2017 SLDMTN Alaska Hunting Season

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SLDMTN

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Well thank goodness for Imgur. I rebuilt the thread after Photobucket went Tango Utah.

Took my girls shooting the other day. Little work yet on form but they're getting the hang of it quick. They love shooting the little Beretta that I have as a CC for the wife.

Aubrey is already on paper :cool:

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Kyleah is a little less sure of herself but she's doing great!

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Love these two kids.

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My family has too many tags to be able to scout all the areas on foot so I enlisted the help of my uncle to make my life easier :cool:

The weather was amazing, we left the hangar around 7:00 and made it back before the morning winds kicked up from the mountain valleys. There are few things that compare to flying in a Super Cub through Alaska's backcountry. No roads, no people, no BS.

[video=youtube_share;usx31oXY03Y]https://youtu.be/usx31oXY03Y[/video]
 
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Just getting back and going through my gear. I'll post the story later but it was one of the most amazing hunts I've ever been on.
 
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August 10th, D-Day in Alaska for sheep hunters. This August 10th, I woke up laying in the back of my truck in Whittier, AK getting hammered by rain. The previous night, we had driven down from Palmer to drop off my brother’s truck for the ferry to Kodiak where he is now stationed. I’m excited he’s in Alaska again but not at all pumped about my current situation. It was opening day for sheep and I was missing it.

At least it was beautiful leaving my house headed to Whittier!
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This “pre-season” was particularly rough on me with hunting partners dropping like flies. Stressed out to the max on my season plans, I pulled my ace card and told my Dad I was going to solo hunt it…that’s a big nope for him (even though I’m 33). He wasn’t about to watch one of his kids go out alone into the hills.

Getting Dad to take time off of work is near impossible but my threat worked and to be honest, there’s no one I would rather go with than him. The hangup with Dad, he had a work engagement he couldn't miss on the 10th. It allowed me to help my brother out but it also meant no going in early to scout the best drainage or find rams for opening morning. It was disappointing but at least I fulfilled a brotherly favor and I had a solid partner.

Leading up to August and September, I spend the other 10 months trying to maintain some form of being in shape. I’ll be honest, the last thing I went beast mode on was probably the McClaren River Burger after our Packraft Rondy but I do work out 5-6 days a week at the gym or on the hills. My Dad on the other hand is a beast, he turns 61 next month and spends most of his free time mountain running. He actually wins his age division in most of the local mountain races, including Mt. Marathon (which you’ve probably only heard of if you're from AK).

The man, the myth, the legend!
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August 11th, I’m sitting at work crawling the walls and pacing like a madman. I did manage to borrow a sat phone for the trip though. That was MONEY for being able to keep in contact with my family. Huge thanks to my buddy for that one. Speaking of borrowed things, I snagged colonel’s EMR II for the hunt, HUGE thanks to him as well. That pack is pretty stinking sweet.

August 12th, it was on like Donkey Kong! With our bags packed and the truck ready to rip, we headed for the mountains. As luck would have it, the weather was decent for out trip in. Like a DA, I decided to take a new route in which turned out brushy and not near as direct as the old route. That cost us an hour or so but we made it to our day 1 campsite. With the tent set up, we bowed some Mountain House, glassed the hills, and bs’d until dark.

August 13th, we got up early, packed camp and hiked in to where we’d hunt out of for the next 8 days. The wind was gnarly but the sun beat down on us to keep things warm. From camp, we spent a good deal of that day glassing the nearby slopes and valleys. Turning up zero, we hit the sack early for a fresh start in the morning.

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August 14th, up early we hiked into a valley I’ve been trying to find a way into for two years. The ridge lines in this area are extremely broken and unhikeable by majority. Cresting into that valley I had hopes of monster rams on every ledge but again we came up empty after six hours of glassing. Frustrated, we trudged back towards camp, dropping down into our commuter drainage. My Dad hiking in front, froze in his tracks, there were two rams feeding 800 yards below us! One was a small half curl and the other had real promise. The little ram had us pegged and got really nervous anytime we shifted positions. Pinned down, we watched them for a couple hours until darkness pushed us home to the Hilleberg. As we snuck downhill, the rams burned out of there. Back at the tent, sleep came easy.

Legend valley, finally!
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Time for glass.
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August 15th, up at 5:00 to look for the two rams we boiled water for breakfast and scanned the hills around camp. On the opposing hillside, two white figures turned up. Busting out the spotter, we determined it was two rams. Initially thinking it was the two from the night before, I changed my mind as I continued to watch. Neither ram was legal by my judging. Wasting precious daylight, we abandoned the two rams near camp and pushed up to where we had seen the two rams the night before. They however were nowhere to be found. Reluctantly we pushed up into my hard earned new valley and again turned up nothing. With the evening rapidly approaching, we headed down the hill to camp again. Only a half mile from camp, we stopped to drink some water and glass from our vantage point. A quick survey turned up three rams on the opposing skyline, two of which, were the rams from the night before. Excited we glassed up the legal ram, found the half curl, and another new ram that was slightly less than full curl. We quickly put together a stalk plan and had almost set out when a figure appeared on the skyline, it was another hunter! Crap, I was going to watch another guy harvest a ram right in front of me.

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As he stalked down the rigdeline, the rams seemed unfazed. The hunter could see the two sub legal rams but couldn't find the legal ram tucked up close to the cliff face. Frustrated, the hunter hiked back up the ridgeline and out of sight over the crest. The rams, while keeping an eye on us, fed right up to where he had been standing and disappeared out of sight as well. Chuckling at the turn of events, we headed back to the tent as the sun started to set behind the mountains.

Back at camp, I was plowing through a Mac & Cheese Mountain House when I noticed a white dot above our tent that had not been there before. Dropping my food bag like it was on fire, I left my Dad standing there perplexed as I hustled over to grab the spotter. Swaro glass doesn’t lie and I had a new, legal ram to chase in the morning.

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August 16th, we got up at 5:00 again and hustled out of the tent. The ram was still in the same general area feeding along the rock formations. Throwing my pack on, we skipped breakfast and headed up for a closer look. Getting a better view, I reaffirmed my judgement from the night before, he was legal. The problem though, he was a long ways away still and there was ZERO cover between he and I. Laying a significant amount of trust in Optifade OC, I threw on my rain gear (only full camp I have), made my way across the hillside and started working up to his level. Several times, he spotted movement but couldn't quite pin me down. When he looked in my general direction, I would freeze. When I got to 500 yards, he started to get shifty, the wind was erratic and I believe he could smell me but couldn’t figure out where I was.

I’m not a long range shooter and I only feel confident out to about 300 in terrain like this, I needed 200 yards. On my belly, I slithered uphill at a pace that snails would find slow. I gained about 70 yards over the next hour and was starting to really get excited when the ram whipped his head around and looked up the valley floor. Two hunters were walking along the bottom, making their way towards the hill we were on. Between the smell and hunters in his range of sight, the ram walked steadily away as I watched in misery. There was no chasing him as it would only push him harder. After he disappeared from sight, I lay there on the hill for a bit hoping he would come back down. Realizing he was gone, all of my bodily sensors kicked in. I had only eaten a Snickers bar all day and a headache was forming from my dehydration.

Sourly I trudged back downhill to camp, along the way I chatted with the two hunters about the rams from the prior day and general area info. Once I was back, I ate my entire days worth of food in one sitting. Craving something besides water, I dropped a couple Lemon Iced Tea Crystal Lite packets into my Nalgene and oh man that was amazing! Feeling refreshed, and not wanting to push the day’s ram any harder, we strapped packs on again and hiked to where we had last seen the band of three rams. Having no luck there, we headed back to the tent.

August 17th, we got up early and decided to try a new route that I’d previously been on to look for the ram that got away. Dad was annoyed with my route choice, here was another GREAT route from junior that was taking longer than expected. As we ridged out, it couldn’t have been more perfect, there he was! Bedded down, facing away and upwind to top it all off. I quickly scooted back over the ridge and out of his possible sight. Creeping down the ridge, I dropped my pack around 500 yards for the final stalk. On my hands and knees, then my belly, I pushed my stalk limits and closed inside 100 yards. He had no idea whatsoever that I existed.

His white hair almost filled my scope as I took up the slack on my trigger, Boom! One round from my .270 WIN, he never heard it, never got up.

I lay there for several minutes, thanking God as a tidal wave of emotions and memories flooded over me. I have researched, scouted, and hunted for over five years to take a ram out of this area, I have blood, sweat and tears into it. Having my Dad there, watching through the scope, it was almost too much.

I rose to my feet, walked down to my ram, doubled checked his curl and plopped down on my butt to take it all in.

He isn't the biggest ram by any stretch but if meaning and effort made inches, he’d break records.

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Stay tuned for part 2, things take a turn for the CRAZY!
 
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colonel00

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Congrats bud! I know we've already talked about it but the read of the accounts was great. I'm pretty sure what's in part 2 and I only wish you had video of it!
 

d3ntalbliss

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Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for part 2

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
 
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With the grip and grins out of the way, we made quick work of boning out the ram and getting it sacked away in the EMR II. While we were getting ready to strap the packs on, a small ram made his way up the valley towards us. The wind was still in our favor and I believe all he could smell was the ram I had harvested. He crested the ridge and seemed unfazed by the two weird looking sheep standing on two legs. I snapped a few pictures of him and put my camera away, HUGE MISTAKE!

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From the Packraft Rondy trip this summer, I remembered Stid talking about calling sheep. Why not I figured, I'll give it a try....

Meh!.....Meh!

The little ram jerked his head up, bleated back at me and came running! A few more bleats had him within 6 feet of me, on my life. It was a crazy experience and while I was kind of wigging out, Dad kept squaring his gear away and hardly looked up. He wasn't as amazed as I was apparently and asking him to get my camera out, power it up and take a shot would be like asking a caveman to do the same. Tech is not a strong suite of his, plus he didn't have his glasses with him!
 
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Coming down off of the little adrenaline bump of the small ram, we strapped up and headed for our camp.

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Dad only had a daypack with him and it was packed with his gear, leaving no room for meat. Not to be made fun of for sandbagging, he hand carried two bags of meat down the hill. I was cracking up the whole way calling him Kyrgyzstan Dan cause he looked like one of those poor guys without a proper pack carrying grocery bags of food and supplies.

Back at camp, we had a break in the weather and quickly crammed everything in our packs. We got the tent down just in time for the rain to hit. As we made our way down the valley towards our exit point, I decided to take a route with less elevation but a little more brush. Bad bad idea....

It was less elevation but the brush was thicker than three years ago when I was on the route and the weather was horrible. As the rain poured down, we traversed across some of the nastiest terrain I can recall being in. Several times, crawling on our hands and knees along a ledge to cross gullies. Dad was less than impressed with my route choice AGAIN. At one point, I lost my footing, slid close to 50 feet downhill and finally clawed my way to a stop using some low brush. In the process it ripped the bite valve off of my Camelback and emptied all of my water, bad deal cause I drink over 100 oz a day. I know, I would have a tough time in the lower states.

Finally cresting a ridge and off of the gullies just as night was falling, we hastily set up the Hilleberg as Mother Nature tried her best to blow us away. Dad and I crawled into the tent soaking wet and immediately passed out. In the morning, we packed our soaking mess up and moved to a stream close by. As we pumped water, boiled it, and made breakfast, I noticed a really nice black bear on the hill above us.

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Well breakfast was Apple Cobbler Mountain House that Mom bought for us as a celebratory meal. The sweet smell of our dessert and the smell of raw sheep meat apparently were pretty good for ol' smokey. He kept testing the air and started working his way down the hill towards our rest area. At about 200 yards, we decided he needed some WIN powered rock shards sent his way. The first round sprayed rock all over him, to which he stopped, looked at the rock, then kept coming. The second had the same effect...he kept coming, not fast but deliberate for sure.

I tried a howl, and a yell to get his attention, neither worked. At 100 yards, he heard Dad and I discussing how much his hide would weigh and decided maybe we weren't to be messed with after all. Two more rounds into the rocks by his paws, extra close this time, gave him extra motivation to scoot along. He hurried away leaving us relaxed to finish breakfast.

With that fiasco behind us, we pushed and pushed hard to get back to the truck. With tired feet we made it to a familiar spot and stopped for one last break before making it to the road.

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Back at the truck, we unloaded our weight, changed clothes and headed home. My phone blew up as we got into reception again and I couldn't have been happier to share the news.

Phil 4:13
 

Cdpp880

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Awesome write up, even better you got to do it with your dad!!! I have never really been that interested in sheep hunting (didn't really know much about them). Now every time I read a hunt recap of a sheep hunt I think that sounds like it sucked the entire hunt, and Now I kind of want to do a sheep hunt.
 

kaboku68

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Awesome job for an awesome guy. Amazingly sweet to share it with your father. Do it as much as you can, our time in the mountains is limited. I lost my dad this summer. He is still with me every trip.
 
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Well, I'm a little speechless still. It's almost 3:00 AM my time and I just got inside and got the blood washed off. After an intense couple of minutes that were mixed with total chaos and stealth mode, I killed a moose in my backyard, with my bow at 15 yards. I got to that distance sneaking in my socks with zero camo on. Details to come...

He has blessed me more than I deserve.
 
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well, i'm a little speechless still. It's almost 3:00 am my time and i just got inside and got the blood washed off. After an intense couple of minutes that were mixed with total chaos and stealth mode, i killed a moose in my backyard, with my bow at 15 yards. I got to that distance sneaking in my socks with zero camo on. Details to come...

He has blessed me more than i deserve.


epic !
 

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I am way behind on this thread, getting caught up this morning! A sheep and an archery moose in the yard?!? You are having quite the season Kyle!!
 
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Last night I had two Hilleberg tents and a borrowed Seek Outside 6 man Tipi (thanks Tom!) set up in my backyard. As I was checking the tents over really well before our buffalo hunt, the dog started acting really weird. She was pacing back and forth at the top of the road that leads down to my shop. Initially I didn’t put much thought into it, she’s a goofy, very lovable, 2 year old Springer Spaniel. After Carly wouldn’t give it up, I looked up from my chores to see velvet and points sticking up out of the willows. My eyes about popped out of my head, I have cows and calves down there more nights than not but I have only had bulls come into the yard outside of hunting season.

Quickly I rounded the dog up and kenneled her in the garage. My bow was sitting ready for our buffalo hunt in case I saw a moose on the trip. Unfortunately ALL of my arrows had field points on them, my broadheads were still in the packaging waiting to be installed! Guaranteed, that is the fastest a package of QAD Exodus 100gr have ever been opened. Threading one on an arrow, strapping my release to my wrist, I headed out of the garage. Sneaking down the driveway, I stepped out of my shoes. Keeping the thick willows between the bull and my path, I got to 15 yards. Watching for a few seconds he flashed me his left brow tines…..2 on that side, dang! Then he reached for the untouched willows just to his other side, boom the right side had 4 brow tines. We’re in the money!

Drawing my bow back, I waited for him to turn broadside. When he turned, I stepped out from behind the willows and tucked the pin just behind his shoulder. Click, thwap, oooof! It was over that fast, I had doubled lunged a bull in the span of 3 minutes directly behind my house at 9:30 PM! He trotted away and I listened until I heard a crash. Shaking I went running into the house and promptly scared the crap out of my wife. She was already laying in bed reading and I came bursting into the room.

“I just shot a moose in the backyard!”

In disbelief, “Is that legal?”

“Dog gone right it is!!!”

I whipped out my phone and called for help. I have the best family a guy could ask for! My Dad and brother in law showed up to help a little while later. Following a short blood trail, I had a moose down about 100 yards from my shop. We drove the Ranger 6x6 right up to it, gutted it, and loaded the meat into the bed. No packs needed.

Funniest part of the night, I went inside to wake my oldest daughter (8) up so she could come see.

“Good job Dad but I don’t want to see it tonight…”

What on earth? Leaving quite disappointed, I let her sleep. This morning though, Mom tells the girls I got a moose and guess who’s all hacked she didn’t get to see it? Yep, Aubrey is. She has zero recollection of me waking her up last night haha!



Just over 45” wide with 4x2 brow tines. One of the fattest animals I have ever skinned, he'll be good eating.

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SLDMTN

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I am way behind on this thread, getting caught up this morning! A sheep and an archery moose in the yard?!? You are having quite the season Kyle!!

It's been a good one for sure! Leaving for buffalo tomorrow too, pretty excited to try and help my brother in law fill that tag.
 
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