NW CO to SE NM Barbary Sheep

[TheGreek]

Recap from Monday 2-12
Hard day. 11 miles round trip and didn’t see a single Barbary sheep but I had low expectations. Did glass up a big forky mule deer buck. And flushed two coveys of quail. Got 5.5 miles into the public playing the boundary line game only to glass up two guys another 1.5 miles deeper. They must have come in from the private with access from on of the surrounding ranches. This is camp on BLM about 35 miles in from the blacktop road.

Little Subaru made the trip in. On a gear note, I bought a slik tripod with a Siriu VA-5 head and this was my first time using it in the field. Huge upgrade from my old tripod and head.

First glassing spot of Tuesday 2-13.

 

[cgasner1]

See any elk yet?

 

[Valley1320]

See any elk yet?

Haha my thoughts

 

[TheGreek]

See any elk yet?

Nope, but a guy I ran into this morning said he saw some yesterday a little further south in the unit.

 

[TheGreek]

2nd glassing spot of the day. No Barbary spotted yet but have turned up some mule deer. Trying to spend lot more time glassing today than hiking. If nothing else, it’s more enjoyable.

 

[cgasner1]

Nope, but a guy I ran into this morning said he saw some yesterday a little further south in the unit.

I found it frustrating when it’s like man I’ve really picked this place apart guess I’ll look again….. wtf where did those 3 bulls come from

 

[TheGreek]

Found an elk shed. Highlight of the day so far.

 

[Khunter]

good luck. Barbary can be hard to spot!

 

[Bluffgruff]

Keep looking. They are really hard to see, even when they're close.

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

Good luck out there. Look for shadow pockets against small cliff walls. They really like to bed up against those walls. The wall might only be 3-4' tall. I hunted them in TX diy a couple years ago. Once I figured out the actual color of the animal and to look in those little pockets I started to find them.

 

[TheGreek]

Recap Tuesday 2-13

Only about 7 miles round trip today. Tried to spend more time behind the glass today than yesterday. I definitely glasses up more animals, including two muley bucks, about 10 muley does, and a few elk way off in the distance, just for @cgasner1 But no Barbary sheep. Gonna go try a different part of the unit for Wednesday. Plan is to break camp first thing in the morning and drove over to that part of the unit. It’s probably only 8 miles as the crow flies from where I was hunting today but it’ll probably be a 60 or 70 mile drive over there. I talked to a young couple that I ran into today that had hunted over there the day before and the guy said there were some guys hunting over in that area but I’m gonna give it a shot. There’s a fair amount of public in this unit but where you can access it from is pretty limited. Gotta keep at it.

 

[TheGreek]

Camp is packed up and on to the next spot.

 

[TheGreek]

Into the new spot and glassing. Pair of guys from WY on the ridge over but I’m happy there was only one truck at this spot. I was afraid there’d be half a dozen. Single access point to a big chunk of BLM surrounded by private with a lot of ridges. Fingers crossed I turn something up in here in the next few days. Hot today. Calling for highs of near 70. At least the snow is gone!

 

[Valley1320]

@TheGreek Your making me so jealous if your weather down there is like ours to the northeast of you. Its absolutely beautiful sheep hunting weather

 

[TheGreek]

Recap
Wednesday 2-14

Happy Valentine’s Day. Hopefully my buddy picked up some flowers and delivers them to my wife or I might be in the dog house!

Switched spots today to a place I had marked on OnX and had been pointed to by some fellow HuntTalk members. It looks good. You can get into glassable country much quicker from the car than the other spot I had been hunting. Spent most of the day behind the glass from 10am on with nothing to show for it. Didn’t even glass up a mule deer today. But the wind was blowing 25mph from 1pm on which made the glassing tougher and less enjoyable than it should be. Maybe it had all the animals laid up and out of the wind. I tried glassing the leeward sides when possible but no luck. Back at it in the morning. Plan is to climb the ridge/hilltop before light and try to be on a glassing knob at legal shooting light. Still waiting to spot my first Barbary sheep ever in the flesh. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day.

 

[TheGreek]

 

[Nick87]

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F#@k yah! That's awesome! I like this picture much better than the dimpled primer pics btw.

 

[Valley1320]

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Good deal!!!!

 

[jvanhoy]

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Hell yea! Awesome.

 

[Hyhunter]

That escalated quick. Awesome shadow! Congrats