New guy from British Columbia

[Displaced Nova Scotian]

Hello everyone,
I've decided it was time to sign up on here so I could talk a bit with ya'll. I've been hunting big game for two season thus far however, I've been hunting for over 14 years; I've started out tough, completing my first sheep hunt just a week ago. I've decided that while I'm young it's time to get the sheep hunting underway, so I expect I'll be posting questions to some of the dedicated sheep hunters on here.

I live on the far west coast of British Columbia, where it rains for months in the spring and fall but the summers are perfect. If you live close by let me know, it'd be good to meet up with other dedicated hunters here.

Cheers for now.

 

[muleman]

Welcome to Rokslide.

 

[realunlucky]

Welcome

 

[Buster]

Fellow British Columbian here, but I'm a long ways east of you in the East Kootenays. Tonnes of info on here. Where was you sheep hunt? How did you do?

 

[RedStag]

Hey, Im SPEAR on huntingbc, how did your sheep hunt go? Love tp hear the story, you've found a good community with rokslide.

 

[Manosteel]

Welcome, we got a few sheep nutz here, you'll enjoy it!

 

[ol490]

Welcome aboard. It's good to have another sheep hunter on the forum.

 

[Muledeernv]

Welcome to rokslide glad to have you here

 

[bikerdavet]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Screamrider]

Welcome. I spent a number of years on Vancouver Island, great place. Are you on the mainland?

 

[Displaced Nova Scotian]

Fellow British Columbian here, but I'm a long ways east of you in the East Kootenays. Tonnes of info on here. Where was you sheep hunt? How did you do?

Hey, Im SPEAR on huntingbc, how did your sheep hunt go? Love tp hear the story, you've found a good community with rokslide.

n

Hello guys, thanks for the warm welcome and good to hear from some of the BC boys as well!

Hello there RedStag, I haven't written up a story as of yet; my first sheep hunt turned into a moose hunt pretty quickly due to bad weather. I was doing this hunt on a one week turn around from work, so time was limited; I flew up to Fort Nelson and had base camp set up Saturday afternoon and hit the mountain for an evening glass session, seeing caribou but no sheep; of course I didn't have a caribou tag, the bull we saw was a large double shovel! When my buddy and I came off the mountain we spotted a large bull moose with a cow in a clearing next to a large lake; as the light was fading fast it was difficult to confirm he was legal. We set up the spotting scope, in an effort to gather as much light as possible, and by the time it was set we were out of legal light. My buddy thought it was legal but in our confident, first day at it, attitude we figured we'd drop him in the morning, in the same spot.

Well that night some serious rain and wind kicked up and we woke to dense fog and saturated ground. Needless to say, the moose wasn't where we thought he would be. With out being able to see out of the valley we decided to quad around looking for moose sign; we found some very promising areas within a couple kilometers of our base camp and made a plan for Sunday night's hunt. That night was uneventful for myself and likewise for my buddy until last light when something in the bush scared the ducks off the pond in a dramatic hurry. Unfortunately with pitch black surroundings you have no idea what was near so we were left questioning.

Waking up Monday morning, half way through the trip, I knew I needed to get up the mountain but it was pure white half way up so back chasing moose we went. By about mid afternoon the weather had cleared enough that we could see the summit, finally!

At the top there is droppings everywhere but these are last years...my buddy has this concerned look on his face. "Their normally here by now, I don't know what is happening". Then, as we're walking along the ridge line he stops and says "can you hear that?". As I'm standing there I can hear a river flowing below us and realize it's the river we were down at yesterday, about 5 kilometers below, by trail! This thing is flowing so loud we can hear it if we're listening for it. The conclusion we come to is that the river is too high and the sheep are not crossing to get into their wintering grounds that we expected them to be.

I read this quote that said: "The year you start hunting sheep is the year your ram is born". With a double meaning I can see how this is true; I am addicted and am seriously considering moving off Vancouver Island in an effort to get closer to sheep habitat!