Carpenter Creek Sheep DS195

[375ultramag]

My 17 year old drew 195 this year. It's his (our) first time sheep hunting. We have been scouting etc and spending too much money on gear. Just curious who here has drawn and was successful on this hunt. Any tips?

We may take wheelers in or we may fly as we have reserved with Meekins already. Trying to decide on that still.

Thanks
Sam

 

[Maverick940]

Funny that you mention it. Mike and I were just talking about that drainage, a couple days ago. From the air, haven't been seeing a lot of rams in there. No big ones (40+), for sure. But, there are some rams up at the head. Try looking on the left. The Long canyon on the right sometimes has rams in it, though. But generally speaking, you'll find them on the left. Also, Carbon might be worth considering.

 

[Maverick940]

I would be hesitant to access DS195 from Wolverine Road. That's a helluva brush fight up the bottom and a long, long, tiresome and day-consuming walk along the ridgeline that separates Wolverine Creek from Matanuska River. In terms of DS195, that's a counterproductive way of accessing it for the purpose of sheep hunting, in my opinion.

In reference to what you were asking in your PM that you sent and in specific regards to north-facing slopes/drainages immediately adjacent to Wolverine Creek, the pair of really long side-by-side canyons that drain into the Mat River generally hold a few bands of ewes and lambs. However, a small number of young rams can sometimes be seen within those two drainages. The near drainage is possibly better for that sort of thing. It's very rare to find rams over 5 years of age in those two canyons, though. But, on occasion I would imagine that Class III or maybe even a Class IV rams end up in there during summer months.

As I had stated previously, the super long canyon on the west side of Carpenter tends to hold a comparatively good number of sheep, but it's mostly ewes and lambs. Even still, you can usually find a few young age-class rams in that canyon. So, there should be a small group of younger rams in there, somewhere. There usually is.

If you're going in from the bottom of Wolverine and geared up for negotiating glacial ice and headwall-type terrain, you could find an older age-class ram or two or three in the four basins at the very head of Carpenter, between Friday and Wolverine. Even if you don't find an older age-class ram in those four basins, you should be able to find at least some rams in there. That's definitely ram country.

Generally speaking, the east side of Carpenter tends to be productive ram habitat during recent decades. Some notably large ones have been seen on that side in the past 20 years. But, you're probably more interested in just getting any ram, as opposed to hunting a truly big ram. And besides, we haven't been seeing any whoppers in there this year. So, Carpenter might not be the place to hunt for a really, really big one, right now.

But, if you're going to fight your way in from Wolverine Road, you're likely to see ewes and lambs and probably a few young rams in the assortment of little canyons and long canyons that flow into the Mat River. I would imagine that between DS180, DS185, DS190, DS195 permit holders, and the various non-resident permit holders, the left fork of Wolverine Creek probably gets its heavy share of foot traffic. So, I don't think that would be a wise choice for accessing DS195. But, that's just my opinion.

You'd said that you're going to fly it before you hunt it. That'll at least give you some idea of where to look, a month later. Probably your best shot at a ram if you're going in from Wolverine, would be that long canyon that I mentioned in a previous post.

 

[stripset]

Follow Maverick's sage advice. 2016 on a solo trip I took the only ram I saw in that West valley, a barely under full curl 6 or 7 year old. my observations at the head of Carp drainage are identical to Mav's. Maybe 4 other bananas seen that trip and a couple decent rams in the nasty stuff at the head of Carp.