Dalton's first sheep hunt in DCUA

[AK Troutbum]

Day 6 (Aug 12), we awoke to some pretty fierce winds and rain, so we decided to stay put until things calmed down a little. Well, as it turned out, things didn’t calm down so we used this day as a recovery/down day and spent it in the shelter reading, drinking hot drinks, picking blueberries from inside the shelter (just one more benefit of a floorless shelter), and napping.

Day 7 (Aug 13) we awoke to a pretty decent day with partly cloudy skies and minimal wind, so we decided to head back into the drainage and see if we could find that double broomer again.
We had made it about 2 miles or so and had saw several sub illegal rams, ewes, and lambs both on our side of the creek and the opposite side, when we came across what appeared to be a fairly decent ram. We initially spotted him from close to a mile away and couldn’t tell whether or not he was legal so we decided to try and put somewhat of a stalk on him to get a better look. At 250 yards we had good concealment, the wind in our face, and we were slightly above him so I decided to try and do some digiscoping.

After watching him for close to an hour and still not being able to determine 100% whether or not he was legal, we decided to pack up, loop around over the top of him, and come down from above for a little closer inspection. Well, by the time we had moved around into a different/better position, he give us the slip. We looked high and low for this ram and I still cannot figure out how in the hell he got away from us but we never did see him again. Dalton was pretty bummed but I tried to explain to him that since we were as close as 250 yards and weren’t able to make him legal, he probably wasn’t, so it was no big loss. We decided to continue on up the drainage and see if we could find that double broomer. Well, as luck would have it for us, we found him but, as luck would have it for him, he was perched well above us, at about 6000’ elevation and over 700 yards away. There was absolutely no way of making a stalk on him, and if we were able to get within shooting range, the fall he would take from his perch would most definitely turn him into hamburger by the time it was all said and done. So, onward and upward we continued.

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[AK Troutbum]

(Aug 13 continued) As we were pressing on further back into the drainage, Dalton tells me to stop, as he has another sheep spotted. Most of the sheep that we spotted from a distance, Dalton saw them first. Man, what I would give to have young eyes again. We immediately put the scope on it and quickly determined that not only was it a ram but it was legal, with a full curl on the left and what appeared to be broomed on the right. The ram was close to 1000 yards away from us and well above us, so we quickly scrambled up the side of the mountain to try and get closer and in a little better position. We got to within 630 yards, 583 yards with the angle compensation, and seeing that the ram was starting to get nervous and our hunt kind of being in the 11th hour, I gave Dalton the go-ahead at a poke. This was all done against my better judgment since I’m not a big fan of long range hunting and the farthest Dalton had shot the rifle at the range was 300 yards. There really wasn’t much, if any kind, of a breeze so we had that going for us and I have a Leopold scope with the CDS elevation turret. I had him turn the turret up to 600 yards, got him all settled in with his pack on top of a rock for a rest, set up the spotter to film it, and gave him the go ahead. The ram was giving him a perfect broadside view, and his first shot was right on the money but about a foot high above the vitals/back. The ram jumped and took a few steps then stopped and continued to look at us. I told Dalton to turn his scope down to 580, and go again. The next shot was still in line with the vitals but even higher than the first and the rams response was pretty much the same. I told him to chamber another round and aim even lower. His third shot was still high, but this time it was right above the neck and off by about 2 or 3 inches. That third shot sent the ram a little further up the side of the mountain and probably another 20 yards or so further away before he stopped to look at us again. Dalton chambered another round, settled in, and squeezed the trigger. The ram collapsed like someone had pulled all four legs out from underneath him and tumbled down the side of the mountain about 10 yards or so. After the typical father/son celeration with multiple high-fives, hugs, and thank you’s, we packed up and headed up.

Turns out the luck of the Irish was once again with the little guy. Although the shot didn’t go where it was intended to, the results were the same, as he hit the ram right between the eyes at the bridge of his nose. I have mixed feelings regarding this whole kill because as a father I want to be teaching my son about safe and ethical hunting, first and foremost. Allowing him to take the shots that were obviously beyond his capability, I feel was a bad decision on my part, but on the other hand, I’m glad that he was able to harvest a ram and feel very fortunate that it happened the way it did. We ended up discussing this quite a bit, several days later, on our 6 hour drive back home. After capping and breaking the ram down in a steady downpour of rain mixed with sleet and snow, we loaded up and headed the 4+ miles back to our spike camp. The following day, August 14, was spent hauling the entire sheep and a little of our spike camp back down towards our base camp, dropping it off at a random location, then hiking back up to spike camp before it got dark. We did it this way because we knew there would be no way of hauling everything in one load all the way to base camp in one day (approximately 14 miles), and there were very few places to pitch our spike shelter between where we were and our base camp. On Aug 15 we got up, broke down spike camp, and headed back to base camp. Once we had made it back to base camp, we dumped everything and turned around to go back for the sheep that we had cached about 4 miles away. After collecting the sheep we turned around and hiked back to the glacial creek for our 4th, and final, crossing. It was late in the day, we had been hiking for over 12 hours, with very few rest periods, and I was absolutely beat. I got in the raft and started heading across. As I was just about to reach the opposite side, I bumped up against the side of a rock, threw my foot over the side of the raft to try and correct myself, and ended up flipping the raft over on top of me. I wish Luke would’ve told me that he lent me a faulty raft! First off I want to say, if you have never gone swimming in glacial water let me be the first to tell you that, IT IS COLD! Anyway, I was able to get out of the water, not lose anything, and proceeded with the routine of lining the raft back and forth with the rest of our gear.

We were still a little over 2 miles away from base camp and although I was able to warm up a bit on the hike back, I was still soaking wet by the time we arrived and started getting a little hypothermic. I stripped down, threw on some dry thermals and puffy gear, and crawled into a sleeping bag. while I was doing this Dalton went ahead and gathered up some dry wood and got a fire going. After about 30 minutes I emerged from the tent to the wonderful site of skewered sheep tenderloin on the open fire.

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[Thunder head]

Congrats to you both,
I hope he has some kind of idea how lucky he is!

 

[AK Troutbum]

Day 10 (Aug 16) and a quick call to Gary to let us know that he would be able to pick us up later that evening. We spent the day drying out gear and getting things packed up. At 5:30 that evening Gary made his last flight in to get me and the little bit if gear that was left, and we headed back to town.

Well that’s all I got and I apologize for the story taking so long to complete. I hope you guys enjoyed it and hope everyone has a safe and fruitful hunting season.


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[Mtslackcountry]

Awesome trip. Glad he dropped that ram!

 

[Lead Drifter]

What a great adventure / story that you guy's will enjoy for years to come , well written and can't wait to see that Ram on the Wall

 

[DAOutfitters208]

Great story, well worth the wait! Congrats to your son!

 

[HUNT]

Great write-up and congrats to both of you on an adventure I'm sure neither of you will ever forget!

 

[HankBC]

AWESOME! Congratulations to the both of you, that’s a great story and even better memories made. Glad you made it out of the creek alright and it’s something to laugh about now. That’s also an excellent site to see upon exiting a tent, great kid!


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[CTobias]

Awesome write up, pictures, and story!!! I can't wait until my boys are old enough to get in the mountains. They are always asking me to go.

 

[Shepherd]

Great hunt and write up. Your son is so fortunate in many ways.

Thanks for sharing your story and photos.

 

[realunlucky]

Loved your story telling what an great adventure for a father son hunt. Congratulations on the life time memories

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[El Gavilan]

Great hunt and memories that will last forever. I’m going off 20 year old memory here but that super cub and N number with that paint job, could be the same plane stationed at Kodiak NWR until we traded it out for a scout in 96 or 97. I’ve flown in it several times on Kodiak for work projects.


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[AK Troutbum]

I can't wait until my boys are old enough to get in the mountains. They are always asking me to go.

I hear ya. I have a 10 year old daughter that has been on my case to take her on a hunt now for the last year, and this was just more fuel for the fire.


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[AK Troutbum]

Great hunt and memories that will last forever. I’m going off 20 year old memory here but that super cub and N number with that paint job, could be the same plane stationed at Kodiak NWR until we traded it out for a scout in 96 or 97. I’ve flown in it several times on Kodiak for work projects.


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Could be but I don’t know. That’s Gary’s newest plane that he bought and brought up from the lower 48 (I think he said Washington state), a couple years ago. He also did a complete overhaul/rebuild on it, including new skin. Seems like most small planes up here start with N in their tail number.


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[michihunt]

Great story and write up! Congrats to you and your son!

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[El Gavilan]

Could be but I don’t know. That’s Gary’s newest plane that he bought and brought up from the lower 48 (I think he said Washington state), a couple years ago. He also did a complete overhaul/rebuild on it, including new skin. Seems like most small planes up here start with N in their tail number.


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Yeah, that's why they call it the N number, that particular number seems to be the Kodiak cub, at least from my memory! It was painted very much like that as well.

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[Jimbob]

Great story. Well done to the both of you.

 

[sniper61]

Thank you for sharing that with us. I would like to buy you a beer the next time you are in Pa.

 

[Trial153]

Super, congrats !