2020 Hunts- Deer, Mt Goat, Bears, Sheep, Bou, Moose

[FLAK]

Great Thread.

 

[wildwilderness]

For the 4th the family went to California to visit family. I grew up there surfing so here is my daughter catching a wave. I can’t take Cali for more than a few days . Sometimes I can’t believe I lived there but I am glad I left for college and learned to hunt.

 

[wildwilderness]

July was also a time to do some mushroom hunting. First time looking for Morels. I love how they taste especially with a sheep loin

 

[wildwilderness]

Now was the time to look for Sheep! Made a scouting trip with my son. Didn’t find a legal ram but helps to get into sheep shape and learn some country

 

[wildwilderness]

With Covid we weren’t sure if my son would be able to hunt or not. His summer job as a fishing guide with his Uncle had been slow due to Covid so he had a few days to look for sheep. His best friend Justus also was visiting again from CO and wanted to pack for us. So we changed our area to hunt.

2 days before opener we get to the area in the evening and start glassing. We unexpectedly turned up two rams on a mountain the opposite way we were planning to go. From the distance we couldn’t tell if they were legal or not, so decided to sleep on it and see if they were still there in the morning

 

[wildwilderness]

One of the more stress parts of sheep hunting is the “legal ram” judgment call! Last year I hunted with Caleb and we found a ram that I called at 7yrs, he thought 8. We knew it wasn’t full curl by the stick test but might be by the tip tangent rule. Needless to say I couldn’t shoot it, he was confident in his call so shot his fist ram last year. The Anchorage office aged it a 7 years but gave him the tip past tangent on the left antler to make it legal

I’m not that confident so prefer obviously legal to a Squeaker!

 

[wildwilderness]

The next morning the rams were still there. We watched them a bit longer then they decided to move a couple miles to the next mountain. That was actually better to access since we didn’t have to cross a big River to get to them. The call was made to move in and see if we could count rings

The challenge is always keeping track of the sheep while trying to circle around or above. We would loose sight of them for at least a few hours while packing in.

Luckily we relocated them on the climb, but also spotted other hunters on the mountain. That’s sheep opener in Alaska! OTC crowds like the L48.

we watched the sheep all day trying to make a call. By that evening I couldn’t say it was legal to me but Caleb and Justus were saying they were confident it was 8! One ram was bigger and more mass than the other

 

[wildwilderness]

We were about 450 yards from the rams. With my swaro 65mm I find it a lot easier to count ring inside 300yds. We didn’t want to spook them so couldn’t get closer then.

 

[wildwilderness]

The next day was opener so I told the boys we would sleep on it and see what happens. That night we could tell some weather was coming in. The rams fed over a ridge and out of sight as the sun set. We would have to wait til morning.

 

[wildwilderness]

First light wasn’t light at all! The clouds and fog had moved in and no sheep in sight. When the clouds clears we hiked up the ridge and ran into the other hunters who weren’t happy to see us. One of them thought that ram was a legal 8 as well.

Maybe I should make a new thread about
OTC sheep hunt Protocol for running into other hunters?

Needless to say we packed up and decided to head down and go to the original area to hunt. On the way down we spotted a black bear. The year before I had my camp destroyed by a bear during midday- so I shot it. Having 5 bear tags each and no meat salvage required in the fall I prefer to shoot the bears. Caleb was up to make the long shot ranged at 580

 

[wildwilderness]

Here are the boys with the consolation bear.

 

[wildwilderness]

After taking care of the bear, restocking at the truck and getting psyched for another hump we headed out.

This time weather didn’t want to cooperate. It’s mid August and we get snow, fog and wet. Have to set up the tents to get out of the blowing freezing rain and snow. We give it a couple of days hiking over ridges looking for a legal ram. With the added freezing wet conditions some of these ridges are sketchy dangerous! We also would see other hunters on most other ridges - OTC public walk-in sheep is just like any other Western hunt! Part of it is dealing with the pressure!

 

[wildwilderness]

So with moral a bit low and our area a bit crowded we decided to call it. With the Pandemic restrictions starting to lift at my work I got a couple of days in to pay the bills. Not to waste time the boys had some intel on Caribou!

 

[wildwilderness]

Caleb was pretty excited to get his first bou and have his buddy there to help pack and push the subie if it got stuck

 

[wildwilderness]

By now the Silvers were running and we had to get some for the freezer. Uncle Jim and Aunt Maria at Deshka always loves for us to bring the kids by and fish

this king decided it was feeding time

 

[wildwilderness]

Summers are way to short in Alaska! I was dying to go after sheep again but needed to decided where. I convinced my wife and kids it would be a great idea to go on a “family “ camp out on Sat/Sun to an area I could check out. Well the “ camp out “ wasn’t that exciting for the fam, we did see some faint Northern Lights, but it rained a bunch as well, summer bugs were out, and kids like to complain about the drive.

But I did get extremely lucky and the last evening found some sheep. They were a ways off but looked like a couple mature rams. It would take at least a day and lots of prep to get to them. Oh well what are the chances they would even be there when I finally had time to hunt them?

 

[gearguywb]

Awesome stories! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Grit2]

Sounds like you made margaritas out of your lemons. Thanks for sharing! I'm ready to move to Alaska

 

[wildwilderness]

I had promised my wife to take the younger kids the next weekend so she could have some time to herself and get stuff done before summer was over. I have a very accepting wife of my hunting habit! I wish I could take off all of August -November to hunt!! I’ll have to save that for when I retire and the kids grow- it’s amazing how fast that happens! Seeing my oldest already Graduated- so I took this weekend to spend time with them- backpacking and fishing of course. Weather was great, and the little grayling were hammering the flies!

 

[wildwilderness]

Finally I had a week off to Hunt sheep again- this time Solo. Caleb had left for work as a moose packer, and you all know how it is sharing sheep spots

I went back to where I had spotted the band of sheep with my family two weeks earlier- and of all miracles they were still there!!! I can prepared this time to cross the River and work out an access plan depending on winds. It would take a lot of work but sheep usually don’t come easy. I had to back track a bunch to a spot I could launch my inflatable, float down the River .

Half a day later I relocated the rams and now how to bushwhack up and around the mountain. Uphill against alders is the worst! Always sketchy crossing rockslides in the cold shadows, and as evening came I finally reached the summit with my legs cramping. Finding Water is a limiting factor staying up high, but I got lucky with a good spring. With the sun setting I looked over the ridge where I had last seen the rams.... and they were gone. After changing angles I found the band of sheep in the opposite slope feeding away into the sun set about 600 yds. I got my spotter on them hoping to be able to tell if there was a legal ram- two were close on length, and one was broomed. On one side and short on the other. Stressful call to make at this distance and low light, so I would half to wait til morning to get closer and a better look.

I set up my solo tent and heated some food, light snow was in the forecast. I was exhausted after the full day exertion and slept ok, just the whole legal/Sub legal debate going on in my head.