- Thread Starter
- #21
OP
Matt W.
WKR
This year the quest was fulfilled. Already in prep mode for 2014. : )
My Quest for a Dall Ram...
- Thread starter Matt W.
- Start date
This year the quest was fulfilled. Already in prep mode for 2014. : )
Maah Daah Hey
Lil-Rokslider
Congratulations! A sheep is my dream and maybe someday I will get to do exactly what you did.
Ridgerunner
WKR
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2012
- Messages
- 456
Awesome ram! What a feeling it is when you take an animal that the pursuit means so much to you, congrats!
Tag stew
Lil-Rokslider
HC, congrats! Can't wait to read your story!
Manosteel
WKR
Congrats, nothing beats the feeling of accomplishing your personal goals!
- Thread Starter
- #29
OP
Matt W.
WKR
A gift from above...
2013… Is this really the 5th sheep hunt I have gone on? Is this finally the year? Thoughts were churning through my head as the truck left the lights of Anchorage behind us. I looked at my hunting partner and smiled. An accomplished outdoorsman with AK moose, caribou, and bear to his resume, it was 4 years ago that I hooked him on the pursuit of these crazy white critters that have danced through my dreams for almost 3 decades now. Many hunting partners have systems and debates over who shoots first and the process of deciding that. Not this guy; “It is your dream and you drug me into it. Once you get yours we will worry about mine.” What more can a guy ask for? As we began our 3rd trip chasing Dall Rams I prayed we’d be able to double up and perhaps even come home a day or two early to have some extra time with the kids before school started.
We got to the trailhead late that night. Right off the bat we were worried. There were too many vehicles, even though we were two nights away from opening day. It was a major trail that had 2 or 3 key directions folks could branch out from. With the hope that our chosen route was not taken we started out early the next day and arrived at our chosen location to find solid evidence that at least 6, possibly more, were ahead of us. We backtracked and chose a different drainage, one we had never researched or thought of before. Relying on the compass and GPS we headed straight up climbing over 3500 vertical feet before ascending to our first camp. It was not as deep as we had hoped to be but backtracking and movement in unknown terrain had slowed us up. We were beat and fighting dehydration. (It was unseasonably hot and dry.) We crashed, slept through our alarm and woke up opening morning to more light that there should have been shining through the tent.
Frustrated that all our plans were pretty much in the scrap pile I slipped out of the tent for the morning relief. Out of the corner of my eye three white specks caught my attention. A quick glance through my ever present 12x binos resulted in a hoarse whisper to my buddy, “sheep! 3 of them, and they are all RAMS!” We quickly dressed grabbed optics and rifles and spent the next 3-4 hours observing the rams and moving into position.
It was almost noon, we were as close as we could get and at 350 yards, directly across a ravine from the rams, we finally saw the confirmation we needed. One is real close, one is FULL CURL, and one has a few years to even be worth a view. Within moments my rifle was pointing the needed direction.
The ram bedded, facing my left and slightly offset. At 350 yards I was a bit hesitant to shoot, but with a cliff in front of him, above him, and below him I knew that change in the wind or a false move on our part and he would be gone. I was laying prone, with a solid rest so I took my time, placing the 2nd hash mark of the Boone & Crockett reticule of my Leopold VX-3 2.5-8x36mm scope slightly above his shoulder. A second later the 225gr Nosler Accubond was heading downrange.
At the shot the rams jumped, two ran high and right and mine ran pretty much directly to the right. I threw a few more rounds after him and he finally started the famous dead Ram Roll. As he rolled out of sight we listened for the dreaded crash in the creek bottom a few hundred feet below him. With no resulting crash we had high hopes he was hung up somewhere above. I was jacked, shaking with adrenalin and disbelief. RAM DOWN! It’s hardly noon, its opening day, we are in the wrong drainage, all our plans were for naught and yet, RAM DOWN, RAM DOWN! Whoo Hoo!
My hunting partner just shook his head at me as he clapped me on the back and offered his congratulations. Starving we hiked back to the tent, grabbed some late breakfast, hoisted our packs (mine is an ICON 7200, his a CB Kifaru T1) and went off to find this ram.
We hiked up above the shot, dropped down into the creek bottom, did a bit of rock climbing and were finally on the other side. After a few worried moments of wandering, there he was, safely lying in a grassy section 15 yards above the cliff edge! As I approached the ram I was overwhelmed with emotion. It was pretty amazing to have finally succeeded! What a marvel of creation he was and I felt blessed as I grasped his horns and got out the camera.
My first shot hit him a bit high in the ribs and passed through without doing vital damage. Shooting at a running critter, more so a MUCH anticipated, full curl Dall Ram, was a bit affected by a bad case of “Ram Fever” but the ram did go down and shots did the job.
We dressed him, loaded the packs up and went back to camp.
The day was getting hot fast! We were worried about the meat and built a meat rack of sorts on a pile of glacier rubble. The next day we packed up camp and the ram, and hiked to a different creek. The creek bed was safely wide enough so that even with the high cliff sides we felt safe from any flash floods. We built a meat rack and hoped that the creek bottom would stay cool enough.
Leaving the ram, meat horns and all, we hiked a few miles up a parallel drainage and established camp two. We covered a decent amount of ground over the next few days but were plagued with unseasonably warm spell (highs reached well into the 70s) and with no snow at 7000 feet we were forced to always retreat to base camp for water. When smoke from forest fires to the north started rolling in we finally had to retreat.
The combination of hot weather and poor visibility was forcing us to bail out 3-4 days sooner than we hoped. Despite a stalk on an additional ram, we could never get a final look at him, we were going home with one ram, not two. Still, one ram was WAY better than no ram and we felt blessed to have spent time in God’s playground and come out both safely and with a ram. Next year it is my hunting partner’s turn. Hopefully we can get him one of these white critters. Our new found drainage opened our eyes to a whole new area and we left amazed at the folly of man’s plans and the grace of God to help us put all of the pieces together into a successful trip, despite us.
2013… Is this really the 5th sheep hunt I have gone on? Is this finally the year? Thoughts were churning through my head as the truck left the lights of Anchorage behind us. I looked at my hunting partner and smiled. An accomplished outdoorsman with AK moose, caribou, and bear to his resume, it was 4 years ago that I hooked him on the pursuit of these crazy white critters that have danced through my dreams for almost 3 decades now. Many hunting partners have systems and debates over who shoots first and the process of deciding that. Not this guy; “It is your dream and you drug me into it. Once you get yours we will worry about mine.” What more can a guy ask for? As we began our 3rd trip chasing Dall Rams I prayed we’d be able to double up and perhaps even come home a day or two early to have some extra time with the kids before school started.
We got to the trailhead late that night. Right off the bat we were worried. There were too many vehicles, even though we were two nights away from opening day. It was a major trail that had 2 or 3 key directions folks could branch out from. With the hope that our chosen route was not taken we started out early the next day and arrived at our chosen location to find solid evidence that at least 6, possibly more, were ahead of us. We backtracked and chose a different drainage, one we had never researched or thought of before. Relying on the compass and GPS we headed straight up climbing over 3500 vertical feet before ascending to our first camp. It was not as deep as we had hoped to be but backtracking and movement in unknown terrain had slowed us up. We were beat and fighting dehydration. (It was unseasonably hot and dry.) We crashed, slept through our alarm and woke up opening morning to more light that there should have been shining through the tent.
Frustrated that all our plans were pretty much in the scrap pile I slipped out of the tent for the morning relief. Out of the corner of my eye three white specks caught my attention. A quick glance through my ever present 12x binos resulted in a hoarse whisper to my buddy, “sheep! 3 of them, and they are all RAMS!” We quickly dressed grabbed optics and rifles and spent the next 3-4 hours observing the rams and moving into position.
It was almost noon, we were as close as we could get and at 350 yards, directly across a ravine from the rams, we finally saw the confirmation we needed. One is real close, one is FULL CURL, and one has a few years to even be worth a view. Within moments my rifle was pointing the needed direction.
The ram bedded, facing my left and slightly offset. At 350 yards I was a bit hesitant to shoot, but with a cliff in front of him, above him, and below him I knew that change in the wind or a false move on our part and he would be gone. I was laying prone, with a solid rest so I took my time, placing the 2nd hash mark of the Boone & Crockett reticule of my Leopold VX-3 2.5-8x36mm scope slightly above his shoulder. A second later the 225gr Nosler Accubond was heading downrange.
At the shot the rams jumped, two ran high and right and mine ran pretty much directly to the right. I threw a few more rounds after him and he finally started the famous dead Ram Roll. As he rolled out of sight we listened for the dreaded crash in the creek bottom a few hundred feet below him. With no resulting crash we had high hopes he was hung up somewhere above. I was jacked, shaking with adrenalin and disbelief. RAM DOWN! It’s hardly noon, its opening day, we are in the wrong drainage, all our plans were for naught and yet, RAM DOWN, RAM DOWN! Whoo Hoo!
My hunting partner just shook his head at me as he clapped me on the back and offered his congratulations. Starving we hiked back to the tent, grabbed some late breakfast, hoisted our packs (mine is an ICON 7200, his a CB Kifaru T1) and went off to find this ram.
We hiked up above the shot, dropped down into the creek bottom, did a bit of rock climbing and were finally on the other side. After a few worried moments of wandering, there he was, safely lying in a grassy section 15 yards above the cliff edge! As I approached the ram I was overwhelmed with emotion. It was pretty amazing to have finally succeeded! What a marvel of creation he was and I felt blessed as I grasped his horns and got out the camera.
My first shot hit him a bit high in the ribs and passed through without doing vital damage. Shooting at a running critter, more so a MUCH anticipated, full curl Dall Ram, was a bit affected by a bad case of “Ram Fever” but the ram did go down and shots did the job.
We dressed him, loaded the packs up and went back to camp.
The day was getting hot fast! We were worried about the meat and built a meat rack of sorts on a pile of glacier rubble. The next day we packed up camp and the ram, and hiked to a different creek. The creek bed was safely wide enough so that even with the high cliff sides we felt safe from any flash floods. We built a meat rack and hoped that the creek bottom would stay cool enough.
Leaving the ram, meat horns and all, we hiked a few miles up a parallel drainage and established camp two. We covered a decent amount of ground over the next few days but were plagued with unseasonably warm spell (highs reached well into the 70s) and with no snow at 7000 feet we were forced to always retreat to base camp for water. When smoke from forest fires to the north started rolling in we finally had to retreat.
The combination of hot weather and poor visibility was forcing us to bail out 3-4 days sooner than we hoped. Despite a stalk on an additional ram, we could never get a final look at him, we were going home with one ram, not two. Still, one ram was WAY better than no ram and we felt blessed to have spent time in God’s playground and come out both safely and with a ram. Next year it is my hunting partner’s turn. Hopefully we can get him one of these white critters. Our new found drainage opened our eyes to a whole new area and we left amazed at the folly of man’s plans and the grace of God to help us put all of the pieces together into a successful trip, despite us.
Last edited:
Congratulations! That was a great story and an awesome ram! Thanks for sharing.
Proverbs 16:9
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
Way to go.
Amen!
Jon Boy
WKR
It doesnt get any better than that High Country. It was a long time coming for you and you earned it no doubt. Post up some more pics of that Ram.
arffdog875
Lil-Rokslider
Congrats on an incredible adventure and a great Ram! Thanks for sharing!
- Thread Starter
- #38
OP
Matt W.
WKR
Your pretty good! It was right at 12 for the bases and 34". Biologist says it was 8 year's old.
- Thread Starter
- #39
OP
Matt W.
WKR
Updated story with pics. Let me know if they work. : )
Last edited:
- Thread Starter
- #40
OP
Matt W.
WKR
He came home this weekend....
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