Dall sheep hunting Brooks Range

[Wanabe]

Well, I have my negative covid19 test letter of transit (for you Casablanca fans). By this time tomorrow I should be about an hour away from Fairbanks!

Good luck. That’s great for the test results. I hope all goes well for you!
Tell Lyle hello for me. I am jealous and green with envy. We look forward to seeing and hearing about your adventures when you return. Your life won’t be the same after a wild sheep hunt!

 

[Wanabe]

Congratulations Indyal on your ram!
All the preparation paid off. Share those pics when you get back to civilization please.

 

[Indyal]

Congratulations Indyal on your ram!
All the preparation paid off. Share those pics when you get back to civilization please.

Thanks wanabe
Gathering my thoughts and pics now

 

[slick]

....the anticipation is ruthless. Glad to hear you had a successful trip.


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[Indyal]

I took this ram on day 4 of my hunt with Lyle Becker, Alaska Skookum Guides. Lyle thought he was an 11 y.o. and the lamb tip side measured 39 1/4 inches.

We were down in a creek drainage when we spotted 4 rams around 1:30 pm on a ridge top about 3/4 mile away. As we crept closer two more rams appeared. He thought the latter two were legal. They were up and feeding and moved to our left.
We backed out and moved up a different drainage so that a ridge hid us from view as we climbed up. Lyle and Luke, our 21yo packer, scampered up the drainage while I skillfully negotiated up the broken rock and scree by huffing and puffing a lot. At times I bear crawled sections as I felt my balance was suspect. Lyle was cogitating whether we should move up more left or right.
We moved up and left. Lyle peered over the ridge top but no rams. We moved just below the crest to our right. Lyle moved up and saw a good ram but he said it spooked, most likely because he got wind of us.
We then crept around below the crest farther to our left about 50 yards.
Lyle eased up to the top and could see 4 rams spread out below us with a likely legal ram about 200 yards away but one nonlegal ram was only 90 yards away looking up in our direction.
He had me come up so I could get a visual of the layout but I could only see 2 rams, with the legal ram bedded slightly below us and his head facing away from us.
Lyle then got his spotter out to look over the 200 yard ram. After what seemed like forever (but probably only about 20 minutes), Lyle said he was full curl on one side and at least 9 years old.
He had me chamber a round and ease over the crest to get in a shooting position. My first position was not very good as I kept sliding downhill. I finally got settled in with a steady rest.
I had my scope on 3 power and moved it up to about 8. Dang it! Now I couldn’t see the ram! I moved it back to 3, found the ram, and carefully moved the magnification up to where I could have a good sight picture
By now, the ram was standing and facing us.
Lyle said to wait until he turned broadside. The ram kept lifting and lowering his left front leg slightly. My crosshairs were on his brisket.
Finally, Lyle whispered, “Whenever you are ready.”
Now the ram was quartered just slightly to his right.
I hthe crosshairs just left of the center of the front of his chest and fired a round. I chambered a 2nd round and could see the ram wobbling through my scope. Lyle said, “He’s going down!” and the ram disappeared from my field of view. I lifted my head and watched the ram tumble down the scree about 70 yards. I had taken the shot about 5 pm.


view of my shooting position after the shot which was about 10 o’oclock from me.
The other rams milled around for a while and the left in single file
We

We got down to what I now call MY ram, took iof pics, got him quartered with the gutless method, and headed down the jumbled rock and scree about 1,000 foot elevation by my gps. We got back to spike camp around 12:30 am.




This is the bullet recovered from under the hide just in front of the right hindquarter. I used a 6.5 CM
Obligatory photo of cooking sheep ribs. We used a home made rub that I brought along. We ended up eating both sets of ribs that evening.

Later in the week, Lyle has me fly in a supercub to a staging area with some other hunters and guides where a heliocourier would pick us up the next day.
one of the hunters had taken a ram and his wife had taken a caribou. We stayed up till midnight telling stories and looking at the northern lights



We all had our meat laid out on a large log but the next morning I noticed I had a hindquarter missing and found he remains of my game bag about 30 yards away

I guess this was the “wolf or wolverine tax” on my trip.

Overall, this was a dream hunt for me. I thank God for giving me the gifts and abilities to do this. I am thankful for my lovely and understanding wife. Of course thanks to Lyle, Luke and all of you who helped me on this journey.

 

[Old and gray]

Nice write up. Congrats on a fine ram

 

[Wanabe]

Congratulations!
Memories to last a lifetime
Glad you had a safe and successful hunt
I love that country!

 

[elkguide]

WOW!
Thanks so much for taking us along.
What a great memory. What a great hunt. Congratulations.

 

[Marine4life]

Congrats on a wonderful ram and thanks for taking along.


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[cbeard64]

Congratulations on a beautiful ram!

 

[Leo17]

congratulations!!!!! great looking ram. Are you mounting him?

 

[Kimber7man]

Congrats IndyAl!!

 

[Ariettabob]

Congratulations Indyal. Great write up and photos. I’m damn happy for you!

 

[Rosey]

Congrats! Great ram! Thanks so much for taking the time to write this up. Luke is my son and I've been dying to know how it's going so it's great to see the pics. Also, brings back so many wonderful memories of my hunt in the Brooks 8 years ago.

 

[weekender7]

CONGRATS on a fantastic adventure and really nice ram. You worked extremely hard in prep and it paid off in a big way. I was so afraid something was going to block you from going but all went well. Thanks for the great pics and read.

 

[Truaxdw]

Amazing and congratulations

 

[C Bow]

Indyal I am So Happy for you Great job Congratulations

 

[Dode]

Congrats Indyal! That looks like the twin to the one I shot with Lyle last year. Right down to the length on the long horn. That is definitely a special place up there and I'm glad you had a great time. I would love to go back some day!

 

[DavePwns]

View attachment 211443

I took this ram on day 4 of my hunt with Lyle Becker, Alaska Skookum Guides. Lyle thought he was an 11 y.o. and the lamb tip side measured 39 1/4 inches.

We were down in a creek drainage when we spotted 4 rams around 1:30 pm on a ridge top about 3/4 mile away. As we crept closer two more rams appeared. He thought the latter two were legal. They were up and feeding and moved to our left.
We backed out and moved up a different drainage so that a ridge hid us from view as we climbed up. Lyle and Luke, our 21yo packer, scampered up the drainage while I skillfully negotiated up the broken rock and scree by huffing and puffing a lot. At times I bear crawled sections as I felt my balance was suspect. Lyle was cogitating whether we should move up more left or right.
We moved up and left. Lyle peered over the ridge top but no rams. We moved just below the crest to our right. Lyle moved up and saw a good ram but he said it spooked, most likely because he got wind of us.
We then crept around below the crest farther to our left about 50 yards.
Lyle eased up to the top and could see 4 rams spread out below us with a likely legal ram about 200 yards away but one nonlegal ram was only 90 yards away looking up in our direction.
He had me come up so I could get a visual of the layout but I could only see 2 rams, with the legal ram bedded slightly below us and his head facing away from us.
Lyle then got his spotter out to look over the 200 yard ram. After what seemed like forever (but probably only about 20 minutes), Lyle said he was full curl on one side and at least 9 years old.
He had me chamber a round and ease over the crest to get in a shooting position. My first position was not very good as I kept sliding downhill. I finally got settled in with a steady rest.
I had my scope on 3 power and moved it up to about 8. Dang it! Now I couldn’t see the ram! I moved it back to 3, found the ram, and carefully moved the magnification up to where I could have a good sight picture
By now, the ram was standing and facing us.
Lyle said to wait until he turned broadside. The ram kept lifting and lowering his left front leg slightly. My crosshairs were on his brisket.
Finally, Lyle whispered, “Whenever you are ready.”
Now the ram was quartered just slightly to his right.
I hthe crosshairs just left of the center of the front of his chest and fired a round. I chambered a 2nd round and could see the ram wobbling through my scope. Lyle said, “He’s going down!” and the ram disappeared from my field of view. I lifted my head and watched the ram tumble down the scree about 70 yards. I had taken the shot about 5 pm.

View attachment 211445
view of my shooting position after the shot which was about 10 o’oclock from me.
The other rams milled around for a while and the left in single file
View attachment 211485We

We got down to what I now call MY ram, took iof pics, got him quartered with the gutless method, and headed down the jumbled rock and scree about 1,000 foot elevation by my gps. We got back to spike camp around 12:30 am.



View attachment 211486
This is the bullet recovered from under the hide just in front of the right hindquarter. I used a 6.5 CM
View attachment 211487Obligatory photo of cooking sheep ribs. We used a home made rub that I brought along. We ended up eating both sets of ribs that evening.

Later in the week, Lyle has me fly in a supercub to a staging area with some other hunters and guides where a heliocourier would pick us up the next day.
one of the hunters had taken a ram and his wife had taken a caribou. We stayed up till midnight telling stories and looking at the northern lights


View attachment 211490
We all had our meat laid out on a large log but the next morning I noticed I had a hindquarter missing and found he remains of my game bag about 30 yards away
View attachment 211492
I guess this was the “wolf or wolverine tax” on my trip.

Overall, this was a dream hunt for me. I thank God for giving me the gifts and abilities to do this. I am thankful for my lovely and understanding wife. Of course thanks to Lyle, Luke and all of you who helped me on this journey.

This is awesome! Well done and congrats

 

[Tinsman]

You won’t regret Kenetreks.

Sure won’t.