I've been sheep hunting for 9 years now. Got a late start at it in life. Counting this year I've been able to gut, pack and eat 9 rams. Got to lower the boom on 2 of them and polish off a wounded one that was headed to Canada I think. All the others I was next to my partner for the stalk and when he pulled the trigger so got to experience the whole thing. Some years we didn't score, other years we doubled up. Last year was one of those years. This year was my third Walk in the Brooks.
I was first up last year, shot a ram and 2 days later my partner shot one. Well this year I figured my partner was first up since I was first last year but in his mind he was thinking I was up first since he shot the last ram. We didn't really discuss it much until we were ready to go. So we came up with a plan...
I've been getting in to handgun hunting and have gone on a few hunts (bear and moose) where I only took my handgun. Ruger Bisley Hunter 45 Colt with 2X Weaver. I haven't scored yet though. But, I haven't been able to get up enough guts I guess to go on a handgun sheep hunt. I love my Kimber 325 wsm and have killed sheep, moose and griz with it. I/we decide my partner would be first up unless I figured I could get within handgun range. I'm good to about 100yds. I've been shooting a 9inch target at 117.
Day 1 - Hiked in over 10 miles. Passed two other tents along the way. Saw a sub headed in and watched a PointSevenFive feed down one side and up the other of our drainage. Hiked down a ways and pitched the tent. Sheep camp 2013. Good weather.
Day 2- Opening day. Good weather. Humped up and over and up and down and up a few miles and a few thousand feet. Glassed, glassed, glassed. Spotted 6 or 8 sublegals. Late afternoon hiked to the top of high long ridge and began working our way down the other side giving us a good look at the adjacent ridge/bowls. I spotted 2 little white dots about 2 miles down and across. Spotter showed one looked like he might be good. Headed closer and got the spotter on about a mile out. Looks pretty good lets go! Dropped to the bottom, and down the valley a ways. We weren't sure if the terrain would allow for a close enough stalk for the 45 Colt but away we went. We determined that the only option was straight up a steep, rocky loose part of the mtn to some rocks at or just above the rams, then move across. But who knows where they'd be when we got there.
About half way up the weather went south and it was raining sideways. Like standing in the shower kind of rain but it wanted to blow you off the mtn. We clung to the rocks and donned the rain gear. Away we go, up up. Got to a spot, dropped the packs and began to creep across, peeking up and over. The terrain is a giant pile of rocks, wet, loose, unstable rocks. I spot the rams, the have moved down a little. I range em at 345. We back off and drop some elevation and are able to close the gap some. He looks decent on one side like he's probably full curl, has decent mass but the angle doesn't allow a perfect view with the binos. Since he's not a "whopper, no brainer, shoot that sucker!" and since they are just feeding and not going anywhere, I skootch back over and get my pack and the spotter. By this time time I've determined that I don't think I can close the gap to 100yds or less no cover. Fully exposed if I try. It looks like my partner is up with the 270. Either that or I take him with the 270 but it's only the first day of an 8 day hunt. If it was the last day and it was my turn I'd use the rifle. But at this point I'm still hoping to get on one with the handgun if I can and besides, I figured he's first up this year anyways! Anyway, I get back, we get the spotter on him, partner decides he's good. He got a couple good looks at him while I was getting the spotter. The spotter just confirmed what he figured, full curl. I ranged him at 277.5 yds. The 130gr Accubond did it's job. He took out the lungs and clipped the heart. I look at my watch. It's 7:51pm. WhooHoo! Ram down opening day 2013!
We take care of the ram, pack up and drop down to the bottom and have a looong trek back up this valley, then up and over a steep ridge and down another steep to our drainage. Terrain is difficult. We get back to the tent at 3am, wet, exhausted but smelling like sheep! We dropped the ram on the steep, slippery, loose mtn side above the tent. What an opening day!
Day 3 - Sleep till 10 or 11. Get up to sunshine and a breeze! WhoHoo! We drink coffee, eat, dry out and head up to the ram. Andy gets to work on the cape and I begin glassing the far side and down our drainage. I spot one lone ram way down the drainage and at nosebleed elevation in no mans land. I can't say for sure if he's a sub or maybe a legal. Clouds are dropping. We move the meat to the creek bottom, make a rock meat rack and cover it with a reflective space blanket.
Day 4 - It rained all night, foggy and socked-in in the morning but we have some visibility down our drainage late morning. We head on down and work our way up the mtn side to view some awesome drainages on the far side. We pick it apart and drink coffee until the weather comes in again. No sheep, short day of visibility.
Day 5 - I think it rained all night. Morning was more fog but slowly lifting. We head back up toward the area we got the first ram but on a different ridge to get a view of the other side of the drainage. We saw 15 rams on that hill last year. Half of them were like 7/8's. Fog lifts out, we glass, glass, glass and see 5 subs we had seen on opening day on a further mtn. Nothing else. We connect the dots, consider our options and decide that the next day we will head a different direction, hike up a steep, ridge and over a TALL mtn to check out bowls on the backside. It's general direction from our tent is the way we need to go to get out so we decide to pack the ram up out of our drainage a couple miles that night and stash him in the rocks. We don't see any sheep.
Day 6 - We pull up tent stakes, climb up to the ram and make a gear stash. Depending on what we see or do will determine if we pitch there that night or move on. We head head up a steep sheep trail ridge over the mtn. We get up there and from a birds eye view watch the famous North Slope fog roll in from the north. Bad news for Brooks Range sheep hunters. Cloud cover was'nt bad and we had some sun in the morning but the fog slowly filled every valley we could see for miles in a 360 view. Cloud cover increased and the rain came. No sheep. The ceiling started to drop, the fog crept up. The 2 met and I think it's been socked in for over a week. It snowed up there 2 days ago down to 4500ft. We dropped down packed up the ram and gear and decided to head on down and out and possibly pitch along the way and check another drainage the next morning. On the way out we saw the one tent was gone that we passed coming in. Then we came to the other one and talked to two guys who were weathered in, staying out of the rain and not too happy. They told us the other guy was there solo and had a run in with a griz. Shot him dead at 10yds. DLP bear and he made a couple trips getting out. We moved out and later on came across a different tent near the drainage we had in mind as a maybe. Turned out to be a father, son and grandson team of guys that we know. We chatted a bit, told em our story and decided to beat feet back to the rig that night. Oh, it's been raining for hours and totally socked it. We ended up putting in over 13 miles that day with some major elevation up and down and slogged our way out in the dark rain. It was brutal. The ground was a giant sponge with a few spots of terra-firma. Take a step and sink a foot or 2. Wet, wet, wet. Tough walking especially with heavy packs of sheep and gear. We got back to the rig a 2am. Spent, wondering why we did it but glad we did. Not bad for a couple 52 year old sheep hunters! Well, ok, I turned 53 2 days ago but whos counting!
F&G says Full Curl, 35 and 33 inches. 13 inch bases and 8 years old. He's in the freezer! Heres to next year, Sheep 2014, I'm up first up and will probably be packing the trusty ol Kimber 325!
Headed down
Sheep Stash..
Same creek/gorge when the weather came in
I was first up last year, shot a ram and 2 days later my partner shot one. Well this year I figured my partner was first up since I was first last year but in his mind he was thinking I was up first since he shot the last ram. We didn't really discuss it much until we were ready to go. So we came up with a plan...
I've been getting in to handgun hunting and have gone on a few hunts (bear and moose) where I only took my handgun. Ruger Bisley Hunter 45 Colt with 2X Weaver. I haven't scored yet though. But, I haven't been able to get up enough guts I guess to go on a handgun sheep hunt. I love my Kimber 325 wsm and have killed sheep, moose and griz with it. I/we decide my partner would be first up unless I figured I could get within handgun range. I'm good to about 100yds. I've been shooting a 9inch target at 117.
Day 1 - Hiked in over 10 miles. Passed two other tents along the way. Saw a sub headed in and watched a PointSevenFive feed down one side and up the other of our drainage. Hiked down a ways and pitched the tent. Sheep camp 2013. Good weather.
Day 2- Opening day. Good weather. Humped up and over and up and down and up a few miles and a few thousand feet. Glassed, glassed, glassed. Spotted 6 or 8 sublegals. Late afternoon hiked to the top of high long ridge and began working our way down the other side giving us a good look at the adjacent ridge/bowls. I spotted 2 little white dots about 2 miles down and across. Spotter showed one looked like he might be good. Headed closer and got the spotter on about a mile out. Looks pretty good lets go! Dropped to the bottom, and down the valley a ways. We weren't sure if the terrain would allow for a close enough stalk for the 45 Colt but away we went. We determined that the only option was straight up a steep, rocky loose part of the mtn to some rocks at or just above the rams, then move across. But who knows where they'd be when we got there.
About half way up the weather went south and it was raining sideways. Like standing in the shower kind of rain but it wanted to blow you off the mtn. We clung to the rocks and donned the rain gear. Away we go, up up. Got to a spot, dropped the packs and began to creep across, peeking up and over. The terrain is a giant pile of rocks, wet, loose, unstable rocks. I spot the rams, the have moved down a little. I range em at 345. We back off and drop some elevation and are able to close the gap some. He looks decent on one side like he's probably full curl, has decent mass but the angle doesn't allow a perfect view with the binos. Since he's not a "whopper, no brainer, shoot that sucker!" and since they are just feeding and not going anywhere, I skootch back over and get my pack and the spotter. By this time time I've determined that I don't think I can close the gap to 100yds or less no cover. Fully exposed if I try. It looks like my partner is up with the 270. Either that or I take him with the 270 but it's only the first day of an 8 day hunt. If it was the last day and it was my turn I'd use the rifle. But at this point I'm still hoping to get on one with the handgun if I can and besides, I figured he's first up this year anyways! Anyway, I get back, we get the spotter on him, partner decides he's good. He got a couple good looks at him while I was getting the spotter. The spotter just confirmed what he figured, full curl. I ranged him at 277.5 yds. The 130gr Accubond did it's job. He took out the lungs and clipped the heart. I look at my watch. It's 7:51pm. WhooHoo! Ram down opening day 2013!
We take care of the ram, pack up and drop down to the bottom and have a looong trek back up this valley, then up and over a steep ridge and down another steep to our drainage. Terrain is difficult. We get back to the tent at 3am, wet, exhausted but smelling like sheep! We dropped the ram on the steep, slippery, loose mtn side above the tent. What an opening day!
Day 3 - Sleep till 10 or 11. Get up to sunshine and a breeze! WhoHoo! We drink coffee, eat, dry out and head up to the ram. Andy gets to work on the cape and I begin glassing the far side and down our drainage. I spot one lone ram way down the drainage and at nosebleed elevation in no mans land. I can't say for sure if he's a sub or maybe a legal. Clouds are dropping. We move the meat to the creek bottom, make a rock meat rack and cover it with a reflective space blanket.
Day 4 - It rained all night, foggy and socked-in in the morning but we have some visibility down our drainage late morning. We head on down and work our way up the mtn side to view some awesome drainages on the far side. We pick it apart and drink coffee until the weather comes in again. No sheep, short day of visibility.
Day 5 - I think it rained all night. Morning was more fog but slowly lifting. We head back up toward the area we got the first ram but on a different ridge to get a view of the other side of the drainage. We saw 15 rams on that hill last year. Half of them were like 7/8's. Fog lifts out, we glass, glass, glass and see 5 subs we had seen on opening day on a further mtn. Nothing else. We connect the dots, consider our options and decide that the next day we will head a different direction, hike up a steep, ridge and over a TALL mtn to check out bowls on the backside. It's general direction from our tent is the way we need to go to get out so we decide to pack the ram up out of our drainage a couple miles that night and stash him in the rocks. We don't see any sheep.
Day 6 - We pull up tent stakes, climb up to the ram and make a gear stash. Depending on what we see or do will determine if we pitch there that night or move on. We head head up a steep sheep trail ridge over the mtn. We get up there and from a birds eye view watch the famous North Slope fog roll in from the north. Bad news for Brooks Range sheep hunters. Cloud cover was'nt bad and we had some sun in the morning but the fog slowly filled every valley we could see for miles in a 360 view. Cloud cover increased and the rain came. No sheep. The ceiling started to drop, the fog crept up. The 2 met and I think it's been socked in for over a week. It snowed up there 2 days ago down to 4500ft. We dropped down packed up the ram and gear and decided to head on down and out and possibly pitch along the way and check another drainage the next morning. On the way out we saw the one tent was gone that we passed coming in. Then we came to the other one and talked to two guys who were weathered in, staying out of the rain and not too happy. They told us the other guy was there solo and had a run in with a griz. Shot him dead at 10yds. DLP bear and he made a couple trips getting out. We moved out and later on came across a different tent near the drainage we had in mind as a maybe. Turned out to be a father, son and grandson team of guys that we know. We chatted a bit, told em our story and decided to beat feet back to the rig that night. Oh, it's been raining for hours and totally socked it. We ended up putting in over 13 miles that day with some major elevation up and down and slogged our way out in the dark rain. It was brutal. The ground was a giant sponge with a few spots of terra-firma. Take a step and sink a foot or 2. Wet, wet, wet. Tough walking especially with heavy packs of sheep and gear. We got back to the rig a 2am. Spent, wondering why we did it but glad we did. Not bad for a couple 52 year old sheep hunters! Well, ok, I turned 53 2 days ago but whos counting!
F&G says Full Curl, 35 and 33 inches. 13 inch bases and 8 years old. He's in the freezer! Heres to next year, Sheep 2014, I'm up first up and will probably be packing the trusty ol Kimber 325!
Headed down
Sheep Stash..
Same creek/gorge when the weather came in
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