Alberta Ram

[bonedogg]

If that's your second best ram and he's a great ram let's see your best ram! Congratulations

Sorry for misleading you, this is my second ram and also my biggest to date.

 

[bonedogg]

Last week the good ol weather man was forecasting a ton of snow for SW Alberta. It was also lining up that a buddy and I had a few days to use up and we decided to hit the hills as hard as we could to see if we could find rams. We both had tags in our pocket and smiles on our faces as we headed West. I had killed my first ram back in 2006 and have helped several others including my friend that was on this trek with getting them their rams.We are blessed here in Alberta with prairie grasslands, rolling foothills and of course the jagged peaks the bighorn sheep call home.

On the drive into our area we came around a corner and spooked mama grizz and her two cubs that were cruising down the road. She jumped the guardrail and the cubs scooted underneath. She then gave us a show as she showed her cubs were to scratch for some much needed forage before hitting the den for winter.

 

[bonedogg]

Couple more

 

[bonedogg]

We started seeing critters of all types and it didn’t take long before my friend was on a stalk up the mountain for a massive black bear. I’ll see if he took a pic but I know I didn’t which is dumb as I watched him for several hours. The bear continued feeding into a high chute and my buddy made the decision to let him live another day as the snow was waist deep in spots and he didn’t feel comfortable with the 500 yd shot offered.So he turned his momentum down the mountain and made his way back to the base which didn’t hurt my feelings as we had some rams to find!

 

[Art Vandelay]

Niiiiiiice!

 

[bonedogg]

We found rams several hours later, 9 of them were in the band and two were close to being legal and needed a closer inspection. As we hummed about what to do we could see them in the spotter gather up and look down the mountain. They were instantly on a flat out run in single file and we could not figure out why until we could see the massive grizz that was within 40 yds and closing. The bear was gaining ground when they sky-lined on the shoulder of the mountain and we never did see them rams or that bear again. Well that sucks ass, as we both stared at each other in disbelief of what we just witnessed. Back to the drawing board I guess? Here are a few pics of the rams that we never saw again.

 

[ashersdad]

That’s a gorgeous ram!

 

[Pucky Freak]

What a beautiful animal - congrats

 

[LCH]

The envy runs deep right now. Congrats, I guess..

 

[bonedogg]

As we glassed the valley for more sheep after the grizz wrecked our previous plans, we heard a gunshot. As we glassed the adjacent valley for the hunter we soon could see him crisscrossing the steep ravine. As we kept thinking at what point is he going to reach down into the snow and pick up his trophy is when I laid eyes on my ram for the very first time. He was approximately 150 yds above the hunter and he was just grazing away without a care in the world. The hunter kept getting closer and it was now obvious that he did not know the ram was just a mere 50 yds ahead and now going into full alert . The ram took off to the left and raced past the hunter and he now could see his quarry but could not get his gun off his shoulder fast enough in the small window offered. Through the spotting scope we could see the ram run through a clump of spruce and then settle into a clearing out of site of the descending hunter and put him to bed that night.

 

[bonedogg]

Our plan was set, we were to be back in the same spot for first light and get into position for a shot. Sure enough he was bedded within 25 yds of where we left him and he was chewing his cud hard. We made our plan and determined where we wanted to be and set off on a fast pace . As I ran the shot through my mind I kept getting nervous so I just stopped and concentrated on just getting into position and then let stuff get sorted out. We made it to where we wanted to be and when we peaked through the trees he was right above us at a mere 120 yds but all we could see was his neck and head as he peered at us. I set up the bipod on my .260 Remington and made sure my scope was set up right and got comfortable. He laid there for what seemed like hours but it was only minutes. He gave me ample time to confirm he was indeed legal by our 4/5 curl standards on a general tag in this zone and used my vertical cross hair and the pivot action of my bipod to get a clean visual.confirmed..... the waiting game then was over as I could see his front shoulders twitch with the hind end making its similar rise. I wasn’t going to let this guy get away and pounded him with a well placed shot with the 120 grain bullet and he dropped in his tracks and slid directly towards us about 80yds. I was ecstatic and relieved all at the same time. I was pumped to share this moment with a great friend and was making the short walk up to him to pull his head out of the snow. He met all of my expectations and some and now it was time for some
Pics and to get to work getting him off the mountain.

 

[bonedogg]

And some of the pics , the crazy thing is how freakin much older I look in these pics versus my first ram(shown below) Ol Father Time sure ads the cracks and creases but in one way or another they were all earned.

 

[bonedogg]

 

[bonedogg]

 

[bonedogg]

We made sure they were mountain size

 

[bonedogg]

Cheers to my buddy Johnny for having the passion to sheep hunt and push this slightly older than him football/ hockey/soccer dad to take some days off work to chase sheep in the mountains. We had a blast and will continue to share camp together and have some laughs and a few smiles for many years to come I hope. He still has his tag and has a week planned later this month on horses so it will be interesting what they can come up with? I come up with 7.5 years old on the ring count. He sure grew some nice horn every single year but I think his broken nose and banged out teeth on the one side indicated he wasn’t fun to be around. Cheers fellas and may your arrows and bullets
fly straight and true.

Bonedogg

 

[bonedogg]

 

[Sask hunter]

Congrats!

 

[bonedogg]

On a side note, we had the pleasure of sharing camp with another buddy’s dad and he happens to be 92 years old and still buying a sheep license. He has killed around 16 rams in his lifetime and still can get around pretty good. My only regret from this whole experience is not getting a picture taken with him and the ram.

 

[elkrchr]

Thanks for sharing the story and congrats once again!