BC Stone's Trip - 2021

[schmalzy]

Awesome hunt/story and great write up.


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[tuffcity]

Nicely done, Trev! That coin seems to be showing in a few ram pics this year.

 

[Jimbob]

Very cool, Is there anything better than a walk-in sheep hunt? Well done on a nice ram.

 

[Rackmastr]

Great story and a awesome ram! Who did the work on your rifle?

Mitch Kendall from Kamloops did all the work on it about 10 years ago now.

 

[Zackman]

Great Stone!

 

[bowhuntercam]

Awesome write up and story Trevor. Congrats!

 

[Marine4life]

Awesome story and Ram. Congrats


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[Kodiak18]

Awesome job Trevor!

 

[JOC Fan]

The magnificent Stone's ram....you guys pulled it off....great team work....enjoy the glory....

 

[JOC Fan]

BC has had a large number of 'illegal' rams harvested this year. So many, in fact, that the BC Conservation service reached out to the Wild Sheep Society of BC to try and get the message out about shooting rams that didnt meet the full-curl requirement and were less than 8 years old by annuli present. To say that there is pressure in aging a ram is obvious. This year, there was a bit of added pressure knowing how many people had made mistakes in the season already.

I had the ram aged at 8 confidently, but was 'sure' given his growth patterns and the horn segments that he was likely 9. I really wanted to be sure though, before making the decision to pull the trigger. At one point, the younger ram with this ram looked towards us and stood up abruptly. It looked as if both rams were going to take off. My buddy even said that it seemed like they were going. Still, not feeling perfect yet I was ok with letting the rams leave if that was the case.

They fed up the hill a bit and then settled down. I kept wondering if they had seen us or just sensed something wrong. Either way, I got a few glimpses of the front of the horns when the ram looked towards us and it gave me a better view of annuli present. I was 95% sure there was an additional annuli where I figured there should be one, closer to the base of his horn.

The rams bedded, and finally the ram sat in a way that I could see his horns a bit better. A few more pics/video and consultation with my buddy, and I was now confident that the ram was 9.

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As you mentioned in your post, most folks in Canada know about the confiscated rams in BC this year which created a lot of controversy. From my own personal experience on my own Desert ram in AZ, aging by rings alone can be misleading and I will get to that shortly. What I think needs to happen is that in dubious cases (not close shaves of course), a tooth must be sent to that famous lab in MT to have it aged accurately using cementum annuli method. That is the ONLY reliable method and my late good friend/mentor Dr. Val Geist was always a proponent of it.

Now to my AZ ram story and aging:

The five of us with my pal Kenny who has been on at least 50 sheep hunts arrived at my kill site and we all aged the ram at 9, so did AZ F&G biologists the day after when I went to get it plugged. Couple of months later, I happened to see a video of the same ram taken by a biologist two years prior. In the video, the ram already looked to be 9 or 10. That prompted me to send the tooth to MT and bingo; he was aged at 12!

 

[Rackmastr]

As you mentioned in your post, most folks in Canada know about the confiscated rams in BC this year which created a lot of controversy. From my own personal experience on my own Desert ram in AZ, aging by rings alone can be misleading and I will get to that shortly. What I think needs to happen is that in dubious cases (not close shaves of course), a tooth must be sent to that famous lab in MT to have it aged accurately using cementum annuli method. That is the ONLY reliable method and my late good friend/mentor Dr. Val Geist was always a proponent of it.

Agreed there are some differences between aging by tooth and by annuli. The BC regs are clear though that a ram needs to be 8 evidenced by the annuli. So, even if a ram brooms off annuli, the ram needs to have 8 annuli clearly proving he's 8 or older.

No doubt with rockies/deserts/calis things get even more interesting. For the most part thinhorns are pretty decent to determine annuli. Its sure not a perfect science, but having hunters shoot a ram that they 'think' is 8 and wait to get a tooth aged likely isnt the answer either. Hunters need to count 8 annuli and be damn sure, which no doubt has caused some issues this year.

 

[JOC Fan]

Agreed there are some differences between aging by tooth and by annuli. The BC regs are clear though that a ram needs to be 8 evidenced by the annuli. So, even if a ram brooms off annuli, the ram needs to have 8 annuli clearly proving he's 8 or older.

No doubt with rockies/deserts/calis things get even more interesting. For the most part thinhorns are pretty decent to determine annuli. Its sure not a perfect science, but having hunters shoot a ram that they 'think' is 8 and wait to get a tooth aged likely isnt the answer either. Hunters need to count 8 annuli and be damn sure, which no doubt has caused some issues this year.

Agreed and I was only suggesting it for cases that are dubious. I saw one such case myself.

 

[cuervosail]

That night it rained most of the night, and we woke to rain. We knew it was going to be a long wet day of hiking, but ground it out and made it back to the truck by 4-4:30, soaking wet for the most part.

Sure felt great getting back and taking that pack off!!!! Thanks for following along and allowing me to tell a bit of the story. We did end up seeing some goats way across another valley while working on the cape/meat but our timeline (and likely our bodies) wouldnt allow us another 4-6 days of hunting that would be needed to go after them. Will have to leave a goat for my buddy for another trip!!

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Congratulations! That's a gorgeous ram and a wonderful write-up. I didn't have my flight plans messed up this year and was able to get into my first choice lake for a 12-day solo trip in August (didn't pull the trigger) but I know there were a few guys who weren't pleased with the customer service of one particular air operator.

 

[dru88]

Congratulations on a great ram and thanks for sharing your story and pictures.

 

[Blockcaver]

Congratulations Trevor on a very nice ram and great write-up on the hunt. Well done!

 

[Decker9]

That was a great morning read! Heck of a hunt and a fine ram!! Thank you for sharing and congratulations!!

 

[Sakohunter264]

Just superb. Thanks for sharing.

 

[BC Alpine Hunter]

Thanks for taking the time to post up a great story with some beauty pics. Congrats on a great ram. I bet your buddy wants to move to BC now!

 

[dru88]

Thanks for sharing that was a great write up.

 

[ClunesAdventures]

Thanks for taking the time to share that story here! It's what dreams are made of.