"I am not sure I'm cut out for this"--Becca's 2012 Dall Sheep Hunt

[Rowdy]

Beautiful mount, mind telling us who does the work? I've got a sheep that I'm hoping to take up to Wasilla to have done at Woodland Taxidermy.

 

[frans]

Congratulations on a great adventure and a great ram!

Do I understand you correctly that you have 100 lbs of gear and food, for 18 days? For two people?

If so, WOW, I still have a way to go in reducing my pack weight!

Congrats again on a great hunt.

Frans

 

[weaver]

Beautiful mount..

 

[Jdog]

Our taxidermist called and surprised me this week...apparently he already finished my ram, which is way faster than I was expecting. We went and picked it up today, I could not be happier!

Got him hung up in the dining room, now we each have a ram on the wall

Becca - who did your taxidermy?

 

[CtP]

Becca - who did your taxidermy?

uh oh...

 

[CtP]

Becca, um.....yours looks a lot bigger

More like Luke's is smaller

 

[thru-hunter]

More like Luke's is smaller

What really cracks me up is that for all the time in the field Luke gets every season his "little" brother goes out about every 2-3 years and shoots something ridiculous. He has a book barren ground caribou, Top 10 all time interior griz, and most recently a stud of a broomed ram.

 

[Becca]

Congratulations on a great adventure and a great ram!

Do I understand you correctly that you have 100 lbs of gear and food, for 18 days? For two people?

If so, WOW, I still have a way to go in reducing my pack weight!

Congrats again on a great hunt.

Frans

You are correct, our flight service limited us to 50lbs of gear per person, or 100lbs for the two of us for the 18 days we planned to stay if we didn't tag out early (which we did). I spent a lot of time paring down particularly our food weight, and this meant making some sacrifices in terms of what we prefer to eat in the field. For example we like adding Costco dried fruit and nuts to our oatmeal for flavor and calories, but 36 packages weighed in at something like 5 lbs. Instead we brought packets of peanut butter, which added a similar number of calories for a fraction of the weight, but the downside is it gave our breakfast the texture of glue i also left out some of the extras we usually have along like instant potatoes.

The 50 lbs per person limit didn't include our rifles, or things we carried on our bodies like our bino pouches. We also wore all our clothing, including puffy coats and pants and raingear for the flight.

 

[Becca]

Becca - who did your taxidermy?

I have been trying to get around this question, but I guess it's only fair that I give some sort of explanation. Our taxidermist is a friend of the family, and is semi retired. Taking him our animals is a lot of fun because he is usually almost as excited about our trophies as we are! I hesitate to give out his name, as I am not certain he wants to take on a commercial volume of projects at this point in his life. He does incredible work for sure, and I feel honored that he is willing to preserve our memories for us....

 

[Nick Muche]

That is a beautiful mount!

 

[frans]

Becca, thanks for providing the details, things make a little more sense to me now.

Peanut butter in my oatmeal... guess not!

Frans

 

[luke moffat]

Becca, thanks for providing the details, things make a little more sense to me now.

Peanut butter in my oatmeal... guess not!

Frans

Hey now, don't dog it till ya tried it....ok it wasn't ideal, but it helped us "make weight".

 

[Ryan Avery]

Talked to Becca. She told me the story on Luke's sheep. Luke wanted Becca to be their when he shot his sheep, bit of a time crunch. You have to give him props for that!

 

[Travis Bertrand]

Talked to Becca. She told me the story on Luke's sheep. Luke wanted Becca to be their when he shot his sheep, bit of a time crunch. You have to give him props for that!

Big props! Better man than me!

 

[fillthefreezer]

Talked to Becca. She told me the story on Luke's sheep. Luke wanted Becca to be their when he shot his sheep, bit of a time crunch. You have to give him props for that!

i saw her with that moose quarter, id want her along too...

 

[chippewawarrior]

Becca, do you have a printable gear list?

 

[Duk Dog]

Congrats, enjoyed your write up and pics. There is just something special about time spent in sheep country. Those Super Cubs are quite the adventure all on their own too.

 

[Goober]

That is awesome! I don't think I have to point this out to the 2 of you, but it sure is great to share moments like this with your significant other. My wife and I enjoy hunting together, and she loves our wilderness trips into the Boundary Waters in the canoe, but I haven't been able to convince her to do a wilderness hunt yet. Much to my suprise, she asked me last week if I thought she could "handle" an elk hunt! I am going to show her this thread tomorrow! Becca, I am sure you will inspire her, and thank you for taking the time to write this up. Awesome pictures too, what are you using for a camera that takes such colorful pics but is still packable?

 

[Mckinnon]

Mount looks great Becca. I love how the 2 rams face each other, almost like they are getting ready to fight!

 

[frans]

Hey now, don't dog it till ya tried it....ok it wasn't ideal, but it helped us "make weight".

I recently tried dehydrated yams in my oatmeal (boil and mash yams, add some cinnamon and ginger, dry in dehydrator). Not bad at all. Extra calories, not much weight!

Frans