Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Let's talk about sheep...

Yea, it'll be more like two months, not two weeks.

Crud, I have the supplement right here with me. I applied for 190, 160 and 165 in that order.

190 is Carpenter Creek. All those units line up in a row. Brain fart on my part.

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Which one did you draw?

Like I said earlier, I'm on the opposite side of Tazlina from where the photos were taken. So it's the EAST side of Tazlina over to the Rich Hwy - DS 165. Don't think I fupped duck on that one

Do you know when then send you the actual harvest tag?

bluedreaux:

Outfitted/guided hunts in Canada or Alaska are out of my budget so the one sheep hunt that I did in Colorado will probably be my only sheep hunt. It was memorable because I looked upon it as a once-in-a-lifetime hunt. I hunted for 15 days in some of the most rugged terrain that I have seen and finally connected only 1/2 mile from a highway.

The most difficult part of the experience was drawing the tag which took 11 years.

There were eight rams in the unit and this was the biggest. The photo was taken by the DOW ranger at their headquarters in Salida, when I checked it in with them.



KC

That's awesome KC. Did you do a write up on the hunt you could link?

Wow, I love seeing all these great sheep. I guess I better get in gear and start getting in shape and lining up a Dall hunt.

An Alaskan Dall is my ultimate North American hunt.

This is my 14 yr old step daughter with a California Bighorn she took in Oregon last year. She said it was harder and a lot hotter than she thought it would be. The second pic is of the country we hunted.

I have a sheep hunt planned for next year here in Alberta. Me and a friend will be doing a backpack hunt in the Wilmore. Not expecting to get one the first t ime out,but you never know,it might just happen. Luckily I can still get over the counter tags here,although it is a trophy area so it makes things more difficult. Either way,really looking forward to it.

Amazing sheep. Its unreal that she drew that tag at 14. Now the only thing that sucks is she can never put in for it again. Congrats to her on a once in a lifetime hunt.

Nope. Taylor Highway. They were killing caribou during tailgate breakfasts where we parked - our caribou hunting was 2-5 miles back in. Because of the over quoto harvest (NOT "over-harvest! -thank you Anchorage Daily News!- azzholwes), opening day has been changed from Aug 10 to Sept 1, I believe. It's weeks later, anyway.

Politics and PR - no real impact on the herd dynamics (85 % of the overall 2% harvest was bulls) - the ADF&G biologists gotta mind their careers (I would too)...... The herd may not even follow that migration pattern again- the first time they've done so since the reubuilding started a couple decades back.

bluedreaux:

Here it is.

In 2006, I was lucky enough to draw a bighorn sheep license, after eleven years of applications. I had applied for unit S68, which is bordered by Texas Creek, Salida, Poncha Pass, Hayden Pass and state highway 69. I had hoped to drive to Poncha Pass, which is at 11,000� elevation, and hike into the high country from there. But when I contacted the local game manager, with the Division of Wildlife, she told me that there were no sheep above timberline in the Northern Sangre De Cristo Mountains. They are all down by the Arkansas River, in that unit.

So I scouted the area south of the river between Texas Creek and Coaldale several times that summer. In June I saw six rams at the mouth of Falls Gulch and there was one with lamb tips that had not broken his nose and had no scars on his coat. He is really a beautiful animal and I determined that that was the one that I wanted. There was only one other hunter who had drawn a tag in that unit and the wildlife manager put us in touch with each other. We traded scouting reports and other information throughout the summer.

We hunted together and I thought I had a good idea of where the rams were hanging out and on opening morning we hiked into the area and must have been pretty close to them. I guess that they winded us because while we were glassing from a ridge top, on the west side of [bleep] Gulch, we heard some rocks falling. We couldn�t see the area where we heard the rocks so we changed spots and when we could see the area, eight rams were focused on us, about five hundred yards away, on the east side of the valley. There were four shooters and four smaller rams. Three rams had 5/8 curl horns that were heavily broomed and the one with lamb tips was there too. We were sitting on some rocks surrounded by open ground and we couldn�t exit the rocks without them seeing us leave. We watched them for about an hour and eventually they casually strolled away, up and over a shoulder beyond.

We didn�t see them again for over two weeks. It�s about 1,000 feet from the highway to the top of the highest ridges and we climbed up and down in the dark. This is some of the roughest country that I have seen; steep, rocky and loose. The gullies are generally a series of cliffs choked with brush, so we tried to climb the ridges and slopes when we could. We spent more hours glassing than I can count. Twice we went home to regroup, rest and prepare for another go at it. I returned on a Thursday morning and carried a loaded backpack up the steep slope just west of Cotopaxi. I was prepared to camp on top for five days. When I topped out, I peeked over the last ridge and I could see them casually relaxing in the shade of some pinions about 100 yards away. It was mostly luck after all that time of looking, to finally stumble upon them when they were unaware if my presence.

I spent several minutes composing myself, getting control of my breathing and heart rate. Finally I peeked over the ridge again and picked out the one that I wanted to shoot. Then I slipped my rifle over the rocks and shot the one with lamb tips. It was an easy shot at a stationary target about 100 yards away. All the rams started sprinting away and he tried to follow them uphill for a few steps, then he dropped and rolled back down to where he stood when I shot him. It was an easy scramble from where I shot to where he lay.

After field dressing him, I carried my backpack down to the truck and switched to a frame pack, which I used to haul him out in two pieces. The front half must have weighed over 100 pounds. I stopped more times than I can count and at each stop, I questioned my sanity. By the times that I reached the truck, my legs were rubber and I had to climb that slope again to get the back half.

I took him to the DOW office in Salida where the wildlife officers did the measurements and installed the plug in the horn. That�s where the picture was taken.

It may sound like an easy hunt; half a mile from the highway, only 1,000 feet to climb, a one hundred yard shot at a stationary target. But fifteen days is the longest hunt that I have taken and it was the roughest hunt that I have had because of the miserable terrain.

KC

Good hunt!

Great story,thanks.

That's a great story. Couple of questions...

Did the other hunter get a ram and how long is the season?

bluedreaux:

The season lasts for the entire month of September.

The other hunter did not fill his tag.

KC

Thanks for the stories guys. I want to hunt Bighorns some day before I get too old.

Me too. And Deserts. And Stones. Lucky for another Dall.

I'm gonna have to hit the Lotto.... recruit the kids as packers, subvert the wife ( the easy part - she hates/loves sheep hunting)...

Prolly ain't gonna happen, but dreams come cheap.

Here's my only one. 2005 Alaska DMA. But I'm waiting for the next drawing......... [img:center][/img]


Lord I love any adventure hunt especially sheep hunting.

Here's a couple more pics of the sheep my friend Jim and I took on that hunt.........Here's mine.... [img:center][/img] Here's Jim's... [img:center][/img]

Kennon

I am loving this thread!!!!! Thanks to those contributors. I hope to have a good story to add next fall, as I ahve drawn a Montana tag. I am beyond excited.

Keep the stories and pics coming!