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Author Topic: Another Clemans Ram  (Read 9434 times)

Offline lonedave

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Another Clemans Ram
« on: November 26, 2014, 05:59:44 PM »
It's been a couple of weeks since I took my ram, so after seeing the great rams that have been taken this year by the other lucky guys, I figured it was about time to put my story together.  As I said in an earlier post last summer, it took a while for me to draw this tag.  I had the full 19 points going in, but I had been putting in for quite a bit longer than that.  I grew up reading Jack O'Connor, Fred Bear, Jim Carmichael, Jim Zumbo, and all the other well known writers that hunted sheep all over the world.  I used to dream about sheep and for years, read and re-read lots of sheep hunting stories, including the Outdoor Life with the article about Ray Alt and his record Montana Unlimited Ram that he took with a recurve in 1969. In 1972, my dad suggested we put in for goats and sheep.  I had been hunting for 4 years but had yet to take anything other than a couple of pheasants, quail, and chukar.  As far as I know, that was the first time he had put in for the tags, though my uncle had taken a goat in the North Cascades a few years earlier.  As unbelievable as it may sound today, I managed to draw a goat tag for the Central Cascades and managed to take a nice billy for my first head of big game that September.    In those days, goats weren't OIL, but if you drew, you had to wait 5 years before you were eligible to put in again.  I continued to put in for sheep and later moose, when they became available.  I managed to draw and harvest two more goats in 84 and 96 before they became OIL.  I never drew a sheep or moose tag, though a friend drew a Clemans archery sheep tag in the late 70's.  College, marriage, jobs, and kids came and the sheep dream kind of faded.  I continued to put in every year and like a lot of you, started to accumulate a bunch of points.  I've managed to draw my share of special permits, but I think I almost passed out in June when I saw the second to last application on the WDFW site read "selected" for my first choice, Clemans B - any ram tag!  I kept re-checking about 10 times every day for a week, thinking it would change and be re-run like a couple of years ago.  Nope, it was real.  I made a few scouting trips this summer, talked to the local bio, Jeff Bernatowics, met Ric (elkstuffer), and tried to put a plan together.  After ruining a tire driving up and around the top of Clemans, I decided to just hunt from the bottom.  I was originally going to park my tent trailer at the feeding station, but a friend who lives about 14 miles away from there would have none of it, so I decided to really "rough it" and stay at his house....it's hard to turn down hot meals, a shower, and a soft bed every night!  I started this hunt with the intent of hunting with my .62 Hawken, but my dad, being the rifle hunter he is, offered me a nice 270 Remington titanium mountain rifle that he hadn't shot anything with yet.  Being the good son that I am, I picked the rifle up and loaded a couple of boxes of shells with some 130 gr Nosler Ballistic tips.  By the time summer started to wind down, I had it sighted in.  The Hawken was also shooting some nice groups with .595 round balls behind 100 gr of Goex and I was pretty confident that I would take my ram with it, if I could just get close.  I've always had good luck with deer in the Snake River breaks, so a sheep should be easy too.....Ha!

Scouting




Offline Boss .300 winmag

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #1 on: November 26, 2014, 06:03:28 PM »
Hmmm this is going to get good!  :tup:
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Offline lonedave

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2014, 06:04:31 PM »
Day 1  - November 5th, Opening Day

I parked at the feeding station and went up Mystre canyon.  I worked my way up the bottom before moving up the sidehill to the right toward the first nice bench where I'd seen sheep during scouting.  It starts!



Up on the flat, I saw my first couple of sheep to the east and one looked like a nice ram.  A smaller ram moved toward me along the sidehill so when he dropped out of sight, I moved over to a little outcrop and waited for him to come up to me.  He didn't come over the rise,  but another ram began to follow the same route and at about 8:00 I had my first choice to make as he walked by and stopped about 75 yards away.  I figured it was way too early in the hunt to shoot, so I let him move off.



I hunted up Mystre and over to the saddle between Waterworks, where I sat and watched sheep the rest of the day.  I did see three guys come down from the top and moved above a herd that was feeding on the big bench above the big split in Waterworks canyon.  The best ram had a pretty nice curl, but not too much mass.  The guys stopped at the ridgeline above the flat and one took three shots at the ram, but missed.  The sheep split up and most moved over to the canyon west of Waterworks.  The guys slowly moved back up the ridge and off toward the canyon where the sheep went.  Later in the afternoon, I heard two more shots from that direction and saw one of the guys come back over the opposite ridge to retrieve a pack.  I never saw them again, but I assume they took a ram that time.  I ended up going back down Mystre canyon after watching sheep all day.

Offline lonedave

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2014, 06:10:43 PM »
Day 2

I parked at Waterworks and headed up toward the first big bench above the left side of the canyon, maybe 1/2 mile up.  I pretty much watched sheep in the flat all day, at times counting as many as 76.  There were lots of rams and several pretty nice ones.  Two stood out as having the best mass and if I could have figured out how to close the distance with all the eyes, I may have gotten Bobcat's ram or one at least as nice.  When I came down I met Ric and Bobcat in the parking lot and he said he'd been watching those sheep from his porch for over a week.  I think this was the best one of the two, though Bobcat's looks heavier up close!


Offline lonedave

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2014, 06:19:11 PM »
Day 3

I knew Ric and Bobcat were probably going up to the bench where I'd been the day before, so I decided to work my way up Waterworks to the upper end and see what I could find.  The friend I was staying with had mentioned that when he hunted chukars on Clemans, the sheep he saw always watched him, but never seemed to be too spooky.  He suggested if I saw a herd that didn't have a big ram in it, to just walk on by to see how close they'd let me get.  I tried that several times during the day and as funny as it sounds, it did seem to work pretty well.  By flanking a group, I was always able to get to within 100 yards, so a shot with the muzzleloader should be do-able, provided I found the right ram.  I was standing here when I heard two shots from down the canyon at about 8:50.  I texted Ric and asked if they had just shot a ram.  I got a message back about 4:00 that afternoon that it had been Bobcat and that he'd taken a good ram.  Awesome!



The rest of the day, I just moved around and watched sheep.  The rams were chasing ewes like crazy, at times five or six after one ewe.  Jeff had told me that by November, most of the sheep would converge on the area around Waterworks and from the number of sheep I saw, it was sure true this year.  At one point, I counted over 100 sheep in several herds scattered around the canyons.  I spent a long time on the mountain that day, finally heading back down from near the top at 4:30.  I didn't make it back to my truck until well after dark.  The friend I was staying with was off work for the weekend and would be coming tomorrow.  I saw three of four ewes with orange ear tags and here is a ram (on the right) with white ear tag #12 that looked to be about 4 1/2 years old and another small herd well within bow range.






Offline Curly

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2014, 06:35:36 PM »
Great write-up so far.   :tup:
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Offline lonedave

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2014, 06:38:36 PM »

Day 4

My buddy was with me and after parking at the Waterworks gate, we moved up and to the bench where Bobcat had taken his ram the day before.  I wasn't too keen on hitting that area so soon after so much traffic the last couple of days, but we went up anyway.  As soon as we broke over the top, my buddy whispered and pointed to a nice ram that was moving from left to right about 150 yards away.  He actually looked really good in the mass department but I couldn't see the length too well.  By moving quickly along the little ground breaks and ridges, we cut the distance to about 75 - 80 yards, but he was going almost straight away.  When he finally stopped for a few seconds and turned, I saw he was actually a very nice ram.  I hesitated big time and before I could get my gun on him, he turned and started walking away again.  He was also at the end of my range with the muzzleloader and we had no more cover to move on him again.  I just watched him walk away and after about 15 minutes he went over the ridge into the canyon west of Waterworks.  By the time we were able to hoof it up to where he'd crossed over, we couldn't find him.  I guess I haven't mentioned the wind yet.  Though the weather was pretty nice and sunny with the temperature in the 30's and maybe low 40's, the wind had been blowing pretty constant.  It was nice when the wind stopped, but fairly cold when it was blowing.  We continued on up the ridge, looking at several groups of sheep throughout the day, but nothing seemed to stand out and none were as nice as the one I hesitated on that morning.  I started to kick myself over being so slow to act, but realized nothing could be done now.  I did notice my buddy seemed to be getting a little agitated with me passing on so many rams and truthfully, there are a lot of good looking 3/4+ curl rams to choose from.  I just had it in my mind that I wanted a heavy set of horns and the length really didn't matter so much.



Offline lonedave

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2014, 06:44:56 PM »
Day 5

I woke up about 3:00am thinking about all the sheep I'd seen in the previous four days and still hadn't been able to close the distance on the right ram.  Before we left a couple of hours later, I took the Hawken out of the truck and replaced it with the 270 and my shell pouch.  We again went up Waterworks and up the left side of the canyon.  There was a small group of sheep on the west edge of the flat, but nothing worth stalking, so we continued up along the ridge, staying low and out of the wind that seemed to be blowing much harder.  We spent the day moving slowly up the ridge, going back and forth across it to watch both sides.  We were watching a herd on the flat above the main split in Waterworks when we heard a shot.  The herd we were watching jumped up and started running away as another shot rang out.  The largest ram dropped and we saw three guys come out of the canyon below us and walk over to the him.  We ate lunch and watched them work on the ram for a while before we moved up the ridge again.  There is a small water seep near the top of the canyon west of Waterworks that I'd seen sheep using and as we got closer to it, we could see several groups of sheep in the basin around it including one good ram drinking from it.  He looked very good in the mass department, though a little broomed off.  When several other rams began chasing a ewe, he moved down the canyon to join in.  Most of the sheep were on the other side of the canyon, so my buddy suggested he would go up around the top of the basin and come down the other side above the larger herd and the ram we were watching.  I moved down to a small outcrop below, to get in place across from the sheep and saw my buddy move in above them.  He signaled me and then began to move slowly down toward the sidehill toward the herd.  The sheep saw him immediately and began to group up and move across the canyon toward me.  Most of the sheep came across about 150 yards below me, but I'd lost sight of the largest ram.  As the main group moved away below, the ram came into view following them and I could see it was the same one we'd been looking at earlier.  Before I really checked him out again with the spotting scope, my autopilot turned on, I eased the safety off, and squeezed the trigger.  The ram dropped immediately and I heard my buddy across the canyon give me a quick whoop!  When I walked up to the ram, I could see I had shot high and broken his back, so another shot finished him. 



It was then just after 3:00 in the afternoon and by the time we took a few pictures and began cleaning and caping him, the wind really picked up with some sleet mixed in.  It had been pretty nice, other than the wind, but by 4:00 it was pretty clear a big storm was moving in.  The wind felt like it had to be gusting to about 60 mph as it would hit me and throw me about three of four feet.  As it got worse, my buddy started telling me we needed to leave the ram and get off the mountain.  I wanted to get him at least caped and bagged before we left, but when the hail started, I had to give up and leave him gutted, half skinned and half caped.


Offline lonedave

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2014, 06:53:06 PM »
It was quite a trip off the mountain that night in the blasting wind, hail, snow, and clouds, but we finally got to the truck at about 8:30.  After I'd shot the ram, I'd texted another friend who was busy setting up a couple of tree stand sites for late archery in the Nile.  He had stopped by on his way home and when he saw my truck in the parking lot, he stopped and waited for us.  He was napping in his truck when we came in.  The friend I was staying with had to work the next day so my other friend said he'd help me pack the ram out the next day.  I told him not to worry and that I'd just make two trips, but he was insistent and said he really wanted to be a part of the hunt, even if it was only to pack!  I knew it was a losing battle, so we agreed to meet there the next day.  It was kind of hard sleeping that night, but it got very cold and since I hadn't seen any sign of coyotes all week, I was pretty sure the ram would be OK.

We met the next morning and hiked up the mountain to the ram.  My friend hadn't hunted sheep or really looked at them much, especially in that area or during the rut.  The rut activity is pretty amazing, but by the 10th, it seemed to be winding down significantly.  We still had a good hike and he got to see a lot of sheep.  When we got to the ram, only a few ravens had been poking at him and nothing was torn up or eaten.  With my friends help, I finished the caping and bagged the two halves.  We split the load up and began hiking back.  It took most of the day and we didn't get down until close to 4:30.  Just above the parking area my friend pointed to a ram and several ewes looking at us from about 125 yards away.  He was darn close to full curl and actually pretty heavy too!




Before driving home, I stopped by Ric's to drop off the head.  I'd counted rings and thought he was 8 1/2.  Ric said sometimes the rings were hard to see but thought he was either 8 1/2 or 9 1/2, so he was fairly old.  The bases are about 14" and the mass carries out pretty well.  The horn length is fairly short at about 28" as he is pretty broomed.    I like the horn mass though and I'm really satisfied, though part of me wishes I had kept after them with my muzzleloader.  It was a great hunt and I may go broke buying raffle tickets from now on!!  Here's one last "as he lay" shot of ear tagged ram #8



I hope you enjoyed the hunt a much as I did.  Now there's one more goat and a moose with my name on them!!

Offline Boss .300 winmag

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #9 on: November 26, 2014, 06:56:19 PM »
Great ram and story!  :tup:
"Just because I like granola, and I have stretched my arms around a few trees, doesn't mean I'm a tree hugger!
Hi I'm 8156, our leader is Bearpaw.
YOU CANNOT REASON WITH A TIGER WHEN YOUR HEAD IS IN ITS MOUTH! Winston Churchill

Keep Calm And Duc/Ski Doo On!

Offline jasnt

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #10 on: November 26, 2014, 06:59:40 PM »
Congrats. What a brute
https://www.howlforwildlife.org/take_action  It takes 10 seconds and it’s free. To easy to make an excuse not to make your voice heard!!!!!!

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Offline Slimdog350

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #11 on: November 26, 2014, 07:01:05 PM »
Tag!

Offline HUNTaHOLIC5

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #12 on: November 26, 2014, 07:10:24 PM »
Really great write up and a fantastic ram.  :tup:

Offline Birdguy

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #13 on: November 26, 2014, 07:11:16 PM »
Great ram and write up. Thanks for taking us all along on your hunt. Congratulations on a trophy that will allow you to remember this hunt always. Really cool.

Offline Curly

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Re: Another Clemans Ram
« Reply #14 on: November 26, 2014, 07:12:34 PM »
 :brew:

 :tup:

Congrats. 

How much weight did you lose hunting up there?  :)
May I always be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.

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