The fun is just starting when you pull the trigger- a sheep story

[GrantK]

After much research I switched up my bighorn application this year, aiming to strike a balance between a challenging but easier-to-draw hunt while still having a chance at a quality ram. I've applied for a CO sheep tag since I was 16, minus a couple of years when finances were too tight to swing the $250 upfront cost, for a good number of those attempting to draw some of the easiest to draw tags in the state with no luck... I figured this year would be the same so I talked myself into a relatively decent odds hunt that I knew would be an extremely difficult hunt if I was lucky enough to draw, easy to do when the difficulties are just conceptual...fast forward to checking my CC on draw day and seeing a pending charge... I didn't think much of it because I had applied for a goat hunt that I had really good odds of drawing and figured I had a goat tag in pocket, When I realized that I had in fact finally drawn a sheep tag there was a moment where I thought “what have I signed up for?” as the hunt I applied for is notoriously difficult, with a low success rate by Colorado rifle ram hunt standards. The rams tend to move into timber, making them hard to find, and the closest access to sheep country is realistically about an 8 mile hike in just to get to a camp where you can access sheep country, with minimal trails in the high country the sheep inhabit.



to make matters worse, one of the easier access points had a bridge out and was closed well before the trailhead. and then just before my first scouting trip a major highway closed and I had a 2 hour detour just to get to the unit... Bad omens for sure—maybe it’s time for a ceremonial tent shanking?

 

[GrantK]

I don’t live far from the unit but didn’t know it as well as I would have liked so I began scouting as soon as the snow was melting off, concentrating mostly on identifying good glassing spots and the best ways to access them, starting as soon as the snow was coming off in early June I devoted every weekend to scouting, soon finding to my dismay that another of the good access roads was washed out well short of the trailhead, making it a 15 mile one way trip to get to a decent glassing knob...

after a weekend of that I switched my plans and committed to walking a completely off trail 9 miles along this ridge to get to good glassing locations...

 

[duckhunt]

I don’t live far from the unit but didn’t know it as well as I would have liked so I began scouting as soon as the snow was melting off, concentrating mostly on identifying good glassing spots and the best ways to access them, starting as soon as the snow was coming off in early June I devoted every weekend to scouting, soon finding to my dismay that another of the good access roads was washed out well short of the trailhead, making it a 15 mile one way trip to get to a decent glassing knob...

after a weekend of that I switched my plans and committed to walking a completely off trail 9 miles along this ridge to get to good glassing locations...View attachment 345433

This is going to be another good one.

 

[GrantK]

I was able to log miles on foot and time behind the glass almost every weekend from early June until season started, finding sheep a handful of times but not in the numbers that I was hoping for, by the time I was going in for the hunt I had 22 days in and had seen rams on only a couple occasions, and only one ram I thought was a for sure shooter.

there were plenty of spectacular sights, I haven't spent this much time so far back in the wilderness in a while, I spent a lot of time shooting photos of wildflowers...

 

[GrantK]

And bears dancing with trail signs...
and some more wildflowers...

 

[GrantK]

And even an occasional herd of Rams...

 

[GrantK]

I had planned for this to be a solo adventure from the start, figuring any help would be a bonus, but also really wanting to do everything myself just for the satisfaction of having gone it alone on a really tough hunt...In early August, I got an email from @Khunter with the RMBS, asking if I wanted contact info for one of the other tag holders. I said sure, since even though the area is large, the core sheep area isn’t that big. Coordinating to avoid stepping on each other would be ideal. Shortly after, I received an email from Chris, and we started having regular calls, sharing our excitement and making plans to coordinate where each of us wanted to hunt.

Chris graciously offered me first choice of area, and after much indecision, I chose the spot where I had seen the most promising ram. It was hard to leave another spot on the opposite side of the range that looked really good, even though I had spent seven days there and only seen rams once. Chris planned to hunt farther north on the same ridgeline. We had a bit of overlap in the areas we could see, but I didn’t think much of it. We both agreed that our boundaries were flexible—if one of us saw a shooter closer to the other and they didn’t notice, we were free to go for it.

I also knew the other resident tag holder. We had both picked up the sheep bug during archery deer hunts more than 20 years ago. Though we rarely talk these days, it was funny that we both drew the same sheep tag all these years later, without coordinating our applications. The day before I was set to head in for the actual hunt, I got a call from Mark and learned he had scouted rams near my alternate location. Perfect! We all planned to start in different areas, and between us, we had a lot of the high-country habitat covered. If a ram showed up, someone was likely to get on it pretty quickly.

 

[WNC2500]

Thanks for sharing @GrantK
Looking forward to following along

 

[bonedogg]

in on this one......you may proceed

 

[GrantK]

the last couple of weekends of summer were rainy and visibility was low, as much as I wanted to get eyes on more rams all I was seeing was fog and elk...

 

[GrantK]

As it tends to do summer went by all too quickly and even though I would have preferred another month of scouting it was time to hunt

I hiked in on Saturday morning, with the season starting on Tuesday. A friend and his two teenage sons joined me for the first couple of days to help scout. That evening, we had to hustle a bit to make it to the glassing knob, as I was moving slowly with a rifle, optics, and food for 10 days. We made it with about 30 minutes of daylight left and spotted a small band of rams, the largest being about a half curl.

On Sunday morning, we hiked out of camp a different way, one of the boys spotted some ewes at the top of the basin, so we decided to circle around to avoid spooking them. As we were traversing a ridge above a 400-foot cliff, we found a very large buck bedded down below us, completely unaware of our presence.

We spent the rest of the morning glassing from almost 13,000 feet, covering a vast area. Eventually, we located a band of 14 sheep at the far end of the ridge, about 4 miles away as the crow flies. It was hard to tell due to the midday mirage, but they seemed to be mostly lambs and ewes, with three rams but nothing worth moving in for a closer look.

The afternoon was slow, but with lots of human activity as it was the day before opening of archery elk and deer and there were people packing in camps all over way down below... we also watched what I assumed was the guided nonresident sheep tagholder and his guides set up camp right in one of the main travel routes for sheep...not ideal, but at least they were well out of our way.

We stayed up high all day until a thunderstorm forced us back to camp just before dark.

 

[GrantK]

On Monday, the boys decided to sleep in, so my friend and I headed to our original glassing knob. We arrived just after daylight and found Kurt, a bowhunter from Wisconsin who had packed in the day before and was glassing for deer. Soon, we spotted the same small band of rams from the two days before and watched them feed for a while before they suddenly got excited by something and moved almost 5 miles down the ridge, never to be seen again.

The group of sheep at the far end of the ridge was back again, but there were only 10 this time, it appeared the rams had decided to go elsewhere. We watched them on and off all morning, hoping something else would show up, but nothing did. Eventually, Jason had to leave to wake up his boys and get them back to the truck so he could be ready for work the next day. I thanked them for coming out and helping, then stayed on the glass, chatting with Kurt and helping him keep an eye on the bucks he was watching.

Later, I decided to hike up to a different glassing point above my camp that offered a view of some basins I hadn’t checked thoroughly. I spent the evening spotting lots of deer and elk, but no sheep. Halfway through the hike, I found a horseshoe, which I decided to pack back to camp for luck.

 

[GrantK]

Opening Day:

I returned to the glassing point above camp, a brisk warm-up of 1,100 feet of elevation in just 0.6 miles. I quickly spotted eight ewes where the big group had been the past few days, even capturing a nice silhouette of one of them against the sunrise through my spotting scope. After that, though, all I turned up were deer. Two decent bucks walked within easy bow range while I was glassing, but I didn’t spot a single ram, despite having a clear view of almost the entire west side of the mountain range.

I got a message on my Zoleo from a deer hunter I had spoken with earlier, saying the outfitted nonresident had killed a sheep in a basin on the opposite side of the ridge. That was probably good news for me, as any rams getting pressured over there would eventually make their way to my side.

I stayed on the optics all day, spotting a few more deer and even watching a deer hunter shoot and quarter a really nice buck, but still no sheep. Even the ewes at the far end of the range were nowhere to be seen. Back to the usual lack of ram sightings, I suppose...

 

[Pahoundsman]

Following with anticipation !

 

[Khunter]

In for this one and LOOKING FOREWARD TO IT!!!

One of the coolest things I get to do on the RMBS board is plan our annual Sheep and Goat Hunter Meet & Greet event that draws close to 200 folks to learn and share info about sheep and goat hunting so folks like @GrantK and Chris can get a leg up on scouting and hunt prep.

Plus connecting RMBS members such as them to previous sheep tag holders which is really cool. Such a generous spirit of hunters helping hunters among the sheep hunting crowd.

 

[INMT]

Gorgeous country and great pictures! Following

 

[GrantK]

On day two, I decided to return to my original glassing knob to switch things up a bit. I figured there hadn’t been any sheep there for the past day and a half, since I could see Kurt, the deer hunter, on top of the knob and I assumed he would signal me if he spotted any rams. For the next several days, I planned to bounce between the two glassing knobs, as they gave me a view of almost all the above-treeline habitat on my side of the range. Sure, sheep could hide in the folds of the terrain, but I felt confident that if a ram popped its head out of the timber, I’d be in a good position to catch a glimpse.

When I got to the knob, I chatted with Kurt for a bit. We found the deer he was chasing, but no sheep. It seemed like it was going to be a slow day. The deer were heading back around to the basin above my camp, so Kurt decided to pack up and switch glassing knobs with me, hoping for better stalking opportunities in the less timbered basin.

Around 11:00, I was scanning the far north end of the range, about 4.5 miles away as the crow flies, and caught a glimpse of a sheep standing in some trees near where the ewes had been hanging out. I quickly swung the spotting scope over and realized it was what looked like a shooter ram! I zoomed in just in time to see him step back into the cover of the cliffs, followed by four other rams, at least one of which also seemed to be a shooter. They were probably in sight for a total of 2–3 minutes, I had been lucky to catch a glimpse...

 

[TOGIE]

this is a story that needs to be shared; was worried you weren't going to.

 

[GrantK]

I immediately started packing my gear and running through the possible approaches. The smart thing would have been to go back and grab my camp, moving my base closer to the sheep, but after doing the math, I realized there was no way I could cover that extra mileage and still make it to the sheep before nightfall. Even heading straight there, I had miles of bushwhacking and a 2,000-foot climb ahead of me, and I wasn’t even sure the route would go.

I sent a satellite message to Chris, telling him he should go after the rams since he was much closer, assuming he had seen them before I did and was probably already on the stalk. Still, I made the call to go for it myself, committing to what would be a really long day, and probably a night out, regardless of if I was able to get on the rams.

Kurt was understandably surprised when he returned from packing up, as it had only been about 15 minutes and I was already packed and ready to head out. He was understandably skeptical that I could get anywhere near the rams and probably thought I was crazy for committing to whatever it would take to close the gap. He kindly offered me food, which I tried to decline, but eventually gave in and took a bag of snacks. I wished him well and took off at a jog...

 

[GrantK]

I followed the trail for a couple of miles before cutting off and bushwhacking as straight as I could toward the drainage that would offer an approach, quickly realized that I had been in about the only spot with a view of the sheep as I was unable to get eyes on them again from any of the spots I thought might work as glassing knobs. I stopped to take shelter for a bit as a rainstorm rolled through and saw that I had a message from Chris. They hadn’t seen the sheep but were glassing the general area, and I should grab a sleeping bag and stay at their camp.

At that point, it was late for that, but my route was going to take me right by their camp so I decided to meet up with them. I made my way up to the glassing knob they were on, meeting Chris and his hunting partner, Brent, for the first time in person—15 miles in the middle of nowhere.

We started glassing, and I quickly realized that the reason they hadn’t seen the sheep was that they were almost too close. The top of the ridge was foreshortened by a terrain roll above us. We looked at the maps and decided we probably had time to make a play, as long as the gully we needed to climb wasn’t too challenging. So, Chris and I headed up, encountering another mile and a half of bushwhacking to reach the base of the gully. Once we were in it, the climbing was easy, albeit steep. The upper basin was stunning and covered in sheep sign.