Wearing black while sheep hunting

[the hack]

you d be surprised by old timers using jeans for goat and sheep hunting and trust me they are still alive lol

Yeah, I'm occasionally one of those guys.

 

[ColeyG]

I’ve seen black bears chase sheep on two occasions. Neither were successful in killing one, but they had the sheep running scared for a long time for and a long distance.

I don’t know how sheep perceive and react to the color black.

I do know that the two easiest things for me to spot from a long way away in sheep country are black bears and dudes wearing black.

 

[betelgeuse]

Baaaad, Baaaaad

 

[medvedyt]

not mine but just a look on yukon sheep hunting give me those pictures ... all in common wearing black ... the picture with vern will explain that he had hunting for almost 30 years thinhorn sheep. he might know a thing or two and again wearing black has never stopped me hunting in our mountains ...

 

[Pilsner]

Years ago on one of my Montana Unlimited Unit sheep hunts, as I was climbing up a mountain, just inside the timber on one side of an avalanche chute, and with my Golden Retriever next to me, I came upon two legal rams. I had killed a full curl ram in that unit the previous year (that was before the 7 year wait rule) so I didn't really want to shoot one of those rams.

They just stood there looking at me and were close enough that I picked up a ping pong size rock and threw it underhand and hit one of the rams, and they ran up the hill.

There was an outfitter with a guided hunter also hunting that mountain, and a few minutes after the rams ran up the avalanche chute I heard a shot, and a couple of minutes later both rams ran back down the hill, stopping about 30 yards above me.

I could see that one of the rams had been gut shot and it's small intestines were dragging on the ground. I didn't want to see it suffer, so I gave it a killing shot. I then went up the mountain and found the outfitter and his guide and hunter and took them down to the dead ram.

The next year I went back to that mountain and killed the other ram. That was the last year that that unit was Unlimited.

The ram that I had passed on the year before.

Love that I'm not the only guy who hunts with his retriever. My lab is a service dog and the prey drive required to be a service dog is the EXACT opposite of that requires to be a "good" hunting dog.
Like his predecessor, he and I have worked out a series of hand signals that allows me to basically still hunt with him and keep him beside or behind me. His nose has given away more than one deer or hog before I saw it and helped me succeed in a hunt.
Also life is just better with a great dog by your side!

I tend more towards green/OD green tops and brown/grey bottoms instead of camo but I've also noticed that even if wearing a solid color top by the time you add in a bino harness of a different color/pattern, backpack straps, and rifle sling that even a fully black top would be pretty well broken up visually. At least if you keep the 4S's in mind:
Shape
Shine
Silhouette
And sky lining.
Also the Fred Bear rule:
Sit still
Shut up
Be patient
(Less applicable in sheep hunting but still a good life rule for all hunting).

 

[medvedyt]

do not forget be quiet ... not by the noise of rocks rolling but about talking lol ...

 

[buffybr]

you d be surprised by old timers using jeans for goat and sheep hunting and trust me they are still alive lol

I resemble that remark!

 

[Snyd]

Black pants, grey shirt, green hat. I've killed 4 of em and been next to my partners while they pulled the trigger on another 8.