Bury Me In The Mackenzie Mountains

Bambistew said:
Both are amazing sheep, thanks for sharing the stats. Did you get them measured and sealed? Curious to know what the bios say compared to the outfitter. They pulled a tooth on mine as well, but the margin of error on teeth and judging rings is the same at 1yr. Its so hard to guess them from pics. I thought both were 38-40, and right near 14 on the bases. To be honest when they are B&C it really doesn't matter that much if they are a touch bigger or not. I still can't believe Andy passed on your ram. I can't imagine anyone passing on that one. When they get that big it really doesn't matter IMO.

That caribou is amazing as well. One tooth as in all or just the front? I wish I would have had a few of mine aged.
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The two times I’ve been through the government checkin process at Norman Wells….. nice guys, but definitely not biologists. The guy last summer was in a hurry so he could get back to fuel fire fighting aircraft.
I’d trust Harold over a wears all the hats in a small Northern village Mounty
 
mevertsen said:
Pure curiosity on the caribou.

From the pics and description it seems more like high country deer and elk hunting rather than what ypu typically here of miles in bogs for barren ground.

I guess the name implies high country, but I've never paid much attention to it I guess.

Also, congratulations on it all. Great rams!
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Yes, some of the caribou were at higher elevation than the sheep. It is like a cross between elk hunting and sheep hunting. Way different than Barren Ground. Also a bit larger body sizes.

If you told me the only species I got to hunt would be Mountain Caribou, but I got to hunt them every year, that would be a temptation to sign on for. They are just so cool and the places they take you are some of the most mesmerizing I’ve ever hunted.
 
Bambistew said:
Both are amazing sheep, thanks for sharing the stats. Did you get them measured and sealed? Curious to know what the bios say compared to the outfitter. They pulled a tooth on mine as well, but the margin of error on teeth and judging rings is the same at 1yr. Its so hard to guess them from pics. I thought both were 38-40, and right near 14 on the bases. To be honest when they are B&C it really doesn't matter that much if they are a touch bigger or not. I still can't believe Andy passed on your ram. I can't imagine anyone passing on that one. When they get that big it really doesn't matter IMO.

That caribou is amazing as well. One tooth as in all or just the front? I wish I would have had a few of mine aged.
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Yes, at Norman Wells you have to do that to get export permits. We weren’t allowed to come behind the counter where he was doing the measurements. From what I could see on his sheet he wrote “99cm” for my sheep. He moved his paperwork further behind the counter and I could not read what he wrote for circumference.

He did not age them, from what I could tell. Or, he just looked and counted in his mind. I didn’t see him placing a finger on each ring.

The caribou molars were almost flat. He only had one tooth on the bottom front, the tooth left of the incisor that I normally pull.

I was blown away by the average sheep age/size. The guides let you know in advance that the standard for “a shooter” is quite high. Their selectivity and low hunting pressure is expressed in the size/age of rams harvested. When we got back to base camp there were two rams aged 11 and 12 that were nice rams, yet for some reason not as long or with the mass of the two week took. Not sure what influences the size, but age doesn’t seem to be the primary factor once they get over 8yo.

When I looked at my ram in the spotter I was surprised Andy was passing. I wondered if I was just getting too excited with my lack of sheep experience. Riley assured me it was a very good ram.

Andy later stated that he was there for the full experience as much as it was the size of the ram he might end up with. Admirable. That was to my benefit. His judgement was rewarded and I was so happy for him. His ram had everyone surprised when they walked up to it.

As much as these are two amazing rams, I can say that in my case the result was not my sheep hunting skill, rather it was a function of very knowledgeable guides, a top notch outfitter who holds everyone to high standards, and the quality of the game/herds that come from this low intensity harvest approach. I was the lucky guy who got to benefit from all of that.
 
You'd thinking they would be very interested in gathering data on those sheep considering they only shoot a few dozen a year in the NWT.

Management aside, just finding a ram of that caliber, let alone 2 and getting them on the ground is not that easy taks, between time constraints and weather. It's not sheep hunting in the L48 where many have a name come hunting season, access is much easier and harvest is extremely limited allowing rams to grow big.

Super impressive outcome all the way around, and a fantastic memory to have forever. They made it look easy. My favorite part was you borrowing the rifle. That's something I would have done, too

Rams grow 3/4 of their horn length the first 5-6 years of their life. A bad winter in the first couple years of life or poor range conditions will hurt ewes and lambs and young rams. I have many rams with short rings even later in life, as a result of stress from bad winters. Some grew less than 1/2 what they normally should have. I have a couple that are missing a couple inches of horn, had it been a normal winter/spring. Age helps but after 8 they don't grow a lot comparatively.
 
Big Fin said:
August 11th (Hunting Day #1)

Given the sun didn't really set last night, rather started to dim around 11pm, daylight had been present for a couple hours before I was rousted by the sounds of hobbled horses being rounded up by Ty. He would get up around 5am, look for where the horses fed that night, then move them toward camp where the freshest of the group would be saddled for the day's ride. No way to do that quietly, with the clanging of bells the horses wear at night and the thunder of their hooves when they realize a morning dose of grain might be had.

When I rolled from the tent, Jesse had coffee boiling, pancakes and bacon ready, with pannier boxes set for chairs. I was the last to emerge, with Riley and Jason helping Ty saddle the chosen horses for the day. Andy and Marcus were already one cup of coffee into the morning. I declined, knowing how my bum liver struggles to process caffeine, impacting my shooting when combined with the doses of adrenaline an encounter might provide. Morning coffee is my after-success-treat.

The guys explained that we'd likely ride for three hours, glassing along the way. They said it would be some "technical" riding, then smiled at my response. I asked what I should expect as "technical" riding terrain. It got a good laugh as we finished breakfast and grabbed our packs.

I was again on Flash. No longer worried about getting ahead of his friend "Chief," he was far more mellow today. I was thankful for his calmer demeanor and smoother stride, as today we were wearing full packs, compared to riding without packs on yesterday's trip to camp. Jason led the team, followed by whatever horse wanted to claim their place in the parade, which put me third in line, following behind Marcus, and ahead of Andy, Riley, and Ty, in that order.
View attachment 337712

The first forty-five minutes took us through thick stuff, in a down-valley direction, eventually breaking out into a wide river course that was now only a few water braids each about 25-30 yards across and none more than a foot deep. From the scars high where rock walls redirected the river it was obvious this was a lower-than-normal flow for water that normally floods over this quarter-mile wide series of gravel bars.

We stopped to glass, using the river opening as a break from what otherwise was vegetation too thick to glass through or around. Way too much sheep terrain to cover thoroughly. Yet, when the guides broke out spotters, it was apparent that "thorough" was what they intended. So, five of us spent the next hour scouring the rocks and spines for white dots.

With nothing spotted, it was decided we'd follow this riverbed upstream to places the guides had previously seen sheep in other years. Each camp is only hunted once per season, sometimes only every other season. The area we could cover with horses was well over 100 square miles and it was exciting to know that nobody had hunted it since they took a ram last season. I'd come to witness how this strategy of resting immense areas for a year or two would provide an age class of sheep that was far beyond what I expected.

Before saddling, Riley showed me a wolverine track in the mud. As a trapper, tracks always gain my attention, especially tracks of rare critters. The number of grizzly tracks we'd seen so far quickly removed any novelty in seeing their tracks. Riley told me on his last hunt they had seen 16 different grizzlies.

Within about a half hour of riding, I got to see what they meant by technical riding. Actually, not real technical, just letting the horses slowly pick their way through the rocks that were growing in size and the pools that deepened as we climbed.
View attachment 337713

Not long after the photo above, Riley found a wider corner in the river and climbed his horse a bit higher on the north berm, glassing a big cut to our south. He quickly dismounted and pointed at a steep angle to something on the cut running down from the spire's south side. We all followed his actions and looked for a place to tie off horses.

That white spot up there turned out to be a 3/4 curl ram. Bedded and all alone, he paid us no mind. The guides estimated him to be six years old. Each of us pecked around for glassing angles that might expose a hiding spot for another ram. After about a half hour it was determined that this guy was alone and we should continue upstream where after a very tight canyon the valley opened back up with a good glassing bench above a sweeping corner in the river course.

If I had to guess by looking at the path ahead, I would have expected the canyon to get tighter, not open wider. As we cleared this tight squeeze a ewe, a lamb, and a yearling watched from a couple hundred yards directly above our left side.
View attachment 337720

Another hour of letting experienced mountain horses pick their way through the rocks, boulders, and pools, and the valley eventually widened as they had said it would, almost inviting a hunter to let his eyes explore this mostly unhunted expanse. On the north bank above that wide-arching corner was a great glassing bench. The horses were happy to leave the rocks and sidehill through some willows, the leaves of which they stripped and ate with remarkable dexterity as we rode along. Quickly we were on the boggy bench and tying off the horses to direct our glass to the many slopes that presented themselves.

I interrupt this hunt segment of the story to show Flash's favorite activity when we stopped to glass. Like me, he enjoys a nap, and he likes to do so in the prone position. Not aware of this trait, I had not taken my rifle from the scabbard. Jason, seeing Flash was about to lay down, rescued my Howa Superlite from a 2,000+ pound horse. I didn't have what it took to get Flash to stop napping, so I just went back to glassing.
View attachment 337721

We spent a couple hours here. No sheep. Yet, a group of five caribou bulls sought refuge from heat and bugs on a mid-mountain bench about a mile to our east. And another pair of bulls lounged way higher up the mountain. None worth a Day One distraction from our sheep efforts.

We saddle up and retraced our route. It was now past 6pm. Riley texted Jesse with his inReach, advising her we'd likely be back to camp around 8:30. He was very close. When we returned, a hot dinner of caribou stew was waiting. Given the logistics (and extreme cost) of flying meat home from this hunt, a lot of caribou gets left behind as lower priority to sheep meat that gets taken home. That is to the benefit of hunters and the great meals filled with caribou meat.

It was a great day. Some rain, but nothing drenching. Enough wind to keep the bugs away. More amazing country that is so unique and so endless that it is hard to comprehend how many sheep, moose, and caribou must be in this hunting area.

Good stories were told by the guides. We were learning more of each other and I was thoroughly enjoying having Riley as my guide. He is 100% Canadian, Albertan, and with me growing up on the Canadian border of Minnesota, I think he enjoyed my indepth understanding of the quirks and fineries of Canadian culture. I suspect I even surprised him with a few of my anecdotes and experiences with Canadian foods, language, sports, and entertainment. It surely gave some good laughs.

A great camp in amazing country is enhanced even more with great campmates, which in this camp I had in great abundance. About 10:30, I had to retire to the tent. The morning called for steady rain, my least favorite hunting weather. Yet, to spend a day hunting in this country, I'd withstand a hurricane.
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Couple different mounts there.
 
Incredible write up! Thanks for sharing those photos as well. I’m heading to the NWT in 2026 and can’t wait!
 
Fantastic way to kick off 2024...highly doubt it will get any better than this!
 
@Big Fin - You ought to be guest lecturing at MSU on story telling.
I could hear your voice my head narrating as I read each post.
What a great thread to come home to after the weekend.

Somehow in the middle of all that composing, you took time to answer a DM from me. That's why you are the Boss of this outfit.
 
great storytelling! Sounds like a trip of several lifetimes. Perfect amount of getting after it with a nice dose of mid day napping. Some very nice animals to show for all the effort. Sounds like an incredible way to kick off the season! And definitely can’t forget the camp food, that’s gotta be the icing on the cake for a hunt like that.
 
thanks for the great story, as well as the great pics - EXCELLENT
 
Really amazing storytelling. Thank you. One of the Sheep Societies had a similar hunt they were raffling off that closed this week. I did the math on everything it didn't include and quickly realized the "free" hunt would still likely top 20k. I need to do a better job of putting money aside so I don't stew jealously when folks who planned better than I did experience these "once in a lifetime" opportunities.
 
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