and wished we didn't have to back out and run back to camp. What the hell, they don't weigh much. So, we added a couple days worth of food, and a jetboil. We had seen a couple of caves that looked like they would work for bivy spots.

We had been seeing sheep in the green, just under the highest point here:



As usual, things didn't go exactly as planned. We hiked down the canyon only to find the stream at the bottom was 1) a serious SOB to get to due to cliffs, and 2) really pissed off.


We located a potential crossing, and I made an attempt. Naturally we had decided to leave our glacier socks down low so as to save the 2 lbs, so this attempt was a strip down to your skivvies and try to wade the creek type of thing. I was not successful due to slimy rocks on the bottom that were huge and slanted with the current, which was pretty fast. Hiking poles told me that the water was going to be too deep anyway, and I backed out. I'll spare you the picture of me in my skivvies (for now), since I don't have it yet. FYI, the water was cold.

Long story short(er) we ended up sidehilling up the valley and crossing about 3 miles up, then climbing the other side and working our way back.

Once on the sheepy side, we sidehilled through the boulders until we saw sheep. There were actually 7 rams, some bedded down and some feeding. Set up spotters and got a good look. We confirmed that one ram was double broomed, but we just couldn't get to 110% confidence on the ram that appeared to be full curl. They were working into a location that would be a problem for us - high probability of a 1000+ foot fall if you were to shoot a ram. We decided that we would back out and drop over the edge of the ridge in order to be out of sight, and then work on around a smaller finger ridge that would hopefully take us closer for a better look. One of the rams spotted us as we were backing out, and they all laid down and watched us. Of course, the valley between us is at the top of the waterfall in the Barney's pack picture above, and that valley has a glacier at the head of it. So now it is raining, and wind blowing down vally is gusting somewhere in the 70mph neighborhood. It is getting late, and the sheep know we are here... time to replan. We decide that my buddy will stay put in the rocks and I will try to sneak closer. He wants to watch the second ram to try and confirm that he's full curl. I want to get broomy on the ground before he gets into suicide position.

I take the little spotter that I stole from Art, my rangefinder, rifle, and binos, and start my stalk. The finger ridge that I'm hiding behind gets me close to where I want to be. I end up in a tundra/boulder field, which gives me great cover, and I belly crawl about 150 yards between boulders until I run out of cover. Rangefinder says 400 yards, and the rams are all bedded down. I take another really careful look through the spotter, as there are 3 rams bedded close together - the double broomer that is my favorite, the possibly full curl ram, and a heavy 7/8ths ram that we already decided was not legal. I found my ram, got a good rest on a rock, and took my shot. All 3 rams got up and stared in the opposite direction. None of them fall, or even have a red spot on them. I had missed completely... not a good feeling. I started checking horns in my rifle scope. Lamb tips, lamb tips, no lamb tips... ok, I have my target again. I waited for gusts to stop, held on the shoulder and shot. He went down.

The other rams stood around, looking at the dead ram. I stood up, in plain sight, and walked back to where my pack was, and where my buddy was watching through the spotter. He had decided that the second ram was full curl, but he had stayed back at 600+ yards, and couldn't make a determination until after I had shot. The rams were now at 800+, but not really moving off. Had I known the second ram was full curl, I would have stayed a little more concealed, but we had our work cut out for us, so we didn't pursue a second one. We took some pictures, caped, and cut up my ram.



Then it was back to the cave. Pretty nice diggs! At least we didn't have to pack it. Sorry, my sheep partner is camera shy.


[img]http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/cwh2/Sheep/2014/DSCN3093_Annonymous.jpg[/img]

To be continued when I have more time to type.

Excellent write up, thank you very much for posting.

Awesome , love broomed rams , yours is really nice. Good story as well.

Thoroughly enjoyed the vicarious pleasure of the hunt.....

Congrats on another great sheep hunt Chris.
That's some awesome country.

Cool story and pics. Good job. I hope by the time I can afford it I can still climb. But my buddy got a 72 year old with hip replacements and a knee surgery scheduled his ram recently.

Love the cave picture

Regardless still love seeing sheep while mooser hunting

Jeff

Awesome story. It really described the challenges and terrain well! Congrats on your sheep!!

Eric

Nice ram Chris, congrats! Looking forward to the rest.

Congratulations.

Damn Chris, you did it again! Congrats on a nice ram bud.

Thanks all, should have some more done today.

Been looking forward to this! Thanks for taking the time to share your hunt with us...

Nice. You are getting me stoked for my 10 day rut hunt this year.

My bed in the cave was actually decent. A couple rocks moved under the foam pad on the downhill side kept me from rolling out. A rock under my feet gave me something to push against. Then, with my knees bent, I slid down to a point where my knees hit the diagonal rock above me, and I was set - no muscle tension involved to keep from sliding. As long as I remembered to not lift my head up quickly and smack the rock, I was good, and I actually slept pretty well.



My sheep brother was not so lucky (he volunteered for "top bunk"). Top bunk was a little rough, with a steep sloped back rest, low butt, high knees, and elevated feet. He was ready to go pretty early in the morning, and not in the best of moods. So, we loaded up the meat, which we had stashed on flat rocks the night before so it could cool down, and left "advanced spike camp".

Knowing the way back to spike camp, and having daylight to walk in made the hike much more pleasant. We had a lot of sidehilling to do, but we were hoping it would be better than what we had done on the way over. We needed to sidehill up the valley, cross the creek 3 times, climb up the other side, and sidehill back to camp. This shows the center portion of the spike camp side. Our route was up to the top of the green moss (out of frame to the left), across to the top of the low plateau, and then across scree to boulders to spike camp. Camp is actually slightly lower elevation than the plateau. We made it without issue, moving slowly with lots of breaks. You can also see a sheep trail dead center in this picture. It looked like there were several "events" in the making of that trail.


One of our creek crossings had an interesting feature - water flowing out of a morraine. I don't know if there is still ice under there or what, but the glacier is at least 1/2 mile back.



We made it back to spike camp, built a grid of willow brush to keep the meat off the ground, and rigged a tarp to keep it dry. Then the sun came out, which required a nap. The nap was cut short by rain, so back into the tent.

Spike camp luxury. I don't like creamer, and even if I did I'd never pack this crap up the mountain, but a man has got to have his priorities, and who am I to tell someone else what to carry... Ultralight Backpacking!


The next day it was down the mountain, through the alders and over the creek to base camp. No pictures of that... it sucked. Alders should all be burned. Devils club should be burned and then the ashes should be pissed upon. Twice. We made it with minor scratches and eye pokes. Straight line distance from cave to spike camp is 1/2 mile, and spike to base is 1 mile. Each leg took a day.

Back at base camp, and packs off...


Next day I caped the head out, turned lips ears, etc, salted the cape, got meat nice and dry and hanging in bags in the shade. My partner was busy drying out the spike tent, clothes, and everything else we owned. We both took a bath in the river - no pics of that (you're welcome). Then we ate some tenderloin... it did not suck.


Part Duh
On our first failed attempt to climb the mountain, we had seen another ram about 4 miles away and were able to get the scope on him. He looked close to full curl... the distance would not involve too much brush or climbing, but lots of water crossing. We decided he was next on the hit list.

When we got to within about 2 miles, we spotted ewes and lambs in the place we had seen the ram. We don't typically see ewes and lambs mixed in with rams, so that was weird. We set up spotters again, and it turned out to be a group of 9 rams. Good luck is nice. We changed routes to one that involved alders again in order to stay out of sight. That killed progress, and the last 800 yards to spike 2 took us 4 hours. Sheep bro broke a brand new trekking pole ($180 set of Leki super light things) while crossing mossy boulders in the alders. Words were said. Harsh words. Poles are huge for climbing and especially descending with a heavy pack on bad footing, and two is much better than one. But they are extremely important when crossing fast water, because things have a tendency to shift underfoot and I personally have a preference for being above water, almost all the time.

Anyway, we set up spike camp in the only place we could that was out of sight from the sheep and out of the alders. It was sloped and uneven, and on mossy tundra that was about 1.5 feet deep. Pure luxury when you stopped sliding around. The tent pitch was pretty crappy. In fact, the uphill side of the rain fly ended up holding water and making a small lake, but it didn't leak....

[img]http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/cwh2/Sheep/2014/DSCN3195.jpg[/img]

We set up spotters and looked at rams while trying to stay out of sight. 3 rams appeared to be legal, with another one borderline. One of the legal rams had very unique horns that had a reverse flare until about 3/4 curl. They resembled the McDonalds golden arches when viewed from behind, and he was therefore named Ronald.

Somewhere along the line, we got weathered in for a day. Lots of wind at camp, rain, and fog up where the sheep had been. We elected not to chase sheep in the fog, although it is a double edged sword. Would be nice to have some concealment, but not knowing where you should be going makes it tough to get there. So we waited it out.

It was probably somewhere in there that I decided to take a Sponsor Photo. Thanks to everyone at Kimber for making a decent rifle that doesn't weigh a ton, Leupold for making a halfway reasonable scope, Mountain House for making good food that doesn't require me to learn the French art of cooking guts, and Leica for allowing an almost legally blind guy to see stuff.
And thanks to all the sweat shop workers, wherever you are, for building 90% of my gear.... appreciate it kids!
[img]http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/cwh2/Sheep/2014/DSCN3199.jpg[/img]

That is fantastic man!!!!!!!!!!

It almost makes me ashamed of all the sheep I killed for so many years with SO much less work...

Sir, you are being a dick... Please do not pollute my post with such antagonism.

PS:
Thanks for the spotter...

And the tent not so long ago...

And the help with rifles...

And for all the help in general.

I guess if one were prone to being philosophical, he could lament not living in those times. As it is, I'm just happy to live in these.

I have noted the use of the operative word "almost" above.

LoL. Great update!! What kind of tent are you using and which Leica binos are you using?

The tenderloins look awesome!! Yum!

Eric

Great story and pictures...thanks!

Sometimes there are no good words and a guy just wants to punch the "like" button........

Being a dick, as you quite correctly noted, I am compelled to point out the savy outdoorsman would cook the ribs first (before getting them ANYWHERE near a pressurecooker) and save the tenderloins for the owner of the spotter...

Ribs weigh more...

Just saying...

Ha, excellent write-up!

Enjoying the heck out of it, you have an enjoyable, humorous method of writing.

Nice work!

Can't wait to read the rest.

Hint.

I brought you (a picture of) the tenderloins! I'm surprised we haven't started cutting the ribs with a saw. We packed all 4 quarters with bone in, and ribs wouldn't be that much more weight.... it is really the only good way to do ribs. By the time you peel 'em, you just end up doing a lot of work for very little meat.

Plus, eating fresh sheep ribs in a cave is... just... awesome!

Hmmm... something to think about.

Come on man, get back to the story will ya!! lol

Excellent story! What caliber on the Montana?

Paul Harvey....

A guy has to work sometime

BW, 280AI.

Great story. What range finder and what cal Kimber, if I may ask. Also, what bags and spotter. Thanks, eye.

Shirley a 338 RUM for bears and all that......

Great story!

What boolits?

Why the critique on the Leupold?

Living vicariously through your post about something I will most likely never attempt.

Mike

Thanks again everyone...



Montana 280AI, VX3 3.5-10/M1.
Rangefinder: Leica CRF 1200

Bags... as in sleeping bags? Or packs? My pack is a Stone Glacier Terminus. Partners is a Barney's Pinnacle. My sleeping bag is a Wiggys... something. Their lightest one as of 6-7 years ago. Partner's is a Marmot... I think?

I had a (borrowed) Vortex Razor 11-33X50, partner had a Vortex Nomad spotter.



162 Amax.



I had to go back and read what I had said about Leupold. The "halfway reasonable" comment? I have zero complaints about my Leupold. That scope has served me perfectly. I've broken a few Leupolds, but mostly by gorilla-f-ing scope rings. I think they make a good scope. All the talk about poor tracking has me wanting to test it more thoroughly.



We saw 0 brown bears on this trip, which was a little odd... (not that it matters rifle wise). And please don't call me shirly.

Partner carries a Tikka T3 Lite (Gasp!) in 270 Win (!) with a Swaro Z3 (WTF?) Junk, Junk, Junk. Never seen him miss with it... grin.

On the bear topic. We had seen a lot more black bears in this area previously. In fact, it is the same place I shot a bear 2 years ago. We skinned it out and got the hide in camp and cooling in the creek and when we got back to the carcass there was another black bear eating it. Only saw 4 this trip. The one in the pics was actually a really nice bear, but we were kind of focused...

When we got back to spike camp with my ram, we had a good view of a fairly large drainage, and we of course glassed pretty much everything in sight. We saw a black bear over a mile away stop walking, stick his nose in the air, and start running in our direction. He crossed a river, nearly followed our route up through the alders (he did it in about 20 minutes) and came to within 200 yards of camp. We thought he was smelling the meat, but apparently he was after the gut pile, because he kept going up valley.

Pretty cool to watch him follow his nose. Once in a while, he'd stop and do circles, or wander back and forth until he caught the scent again, and then he'd beeline.

Ahem, one must use commas when addressing another, (even when one must copy and paste them as this pututer requires) 280 anything sounds most appropriate for your endeavor - and most others in this fine state.

Let's get on with things now; we're all waiting for the next shot!

Lots of fun to watch bears do in moments what takes mortal humans seeming ages of grueling effort. And one never fully understands what 'brother' bear appreciates either. As they say though - the early bird gets the worm(s).

Outstanding write-up, & oh-so-tantalizing pics! I have no way to explain how they can make men yearn to attempt so frustrating a pursuit.

Unless one's been there, one just can't comprehend the level of exhaustion required to make sleeping on lumpy pile of jagged rocks, seem like bliss. Or the determination required to get through being weathered-in in a 2-man tent.

A hearty Huzzah for your accomplishment!

FC

While in general agreement with your remarks, I striongly resemble the bolded one...

LOL

Great write up. Congrats on a nice ram.

How fast are you pushing those 162 Amax's. Need(want) a new sheep rifle and have been considering a Kimber 280AI.

Hmmm... I knew when I made the chart, but don't remember now. Should probably start writing stuff like that down. 62grains of RL22... somewhere north of 3K.

I'm pretty happy with the rifle, but of course it doesn't take a cannon to kill a sheep... most any bullet in the right spot works. I wouldn't sweat using a 7-08/260/243 84M.

Nice job Chris!