Keeping A Secret....

Focus grasshopper.
"We talkin practice"?
"Practice", "Practice" (Allen Iverson)
No talkin rams.

So during one of the recent ventures with a friend..pics prior, we did spot 5 rams on one summit, and three on another. With snow on mostly North sides these guys were hugging South sides at well over 10k. They were not budging, and stayed on their feet grazing easily to noon. 9 miles in, and at a minimum another mile to the rams...but the approach was terrifying. We debated. The three rams were simply out of reach. The logistics impossible. The 5 rams seemingly the same. The only option on them was to drop in the basin beneath them fully exposed and possibly ascend on the far side.
I'm gonna eat humble pie on this one. I had no visual on how far we would have to drop in to the basin to back door these rams. Two weeks later I came at that location from the opposite side of the range and realized it would have been totally doable. Yep , major f-up. Still kicking myself for easing up .
Shoulda, but didnt. I let off the gas.
Don't ever let off the gas.
 
2nd to last weekend.
March in from the West.

Finally I get to hunt with a friend who was planning to be there from the beginning.
An unfortunate fall from a ladder back in July blew apart his ankle apart. Surgery, two screws, and a boot. No weight on foot until the end of September.
Welcome to hard-core, steel determination, ...full on Beast Mode.
Dude has killed a ram, goat, moose with rifle, and a 380 bull with bow in this country. He IS the man. We have become brothers.

Off we go at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon. 8 miles. By dark, it starts raining sleeting.
Unfamiliar country to me we are climbing to 9000 ft plus, on a secret trail. Headlamps . Clear a snow footprint for two tents and crawl in soaking wet. I never got warm that night. Snow / sleet all night.
Next day locked in fog. Spent the entire day in the tent.20211009_133817.jpg20211009_181957.jpg

By evening things showing a change. A few elk bugling.
Welcome to sheep hunting.
 
2nd to last weekend.
March in from the West.

Finally I get to hunt with a friend who was planning to be there from the beginning.
An unfortunate fall from a ladder back in July blew apart his ankle apart. Surgery, two screws, and a boot. No weight on foot until the end of September.
Welcome to hard-core, steel determination, ...full on Beast Mode.
Dude has killed a ram, goat, moose with rifle, and a 380 bull with bow in this country. He IS the man. We have become brothers.

Off we go at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon. 8 miles. By dark, it starts raining sleeting.
Unfamiliar country to me we are climbing to 9000 ft plus, on a secret trail. Headlamps . Clear a snow footprint for two tents and crawl in soaking wet. I never got warm that night. Snow / sleet all night.
Next day locked in fog. Spent the entire day in the tent.View attachment 198452View attachment 198454

By evening things showing a change. A few elk bugling.
Welcome to sheep hunting.
This is the hunt I was hoping it would be. I can’t believe we get to hear the story in such detail
 
We decided to jump drainages the next weekend. Thanks to another tag holder we got a hot lead. He and his friend offered up their wall tent ,as well, which they left for the elk opener. The hunter had killed a great ram and was done.
Saturday morning we head up the snowy trail , six miles to tent. 20211017_110038.jpg
 
We made the tent by noon.
No kidding, rams spotted in 5 minutes high up the back basin in previous pic.
We were a bit tired but didn't go that far in to knit. Ditched our camping gear and headed up. Guestimation four hours to get in stalk mode.IMG_1372.jpg
Sneaking in at the bottom of the basin we set up to glass and devise a stalk.20211016_145552.jpg20211016_145534.jpg
 
There is a cliff band on the mountain, center of previous picture. Rams in timber 300 yds above the cliff, slightly right.
My partner marked the spot on phone map.
We decided to sneak around the bottom of the basin and check the wind at the bottom of that cliff.
Once there, wind was squirrely. Not wanting to bump the rams we made a plan to stay pretty far left and climb until were above the sheep, and then drop in on them with the wind in our favor.
Up on the mountain we couldn't put eyes on their bedding location. Now almost five hours from the wall tent we had an issue...running out of daylight.
Decided to go in on them.
Creeping across the mountain we spotted a couple ewes 100 yards below us. They bedded down. Waited a bit to see if any rams were mingling with them.
Nope.
Keep shifting across the mountain.
70 yards further we walked right in to a banana ram . He took one look at us and bolted. Feeling things were getting urgent, we moved forward quickly , on a snow covered rock field. I was in front.
I moved in to a 10' circular depression in the rocks but my friend was just behind me on higher ground. He spotted the 5-6 rams directly in front of us, across the face of the mountain.
"Rams". Good one in the center.
I crawled up on a snow covered boulder and peeked over. They were all looking at us with the largest ram(body and horns) in the middle, but clear of the others.
Less than three seconds. Decent bases, good mass, horn length so-so.
Shot him at 84 yards.
 
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