The 29 Hour Walk-In Dall Ram

[TEmbry]

Now that the winter months are setting in and archery seasons wrapping up, I decided what better time to relive one of my hunts from this fall. As a little background for this hunt, I am currently finishing up my 4th year in pharmacy school. When asked which 7 week block I would like to have off this year (no more summer breaks), I naturally chose the fall. I loaded up and headed west Aug 22 for 7 weeks of bowhunting. It began with a week in WY Antelope hunting followed by a flight to Anchorage to join my good friend on what was supposed to be a 15 day Moose hunt. The NR season ended Sept 15th, residents were able to hunt until the 20th. Without delving into too many details, after 10 days of being socked into the tent 18-20 hours a day with typhoon weather, we had had enough. My hunting partner still held a Delta Sheep Permit that he was unable to use earlier in the fall due to life getting in the way. My season for moose was over the 15th, so we decided to fly out early and scramble together a last second sheep hunt. If nothing else it would be a change of scenery and the weather certainly couldn't be any worse. We got a bush flight back to Dillingham but unfortunately couldn't get back to Anchorage until the 17th.

 

[TEmbry]

Upon landing in Anchorage we do a mad dash to repack our luxurious hunting gear with lightweight sheep mountain gear and hit the road again. I've never dreamed I would go on a sheep hunt in which zero planning/prep was done and we literally packed in less than 45 minutes before hitting the road North. We made it about 4 hrs towards Delta Junction when I realized in the scramble I forgot rain gear. Starting off well. Atleast the views on the drive up were spectacular.

 

[TEmbry]

Brad held a motorized Delta tag, but we elected to leave the ATVs behind in hopes of being flown in. We were down to 3 days of season left and didn't want to waste any time. Unfortunately we arrived in Delta too late to fly in, so we stay at a friends house in town for one more night in a warm bed. The next day we wait and wait for the winds to die off before the pilot finally called it off at 2pm saying that it just wasn't safe flying conditions. Our horrid streak with bad weather had followed us all the way from Dillingham. We decide to drive back south into the unit and hike up one of the drainages from the road that he had researched during the summer briefly. It was nearly 6 pm by the time we strapped on the boots and left the truck. Our hopes were dim as we figured we had a LONG way to walk up the glacier before finally getting into sheep. I had borrowed some heavy early 1990s goretex rain gear from the friend in Delta Junction to make do for this trip, and i was fortunate for it as the rain was setting in this first evening. Not letting our misfortunes get the best of us, we made good time climbing atop the glacier and hiking up into the drainage. We didn't even make it two miles when the sheep gods smiled on us and revealed a lone sheep to me. We set for a candy bar and broke out the spotter. Immediately I could tell it was a ram we needed a closer look at. I am horrible at judging sheep as you will find out in a bit, but I at least knew he was close enough to full curl we needed to climb up for closer inspection.

Few Shots of the Glacier... DISCLAIMER: I do ask if you know of the area we were hunting, keep it to yourself. Certainly not a secret unit by any means, and most avid sheep hunters could deduce where we were... still just a principle thing.

 

[TEmbry]

We had a horribly steep accent on the only face we could climb out of sight from the ram (who ended up being in the same basin as about 40 sheep we would find out once a better vantage point was gained). The first thousand feet or so was through the thickest, nastiest, downhill growing, wet, slippery, brush known to man. Every Alaskan has likely experienced it I'm sure, but this was my first time climbing up to the sheep and nearly got knocked back down hill on multiple occasions. As darkness was setting in we found ourselves about halfway up the mountain above the nasty brush and decided to find a bench to camp on. Temps were dropping fast and my Kuiu Attack pants were absolutely DRENCHED. We downed some Mtn House and retired to our coffin.. I mean "2-3" man tent. At least the views were breath taking when we woke up (finally no more rain, clear skies, no 20-50 mph winds...).

 

[TEmbry]

As we munched on some breakfast, we broke out the spotter and relocated our ram (now able to see the whole basin more clearly without fog and see the 40 or so sheep). Brad begins thinking he is legal, so we make a plan to loop around up to the switchback up top, and move in for a shooting position... If he was sub legal we would move a few drainages further down and remain up high. We broke camp and headed for the top. My legs were already warning me that I better take summer workouts more seriously if I want to be a sheep hunter.

 

[TEmbry]

As some may have noticed.. I elected to skip wearing the frozen solid, still soaking wet pants the next day. Leggings were it for me. I figured if the Kiwis can hunt the hills this way down in New Zealand, why couldn't I? lol

We finally made it to the summit and were officially above the rams (he bedded up with a group of 4 other rams, mostly half curls and banana horns). The only problem was a group of 20 or 25 lambs and ewes had fed over directly beneath us about 200 yards out, and were between us and the Rams. we backed up to wait them out and goof off taking pictures and video of the spectacular scenery and animals. They luckily got up and moved off single file into the basin back behind the ridge line out of sight from the Rams. perfect.

 

[TEmbry]

Now it was game time... with no more obstacles in the way, we followed the trail the sheep took along the switchback up around behind the rams, before dropping over down ontop of them. The terrain was perfect for us to crawl up into shooting position about 180 yards above the Ram... being a bowhunter at heart I razzed Brad a bit for bringing the bangstick with such a perfect scenario for a bow stalk. We break out the spotter again, and after 15-20 minutes are 99% sure he is legal, but never could get a great angle to see him from the side. He had a lot of flare to his horns which made it difficult as well. Brad counted what he believed to be enough growth rings, coupled with what looked to be full curl and decided to take the shot. Even with or confidence, it's always a bit nerve wracking walking up on a ram after hearing the horror stories of guys losing everything they owned on the trip for a 15/16ths ram. Luckily there was no ground shrinkage and we walked up on an absolute STUD ram. It is almost embarrassing it took us so long to determine if he was even legal. Turned out to be a 10 year old 37.5"/38" beautiful Dall Ram. We celebrated and took a LOT of pics before breaking him down for the walk out.

 

[TEmbry]

Brad wanted to do a Full Body for the mount, which meant a very tedious skinning job before we boned out the meat. We split up camp/hunting gear, I took all the meat, and he took the hide, head, and rifle. My legs were absolute JELLO by the time we made it down to the bottom to the glacier. I hadn't prepared for sheep mountains as I in no way was anticipating a sheep hunt when I initially mapped out my fall plans. Tough pack out for sure. Once to the bottom we dropped all camp gear and made it back to the truck with the Ram almost 29 hours on the dot from when we first strapped on the boots. We slept over night before returning the next morning for the stashed gear in order to head for Anchorage.

I thought this sheep hunting was supposed to be difficult guys?

 

[TEmbry]

Another cool shot I thought... A sheep's eye view one might say.

 

[TEmbry]

Brad and I have a little tradition that we celebrate any kills with a Butterfinger. This trip was no exception (most important gear of the trip!!!)

 

[Retterath]

Great story and awesome pics thanks for sharing. Congrats on the awesome ram

 

[jwb300]

Well done! Great hunt and awesome pics!

Cheers,
JWB300

 

[Ross]

Great Hunt, Great story, Great photos and a beautiful Dall!

 

[Matt Cashell]

Holy crap, what a great post!

Congrats to you guys!

 

[Manosteel]

Congrats on the successful hunt! Great pics and story!

 

[Shrek]

Congratulations ! Great hunt story.

 

[LazyV]

Really cool, thanks for sharing

 

[69ChrisCraft]

Awesome story...just awesome

 

[Jdog]

Stellar

 

[adventure907]

Great story and helluva ram. Not knocking ya here, just friendly advice, but if ya don't want people to know where you were hunting, don't make it so easy to figure out. Other people that hunt that area would appreciate it too...