Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Alaska Range Sheep Hunt August 10th---MUST HAVES

Too tight. You need to plan for weather delays. Even with the commercial flights there could be weather delays.

Make sure you have a good headlamp. Many times you set up the stalk before it gets light or are packing sheep after civil twilight.

Talk to your taxidermist. You might have an assistant guide who can do the job right but you might have a college cannery slimeline worker. You need to make sure that you have the salt and the tools to take care of your trophy right.

Shop for a different sleeping bag. You can get one of those Kelty Dridown bags for around $200. They are light and you will be thankful for it.

Take a pair of really light camp shoes or crocs for streamcrossings and for drying your feet at night.

You're the client. Take whatever rifle you shoot best with.
Make sure you can test it before you hunt in earnest.
Get electrical tape for muzzle. I wind it around the barrel as well. Also if you take a wooden stock shoot the whole thing with a bottle of campdry silicone spray on the stock and then use cloth shotgun tape to protect it. It protects even synthetic stock guns by kind of cushioning it from dings.

Bring a small pill container with emergency medicine. Including vicodin. You can never tell when you need it.

Bring gaiters for your boots. They lessen damage to your books and allow your feet to stay drier.

Take a small space blanket in case you have to bivyout or wait out over your sheep. A good pack cover is also good.

A small high lumen flashlight is also good. They don't weigh much but they have been used to drive a curious bear away at night.

Make a journal and look to optimize the amount of time in the field. Sometimes you might have to make your luck. This means you have to sometimes walk to the next drainage or call the outfitter and request a change. Be firm but you are paying for the experience. Go for it.

Make sure you have topos that have been weatherproofed of the entire area that you expect to hunt. It will help.

Take a sawyer waterfilter. They are very light. Giardia is a real concern even in the mountains.

Bring some Mio energy drops to flavor the water. It will be worth it.

Best luck,
Thomas

good advice upon here if you heed it


ime, no one gets serious enough about ounce counting on gear, until they've taken their first sheep or goat.

after that, all the inane looney stuff of going lt. wt. makes much more sense

but not everyone has to pee on the electric fence to learn what happens.

good luck, hope you bag a beauty

Thank you all for the tips thus far. What gaiters do you all recommend? I found some options on Ebay. Thanks!

I'd use a loaner rifle long before I would a loaner pack. Bad idea.

Hunted east of Healy last August in the Alaska range, used a light 270 with 150 ttsx worked great, lots and lots of climbing up down sideways. I am sure u r working on conditioning , that is the name of the game in the range. we did catch some grayling. Or gaiters worked great. It was hot last August and my feet were soaked From sweating constantly hard not to get blisters.
Have a great trip!!!

A good way to avoid sweaty feet and the consequent blisters is to spray one's feet with a regular antiperspirant.

+1

thanks 4 the tip on antiperspirant, but when its in the 70's
and walking all day I could tip my boots upside down and water
would run out

Then start using antiperspirant regularly and a lot of that will stop...

Up early, aren't we?

This antiperspirant spray might be the best advice yet. I will definitely bring some. Thank you.

I would use it between now and when I left for the hunt, and leave the can at home.

Forget the .300, the .308 makes the trip as long as you have great confidence in the rifle,

Borrowing a pack, similar to borrowing used underwear, Bad idea. Buy your own and start getting familar with it now, Sell it when the hunt is over.

The most important things to me were body care, Good snythetic underwear, 2- 1 oz bottles of Goldsbond medicated powder and baby wipes, followed by good socks (bridgedales). You start to chafe, and things become horrible..

Forget the fishing poles, you're sheep hunting, fish at home, not to mention it seems your not counting oz, and you better be.

I had no Insects in The Alaska range either time I was there.

Go absolutely no where without your range finder.(still in therapy over this).

Who is your outfitter if I may ask?

Antiperspirant spray? What is wrong with foot spray products designed for such? Foot powder? Tough Skin? Comments?

The things you listed are not antiperspirants... The idea is to reduce the amount of sweat your feet produce. It works. Foot powder is just dry lube and does nothing to stop the sweating.

Good advice here but don't forget to ask your guide about what he suggests. He has seen all the mistakes and should be able to send you a good recommended list.
Good luck, work hard, shoot straight and take plenty of photos.

Keep the advice coming. Yes, he did send me a list of items to take on the trip. However, I was hoping to get some more details from you all and have some great nuggets to already take away from this forum.

I am hunting with Scott McRae. A family friend of ours has hunted with him a number of times and has great things to say about him. I am really looking forward to it.

www.alaskasummitguideservice.com

You are going to think I am completely weird for this but it really is genius. Take a golf ball along. When you work to dry your feet at night which is essential for keeping you from having blisters develop. Massage your feet with the golf ball. I heard about it and thought it was completely nuts and then I tried it out. I generally never admit to it but I do often take a golf ball and then either an extremely small bottle of pinesol or a handful of mothballs.

I will put a couple of drops of the pinesol near the corner of the tent when I head off. Or I will put the mothballs at the corner of the tent. It keeps varmits away from your tent and stuff. Its much lighter than an electric fence.

Your guide will think you are completely nuts but when you explain your reasoning- he will think you are completely a genius.

Sincerely,
Thomas

I've been blessed with a room-full of DIY rams (dall and others), I'm sure others have too, but here are my thoughts after years of trial and error...

Take the hiking sticks. I question the sanity of anyone who doesn't use them. Use anti-shock. Between my friends and I several of us experience instant wrist problems if we don't use the anti-shock spring-loaded style.

Do NOT take moth balls into the pristine wilds. That poison has no business on a sheep hunt! A few drops of pine sol may work fine to deter bears, I dunno.

Try your friends backpack out. Wear it with weight, train with it.
Take it to a reputable outdoor shop, if they fit it to you and it feels great, use it. Save the $600 guys are giving way for a Kifaru. If it won't work, bite the bullet or ask your guide for his take. He might have one.

Take the fly rod. If your guide says leave it behind with your flying (travel) clothes, leave it behind. Better to be prepared for some great grayling fishing than wish you had it.
I lived in AK and have had my chance to catch the helloutta them, so I wouldn't bring it myself. If you've never caught them? Bring it and hope for an opportunity.

Don't use an antiperspirant anything. That seems like a no-brainer to anyone who is health minded, but clogging your armpit pores, feet etc. is stupidity, imho.
You sweat for a reason. Wear good socks to wick moisture.
For your pits, buy a scent-free all-natural deodorant like Tom's of Maine and cut the deo stick out of it and put it in a zip lock. Use as needed. Gold bond has a strong odor, I'd leave that [bleep] at home.

Take the .308 and the Leupy. If, like you said, you have a good bear load for it, use that gun for both species with confidence.

Check with your guide; he'll very likely have a rangefinder, if not, take one. I missed my first ram without one years ago and swore I'd never sheep or goat hunt without one again. It's been 100% success since.

Leave the gaiters off the sheep mountain. They are just more weight and constriction and aren't necessary. I never use them either way, but I guess for bear country they'd be justified.
Break your boots in well. Train with them.
Don't forget the second skin, or moleskin, for rare blisters or rub spots. If your feet heat up, take the time to air them out properly.

Hope this helps. This advice has come from years of both mistakes and success--all DIY.