OutdoorsMD
Lil-Rokslider
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2019
- Messages
- 191
This was originally planned for 2022 but got delayed a year secondary to covid. After an epic dall sheep hunt in 2022, I was worried I had set the bar too high. A year went by fast and before I knew it I was on my way to BC to hunt stone sheep with Backcountry BC. Travel was a nightmare with Air Canada. My first flight left an hour late. I was than given bad information about which of my bags needed to be claimed and brought to customs. I was told I needed to pick up both my rifle and bag with ammo and head to customs (which is what I did last year) but in reality only needed to get my firearm and the other bag was packed through. By the time someone could tell me what was actually happening, and where my rifle, was I missed my connecting flight. After a 7 hour delay, I made it to Vancouver only to have my flight to Whitehorse cancelled altogether, prompting me to switch airlines and finally made it Whitehorse a day late. I finally made into camp in BC. Fortunately despite the delays I had all my gear.
I was able to head out into the field a couple days before the opener with my guide, Doran Carter, whom I am sure a few people have seen from Dustin’s videos. What a great person, guide, and stone cold hunter. We spent the next couple days glassing through some tough conditions. Smoke, rain, fog made visibility tough. We decided to make a move to a new vantage point and packed our camp and made a move the morning of Aug 1st.
After starting up a creek bed to make the climb into sheep country we stopped to glass and there were 5 rams bedded on the nob where we were headed to glass. Sometimes its better to be lucky than good. One was a no doubt legal ram well past full curl on the left and broomed on the right. We had lunch and watched the big ram for a couple hours.
The rams eventually rolled around the mountain and we slowly made our way up carefully glassing and trying to locate them again. After a few hours we were in range and was able to get a solid position prone. After getting my heart rate down enough to stop my crosshairs jumping, executed a perfect high shoulder double lung shot which anchored my first stone sheep on August 1st.
The ram was beautiful having a classic stone cape. I enjoyed what tasted like my best peak refuel meal around midnight when the work was done. We made it back to base camp safely and fortunately have a few days to relax. I certainly would have liked to spend a few more days on the mountain, but at least for me there are certain things you don’t pass on opportunities that arise. At this point in my life stone sheep are one of those. Packing out 8 days worth of meals I didn’t eat was painful on the knees!
The ram taped out at 36 on the right and 39 1/2 on the left for those that are curious. The shot was just a smidge over 400 yards. I was prone, no wind and felt very comfortable and confident at that range with my setup.
I made a couple gear changes compared to my dall hunt for those that looked at that thread. My food was essentially unchanged. The major weight savings came from running the swaro atc and the aoka tripod with tricer head (compared to slik/atx) durston xmid solid tent (kuiu mountainstar last year) and stone glacier terminus pack this year.
I also would like to thank Backcountry BC and Dustin Roe for exceeding my expectations and given me the opportunity, answering my questions, and helping my fulfill a childhood dream of harvesting a mature stone sheep ram. Super excited to share all the delicious sheep meat with my family throughout the year. And of course I would be lying if I didn’t admit sheep horns are just pretty damn cool to hold in your hands after a successful hunt.
I was able to head out into the field a couple days before the opener with my guide, Doran Carter, whom I am sure a few people have seen from Dustin’s videos. What a great person, guide, and stone cold hunter. We spent the next couple days glassing through some tough conditions. Smoke, rain, fog made visibility tough. We decided to make a move to a new vantage point and packed our camp and made a move the morning of Aug 1st.
After starting up a creek bed to make the climb into sheep country we stopped to glass and there were 5 rams bedded on the nob where we were headed to glass. Sometimes its better to be lucky than good. One was a no doubt legal ram well past full curl on the left and broomed on the right. We had lunch and watched the big ram for a couple hours.
The rams eventually rolled around the mountain and we slowly made our way up carefully glassing and trying to locate them again. After a few hours we were in range and was able to get a solid position prone. After getting my heart rate down enough to stop my crosshairs jumping, executed a perfect high shoulder double lung shot which anchored my first stone sheep on August 1st.
The ram was beautiful having a classic stone cape. I enjoyed what tasted like my best peak refuel meal around midnight when the work was done. We made it back to base camp safely and fortunately have a few days to relax. I certainly would have liked to spend a few more days on the mountain, but at least for me there are certain things you don’t pass on opportunities that arise. At this point in my life stone sheep are one of those. Packing out 8 days worth of meals I didn’t eat was painful on the knees!
The ram taped out at 36 on the right and 39 1/2 on the left for those that are curious. The shot was just a smidge over 400 yards. I was prone, no wind and felt very comfortable and confident at that range with my setup.
I made a couple gear changes compared to my dall hunt for those that looked at that thread. My food was essentially unchanged. The major weight savings came from running the swaro atc and the aoka tripod with tricer head (compared to slik/atx) durston xmid solid tent (kuiu mountainstar last year) and stone glacier terminus pack this year.
I also would like to thank Backcountry BC and Dustin Roe for exceeding my expectations and given me the opportunity, answering my questions, and helping my fulfill a childhood dream of harvesting a mature stone sheep ram. Super excited to share all the delicious sheep meat with my family throughout the year. And of course I would be lying if I didn’t admit sheep horns are just pretty damn cool to hold in your hands after a successful hunt.
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