What started as a hunt for a caribou with draw tag in hand quickly turned into a hunt of lifetime. We had planned for 11 days in the backcountry.
Hunt Day 1 went like this; glassing at 9am perched above our tents on a side hill, no caribou in any valleys but SHEEP! A few sub-legal rams, a lot of ewes and lambs. Then one ram that had some good mass, clearly not full curl but something to take a closer look at. We all agreed in switching gears from caribou to sheep at this moment. So we packed our bags for the day and headed to close the 2 mile or so gap between us.
We were able to get relatively close for a lunch break, yet not close enough to count the annuli, he was perched behind a rock with only part of his head and butt visible.
We made our way up and around, as we got to the spot we planned to take a closer look he wasn’t behind the rock anymore, so we quietly made or way up to a cliff and looked down- holy! He was less than 100 yards below us.
My husband set up the spotter and I got the rifle ready for the “okay” at this point it was still unclear to me whether he was legal. We stayed on that cliff for what seemed like an hour, the ram would feed and then stare at us, we would freeze and wait for a moment when he would feed again. At one point I laid my head down on the ground with my puffy concealing my face and realized I was in the sheeps poop, oh well.
Finally, “hes legal I count 9 and I’m being cautious without counting what are probably false.” I got set to take the close shot and of course this is when he decides he’s had enough and starts to move. We lose him for a bit, but he reappears much further away and still on the move. My husband says 240 yards and dials the rifle so i can stay focused on the ram and not lose him. He’s walking away, afraid he’s going over the ridge when he gives one more pause and turns to look at us and I take the shot, he’s down! Admittedly, my shot was a couple inches too forward- when I realized this I was able to calm down and get the kill shot, I hate that it worked out that way but glad it was still relatively quick.
Come to find out, it wasn’t a 240 yard shot- the ram was at 350 and walking, but my husband knew if he had said that I would’ve said too far; he was right, I would have.
We stood in awe for a bit as the sky opened up with snow and sunshine, what timing. I made the emotional walk up to the ram @ 630pm just as the snow stopped.
Officially aged at 9yrs.
Hunt Day 1 went like this; glassing at 9am perched above our tents on a side hill, no caribou in any valleys but SHEEP! A few sub-legal rams, a lot of ewes and lambs. Then one ram that had some good mass, clearly not full curl but something to take a closer look at. We all agreed in switching gears from caribou to sheep at this moment. So we packed our bags for the day and headed to close the 2 mile or so gap between us.
We were able to get relatively close for a lunch break, yet not close enough to count the annuli, he was perched behind a rock with only part of his head and butt visible.
We made our way up and around, as we got to the spot we planned to take a closer look he wasn’t behind the rock anymore, so we quietly made or way up to a cliff and looked down- holy! He was less than 100 yards below us.
My husband set up the spotter and I got the rifle ready for the “okay” at this point it was still unclear to me whether he was legal. We stayed on that cliff for what seemed like an hour, the ram would feed and then stare at us, we would freeze and wait for a moment when he would feed again. At one point I laid my head down on the ground with my puffy concealing my face and realized I was in the sheeps poop, oh well.
Finally, “hes legal I count 9 and I’m being cautious without counting what are probably false.” I got set to take the close shot and of course this is when he decides he’s had enough and starts to move. We lose him for a bit, but he reappears much further away and still on the move. My husband says 240 yards and dials the rifle so i can stay focused on the ram and not lose him. He’s walking away, afraid he’s going over the ridge when he gives one more pause and turns to look at us and I take the shot, he’s down! Admittedly, my shot was a couple inches too forward- when I realized this I was able to calm down and get the kill shot, I hate that it worked out that way but glad it was still relatively quick.
Come to find out, it wasn’t a 240 yard shot- the ram was at 350 and walking, but my husband knew if he had said that I would’ve said too far; he was right, I would have.
We stood in awe for a bit as the sky opened up with snow and sunshine, what timing. I made the emotional walk up to the ram @ 630pm just as the snow stopped.
Officially aged at 9yrs.
![[insertspecies]Slayer](https://forumdata.rokslide.com/file/forumdata/data/avatars/s/65/65711.jpg?1690072908){kind=avatar}
