My 2024 Sheep Hunts

[CHL]

Beautiful, mature ram. Congrats man!

 

[Andrew11]

Well this ram was the most painful, hardest hunt I could physically do I believe but also the most rewarding! 3/4 slam ram!

Congrats on a beautiful ram!! Looks like you have had a few sheep hunts under your belt, so I would assume you know what your signing up for.
Curious what made this hunt stand out as far as hardest, most physically and painful out of them all.

 

[aoudad]

Congrats on a beautiful ram!! Looks like you have had a few sheep hunts under your belt, so I would assume you know what your signing up for.
Curious what made this hunt stand out as far as hardest, most physically and painful out of them all.

Thanks! I fell a couple times. Also my right knee tendons flared up big time side hill and going downhill. Good now and have to figure something out on my dall sheep next summer. That pain sucks haha

 

[Andrew11]

That makes since. So discouraging when that stuff happens.

 

[aoudad]

Wyoming recap- As I said I got a call earlier in the year from WY game and fish that I had won the sheep super tag. I couldn’t believe it as this ram I knew would be the hardest to draw. As soon as I hung up I called my outfitter in UT that guided me on my desert ram. He gave me 2 numbers and couldn’t tell me which one to pick. So I txt both at the same time and Josh happened to answer first so I went with Shoshone Lodge Outfitters. I was already preparing for my stone sheep hunt so I really didn’t have anything extra that I needed that I hadn’t already bought for my stone hunt. All I did was workout and did a lot of shooting all summer. End of August came around and it was go time. Met up with Josh the day before we packed in and shot out to 550 yards and was on. Friday we drove to the trailhead and got all the horses and gear loaded and made the 6 hour ride in. I hadn’t rode a horse in 20 years but it wasn’t horrible haha. That night we set up camp and got ready to scout the next morning. Saturday we loaded up the spotters and took a couple horses up to glass all day. Found a band of 10 rams and two very nice ones which one was a ram I killed. Josh rode several other places and didn’t turn anything up better than what we had found. So back to camp that night, ate Peak dinner and rested up. Sunday was the opening morning and we did the same thing, loaded up and rode to the glassing spot and found the rams again at about 2000 yds across the range from us. Josh went to check one more spot real quick then came back and met back up and planned a move. We horseback rode down and back up the other mountain and got to the edge of the treeline where we tied the horses….. which the rams saw us and starting moving up the mountain slowly. It was cat and mouse for the next several hours, got set up once on them at 400 yds bedded. And of course, when my ram stood up he took 3 steps out of a clear shot. The final push they worked into the cliffs in the back of the bowl basin, where we made a last push and got to 470 yards, we dropped down, ranged, got my dope from my kestrel, confirmed my ram was the furthest left sheep and I let one rip. Hit him mid body quartering to, so I reloaded and dumped him square in the chest. Was the furthest shot I’ve taken on an animal and glad he died pretty quick. Was an awesome hunt and couldn’t have asked for anything else. We fried up the rocky mountain oysters in crumpled ranch Doritos in oil over the camp fire that night and celebrated a little!

 

[twdjr]

Awesome and Congrats!

 

[aoudad]

Stone Sheep……



After my desert sheep hunt last Sept, I got the bug bad…. Already had my dall sheep hunt booked in 2025 and knew if I ever wanted to get my FNAWS, I’d need a stone. (and Rocky at the time) Epic Outdoors led me to my outfitter in British Columbia and I originally booked it for 2025 as well. Was gonna do it and the dall back to back with a few days travel in between. Talking with my wife we agreed that would be a lot of time gone from the family and possibly too much logistically for myself. So I was lucky and was able to move my stone to the last two weeks of the season. Outfitter said even at the end of the season I wasn’t getting a bad hunt as the weather generally pushes bigger rams down. So a date was set and I started gearing up and working out as much as possible.



After killing my Rocky in WY, I was back in TX for a couple weeks before I hit the 4 day road trip north. Arrived at my outfitter on Friday and met my guide and we went over all my gear and planned for a backpack hunt, no horses. The next morning we had a great breakfast and loaded up in the pickup with a quad and set out. We had about an hour drive to our drop off location, then we had about another hour ride on the quad to where we would be packing in. As soon as we got dropped off and loaded the quad, my guide got a sat message that a guide looking for goats for another hunter in a couple days had spotted a legal ram in a range we were closer to. So we turned around and had about 5 min ride back across a river to where we parked at the trail head.



We loaded up our packs and began the 5 mile hike to camp where we planned to drop off our gear and try to get on the ram before dark. After a couple hours of bushwacking up the right side of the creek, and getting my butt whooped we were finally able to cross the creek, fill water bottles and hit a sheep trail on the left side the rest of the way to camp. After a regroup, lunch, we met the other guide and headed in to where they had last seen the ram about 2.5 miles from camp. There was a good hour walk on a caribou trail through head high willows then straight up a creek to a high point we could glass from. They spotted the ram at about 1000 yards and no real good way to get to him

 

[aoudad]

before dark, so we backed out back to camp 2.5 miles in the dark. Being from TX and not able to train in those conditions I was questioning what I got myself into and hoping I would be able to walk in the morning. Ate a quick Peak meal, and set up my tent and camp pretty quick and hit the sleeping bag. I don’t think I moved till it was just starting to get light the next morning.



Sunday the goat guides left early back to the outfitter as they were bringing in a goat hunter the next day. My guide and I had breakfast and geared up and after seeing the video of the ram I was excited to get on him. We started the 2.5 mile hike back up and located the ram around 1500 yards. We made two 500 yard moves down and around high points and after crossing a boulder patch and side climbing up several drainages we got to the last patch of bush trees and I started to get my rifle ready. My guide low crawled up about 20 yards and spotted the rams 475 yards away. I had a difficult rifle set up having to stand our packs upright to get over the willow/bushes for a clear shot. I entered my kestrel data and before he moved out of a clear shot I sent my first round. Miss! I couldn’t believe it. The ram started working closer and I repositioned and we re ranged him. Miss again. Now I was getting nervous and also wondering if a fall or bushwacking I did something to my rifle. At this point we moved up about 20-30 yards and repositioned as the ram was still working closer. We re ranged him at 350 and I re ran my dope. Next shot connected and he went down. I reloaded and put another one in his chest and that one made sure he wasn’t going anywhere.



Walking up to the ram I couldn’t believe all this worked out the way it did. I was very fortunate to get a 12 year old ram on the second day. We caped and quartered the ram, loaded packs and got back to camp before dark. Pressure was off and enjoyed a great campfire and a hot Peak and coffee. Next morning had the 5 mile hike out and the outfitter sent a 3rd wrangler in to help me and my guide pack out the ram and camp which ended up being awesome as my right knee going downhill flared up big time. Kept pushing and after a few hours we finally made it off the mountain.

Sheep hunting is awesome and I cant wait for my dall sheep hunt next year!!

 

[duckcarver]

Quite a season for you! Congratulations.

 

[Ibex]

Enjoyed the writeup and great ending to a heck of a sheep hunting year.

 

[43.6N]

I came across your thread by accident, and I have to say wow! Great write up, and stellar rams!

Were you ever able to find out why you missed those first shots?

 

[aoudad]

I came across your thread by accident, and I have to say wow! Great write up, and stellar rams!

Were you ever able to find out why you missed those first shots?

thanks! I think it was a combination of poor shooting position, being tired/cold, and excitement. Lot was going on all at once....