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

[GrantK]

We climbed straight up all the way to the ridge at almost 13,000' to get the wind in our favor, then traversed over to see if we could locate the sheep. This turned out to be more of a challenge than we anticipated. The little basin where the sheep were had more trees than I had initially seen, and we made multiple attempts to peek into it without popping up right on top of the sheep. Eventually, we got a signal from Brent, who was watching from the glassing knob. He let us know that the sheep had fed back into the next basin over, where we had come up, while we were trying to get a look at them.

We still had to reposition twice to avoid popping out too close, as the basin had a very convex roll at the top and it was hard to find a spot we could see more than 30 yards straight down but eventually, we were able to find the sheep at 240 yards across the basin.

Unfortunately, just as we spotted them, they bedded down with the biggest ram behind a tree, making it difficult to size them up. However, I was able to see enough through the spotting scope to confidently count at least seven rings, and probably eight.

 

[GrantK]

At this point, we had a bit of the "Do you want to shoot? Are you sure?" discussion, as there were two mature rams in sight, and I was in favor of trying to double up. Chris declined, as he wasn't ready to be done yet. For me, even though it was only the second day, this ram had everything I was looking for, and I hadn't seen a better one while scouting. I was up!

I eased out to get prone and prepared for the ram to stand up. Unfortunately, while trying to figure out how to sneak a shot through the trees, something spooked the rams, and they completely blew out, giving me no shot opportunity. I managed to run along behind them, and when they stopped at about 300 yards in the trees, I thought I would get another chance. However, as they fed across into the next draw, the biggest ram never cleared out from behind one of the smaller rams.

I ran again and thought I had missed my chance when I couldn’t relocate them in the next basin. Then I realized the only way I couldn't see them was if they were in the small rocky fold between the basins. I eased up to the rim and was immediately pinned down by a yearling ram. Where were the big ones? I waited and waited, and finally, the big ram fed out at 60 yards. I was in the most uncomfortable shooting position possible, halfway between kneeling, sitting, and standing to clear the rise between us, but I managed to steady myself and squeeze the trigger...

 

[GrantK]

With a speed I think is unique to sheep, the entire bunch launched downhill and were out of sight in the blink of an eye, the ram I had shot at appearing none the worse for wear.

The next couple of minutes were a roller coaster of emotions. Had I really just whiffed on the biggest shot of my hunting life? I eased down and found no blood—no sign of a hit—so I continued along the path the sheep had taken, anxiety building until I finally spotted the ram lying in a perfect patch of grass. I had glassed that spot hundreds of times over the summer, thinking, “That looks like a good place for a sheep!”

I climbed back up to Chris, grabbed my pack, and we headed down to admire my sheep. Just then, my watch beeped: 10 miles in so far today.

 

[GrantK]

the timbered knob above the cliffs in the background is my glassing knob where this wild day started... camp is a couple miles farther back...

 

[GrantK]

After a quick photo session, we got to cutting. In the dark, no less—not something I would have included on my bingo card for “things that might happen while sheep hunting.” In fact, not much of what happened that day was on that list of preconceived ideas. We loaded up, with me carrying the whole sheep and Chris taking both of our gear, and headed down.

As we were descending, I tried to figure out the best approach for packing out as I was close to 20 miles from my truck, much of that uphill bushwhacking.... I eventually decided the best option was to pack the sheep out to a different trailhead and arrange for a pickup from my brother. To make this happen, I needed to drop the sheep off at Chris’s camp, return to my camp to grab enough food for the trek out, and pack up my camp to pick up later. After that, I would have to gut it out until I could meet my brother somewhere on the trail… easy, right?

We got to Chris’s camp just before midnight, and after hanging the sheep in a tree I said my goodbyes and got on my way, intending to avoid the bushwhacking I had done earlier I accidentally took a much longer way back to my camp, and an additional 9 miles and 5K of elevation gain, much of it in a delirious state, got me back to my camp at 3:40 AM-daily total of a little over 22 miles and 10k of elevation gain and loss, I owe many thanks to Kurt, the food he gave me was really a game changer…

somehow I managed to pass through exhaustion somewhere on the way back to camp so I stayed awake for a bit, listening to elk bugle, reflecting on the day and eating, then crawled into bed to try to catch 2 hours of semi sleep…

I woke up and set about packing up camp, which was pretty rough. It took me about two hours and multiple cups of coffee before I could finish this simple task—my brain wasn’t functioning all that well. During this time, I confirmed that my brother was on the way and also asked a good friend if he could come along, as I suspected I’d be having a rough time by the end of the day. I hung everything I was leaving in a tree and packed up some food for Chris and Brent before getting back on the trail.

The miles passed much better in daylight. I now knew the better route, so getting to their camp was just over six miles, easily done in a couple of hours. However, I still managed to mess up my entire timeframe and arrived late. Sorry, guys...We talked for a bit while I loaded up the whole sheep, along with my rifle and optics, as they prepared to depart for a high spike camp. Finally, there was no delaying it. I thanked them one last time, then managed to get to my feet with the pack and headed out.

 

[Khunter]

fantastic! How many pounds was the pack with the whole sheep? My back and everything else hurts just thinking about it.

 

[GrantK]

What followed was hours of the purest misery I have experienced with a pack, I pulled as much as possible together and weighed it later, I am 100% sure it was upwards of 140 lbs. and probably closer to 155, not fun bushwhacking for the first 3 miles before I caught a trail, and not all that fun on the trail, fortunately after 8 miles I was met by my brother and friend and was able to turn a one person load into a 3 person load for the last 4 miles of trail, we managed to arrive at the truck just before dark, 18 miles in for the day, and close to 40 miles since I had laid eyes on the ram…I was completely exhausted, and was some good entertainment for my brother and friend as I could barely get out of the truck and hobble to open the gates on the FS road on the way out…we were a long way from home, and an equally long way from my truck, I had parked at the South end of the range and exited the North, a complete end to end traverse of the range, we arrived home at 11:00 and I crashed hard…

I took a rest day, got the ram checked in, and talked my wife into a “hike” to go get my truck, we rolled out as early as I could talk her into and hiked the first “scenic” peak, then I dropped down into the wilderness to retrieve my camp, also stopping and glassing to cover some ground for Mark and Chris, happening to find a couple rams close to my camp but unfortunately no shooters...

 

[GrantK]

Somehow this suffering all worked to get me incredibly addicted to chasing sheep, and I spent all the time I could going back into the unit and glassing for Chris, as well as running into Mark shortly after he killed his ram, helping pack the last load to his camp, and spending an evening watching the stars and catching up on almost two decades of life…

most of all, I just enjoying being in the mountains just taking a bivy and a spotting scope and roaming high ridges hoping to turn up a big ram, and as it turned out I got the message from Chris I had been waiting for all season an hour before dark on the last day “ram down!” we had managed to go 3 for 3 in one of the harder units to do so, It’s going to be mighty hard to top this September!
I owe many thanks to all the people involved on this one, as what I had envisioned as a solo adventure was in fact made so much better by the help I received from many random people, in particular I'd like to shout out @Khunter and the rest of the RMBS guys that I have had the pleasure of meeting through this, the sheep and goat meet and greet was great fun and they truly go above and beyond to support guys who are lucky enough to draw, I've been on a lot of hunt's I can't say I've ever felt as supported behind the scenes as I did on this one!

Thanks all for reading my story!

 

[CT_SD]

Congratulations! Awesome sheep and you definitely earned it.

 

[GrantK]

fantastic! How many pounds was the pack with the whole sheep? My back and everything else hurts just thinking about it.

I didn't get a whole weight as we split it 3 ways midway back, it was at least 140, as that's what I got dry weight with no water, bino harness, or lower jaw on the sheep the next day, probably 155-160? it sucked, like real bad...

 

[Sytes]

Great photos of some beautiful country! Thanks for taking us along! Well earned - great ram!

 

[Lostinthewoods]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great ram, congrats!

 

[andrew11]

Sounds like a great hunt!! Way to grind out that heavy pack out

 

[Valley1320]

NICE!!!! Congrats!

 

[Wild Bill]

Sheesh! Good ram!

 

[Gerald Martin]

H**** S*****!!!!

 

[fulldraw]

Congrats on a well earned ram! Thanks for the write up.

 

[Sask hunter]

Congrats!

 

[CRJR45]

As close to being there without being there as possible ! Good job !

 

[noharleyyet]

Reading the pack out made my knees hurt...