Beaver;
Good evening to you my cyber friend, I hope the second last day of November treated you all well.
Before going any further I'll assure you that the day I discuss my personal experiences with such things online will be the day you can add my name to my cyber friend Digital Dan's list of folks who've lost it.
However, that doesn't mean I don't have a sheep hunting story for you - and it's California Bighorns by the way for those who have the rubber boot and velcro glove jokes waiting in the wings.
Back in the halcyon days of Okanagan sheep hunting, we were allowed to take a ram per year with over the counter tags with only a 3/4 curl restriction.
It was one of the more accessible areas to get an over the counter sheep tag so as the gentle reader can imagine, the more accessible areas were a wee bit of a three ring circus. One morning on a trailhead to get onto a good place to see rams, I was the 12th pickup for instance.
The poor out of country hunters were a wee bit nonplussed too sometimes as they were expecting a more "wilderness experience" sheep hunt rather than something resembling a Black Friday opening at an electronics store.
It was bad enough that until I took up sheep hunting in the early '90's, I studiously and most carefully avoided that drainage for the entire month of September, which was when the season was.
The stage is now sufficiently set for the following tale.
I bumped into a buddy who along with his brother would guide, taking time off of their usual contractor duties. I'd query them about mulie bucks mostly as I wasn't quite to the point where I was hoping to get a ram. That came a couple years later.
When I asked if he saw any decent bucks so far that season he replied that no, he'd not seen any big ones, but that he and at least 5 other groups of hunters had witnessed a couple who were obviously in the mood for something other than strictly sheep hunting.
He then wondered out loud to me why anyone would think they had privacy in a place that likely had more spotting scopes and expensive binoculars second only to the annual bird watchers bird count day, you know?
Anyways that's the story of the sheep hunters who couldn't wait, or something akin to that I suppose?
All the best to you all as we head into winter weather.
Dwayne
