Favorite Sheep Caliber

[Bowfinatic]

100 grain expandable worked for me a couple times

 

[buckpro]

264 win mag would be my vote

 

[DavidAr]

7 saum

 

[Der Schwabe]

In the late '70s I built a .257 Ackley for deer and pronghorn antelope hunting. It is a Mauser Mark X barreled action that I put into a Fajen fancy walnut stock, and topped it with a Leupold 6x scope.

I've used it for most of the deer and antelope that I've shot in the last 40+ years, along with 3 Bighorn rams that I shot in the '80s on DIY hunts in Montana's Unlimited Sheep Tag units, and for a Northwest Territories Dall ram in 1999. Most of the deer and antelope that I've shot with that rifle, all of my sheep, my Mountain Caribou, and my second biggest 6x6 bull elk were one shot kills with 117 grain Sierra GameKing bullets. My longest shot on any of those animals was 206 yards on the Dall ram.

I have to confess, my interest is piqued on the sheep hunts. Those pictures are like the ones I saw in Outdoor Life back in the '70s. How much did your rifle weigh? How about your backpack in the unlimited units? I would love some detail on the hunts.

 

[buffybr]

That rifle weighs right at 10 lbs with sling and 3 cartridges. I still use it for deer and antelope.

I used my 2 horses to pack in my camps on those Unlimited hunts when I shot those sheep. My day packs from camp were probably less than 20 lbs. On two of those Unlimited hunts it was just me, my Golden Retreiver and my 2 horses. On the hunt where I shot the second ram pictured, a friend went into camp with me, but he stayed in camp the day that I went up the mountan and shot that ram.

He had heard my shot and when I got back to camp that afternoon, the first thing he asked my was if I had brought out the backstraps. I hadn't, and the next day I was able to get my horses right to my ram. We feasted on ram backstraps that night.

On the Dall sheep hunt I had a guide and we were flown from the base camp to a mountain top in the area where we hunted. We split the camp weight between us, each carying maybe 50 lb packs down that mountain, then up to the head of that drainage where we set up our camp.

I shot my ram the next day on the back side of the mountain above our spike camp. Our day packs were pretty light on the hunt, then we completely boned out my ram and carried that meat back to our spike camp that day.

Going back to our Super Cub pick up point the next day, our packs were pretty heavy with our camp and my ram. Along with his pack, my guide also had like a gym bag that he carried some of the meat in.

On our way down the valley to our take our point, we encountered a wolverine that I had a tag for and shot.

 

[Der Schwabe]

Thanks for the story. It looks like the Mark X had a new synthetic stock by the time you went on the Dall's hunt and shot the wolverine.

 

[ianpadron]

In the late '70s I built a .257 Ackley for deer and pronghorn antelope hunting. It is a Mauser Mark X barreled action that I put into a Fajen fancy walnut stock, and topped it with a Leupold 6x scope.

I've used it for most of the deer and antelope that I've shot in the last 40+ years, along with 3 Bighorn rams that I shot in the '80s on DIY hunts in Montana's Unlimited Sheep Tag units, and for a Northwest Territories Dall ram in 1999. Most of the deer and antelope that I've shot with that rifle, all of my sheep, my Mountain Caribou, and my second biggest 6x6 bull elk were one shot kills with 117 grain Sierra GameKing bullets. My longest shot on any of those animals was 206 yards on the Dall ram.

Those are some of the most badass photos I've ever seen, absolutely incredible.

Bonus points for the Golden tagging along, I take mine everywhere too