Ultrahunter
Active member
Hello boys! I am a little late with this story but better late than never right?
This hunt really started in 2012 when my hunting partner Aaron drew his sheep tag and I was privileged to spend a little over a week hunting with him and although he didn't kill his ram on the trip that I was with him, he did harvest one later in the season after hunting his guts out. You'll remember his story here
http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=251890&highlight=buckfever
History as they say has a way of repeating itself and in 2013 I was the lucky one and drew the same tag he had pulled the year before. It was nice to already basically have a plan, however having some planning to do could have eased the pain of the long summer wait till sheep season opened in late August! At any rate the plan was set and Aaron and I headed into the Crags once again for an 8 day backpack hunt. we glassed for a few days from an overlook suggested to us by T-bone and only turned up a few ewes. Needing water it was time to reposition, hydrate, and get a new angle on this massive country. We worked our way into a huge canyon and heard some shooting just above us, quite a bit actually. Later we would find out that the outfitter in the area had been sitting on a group of 5 or 6 rams all summer and had a client in there to shoot one. One of the guides would later tell us that this guy had hit and lost one of the better rams in the bunch. Talk about making a guy sick! We were only a few hundred yards from a group of rams that maybe we could have seen and got onto and this Jack-hole spends $10K only to shoot one through the guts and have it run off. Made me want to puke. Anyway we hunted the rest of the week only seeing a few more ewes then had to make the 15 mile hike back to the truck with no meat on my back. I was down but not out a return trip was already planned. Here's the country we were glassing on the first trip.
A guy that I'm sure more than a few of you know that goes by Moosie had previously offered to go with me on a return trip. We spent a week or two rounding up a raft, a plane ride in, and a ride home. We would be flying into a runway on the Middle Fork of the Salmon river and floating out to a road below some 30 miles, hunting every spot we could think of on the way down. We were set to leave on a Monday but since I am employed by the Gov and was furloughed. Oscar and I agreed that some government mandated sheep hunting would be in order. With me out of work we were able to leave a few days early to get the most of our week on the river. Heres a few pick of the plane ride in.
Oscar representing
A plane worth of gear!
Finally we were on the river and floating down to the first drainage to hunt. Here is Oscar in a rare serious moment!
The first spot was a bust, we spent 2 days hunting a huge drainage and saw not a living creature. I was really starting to have doubts as we headed down river to the next spot.
Reaching our second camp in the afternoon we decided to stay on the river hike up for a few days of hunting the next day. After maybe an hour in camp I caught some movement up the drainage we were planning on hunting got the glass on them and confirmed 4 rams. Holy crap this is going to happen. Oscar and I looked them over and I decided they looked pretty good to me! I was fast approaching 20 days of hunting this unit without a single sighting of a ram. Any one of these guys would do. Oscar stayed down low to keep an eye on things and to reduce the amount of noise that I would no doubt make on the ascent. I headed up with my rifle having to turn back a few times and pick a safer and sane rout up to them. When I finally got up to them I had to wait for ewe to clear the ram I decided on and when she finally did I shot one time and it was over. It was so unreal walking up to a freaking bighorn sheep. I remember thinking "Man, this is something that happens to other people, not me. This is ridiculous!" He's not the 180 ram that I had always dreamed of but man what an adventure. I'll be proud of this hunt for ever. It will be hard to top! I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, I've rambled long enough.
Finally a sheep down!
Oscar and I
Reading the directions/river map (never float the Middle Fork without it!)
The float out was pretty awesome!
I Can't thank Aaron, Oscar, and Tyson enough. It wouldn't have turned out the same without them.
This hunt really started in 2012 when my hunting partner Aaron drew his sheep tag and I was privileged to spend a little over a week hunting with him and although he didn't kill his ram on the trip that I was with him, he did harvest one later in the season after hunting his guts out. You'll remember his story herehttp://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=251890&highlight=buckfever
History as they say has a way of repeating itself and in 2013 I was the lucky one and drew the same tag he had pulled the year before. It was nice to already basically have a plan, however having some planning to do could have eased the pain of the long summer wait till sheep season opened in late August! At any rate the plan was set and Aaron and I headed into the Crags once again for an 8 day backpack hunt. we glassed for a few days from an overlook suggested to us by T-bone and only turned up a few ewes. Needing water it was time to reposition, hydrate, and get a new angle on this massive country. We worked our way into a huge canyon and heard some shooting just above us, quite a bit actually. Later we would find out that the outfitter in the area had been sitting on a group of 5 or 6 rams all summer and had a client in there to shoot one. One of the guides would later tell us that this guy had hit and lost one of the better rams in the bunch. Talk about making a guy sick! We were only a few hundred yards from a group of rams that maybe we could have seen and got onto and this Jack-hole spends $10K only to shoot one through the guts and have it run off. Made me want to puke. Anyway we hunted the rest of the week only seeing a few more ewes then had to make the 15 mile hike back to the truck with no meat on my back. I was down but not out a return trip was already planned. Here's the country we were glassing on the first trip.
A guy that I'm sure more than a few of you know that goes by Moosie had previously offered to go with me on a return trip. We spent a week or two rounding up a raft, a plane ride in, and a ride home. We would be flying into a runway on the Middle Fork of the Salmon river and floating out to a road below some 30 miles, hunting every spot we could think of on the way down. We were set to leave on a Monday but since I am employed by the Gov and was furloughed. Oscar and I agreed that some government mandated sheep hunting would be in order.
With me out of work we were able to leave a few days early to get the most of our week on the river. Heres a few pick of the plane ride in.Oscar representing
A plane worth of gear!
Finally we were on the river and floating down to the first drainage to hunt. Here is Oscar in a rare serious moment!
The first spot was a bust, we spent 2 days hunting a huge drainage and saw not a living creature. I was really starting to have doubts as we headed down river to the next spot.
Reaching our second camp in the afternoon we decided to stay on the river hike up for a few days of hunting the next day. After maybe an hour in camp I caught some movement up the drainage we were planning on hunting got the glass on them and confirmed 4 rams. Holy crap this is going to happen. Oscar and I looked them over and I decided they looked pretty good to me! I was fast approaching 20 days of hunting this unit without a single sighting of a ram. Any one of these guys would do. Oscar stayed down low to keep an eye on things and to reduce the amount of noise that I would no doubt make on the ascent. I headed up with my rifle having to turn back a few times and pick a safer and sane rout up to them. When I finally got up to them I had to wait for ewe to clear the ram I decided on and when she finally did I shot one time and it was over. It was so unreal walking up to a freaking bighorn sheep. I remember thinking "Man, this is something that happens to other people, not me. This is ridiculous!" He's not the 180 ram that I had always dreamed of but man what an adventure. I'll be proud of this hunt for ever. It will be hard to top! I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, I've rambled long enough.
Finally a sheep down!
Oscar and I
Reading the directions/river map (never float the Middle Fork without it!)
The float out was pretty awesome!
I Can't thank Aaron, Oscar, and Tyson enough. It wouldn't have turned out the same without them.
