2012 AK DIY Sheep Hunt

[Jdog]

Its a mile to the mouth/drainage we need to take in. Once again, its an awful trudging through willows and creeks. But hey, we are on the trail to sheep! Life is good. We push through the first mile and its get bad, real quick. It get super tight down on the creek. It's rushing...VERY fast and hard. We have to jostle through and around it. It's 30' sheer drop up both sides...its tricky business. I love this part of sheep hunting.
I make it through...my brother is behind me. He decides its time for a swim and does and reverse triple lindy right in. The USA judge derservedly gives hims a 10, the Chinese judge gives him a 9 but says we owe him 5 gazillion dollars and the Russian judge gives him a 5.5--and mentions a hockey game under his breath????...clearly some hatred going on here!
Here is a pic of the begining of the gauntlet as we call it. Pics don't do it justice...this route SUCKED bigtime but kept us completely out of view from the sheep.

 

[Jdog]

Here is the approach as we make it out of the gauntlet and into the bottom of the basin. Its gorgeous but weather is moving in fast!

bottom of the basin

Pic of us as we make it out of the gauntlet. Notice the nicely style hair from my bro...I need to talk to him about sheep hunting and hair gel...they don't work together! Notice our reference point for our rams...in the upper right hand part of the pic...the "snow dagger"

 

[Jdog]

Its gorgeous back here...giant basin...looks very sheepy.

We can see our reference point for our rams...the "dagger" snow drift. The rams were down and to the left. So far so good. Now its time to push up the mtn to our sniper post. It takes about an hour to make there. It sucks...its boulder fields the whole way up. Brother is moving very cautiously and unbeknownst to me, he is in the beginning stages of hypothermia. We keep pushing. We near the rally point and..."houston, we have a problem" A herd of bou are bedded above us and we must go by them to get to our point. Chit!

One is a good bull...but we are sheep hunting for goodness sake. We get lucky and they booger the other way away from our sheep!

 

[Mike7]

Great story Jdog. Well done - thanks.

 

[>>Lefty>>]

Great story from a great story teller, waiting on the rest of it.

 

[Jdog]

We continue to trudge up the mountain...it takes a bit longer than expected...its slow going with nothing but boulder fields the last couple hundred yards. The plan is working out...so we think. We make it to right below our projected perch. We drop unecessary gear/packs. I grab the spotter and our rifles. We slowly peak over and attempt to locate the rams. They are not where they are SUPPOSED to be! They have moved off their bedding spot and have moved about 300 yards farther into the drainage and are up feeding--darnit!

I pull the spotter up and quickly realize one of them is a definite shooter. He is full curl and looks to be mature. Move off of him and begin to examine another in the bunch that looks to be good. Its taking a few minutes...and the wind has picked up and its blowing sleet/snow. The winds are probably 40-50 mph. I look at my brother and tell him one is legal and another is close. We range them and they are a bit over 500 yards. My brother's lips are pretty purple and he is shaking pretty violently. I quickly realize this stalk is over...we need to get him warmed up and safe. I ask him if he wants to take a poke at them and he declines. He makes the better decision and realized he cannot make that shot under those conditions. My brain is trying to figure out a way to make this work...If we can sit here and wait, they are likely to come back and bed down in the same spot where we spotted them originally. But my bro is in trouble...we pack it up and begin to make our way back to camp.

It's 8 pm and we are both pretty wet and he is definitely in trouble. We have 5-6 miles to make it back to camp. And with the cloud cover and weather, alot of that will be in the dark and the rain/sleet is not helping. So we do it...we grind it out back to camp that night. By the time we get there, he is extremely shot/exhausted. We took alot of small breaks along the trek back. We make it back to camp around 11 pm. We are completey drenched. We fire up the stoves, make some quick dinner and rack out. We wake up to crazy winds again...prolly 50 mph with some crazy gusts. We put the clothes in the dryer to begin drying them out. We take the day to dry out.

 

[Jdog]

The next 2 days is horrible weather pretty steady. The winds are nuts! No good way to hunt in that! And the drainage is constantly covered in fog, sleet, snow and rain. After 2 days of sitting it out...we call it. We make it back to the air strip and enjoy some warm cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate we had stashed. It's been a GREAT trip. My brother did his first sheep hunt and WE WERE RIGHT THERE. In their bedroom waiting to crush them. The weather gave them a pass. Its been a superb trip. That is all you can ask for IMOP. Late season, highly pressured area and we had them dead to rights. This is where my photos are slim...my brother was taking a bunch as well. He is sending me others and I will add them as I receive them.

Some random shots...

 

[Jdog]

Next installment...Brooks Range 2013.

We are already booked and planning--hopefully deployments won't interrupt that.

 

[swat8888]

How much did your razor and shave cream weigh?

 

[Jdog]

How much did your razor and shave cream weigh?

neither of us carried that into the field swatt8888!

 

[DWarcher]

Very nice Jdog...that hunt is currently holding the number one spot on my bucket list.

 

[JNDEER]

Great read.

Never hunted AK, but is there a reason you didn't try and get camp closer to the Rams?

 

[OBP]

Awesome stuff Jdog, sounds like an awesome trip. I've been trying to get stationed in Alaska for years, hope I do before retirement!

 

[swat8888]

Haha, just messing with you. You must have good genes and not grow facial hair like teenwolf....like I do.

 

[Jdog]

Great read.

Never hunted AK, but is there a reason you didn't try and get camp closer to the Rams?

Yes...my brothers rain gear was failing...no real way for him to stay dry. AND I wasn't pushing super hard on this hunt...as it was his first mtn/sheep hunt.

He now understands what it takes mentally, physically and gearwise. I was trying to gain a future/permanent sheep huntint partner and I think we are there now after his first.

We will go harder next year and he will be more prepared.

 

[Jdog]

Haha, just messing with you. You must have good genes and not grow facial hair like teenwolf....like I do.

I couldn't grow a beard if I tried! After my 09 deployment, I had about a month off and tried to grow one...after 3 wks my wife laughed and said "just cut it off"

 

[Huntr]

Jdog,
Thanks for sharing the pics and hunt with us. Definitely getting me more fired up for my first Dall hunt next August!

 

[a3dhunter]

Yes...my brothers rain gear was failing...no real way for him to stay dry. AND I wasn't pushing super hard on this hunt...as it was his first mtn/sheep hunt.

He now understands what it takes mentally, physically and gearwise. I was trying to gain a future/permanent sheep huntint partner and I think we are there now after his first.

We will go harder next year and he will be more prepared.

Very wise, great read as well.

 

[magpie]

Thanks for sharing the pics! Enjoyed the story as well! I do not think you can beat Alaska in Sept.

Good luck next year!

 

[River Rat]

Thanks for taking the time to post up pics. and story.