Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game The Points of Contact

Keep it coming. Enjoying the heck out of this story.

Great story and pics so far, can't wait for the rest.

Awesome thread, hell yeah

🤣🤣🤣

Days 4, 5, 6
Early this morning Katie packed out some of her gear, while leaving the rest with me and the goats. I found out later she ran into two guides hunting with a client for a ewe on the way down. They told her they never hunt this drainage for rams and were a little cagey about where they had been camping. They did not give her any suggestions for a ram, which is understandable.

I spent the morning glassing near camp by myself and felt I had covered a ton of it. The season had been open for 4 days now and if people were going to bump sheep into my drainage from more accessible areas, I was hoping they would have done it by now.

With no rams in sight and short in food( F U Ivar), I decided to pack everything up and head home for a day, do some research and make a few phone calls. Then head back in in another day. Oh and Ivar had noooooo problem walking downhill with a half full pack.




When I got home, I talked to the buddies that had hunted there in the past, and they told me that outfitter was full of crap. Said his website pictures are all of rams in this same drainage where they too had killed and I had been hunting the last few days.

I also found less continuous drainages likely to hold sheep, but they were more isolated. I decided I was better off being mobile and bringing the ATV out while having a truck based camp.

Knowing we were being lied to by the outfitter and suspecting they had to have been eyeing basins a bit lower than we had been hunting I decided to give West Founders one more day by Atving in to the bottom and hiking up, not quite as far as we had been with the goats. If those last few lower rocky basins off the same ridge did not work out, I’d motor over to Founders, which has an ATV trail going all the way up over the top into some serious high country. If that didn’t work out, I’d move again to the other side of the continental divide.

Day 5 was heading back in and setting up a base camp.

Day 6 I’m hunting again. It’s a two week season and weather is coming in at the end of it.

Predawn and I’m hunting up the same trail I just packed out of two days ago. Seemed like a waste but I needed to re energize and get some more food.

Two bulls were screaming at each other and I saw one in the aspens raking a small tree. Yeah I hung out to watch a bit, eventually deciding to get to the serous business of investigating this lower basin that we hadn’t glasses previously.

Back up the trail and just as I hit the creek flowing out of the basin, wouldn’t you know it, but I found a ram caped out with meat in bags just off the trail. Guessing the outfitted client was a ram hunter after all. Liars.



Guess we weren’t that far off of a ram or two. So up I climbed, and climbed and climbed. This was an unusual basin with the lower end being heavily timbered and the upper end set back further into the mountain than the other ridges. So the only way to glass it would be from the top of Flagg mountain or to be right on the border ridges and work your way up towards the back of it.

So that’s what I did. It was steep, several times I reminded myself to have three points of contact at all times. I was grabbing shrubs or grass tufts or little trees to pull myself up and up and up. I damn sure didn’t want to go down this way in the way back if I could avoid it, but needed to peak into the basin and glass the pinnacles and cliff faces without sky lining myself the whole way up.

It was an ass kicker. As if the previous several days had been nothing. Had to really watch the thorny cliff rose, but every other shrubby rooted thing was needed to keep my balance while climbing and huffing and puffing. I was in sheep sign and someone had just killed a ram the previous day, when I should have still been here hunting. Definitely moving slower now.











More to come…

Great story and pics. Thanks for sharing. Waiting on the trophy shot.

ttt

Day 6.5
I got near the top of the basin and was gassed. I was a bit above timberline but I had tipped out. I damn sure did not want to go back down and around this basin to only have to gain altitude again. There was stuff worth seeing on the back side of this ridge but I wasn’t sure if the ridge truly cliffed out, or just kinda cliffed out. So up I went. Little by little. Keeping at least three points of contact as we climbed and climbed and climbed. I was going slow and the heart racing was probably more to do with not wanting to fall than actually working hard.

Can I get out on top here or not?





You’re not a sheep Mark. You’ve got a family. Don’t die, don’t slip and fall. Don’t get hurt. Over and over and over I said that to myself. And I went up little by little, and it was never obvious that I could or could not do it.

From afar it looked like I could maybe climb up out near the thimble rock, but it cliffed out in between.

However, the ridge and the sheep trails hugged the close side of the mountain and I just glued myself to the main cliff face and kept as much contact as I could and kept creeping on up. My stomach was in knots the whole way and it wouldn’t take much of slip to be dead or in serious trouble. But I just kept going. You’re not a sheep mark, you’ve got a family. Don’t get hurt. Don’t die.

It got real tight in spots, hands and knees at times and then before I knew it, it flattened out and I was there. Holy crap I made it out. Well I ain’t going back but I did it. I found a seem, hugged the mountain and made my way out. Took forever but I did it. Wasn’t appropriate to take a picture while in the worst of it but snapped a few after I crested out.






It scared the hell out of me. Grabbed a sandwich and sat in the shade on the opposite side and re examined. My surroundings. Onx showed some gnarled cliffs, so after soaking in the new view and listenkng to a lone bull bugle in the timber below. Off I went. Little by little on the sheep trails on the ridge here.


Eventually, I got to the next set of pinnacles and I called it. I just wasn’t willing to do this again.



I could see the sheep trail going right between the pinnacles. I just couldn’t risk it. I could see this cliffed out at the bottom of the pinnacle with a real drop off, so a tumble could mean death. I had to stop here.

From a little lower I got a view further up valley so I sat here at what seemed like a pinch point. Cliff out below, sheep trails above. If a sheep came by, it would have to come by in range with plenty of openings and time to make a decision. By late afternoon I glassed 4 sheep in the shade well past the pinnacles. It was probably the same group I saw a few days prior as they were on the exact opposite side of the mountain. Either way. Nothing to get excited about and think about how to cross the pinnacles or the cliffs or descend down to the creek via the avalanche chute and then back up.

I stayed up here until dusk listening to the occasional bugle, then headed lower to look at some smaller basins that I passed on the way in this morning. Got back down to the trail around dark. It was an ass kicker of a day, but I was still in sheep.

Day 7
My feet hurt, right big toe was getting numb as it sometimes does on hard hunts. I slept in a little and got rolling a bit after dawn. I decided to take the ATV up the creek of Founders, getting different views of the same ridge I was on yesterday, but further up valley, with new views of the next cliff on the north side of Founders. The lower end had some good pinnacles that rounded around with a lake basin on the back side. The far end was like 13,600 feet with some sheepy looking stuff here and there. Figured it would be an exploration day. And if I saw nothing new or exciting I’d pack up and hunt the other side of the divide.

Puttering along the new stuff at 9am, about 45 minutes down the trail from camp, I got a break in the timber above and glassed to my north. To the south was the ridge I climbed onto yesterday.

I look up with the binos and there’s a ram peeking over the top of a rock! Plus two more sheep below him about half a mile away, what seemed like straight up the mountain. I scramble off the 4wheeler and grab the big spotter, but I knew damn well I’d be willing to shoot that ram at this point. First impression was heavy bases and unbroomed tips with the 12x binos . So probably in the 5/8 curl or so range.

But he was gone by the time I got the scope up. But there was nowhere for him to go. It was all barren open slope. Did he come down into the timber? Was he just feeding in the willows? I doubt he baled over the top already. There were a few boulders jutting out, but they weren’t very big, I should see him any second now.

Well either way. Start climbing. So up and up I went to timberline at 12,000 feet. About 750 feet above where I left the ATV with still hundred more feet to go to where I last saw him. But I have no cover left.

There! No that’s a deer. A damn big one at that. Do I sit down. It’s now 10am. I hadn’t seen any sheep all week from mid morning to late afternoon. Did they bed down somewhere? I’m 400 yards from where I last saw him. Should I just charge up the hill and spook them? I’d probably have a shot as there wasn’t much cover they could get to. No, that’s stupid. Be smarter than that.

Just then, a ram was standing in the big boulder where I first saw the ram and two other sheep. And then he was gone! Surely all three were bedded just behind the boulder. This was a different ram, definitely younger and not a shooter. I’m certain that makes for two rams. Was the deer something I mistook for another ram for a half mile away? I doubt it. Their body shapes are very different, even if the color is similar.

So now what? Wait 4-6 more hours for them to get up? I already climbed 750 feet. I’m probably within range if they feed down below the boulders and if I get a little bit higher. Or do I try to find a way around to the ridge above for a 100 yard shot and better view of the rams.

I saw a cairn on top of the ridge. I wonder, is ther access up there? Looks like the ATV trail ties in with an alpine road at the pass. That puts me 1.2 miles away on Onx and close enough in altitude for the top of the ridge. Piss on waiting I’m making my move.

Sheep bedded somewhere in the boulders above.



Back down 750 feet. To the ATV. Up and up the trail to the Jeep road. Then straight up the mountain. Hey wait, where was the road I was looking for? Seemed like what I wanted went through a mining claim and isn’t an open road. Well, another spur seems to go a little further from here. You’re committed now…

Now I’m at 13,200 feet. And the next spur I wanted is closed too. That one went through some tundra and the scree, but unnecessarily seemed to gain altitude that I didn’t need. Th ridge above the rams was 12.700ish. I don’t need to go up to 13,500. I’ll go around on foot. Through a half mile of scree.


Then through some nice open tundra, and then the ridge.




Son of gun. Thought we weren’t doing this again…
Shoulda be easier than yesterday . But just don’t fall on either side.




But we are hunting now. Rifle in hand. 3 points of contact rule still applies. Just shift gun hand so you can grab rocks. Hands and knees when it narrows. Peek over the sides. Onx says that boulder is still further in front of you.
There’s sheep trails here Mark, but you’re not a sheep. You have a family. Don’t die. Don’t fall. Don’t get hurt. Don’t have to peek all the way over the edge. They should be out front somewhere.

What’s that stupid looking stump doing up here?
Holy crap! Sheep! With friends! They’re still sleeping!

Good stuff! Thank you for taking the time.

Day 7.5

So there I was no sch!te about to die. Had three rams bedded at 85 yards. I’m in a cliff edge at 12,700 feet. I’m afraid of getting prone to shoot. Pretty sure I won’t fall off, but what if I drop my rifle while in recoil? It’s a chip shot but there’s a young ram with his face awfully close to the 5/8 curl ram. And I’m willing to take him at this point. I’d like a steady rest. I’ve got a bipod but can’t get the angle right, clear the rocks and point it downward enough. Wait, I’ve got shooting sticks in the pack!

I back up, whip out the folding sticks and they are all kinds a floppy on the rocks. The ram on the left gets up to pee. Is he looking at me? He’s looking my way while I’m fumbling around. The other little ram gets up that was next to the bigger ram. I’m all clear. Bam!

280 AI 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. He never got out of his bed. He kicked/spasmed a couple times. The little rams ram my way then turned back around and fled toward the timber. It was over. Sorta. Now I gotta go get him.

I never did find that way down that I thought I’d be able to pull off from below. So I look again along the ridges and give up. I can’t spend all day looking for a route down when I know I can get there from below, but it’s gonna be a few hours either way.

I punch my tag and hustle back to the ATV. Shot was at 2 PM, I got 5 hours til dark. Took me four hours to get here and take the shot but no since being sneaky now. Just book it. 1.7 miles back to the ATV. A coupe miles back to the bottom of the cliff. 1,250 feet straight up over what turned out be 900 yards.

I was just about out of water, I was tired already. And now I have to climb and climb and climb again. Your reward will be the remaining water when you get there. I had one game bag, a mostly empty Badlands Sacrifice pack with me, so enough to get most of the meat out tonight. No good way to mess with the head today.



Up and up and up and up. Started up from the trail at 4:30 ish. Loose dirt and rocks, holding on to tufts of grass with both hands trying to gain altitude. 3 points of contact Mark. Don’t die. You’re not a sheep, be smart. Don’t fall. It was terrible those last 100 yards. But as I rounded the Boulder at 5:20, There he lay. 7 days in and I’ve done it.







Tried a few selfies but remembered the little tripod I had for a snap on telephoto for the IPhone and tried that. Much better.

Looks like quite the adventure. Thanks for sharing.

Love the goats.

The uphill shot and why I didn’t come from the top to at least gut him before heading back to the ATV.

I got the back straps, tenderloins, and both tears out that night. I got down to the ATV around 8 PM. It was sketchy being totally off balance, but I had my hands free with no rifle (hid it in the bushes below). Was totally out of water. And hungry. I had some cheese with my other gear so I grabbed some of that. It’s wet. It should help. No! It’s all salt and turns my mouth into a paste. Granola bar had some meaty bits and was able to choke that down. Back to camp by 9 for a late proper dinner and clean up.

Day 8

I had hiking pole that I should have been using. So the next morning, with the dreaded climb and all unnecessary gear being stashed in camp or down near the trail, I started hiking up and up and up again. This time with a frame pack to get here and cape and front quarters out.
I basically never use a hiking pole but it really did help with the balance in the super steep stuff, especially on the way back down.

Basically the end. Was back to camp by about 1PM. 23 hours after I shot him.

Found the bullet jacket in the shoulder. Will probably try to find a way to put that on the backpack mount I’m thinking about doing.



The end

Wow!!!

Whew! I’m tired….time to go to bed.

I’ll never get the chance but nice job telling your story with some really nice photos. Thanks.

Way to go!
Huge congratulations on a job well done.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience.

A sheep well earned. Thanks for sharing.

Nice well earned hunt, thanks for taking us along!