Just got back from hunting with Max Schwab for Dall sheep. Tough is the most common word used to describe sheep hunting and I would have to completely agree! But, it was a complete blast and I hope to repeat again someday.
Day 1- I was flown via Super Cub from Healy to base camp. It was my first time in a Super Cub and it was smply spectacular! Spent the rest of the day killing time as all hunters/guides were flown in and we got to know each other. Also made sure the rifles survived the travel and were still shooting where we wanted. My GAP 260 was spot on, 1 shot to confirm and I was ready to hunt! We spent the evening grassing sheep right from base camp. A great day for sure.
Day 2 dawned and the mood changed as we (the 3 hunters) were chomping at the bit to go! A final sort of gear and food and we were on our way. We covered the first 5 miles with one of the other hunters before stopping to have a quick rest. After that my guide and I headed STRAIGHT up while the other hunter and guide continued up the creek to a different drainage. The walking was brutal as we picked our way up a very steep drainage. After a couple of miles we decided to camp there for the night, I must confess I was pretty spent.
Heading into sheep country!
Day 3-
A day spent climbing, and I do mean climbing! Brutal day, however it was made up for by amazing views and sheep, lots of sheep!
Bivy spot- aka a room with a view...
My guide glassing-
Day 4-
The day dawned noticeably colder with threatening clouds. A plan was quickly made over coffee and candy bars to climb up through the pass and go kill a sheep! Less than an hour later we were grassing 5 rams ( the group later became 16 rams). We decided to back out and work our way around the back of the pass to keep them from seeing us and continue to glass for more rams before we made up our mind. Nothing else peaked our interest so we decided to come up with a plan to kill the largest of this band. My guide knew one ram was a shooter, and there might be a couple others worth a closer look.
View of the rams-
Mother Nature decided to unleash on us at this point as it began to rain, sleet and the wind howled! Did I mention it was windy? We were having a hard time coming up with an approach as there was virtually nothing to conceal us to allow us to get closer. Then, suddenly fog began to roll through with the heavy wind and we decided to use it to creep to a rocky outcropping that we thought would get us closer to shooting range. Midway through the sneak in the fog, the fog lifted and the rain picked up. We simply sat down and remained nearly motionless for about 2 hours. We were both shivering uncontrollably at this point and decided we had to do something. Fortunately rams started to feed down so we were able to close in without being detected to the rocks. By now it was 6pm and we had been on the rams since 9am, freezing and starving we kept an eye on the rams and made a Mountain House to get some much needed energy and warmth into our bodies. As soon as we finished eating the rams began to move TO us! I couldn't believe it! I was literally hanging off of a rocky cliff trying to position for the shot, while shivering uncontrollably. Finally the rams hit the 300 yard mark and we determined I was going to have to shoot the heavy double broomed ram that we had first seen that morning,however, at that point I could care less as this would be my first ram! He finally separated himself from the others and I fired (GAP 260/123gr Scenar) only to hear my guide say "you missed"! I was shocked, jacked another round in and did the exact same thing, this time however I saw the bullet impact and realized I was shooting over the ram on the extreme downhill shot! I chambered another round, turned the turret back to zero and dropped the ram in his tracks ( later we found out the rangefinder was not adjusting for the angle, only giving true yards). Then my guide and I began our high fives and began to work our way down to the ram (it was 10pm now). I asked my guide for a few minutes as I had so much to be thankful for I had to stop and give thanks..
.
We aged him at 9 years, which Game and Fish confirmed and he had 13 inch bases and heavily broomed on both sides. I still couldn't be happier with him!
We finished up with the meat and caping and it was midnight. I was starving but we were both to tired to make another Mountain House. We kicked out just enough rocks to set up our bivy s and crashed.
A pic of where I crashed from the next morning-
Day 5-
I began to smell smoke overnight and awoke to very heavy smoke from forest fires obscuring the mountains and was even more thankful for my ram as it would have been impossible to glass- the smoke stayed all the way up to when I left. An early morning respite is all that allowed the outfitter to get me out of camp and fly me back to Healy.
We ate and ate that morning, loaded our packs and took off. 13 hours later we made it to basecamp. At least they told me it was basecamp, I am not sure as i am certain I was hallucinating after carrying an 85-90lb pack for 13 hours!!!
Truly a trip of a lifetime, however, I do kinda feel like I have some unfinished business in the sheep mountains, just think I will wait to tell my wife...
Day 1- I was flown via Super Cub from Healy to base camp. It was my first time in a Super Cub and it was smply spectacular! Spent the rest of the day killing time as all hunters/guides were flown in and we got to know each other. Also made sure the rifles survived the travel and were still shooting where we wanted. My GAP 260 was spot on, 1 shot to confirm and I was ready to hunt! We spent the evening grassing sheep right from base camp. A great day for sure.
Day 2 dawned and the mood changed as we (the 3 hunters) were chomping at the bit to go! A final sort of gear and food and we were on our way. We covered the first 5 miles with one of the other hunters before stopping to have a quick rest. After that my guide and I headed STRAIGHT up while the other hunter and guide continued up the creek to a different drainage. The walking was brutal as we picked our way up a very steep drainage. After a couple of miles we decided to camp there for the night, I must confess I was pretty spent.
Heading into sheep country!
Day 3-
A day spent climbing, and I do mean climbing! Brutal day, however it was made up for by amazing views and sheep, lots of sheep!
Bivy spot- aka a room with a view...
My guide glassing-
Day 4-
The day dawned noticeably colder with threatening clouds. A plan was quickly made over coffee and candy bars to climb up through the pass and go kill a sheep! Less than an hour later we were grassing 5 rams ( the group later became 16 rams). We decided to back out and work our way around the back of the pass to keep them from seeing us and continue to glass for more rams before we made up our mind. Nothing else peaked our interest so we decided to come up with a plan to kill the largest of this band. My guide knew one ram was a shooter, and there might be a couple others worth a closer look.
View of the rams-
Mother Nature decided to unleash on us at this point as it began to rain, sleet and the wind howled! Did I mention it was windy? We were having a hard time coming up with an approach as there was virtually nothing to conceal us to allow us to get closer. Then, suddenly fog began to roll through with the heavy wind and we decided to use it to creep to a rocky outcropping that we thought would get us closer to shooting range. Midway through the sneak in the fog, the fog lifted and the rain picked up. We simply sat down and remained nearly motionless for about 2 hours. We were both shivering uncontrollably at this point and decided we had to do something. Fortunately rams started to feed down so we were able to close in without being detected to the rocks. By now it was 6pm and we had been on the rams since 9am, freezing and starving we kept an eye on the rams and made a Mountain House to get some much needed energy and warmth into our bodies. As soon as we finished eating the rams began to move TO us! I couldn't believe it! I was literally hanging off of a rocky cliff trying to position for the shot, while shivering uncontrollably. Finally the rams hit the 300 yard mark and we determined I was going to have to shoot the heavy double broomed ram that we had first seen that morning,however, at that point I could care less as this would be my first ram! He finally separated himself from the others and I fired (GAP 260/123gr Scenar) only to hear my guide say "you missed"! I was shocked, jacked another round in and did the exact same thing, this time however I saw the bullet impact and realized I was shooting over the ram on the extreme downhill shot! I chambered another round, turned the turret back to zero and dropped the ram in his tracks ( later we found out the rangefinder was not adjusting for the angle, only giving true yards). Then my guide and I began our high fives and began to work our way down to the ram (it was 10pm now). I asked my guide for a few minutes as I had so much to be thankful for I had to stop and give thanks..
.
We aged him at 9 years, which Game and Fish confirmed and he had 13 inch bases and heavily broomed on both sides. I still couldn't be happier with him!
We finished up with the meat and caping and it was midnight. I was starving but we were both to tired to make another Mountain House. We kicked out just enough rocks to set up our bivy s and crashed.
A pic of where I crashed from the next morning-
Day 5-
I began to smell smoke overnight and awoke to very heavy smoke from forest fires obscuring the mountains and was even more thankful for my ram as it would have been impossible to glass- the smoke stayed all the way up to when I left. An early morning respite is all that allowed the outfitter to get me out of camp and fly me back to Healy.
We ate and ate that morning, loaded our packs and took off. 13 hours later we made it to basecamp. At least they told me it was basecamp, I am not sure as i am certain I was hallucinating after carrying an 85-90lb pack for 13 hours!!!
Truly a trip of a lifetime, however, I do kinda feel like I have some unfinished business in the sheep mountains, just think I will wait to tell my wife...
