Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

CTobias

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Feb 19, 2018
Messages
180
Location
Alaska
Well, since I got a lot of great information from this site and its members, I figured I should probably share the story of my Chugach sheep hunt, on an any ram draw tag.

This was a write up I did for my buddy who is headed out this weekend for his sheep hunt.


August 7th I wheeled in as far as I could and then hiked up. Rain, rain, and more rain kept me in the tent most of the time and I did a lot of catching up on sleep. Probably not a bad thing to be well rested for the opener. I had a few breaks in the clouds on August 8th and could see rams and ewes all over the mountains across the bowl. I was setup so I could see a bowl on either side of the peak. August 9th rolled around and the clouds finally parted enough I could see both bowls. Most of the sheep were on the left bowl, and as I worked towards the top I crested a saddle and saw the ram I would eventually take, less than 100 yards from me. I backed off and started to glass him as well as look for good rams in the other bowl. I saw one really good looking ram. Perfect lamb tips and all. He was definitely a full curl, but wasn't super thick. The solo ram seemed like he was old and crusty. Exactly what I was looking for. My feet were pretty well soaked by the evening, even with my gore tex boots, and I figured I would just go sleep in the tent and get up early to get on a good ram. That all changed when I saw two other guys posted above my tent glassing the bowl to the left, with all the sheep, as I descended the mountain. I stopped and started glassing them, they saw me, waved, and headed back down the mountain. I didn't want to risk anything and was about to go up over the top to get on the one good ram that was on the left bowl. As I hiked up to the top I spotted the lone crusty ram bedded down in the bowl to the right. Light was fading and it was about 10pm, but I figured I could get close enough to work in on him first thing in the morning, or at least catch him feeding my way. So, I started to make my way across some craggy terrain with nothing but scree fields. Little did I know what I had really gotten myself into. Every little saddle I went over had a drop off much steeper than I anticipated. I was sending plenty of rocks down hill and making a lot of noise, but every time I checked, the ram was still bedded and not looking in my direction. I did spook a young banana ram who quickly jumped up about 40 yards above me, looking down, wondering what the heck I was. I guess he didn't feel I was a threat, because he bedded down less than 50 yards below me as I continued to work towards the bigger ram. I was low on water, but luckily found some snow that was melting and was able to top off. By this time it was almost 11:30 at night, and I needed to find a spot to stop for the night. As luck would have it, I found a sheep bed to attempt to catch a few hours of sleep in. Then, as the mind tends to do, I began to wonder what would happen if the giant leaning rock above me gave out and crushed me. At this point I couldn't get much sleep, although I tried. I checked my watch and it was 3:29am, so I figured I would stay up and move as soon as the light would let me. 4:30 rolled around and I had plenty of light to move, so I packed up my gear and noticed I was missing my one nalgene bottle. I ran back to the water point to look for it and nada. Oh well. No time to sweat about a nalgene bottle. I rushed back over to my pack, looking around at the area I had crossed in near dark, wondering what in the hell I was thinking. Then I thought of what you said, that a tag in your pocket will make you do crazy things. You were right. I made my way to the point I had picked out as the spot I could see him from, that was a close shooting distance. As I peeled off my pack and peeked over the saddle, I didn't see a ram. Could he have moved?! I looked up to my left and there was a sheep bedded down just staring at me. The light was not all the way up, but I could tell he was a ram. I pulled out my binos and could see he had good mass to his base. Hopefully he was the one I was after, as I didn't see any other rams bedded near him, but who knows if he gave me the slip and another had moved in. I moved down a little to take another peek around a piece of the mountain and still didn't see anything. I decided after all this work that I was going to take the ram above me. I ranged him and he was 130 yards. I told myself if he was smaller than I thought that I would still be happy to take a ram, especially since the weather was supposed to get worse the next day and continue on through the week. I knew my rifle was 6" high at 100 yards, so I would have to aim low on him. I only had a chest shot and a small area to hit him, so I had to make it count. I fired once and immediately reloaded. He stood up and looked like he was stretching with his back legs sticking back, I thought I had missed, so I quickly got on target and put one in the vitals again. He dropped and began to tumble, then got stuck in between some rocks. I had no idea how big he was, I just knew I had a ram down and was ecstatic. I made my way to just below him and dropped my pack and marked my tag, then headed up to get him unstuck. As I walked up and around to get to him all I could think about was, what if I can't get him out?!? I got to him and saw he was the crusty old ram I was after. I think I shouted so loud the whole valley heard me. I picked up his rear leg and he came free then slid down the rock face and began to roll, and roll, and roll, and roll, and roll, and roll. He must have rolled 1000 yards before finally coming to a stop. Oh well, less distance I have to pack him out. I headed down to pick up my pack and find my trophy. When I got to him I only noticed the one shot I put right through his shoulder. As I was cleaning him I noticed his spine was severed and just thought it was from the fall. Once I got to the front of him I found a nice hole in his chest and realized I had severed his spine and that's why his back legs made it look like he was stretching. I had obliterated his right shoulder with my second shot, and got one good piece of meat off of him. After he was cleaned up I went to put that pack on and was like HOLY SH!T! They weren't lying about the weight. I had planned on doing a euro mount, but my buddy said to keep the cape anyways. After about 300 yards I said to hell with the cape and left it for the wildlife. I began my five mile trek back to the wheeler with many stops in between. To include one below where my tent was. I dropped my pack and climbed back up another 1000', all the time worrying that a bear was going to eat my sheep while I was away from my pack. I got up to where my tent was and could not find it to save the life of me, even though I had it on my GPS. But hey, who needs to look at their GPS? Needless to say I went about a mile out of my way, looked back and saw the top of it, and called myself an idiot. But, at least my tent was in a great spot to not be seen by sheep. I finally gathered up my tent and misc gear, then headed back down. I wasn't gone for more than an hour and flies had found my pack and laid about 10k eggs on it. Gross. I was glad I had bough the TAG bags and double bagged my meat. I began to make the long heavy journey back to the wheeler, and even stopped to empty all my mountain house meals. I had the ram down and cleaned up by 7am. I didn't make it back to the wheeler until about 9:30pm. I got loaded up and headed down the mountain with the anticipation of a nice warm shower and soft bed to sleep in. I began my descent down the mountain and ran into the guy with brass balls and a six wheeler who was working on cutting a trail to the top of the mountain. After chatting with him I made it down to the bottom and thought I was home free. I got to the creek crossing and was in horror. It was dark and the creek looked blown out. It was about 10:30 and I was losing light fast. I thought I could find a trail around, but no such luck. I passed a moose hunter and asked if we were stuck. He said possibly, as the creek had risen almost a foot since he had been hunting. Great. I decided to try and cut through the woods. No such luck. Just a waste of 45 minutes running over trees. So I went back near him and set up camp, all the while worried I would wake up to the sounds of a bear tearing up my pack. The wind was whipping and I set up my tent and just hoped a limb didn't fall on me. I climbed into my bag praying the water dropped enough so I could get out and get to the house. I woke up the next morning and packed up to head out. I stopped to say good luck to the moose hunter, who's name I learned was Dean. He offered me breakfast if I had the time. It would be rude of me to say no to a hot meal before I headed out. So I ate a nice sausage and egg sammich and chatted with Dean for a bit. Then I headed towards the crossing to find the water had dropped almost a foot. I was so relieved. I double checked the depth by walking out there, not caring about getting wet. It was perfect to cross and I made my way back to the lot without incident. My buddy was at the lot getting ready to go out moose hunting and he helped me load everything up and congratulated me on my harvest. After a long trek and an unexpected overnight I was excited to get home. What a great hunt!!!


ADF&G put him at 9 years old. 12 6/8" Bases and 36.5" long.



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Snyd

WKR
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
808
Location
AK
Thanks for taking us along on your hunt. Nice ram to kill in an "any ram" area. Well done!
 
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