Hackleback
WKR
The NV hunting gods have been shining on me as of late when it comes to drawing tags. This year I was lucky enough to draw one of the new ewe desert sheep tags. Nevada has been in a drought for several years plus some sheep herds have had pneumonia outbreaks. So, sheep herds are reaching carrying capacity in some areas and NDOW does not want to move them due to the threat of spreading dieses to other herds. Through the summer, I had done several scouting trips and had seen sheep over a large area in the unit. On one trip, I had found a spring that was not on the area maps that was getting heavy use and was surrounded by relatively low hills. During this trip, sheep seemed to be standing above me on every hill top. A location to keep in my hip pocket. On other trips, I was also able to locate guzzlers and springs that had sheep activity, however all you could drive to. I suspected that these areas would be getting plenty of attention from other hunters once the season started. With the numbers of sheep I was seeing, I felt that I could make this hunt as hard (bow) or easy (30-06) as I wanted. I started shooting my bow and was planning on hunting one of the water sources or ridge top trails that I had found that was getting plenty of use. This was not to be, due to complexities in my personal life and the plan quickly turned into a day hunt.
Columbus Day weekend came and I was planning on doing a quick trail run near Lake Tahoe Saturday morning, then head out to hunt. Well, the day got away from me and soon it was midafternoon and I was still at home. I scrapped that plan and decided to just get-er-done and do a long day hunt. Tag the first decent legal animal and spend Monday with family. Not to make this too easy, I decided to pull out the Marlin 1894 FG in 41 mag. topped with an older 2.5x Leupold scope. I had used this rifle before to take a few white tailed deer with both cast and jacketed bullets. Both bullet types had worked just fine for the task so I knew it was up to the task, all I had to do is get within 100 yards of a ewe. I had been shooting this rifle off and on a bit in the past year but still wanted to sight in before hunting.
Sunday morning, I was up before the alarm and was out the door and on the road by 06:15. The drive down to the unit is almost 4 hours. I made a couple pit stops along the road from too much coffee and stopped in Hawthorne for coffee and second breakfast at the Golden Arches and to top up the gas tank. I drove the rest of the way down to the unit and stopped at an old mine just off the road and sighted in the 41 in a rock pit. A two inch to the right adjustment and I was good to go. Down the road another 3-4 miles and pulled off and up a two-track about half a mile. A bit slow going since I had taken the car to save some gas money on the 8 hour round trip drive, not much in the ground clearance department. I was able to get away from the highway and behind some low hills where the car could not be seen from the road.
I loaded up the Bison Gear day pack, with two liters of water, a few snacks and the usual equipment and headed off with shooting sticks in one hand and the lever gun in the other. I quickly decided to leave the shooting sticks and take the trekking poles instead. It was nearing noon by the time I made the short hike into the low hills where I had found plenty of sheep while scouting- it was looking quiet today. I climbed up on some ridges, started glassing and moving with a purpose to find some sheep. After several hours, I still had not seen any sheep, so I continued to work deeper into the higher, rougher country and to the unmarked spring. Late afternoon, I was at the spring, animals were using it, but not in the numbers that I had expected. While standing at the spring, I saw a lone banana-horn ram heading for the high country about ¾ mile away. A bit dejected by the number of animals I was seeing, I started to head back to the car by way of an area that was steeper, with higher ridges and I had seen sheep in before. I climbed up on one of the higher ridges and a quick survey - no sheep.
Hiked a short distance down the ridge and stopped for some snacks, water and to regroup. While sitting there, something across the canyon catches my eye. A quick look through the binos showed me of a band of sheep spread out across a wide open face. Finally into sheep, but by now the sun is starting to get low and the shadows are getting long. To keep the wind in my favor, I had to drop down the back of the ridge all the way to the bottom, circle around a large knob and up the back side of the ridge that the sheep are on, about a mile and a half with a steep decent and climb, plus I may get spotted as I cross the bottom. I make it to the bottom and I spotted the sheep while I crossed in the open as they continue to feed across the face heading into the high country. Things are not quite like they appeared from up top and I had to climb up another knob, them down into another dry wash to get to the ridge that the sheep are on. As I started the climb up the ridge, I looked up to find a small band on the next ridge over, looking down at me. Great! They are going to blow this stalk for me! Well maybe not, the ridge is between these two groups so maybe all is not lost. Up the back side trying to make good time, be quiet and not get the heart pounding too hard. The climb is longer and harder than expected (as always) but I am well behind the ridge from the first group, but in full sight of the second.
I get up on top to where I think the sheep should be, drop the pack and one trekking pole, rack a round in the chamber and head up to peek over. Peek over where I expect the sheep… nothing. I move up the ridge 100 yards and peek over again, still nothing. I move up even further to look into one of the last pockets that might hold the sheep, still nothing. Where did they go? No place else to look. I am standing there glassing and scratching trying to figure out where they went, when I see the first band way up the drainage, near the top. Not sure what happened, if they had seen or heard me come up the ridge, but they had moved out quickly to be that far away.
Back down to my pack that I had dropped to regroup. The sun is low and most everything is now in long shadows. I look back at the small band of sheep behind and above me. They have not moved at all out of the high steep rocky location and appear rather content watching me. I decide to make a stalk on them, even though they have been watching me for more than half an hour. I load everything up and head up the ridge and come to the steep headwall that the sheep are on. I climb up to about the same elevation and start side hilling towards them. It is steep with a lot of bedrock-more like mountain goat country than sheep- so I am not making all that good of time. I know that I am getting near as I continue to side hill into a small drainage that takes me out of eyesight. As I side hill out the other side, I can see the sheep, I range one at about 160 yards, but I need to be inside 100 for a good shot. I see a rock pile and know that if I can make it there I will be about 100 yards from them. I sneak to the rock pile and peek over. The ram spots me right away and stands up I toss the rifle up on a rock to see a ewe walk up broadside on a rock, when a lamb immediately joins her standing right behind her-no shot. The sheep know I am there and are getting skittish. The ewe moves up hill a bit and is separated from the lamb. I get the rifle on her and I make the slow squeeze. At the shot, the rifle bucks a bit, but I see her drop behind the rock through the scope.
A short hike over to where I think she was standing- no sheep. Maybe she was standing there.., or was it over here, or... Still no sheep. A bit of doubt starts to sneak in, what happened, did I just knock her down and she ran off? Am I looking in the right area? I make a loop below where I am certain she was standing, and in a low spot I find blood and follow it downhill to my ewe. She had rolled about 35-40 yards down a rock dry wash. She was in good shape other than breaking of the tip off one horn in the tumble. It is getting dark quickly so a snap a few poor quality pictures with my phone, stack some rocks so I can find the location again, and head back to get my pack. By the time I get back, it is dark and I need my headlamp. The moon is nowhere to be found and it is DARK. I have the realization that the hike out is going to be interesting.
I sit down, have a snack and a drink of water and called my brother to let him know of my success. Yup, out sheep hunting and I have cell service. I can also see Tonopah twinkling in the distance and the headlights streaming past on Hwy 95. Busted! I can see the red and blues of NVHP having a grand ol’ time pulling people over one after another far down below me. I pull out the knives, meat bags, get stuff organized and get to work. Cutting meat on the side of a steep hill, in the dark, by yourself takes twice as long, but I get it done and load meat, head and hide into the expandable meat bag of the pack, do an quick inventory and double check the area to make sure that I have not left anything behind. I get the pack on, a solid load for sure but not too bad-yet, and sling the rifle cross body. I am now super glad that I had taken the trekking poles as I feel the true heft of the load and look down the steep, rocky, loose, open country hill and can’t see the bottom with the headlamp. I start picking my way down with small steps. Even then, the powder dry, rocky soil does not hold and I can feel my feet wanting to come out from underneath me. A couple of times, both feet pop out at the same time and I find myself in a cloud of dust sitting on some not-so-comfortable rock. Making it out of the steep stuff feels like it takes forever, but soon the ground is not so steep and I soon find myself making good time in a dry wash. The moon is still not up and it is pitch dark. I pull out the GPS and get a general bearing distance to the car. The GPS says 1.7 miles, but I know it will be farther than that since I have to take a big S-shaped course to stay in the wash and the easy(er) walking. Off I go down the wash and checking the GPS every once in a while to make sure I am headed in the right general direction. About half way to the car I drink the last of the water, why pack it out, put my head down and push on to the car. Soon the reflection of the license plate can be seen in the glow of the headlamp and I am back.
I drop the pack at the car, get a drink and a snack and load the meat and hide into the 100 qt cooler in the back seat. Everything else goes in the trunk and off I head for the house. Back to pavement at 10:40. Make good time home, with a few stops to stretch and shake some of the fog out of the head. One last stop in Fallon for some coffee and the final push for the house. Walk in the door at 02:15, pack the meat and hide in the fridge, unload the guns and a few totes of gear, a quick shower and to bed just before 3:00.
The 41 mag load I used is a 250 Gr. Cast Performance hard cast bullet stoked by 20 gr of 296. Mountain hunting is hard on nice looking wood stocks, and I added a few character marks to the rifle. The lever guns carry well both in the hand and when slung. The front of the lever on the 1894 did dig into my side a bit, something I did not notice when carrying the 1895 guide gun earlier in the year. Like my Mtn goat hunt, I did not feel like I was at a disadvantage with this gun and wish for my go-to 30-06.
Columbus Day weekend came and I was planning on doing a quick trail run near Lake Tahoe Saturday morning, then head out to hunt. Well, the day got away from me and soon it was midafternoon and I was still at home. I scrapped that plan and decided to just get-er-done and do a long day hunt. Tag the first decent legal animal and spend Monday with family. Not to make this too easy, I decided to pull out the Marlin 1894 FG in 41 mag. topped with an older 2.5x Leupold scope. I had used this rifle before to take a few white tailed deer with both cast and jacketed bullets. Both bullet types had worked just fine for the task so I knew it was up to the task, all I had to do is get within 100 yards of a ewe. I had been shooting this rifle off and on a bit in the past year but still wanted to sight in before hunting.
Sunday morning, I was up before the alarm and was out the door and on the road by 06:15. The drive down to the unit is almost 4 hours. I made a couple pit stops along the road from too much coffee and stopped in Hawthorne for coffee and second breakfast at the Golden Arches and to top up the gas tank. I drove the rest of the way down to the unit and stopped at an old mine just off the road and sighted in the 41 in a rock pit. A two inch to the right adjustment and I was good to go. Down the road another 3-4 miles and pulled off and up a two-track about half a mile. A bit slow going since I had taken the car to save some gas money on the 8 hour round trip drive, not much in the ground clearance department. I was able to get away from the highway and behind some low hills where the car could not be seen from the road.
I loaded up the Bison Gear day pack, with two liters of water, a few snacks and the usual equipment and headed off with shooting sticks in one hand and the lever gun in the other. I quickly decided to leave the shooting sticks and take the trekking poles instead. It was nearing noon by the time I made the short hike into the low hills where I had found plenty of sheep while scouting- it was looking quiet today. I climbed up on some ridges, started glassing and moving with a purpose to find some sheep. After several hours, I still had not seen any sheep, so I continued to work deeper into the higher, rougher country and to the unmarked spring. Late afternoon, I was at the spring, animals were using it, but not in the numbers that I had expected. While standing at the spring, I saw a lone banana-horn ram heading for the high country about ¾ mile away. A bit dejected by the number of animals I was seeing, I started to head back to the car by way of an area that was steeper, with higher ridges and I had seen sheep in before. I climbed up on one of the higher ridges and a quick survey - no sheep.
Hiked a short distance down the ridge and stopped for some snacks, water and to regroup. While sitting there, something across the canyon catches my eye. A quick look through the binos showed me of a band of sheep spread out across a wide open face. Finally into sheep, but by now the sun is starting to get low and the shadows are getting long. To keep the wind in my favor, I had to drop down the back of the ridge all the way to the bottom, circle around a large knob and up the back side of the ridge that the sheep are on, about a mile and a half with a steep decent and climb, plus I may get spotted as I cross the bottom. I make it to the bottom and I spotted the sheep while I crossed in the open as they continue to feed across the face heading into the high country. Things are not quite like they appeared from up top and I had to climb up another knob, them down into another dry wash to get to the ridge that the sheep are on. As I started the climb up the ridge, I looked up to find a small band on the next ridge over, looking down at me. Great! They are going to blow this stalk for me! Well maybe not, the ridge is between these two groups so maybe all is not lost. Up the back side trying to make good time, be quiet and not get the heart pounding too hard. The climb is longer and harder than expected (as always) but I am well behind the ridge from the first group, but in full sight of the second.
I get up on top to where I think the sheep should be, drop the pack and one trekking pole, rack a round in the chamber and head up to peek over. Peek over where I expect the sheep… nothing. I move up the ridge 100 yards and peek over again, still nothing. I move up even further to look into one of the last pockets that might hold the sheep, still nothing. Where did they go? No place else to look. I am standing there glassing and scratching trying to figure out where they went, when I see the first band way up the drainage, near the top. Not sure what happened, if they had seen or heard me come up the ridge, but they had moved out quickly to be that far away.
Back down to my pack that I had dropped to regroup. The sun is low and most everything is now in long shadows. I look back at the small band of sheep behind and above me. They have not moved at all out of the high steep rocky location and appear rather content watching me. I decide to make a stalk on them, even though they have been watching me for more than half an hour. I load everything up and head up the ridge and come to the steep headwall that the sheep are on. I climb up to about the same elevation and start side hilling towards them. It is steep with a lot of bedrock-more like mountain goat country than sheep- so I am not making all that good of time. I know that I am getting near as I continue to side hill into a small drainage that takes me out of eyesight. As I side hill out the other side, I can see the sheep, I range one at about 160 yards, but I need to be inside 100 for a good shot. I see a rock pile and know that if I can make it there I will be about 100 yards from them. I sneak to the rock pile and peek over. The ram spots me right away and stands up I toss the rifle up on a rock to see a ewe walk up broadside on a rock, when a lamb immediately joins her standing right behind her-no shot. The sheep know I am there and are getting skittish. The ewe moves up hill a bit and is separated from the lamb. I get the rifle on her and I make the slow squeeze. At the shot, the rifle bucks a bit, but I see her drop behind the rock through the scope.
A short hike over to where I think she was standing- no sheep. Maybe she was standing there.., or was it over here, or... Still no sheep. A bit of doubt starts to sneak in, what happened, did I just knock her down and she ran off? Am I looking in the right area? I make a loop below where I am certain she was standing, and in a low spot I find blood and follow it downhill to my ewe. She had rolled about 35-40 yards down a rock dry wash. She was in good shape other than breaking of the tip off one horn in the tumble. It is getting dark quickly so a snap a few poor quality pictures with my phone, stack some rocks so I can find the location again, and head back to get my pack. By the time I get back, it is dark and I need my headlamp. The moon is nowhere to be found and it is DARK. I have the realization that the hike out is going to be interesting.
I sit down, have a snack and a drink of water and called my brother to let him know of my success. Yup, out sheep hunting and I have cell service. I can also see Tonopah twinkling in the distance and the headlights streaming past on Hwy 95. Busted! I can see the red and blues of NVHP having a grand ol’ time pulling people over one after another far down below me. I pull out the knives, meat bags, get stuff organized and get to work. Cutting meat on the side of a steep hill, in the dark, by yourself takes twice as long, but I get it done and load meat, head and hide into the expandable meat bag of the pack, do an quick inventory and double check the area to make sure that I have not left anything behind. I get the pack on, a solid load for sure but not too bad-yet, and sling the rifle cross body. I am now super glad that I had taken the trekking poles as I feel the true heft of the load and look down the steep, rocky, loose, open country hill and can’t see the bottom with the headlamp. I start picking my way down with small steps. Even then, the powder dry, rocky soil does not hold and I can feel my feet wanting to come out from underneath me. A couple of times, both feet pop out at the same time and I find myself in a cloud of dust sitting on some not-so-comfortable rock. Making it out of the steep stuff feels like it takes forever, but soon the ground is not so steep and I soon find myself making good time in a dry wash. The moon is still not up and it is pitch dark. I pull out the GPS and get a general bearing distance to the car. The GPS says 1.7 miles, but I know it will be farther than that since I have to take a big S-shaped course to stay in the wash and the easy(er) walking. Off I go down the wash and checking the GPS every once in a while to make sure I am headed in the right general direction. About half way to the car I drink the last of the water, why pack it out, put my head down and push on to the car. Soon the reflection of the license plate can be seen in the glow of the headlamp and I am back.
I drop the pack at the car, get a drink and a snack and load the meat and hide into the 100 qt cooler in the back seat. Everything else goes in the trunk and off I head for the house. Back to pavement at 10:40. Make good time home, with a few stops to stretch and shake some of the fog out of the head. One last stop in Fallon for some coffee and the final push for the house. Walk in the door at 02:15, pack the meat and hide in the fridge, unload the guns and a few totes of gear, a quick shower and to bed just before 3:00.
The 41 mag load I used is a 250 Gr. Cast Performance hard cast bullet stoked by 20 gr of 296. Mountain hunting is hard on nice looking wood stocks, and I added a few character marks to the rifle. The lever guns carry well both in the hand and when slung. The front of the lever on the 1894 did dig into my side a bit, something I did not notice when carrying the 1895 guide gun earlier in the year. Like my Mtn goat hunt, I did not feel like I was at a disadvantage with this gun and wish for my go-to 30-06.
