Ak Dall Sheep Recap

[bates]

I wanted to do a quick re-cap and follow up to my previous prep thread as i was preparing for my Dall Sheep hunt with Jonah Stewart.

First Jonah, my guide Jake and his entire crew are first class. i was very impressed with his operation, all rifle hunters got their rams and some great rams were harvested this year.

Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr


This was my first time up in a SuperCub and i loved every minute of it.

Once we landed it started raining, Jonah said well you better put on your rain gear, take off your boots, cross this river and then you will be walking up that mountain there.

So within 36 hours i went from warm Florida to wading in over knee deep freezing cold water, welcome to Alaska Sheep hunting is all i could think.

We set up camp a ways up in the trees, and built a fire to dry out our gear.

The next morning we made the hike up to where we set up base camp, it didn't take long to find some rams.

Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr


Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr


We passed on those rams and get to bed with a plan to find more and come back to these if needed.

We hunted hard looking for sheep over the next day lots of walking and came up with a plan on where we thought we would find sheep.

We had a big day ahead of us and made the hike, it was the steepest stuff that i have ever hiked in, several places i was crawling on all 4's but after a few hours of hiking we were rewarded with sheep.

Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr

after another few hours of closing the distance we had finally got with range.

The oldest ram was bedded down at 480 yards, we got all set up and i let my 280 ackley do it's thing, the ram was down within seconds.


My ram



Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr



Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr

I really didn't care or have much thought about what type of a ram i wanted, more than anything i just wanted him to be old.

He is broomed off on both sides but i was rewarded with a beautiful 10.5 year old ram.


Then the work began.....

We packed the sheep down to a creek bed and left him to stay cold over the night and returned the following day to load up all of our gear.




Our way out

Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr


Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr






The hunt was everything and more of what i wanted to experience, i was wet, cold and tired.

i will say that i don't feel anyone from the south or east coast can ever truly prepare for a sheep hunt but i feel 100% confident going into to the hunt that i did all i could, in the end i was ready and other than the ever end of the pack out i feel great in the mountains.

it was an unbelievable experience, sheep hunting is something entirely different from all my other previous hunts, i cant wait to be back in Alaska after my 4 year wait. As i texted a friend of mine ..... "I'm really sick"....."I caught the sheep bug"

 

[slvrslngr]

Congratulations!

 

[adventure907]

Congrats man, nothing like dall sheep hunting!!!

 

[Stid2677]

Congrats on your ram and welcome to the the sick obsession.

Steve

 

[Snyd]

Nice! A heavy horned Broomer is great trophy! What did his bases measure? Did you eat any of him yet?

 

[poman]

Congrats on your ram and catching the sheep bug .
Great story and a well decorated Sky glacier pack.

 

[Nick Muche]

Heard you got a good one while up there with Jonah recently! Congrats! "Pretty tame country" eh? Glad you had a great time man!

 

[Jacques Etcheverry]

That's about how my SG6900 looked this year also. Congrats on a nice ram.


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[bates]

Nice! A heavy horned Broomer is great trophy! What did his bases measure? Did you eat any of him yet?

Yes we ate some on Saturday my 18 month old son loved it, he was going crazy wanting more and more. Probably one of the youngest kids to be eating sheep tenderloin

i think the bases were 13 3/8 or something like that




Alaskan Hunt by benjie bates, on Flickr

 

[bates]

Heard you got a good one while up there with Jonah recently! Congrats! "Pretty tame country" eh? Glad you had a great time man!

Mild country for sheep hunting as Jonah said on Jayscott, Mild

Untitled by benjie bates, on Flickr



Untitled by benjie bates, on Flickr

 

[bates]

so i love gear, overthink it, constantly tweak, but with no mountains for hours i have to have something to keep me busy.


I really felt dialed in and everything performed great... looking back i am very happy with this being my first big extended backpack hunt that i didn't over pack or bring way too much crap.


Stone Glacier 6900

i am super happy i went with the 6900 and not the smaller 5900, its great and performed as expected, very happy with the pack, and had it loaded down nearly full of room coming out with everything. i like the exterior 2 big pockets for keeping rain gear, gloves etc and other times for quick easy access

Salewa Raven 2 Boots

I tried alot of boots and came back to these, I got 1 blister in training and pre-tapped both heels and the blister spot before leaving. I used the glide foot bar everyday and for the first time i wore thin liner socks, My feet were wet alot but i didnt have any issues at all

i wore both darn tough and point 6 over the calf socks, the point 6 are a little thinner and a nice option over the thicker darn tough

i was surprised to take a look at the boots after the hunt, amazing what a few days in sheep county will do to a set of relatively new boots.

my kuiu gaiters held up but took some abuse, the strap that goes under your boot developed a nice gash. i will get a new pair before my next big hunt not worth the risk in such a remote location.


Clothing

I pretty much wore all Kuiu clothing, probably the biggest surprise of the hunt for me was how hot i ran while hiking. i would say temps should of been in the high 30's to 40's all the time, we did get a little bit of sun one day for just a few hours.

It pretty much rained at some point every day. nothing too terrible or long but we did get rain as expected.

new for me was synthetic, i wore all syntheic base layers the sitka top and the new kuiu 97 wt hoodie, it was the perfect combo, i loved the 97, i would have been way too hot in a 200wt top but this new 97 is a great piece, stink wasnt horrible in either, i just feel a synthetic dries so much faster and is more comfortable than wool. i wore both together the first 2 days then just the 97 by itself on the day i killed my ram and we did alot of hiking and climbing.

i slept in the kuiu 145 top and bottom.

next time i will bring a short sleeve top for sure for hiking around.

i took a peleton 240 hoodie and never took it out of my pack, i think the only piece of clothing i didn't wear and probably didn't need, but we did very little sitting around.

the new kuiu ultra SD was just perfect so light and pack-able and just the right amount of warmth for me. its quieter than the original SD and didnt look like it took any damage. i took the SD pants as well, wore them in the morning while eating and cooking breakfast as my attacks were damp most mornings, we were prepared to stay the night on the mountain one night if needed so its nice to have them.

I wore the attack pants and they always perform great as always, however i will either look for a pant with kneepads or buy something like the arcteryx knee caps on the next one, i banged my right knew a few times crawing up rocks. biggest draw back to me is that they suck for being around a fire and melt.

I did order the kryptek altitude in solid gray to try out. what i like is the built in kneepads and these look to be super durable. i have a 30inch inseam and the kneepads in the kuiu alpines end up more like shin guards than kneedpads.

rain gear

i wore the yukon jacket and chugach pants, i made a last minute order and almost wore yukon pants as my primary pant but glad i didn't and left those pants at base camp, they will be going back to Kuiu, great pant but i would rather run the lighter chugach and a standard pant than just have the yukon as my only pant. jonahs guides seemed split as well over the issue, it would have to be constant rain almost all day every day for me to even consider that option.

i will be using only chugach on future backpack hunts, while after 3 years i wont take these pants on any more extended trips, i just thought the lighter chugach dried out faster, kept me just as dry as the yukon but weigh and pack down alot less. nothing major wrong with mine, just some holes from getting too close to the fire and a few nicks, i patched them before the hunt and even after washing and the gore-tex patches are still fine, very impressed with those patches from gear aid.

i had a hard time getting my yukon jacket dry after it rained a few straight days, it will hold up longer and its a bomb proof jacket for sure but i wont take it on anymore backpack hunts. after it got wet it stayed heavy and was cold when you put it on.

i probably did it backwards with my rain gear, by wearing the lighter pant and heavier jacket, my pants my far take more abuse.

so as soon as kuiu was another sale i will order a chugach jacket

for pants i am going to try the Arcteryx Leaf Alpha pant. they come in just 2oz heavier than the chugach, seem to be more durable and have built in pockets, this might be a great option as a rugged hardshell pant and something that could be worn as a stand alone pant.

i will probably add the peleton 200 long johns to my kit, i could see myself just wearing them and the chugach on wet rainy days, something i will be testing out

glass

i know i went round and round on glass. I did take my spotter up to base camp but after talking to my guide and where we were going i left it there. it was the right decision, i had PLENTY of time on his spotter and was able to digiscope as well. i feel he sensed i really wanted to look over sheep and made sure i had the time to look them over, it worked out perfect sharing the spotter

we had the 65mm swaro and its probably just perfect for sheep, it never really got dark or low light

i took 8x32 els and they were just right, the 12's would have been over kill so thank you everyone for the advice.

i ran the ACG bino pack but might look for a simplier set up for the 8's in the future, those 8's and a spotter is a nice combo, i didnt feel or want for 10's at all, sure in an ideal world they would probably be perfect but i was quite content with what i had


kuiu 15 sleeping bag

i was a bit hesitant to take a down bag but everything did work just fine. Jonah supplied us with brand new tents, the bag did get a bit wet from rain getting everything set up one evening but i stayed warm the bag wasn't wet and was dry in the morning.

not going to lie when i heard some of the previous hunters the week before had 3 to 4 days in the tents due to weather and it was storming the first day i thought man a synthetic bag sure would be nice right now, but i didn't have any issue what so ever with the KUIU



rifle http://www.rokslide.com/forums/firearms/51705-280-ackley-improved.html

i just fall more in love with my 280 Ackley the more i shoot it, i used the 168g berger classic and it was just marvelous

i felt 100% confident leaving in the rifle and the load, my previous vertical at distance had diminished, gun is really just perfect not to heavy that you really notice it but not light enough that its overly hard to shoot, i was able to shoot sub MOA groups at 1000 with it before leaving.

i did end up taking a harris 9-13 bipod, and i am sure glad i did, so much more stable, i had virtually now wiggle when setting up for the shot, while i feel i could have made the shot from my pack as well the bipod sure was nice and worth packing.

i also carry one of the Straight8laced tactical lightweight bags, i can use it as a pillow in the tent, or rear bag for shooting or to help build a position, it worth its weight in gold as well.

i wont change anything with the rifle minus i will look at 2 area, i do have some of the 175 elite hunters loaded up that i plan on testing once it gets cooler here but the 168's just keep hitting where i point them.

bi-pod, i am going to look at some of the possible lighter weight options mainly the new 300 javelin and compare it to the tried and true harris
i really dont think i will ever hunt without some sort of bipod or tripod clamp system, just something to sure the gun up if needed for an extended shot, i always want to be close but we could not get closer than 480 yards to these sheep, only way was if he decided to get up and feed down the mountain

i didnt a ton of practice shooting and dry firing before the hunt and with a lighter gun the difference was noticeable

 

[Nick Muche]

Mild country for sheep hunting as Jonah said on Jayscott, Mild

Untitled by benjie bates, on Flickr



Untitled by benjie bates, on Flickr

Looks like fun man! Congrats again!!

 

[kaboku68]

Good Job! Glad that everything worked out. You can hunt goats now!

 

[TXCO]

Congrats!

 

[Murph1]

Nice work man. Great trip. Great pictures. And thanks for the equipment info

 

[Broomd]

+1!! Great ram, great country and great choices on the gear...you're hooked now.

 

[SLDMTN]

Great pics and story, thanks for taking the time to do a write up and follow up on your prep thread! Congrats!

 

[daddie63]

Awesome Bates. Appreciate the story and follow up gear run down. Beautiful sheep and country. One day I keep saying.

 

[realunlucky]

Great write up congratulations on a awesome ram

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[Burnt Reynolds]

awesome job!