I've debated posting this for the last 3 months. This was the most humbling hunt I have enjoyed and posting it on the internet was never a reason for me to do what I do in the mountains. That said, Rokslide has been a great resource for me over the last couple years and I know there is a lot of interest/curiosity/mystery regarding this hunt. Unfortunately, I wont be able to unravel much of that. Anyone who has hunted, hiked, or simply looked into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness can appreciate just how raw this country is and how extremely wild the sheep that live there are.
I returned to the Unlimited districts again this year a day before the season opened. My partner and I were stuck under tarps for the first 3 days of the season last year. September weather at 10k is probably the greatest obstacle for this hunt. This year we had better weather. It took 2 days to find sheep and two sheep were all we found. My ram and a sub legal ram.
I spotted them at daylight on the second day of the season and after a "brisk" hike, we relocated them bedded at 743 yards below us. We sat on them for 4 hours and as the wind started to pick up decided to make a move. We moved down the ridge we were on in an attempt to close the distance but the next time we peeked over to check on the sheep they were feeding away from us. We scrambled to set up the spotting scope and my rifle while I ranged, dialed my scope, and doubled checked environmental data. I am not sure how many times I asked my buddy to confirm that he was 100 percent certain this ram was legal (though I knew he was) but I know for a fact that my words were "are you on him? I am going to take him."
The next words out of my mouth as I rolled over to look back at my buddy were: "What did we just do?!"
My ram dropped to one shot at 614 yards.
From above the drainage we had to cross looked like an easy gravel-bottomed, braided stream. It took 3 hours to cross the ravines and scree to get to him. We were back to where I had initially spotted them a little after dark that day.
We got the "everything" version of the Unlimited's this year. We had a grizzly in camp 2 out of 3 nights, snow, fog, incredibly rough country and very few sheep. However, simply hunting there is a privilege and this year I brought home the trophy of my lifetime. My ram was aged at 8 1/2 years old.
Again, thank you Roksliders and Rokslide for all the mountain hunting camaraderie. There have been a few naysayers regarding this hunt but its like I always tell my partner: "you gotta show up". If you put yourself in a place enough times, eventually it will be the right place and time.
I am currently working on an article for the MT WSF so excuse the short write-up.
I returned to the Unlimited districts again this year a day before the season opened. My partner and I were stuck under tarps for the first 3 days of the season last year. September weather at 10k is probably the greatest obstacle for this hunt. This year we had better weather. It took 2 days to find sheep and two sheep were all we found. My ram and a sub legal ram.
I spotted them at daylight on the second day of the season and after a "brisk" hike, we relocated them bedded at 743 yards below us. We sat on them for 4 hours and as the wind started to pick up decided to make a move. We moved down the ridge we were on in an attempt to close the distance but the next time we peeked over to check on the sheep they were feeding away from us. We scrambled to set up the spotting scope and my rifle while I ranged, dialed my scope, and doubled checked environmental data. I am not sure how many times I asked my buddy to confirm that he was 100 percent certain this ram was legal (though I knew he was) but I know for a fact that my words were "are you on him? I am going to take him."
The next words out of my mouth as I rolled over to look back at my buddy were: "What did we just do?!"
My ram dropped to one shot at 614 yards.
From above the drainage we had to cross looked like an easy gravel-bottomed, braided stream. It took 3 hours to cross the ravines and scree to get to him. We were back to where I had initially spotted them a little after dark that day.
We got the "everything" version of the Unlimited's this year. We had a grizzly in camp 2 out of 3 nights, snow, fog, incredibly rough country and very few sheep. However, simply hunting there is a privilege and this year I brought home the trophy of my lifetime. My ram was aged at 8 1/2 years old.
Again, thank you Roksliders and Rokslide for all the mountain hunting camaraderie. There have been a few naysayers regarding this hunt but its like I always tell my partner: "you gotta show up". If you put yourself in a place enough times, eventually it will be the right place and time.
I am currently working on an article for the MT WSF so excuse the short write-up.
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