Manosteel
WKR
This was a hard hunt, both physically and mentally. Since my normal hunting partner moved away and my son was off to hockey camp, I recruited my long time friend and moose hunter to come out.
We packed everything on our back that we would need for 5 days and headed out on a 10 mile hike just to get to our base camp. I carried the heavier load and did all the gathering of water since our closest water source was nearly a 1000 ft below our camp in a very steep narrow valley. I wanted my buddy fresh for all the mountains we would have to traverse during the hunt.
First day and the next had us glassing. We spotted Elk, ewes and banana horns (non-legal rams). We finally got on some big rams the morning of day 3 at the break of dawn.
We were behind a big rock that was on a cliff shelf. From our eagles nest, I was able to spot 19 sheep total in the valley. 6 were shooters. As the sun came up, our wait began. I didn’t get a shot until 8 hours later.
The only opportunity I was given was when the group of 6 shooters fed back toward us. Somehow they climbed, what looked to be a sheer face wall of rock, to pop up 350 yards away on another cliff shelf across and below us. I ranged the second biggest ram at 319 yards and lit-off. He dropped immediately. Unfortunately, gravity took over and instead of staying where he was he slid off the edge of the shelf and down an elevator shaft looking cliff about a 1000 ft. All you could hear was the echo of bone hitting rock.
But I had my Ram and it’s a Cranker!
The caping and field dressing was tricky on the cliffs, and the pack out from where he lay was brutal. It took us 2 hours to get him out with the cape and all the meat. It was steep and dangerous in some spots. Then it was off to camp which was two mountains over. Next morning it was the 10 mile pack out to the truck. My pack weight 132 lbs according to scale at the truck!
This was my eagles nest
The sheer wall the rams were ambling on like it was level ground
Some handheld photos through my scope
We packed everything on our back that we would need for 5 days and headed out on a 10 mile hike just to get to our base camp. I carried the heavier load and did all the gathering of water since our closest water source was nearly a 1000 ft below our camp in a very steep narrow valley. I wanted my buddy fresh for all the mountains we would have to traverse during the hunt.
First day and the next had us glassing. We spotted Elk, ewes and banana horns (non-legal rams). We finally got on some big rams the morning of day 3 at the break of dawn.
We were behind a big rock that was on a cliff shelf. From our eagles nest, I was able to spot 19 sheep total in the valley. 6 were shooters. As the sun came up, our wait began. I didn’t get a shot until 8 hours later.
The only opportunity I was given was when the group of 6 shooters fed back toward us. Somehow they climbed, what looked to be a sheer face wall of rock, to pop up 350 yards away on another cliff shelf across and below us. I ranged the second biggest ram at 319 yards and lit-off. He dropped immediately. Unfortunately, gravity took over and instead of staying where he was he slid off the edge of the shelf and down an elevator shaft looking cliff about a 1000 ft. All you could hear was the echo of bone hitting rock.
But I had my Ram and it’s a Cranker!
The caping and field dressing was tricky on the cliffs, and the pack out from where he lay was brutal. It took us 2 hours to get him out with the cape and all the meat. It was steep and dangerous in some spots. Then it was off to camp which was two mountains over. Next morning it was the 10 mile pack out to the truck. My pack weight 132 lbs according to scale at the truck!
This was my eagles nest
The sheer wall the rams were ambling on like it was level ground
Some handheld photos through my scope
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