Pope's Sheep hunt

[popeshawnpaul]

Aug 10, Opening day!

It took me hours to get warm from the night before.  We hiked and scouted all day in the pouring rain.  Kuiu Yukon rain gear worked well but eventually, everything gets wet.  Hot water bottles in my bag and dry clothes helped and I finally got warm.  The ground was cold because it was rocks on top of a huge ice glacier.  But it’s opening sheep season and this is all part of the experience!  In between pouring rain, it would let up and only drizzle. 

I get out and start glassing.  We pack up camp, and Bill spots a big ram on the mountain a mile or so away.  We both agree, he has a big rangy curl with lots of length.  I estimated about 38” with some mass.  A very pretty ram, with equal sides and lamb tips.  He is by himself in a tough position.  Even if we could make a stalk, it would take half a day to get in position to start up the mountain for a stalk.  That being said, we move closer to try and tell if he is legal.  In Alaska, the ram must be full curl or 8 years old.  So he may be big and he may be long, but he still might not be legal.  We know it’s going to be a close call on the full curl but he looks like he could be at a long distance.  Time to get closer so we can get a better look.



What looks lie a big pile of rock in the pictures is actually the glacier.  There is a few inches of this rock/gravel on top of the giant ice sheet.  You never take a step without the rock slipping and you seemingly never get a good foot hold.  After hours of hiking, we come to a stream.  We have to pass it.  I take off the boots, put on flip flops and wade across the thigh high stream.  I had to use walking poles and be careful.  One slip and I would ruin thousands of dollars in camera gear and I might be swept downstream.  These streams are just melted ice flowing on a big ice sheet.  I was thankful to make it across.  Down the glacier we hiked, hiding and going around the big ram on the mountain. 


We come to another stream crossing.  This one isn’t as high as the other, only being about at our knees.  However, if we slipped on this one the stream takes you around a corner and it would be difficult to get out.  We lock arms, hold hands, and walk across together and Bill lets out, “this isn’t gay, it’s just safety.”  I crack up and we make it across.


Down the glacier we go, skirting the big ram so we can get to a draw that we can get up and take a closer look if we need.  I take pictures of the ram in between the rain/fog.  Along the way, we spot other sheep that are smaller.  A band of 3 half curl rams are making their way to the big ram, seemingly going to join up.  I spot goats on various cliffs.  I could have made this a goat combo, but I didn’t want to be distracted from the sheep.


One of the big ram photos I have.  Most are at distance and not great quality.  This is blown up and about the same magnification of a 60x swaro.



We hike all day, making only about 2.5 miles as the crow flies, but my gps says 3x that and they are grueling miles of climbing on your hands, knees, slipping, cutting yourself, etc.  Exhausted, we called it a day as it started to pour rain yet again.  Another Mountain House dinner…yum.  Anything tastes good in the cold, rain, on a glacier, with a sheep tag in your pocket!

[trophyhunt]

I'm supposed to go hiking today, how with this story still developing?? Love,it.  What a hunt so far, talk about digging deep to get it down.

[rtspring]

Never had an urge to kill a sheep. Sounds like fun

[X-Force]

What country!

[trophyhunt]

Never had an urge to kill a sheep. Sounds like fun

I love elk hunting as much as anyone, but, I couldn't imagine being able to take a dall sheep.  I will probably never be able to do a hunt like this, but if I could pick one hunt to have, it would be a dall sheep hunt.  We get to hunt and kill elk, a dall hunt is out of reach for 90% of the hunting population.  But I get it, my elk hunting partner could care less to kill a ram as well.  I myself could care less to go on an African Safari.  The only African animal that I like is the Kudu. 

[elkaholic123]

Great write up so far Shawn.....but hurry up, I am not getting any work done today 

[popeshawnpaul]

Aug 11, Day 3 on the ice!


It rained all night.  In the cold, I’m up first but tired/sore.  What’s this?  Sun!  For the first time the sun is out.  What a morale boost.  My guide Bill is prepared, he has Starbucks Via packets and we have coffee every morning to warm up.  The plan is to look the big ram over and make a decision on whether he is legal or not.  I know he is big but that doesn’t make him legal.  While I know sheep well, it is nice to have another person there for their input on the legality.  I think it’s close, and in images I have him at full curl.  The problem is he is wide and a very large curl.  Smaller rams with tight curls are legal no problem.

Because we are camped down in a hole in the glacier, we can’t see the surrounding territory to glass.  We did this so we could camp out of sight from the ram on the mountain above us.  We pack up the tents, load the packs, and I head up the rock scree hill on the glacier to glass around.  On the way up, I spot 4 rams headed my way on the mountain 250 yards from me on the glacier.  Because there is cliffs above them, the only easy way to get past this part of the mountain is for them to go lower and through this rock/scree hillside.  The lead ram is obviously big and the one we had been watching.  I motion Bill up and he puts the spotter on him.  He says, “I’m 100% sure he’s legal”. 

He is the bottom left lead ram.  Two of the small ones are trailing.  I shoot him a minute or so after this image.


I unload my pack, get the gun out, and rack a shell in the chamber.  I put the safety on and adjust the scope to 14x preparing for a longer shot.  I take one quick photo before the large ram walks down out of sight.  At this point, we need to stalk up to another rock/ice hill to get a clear shot of him.  The trailing small rams are in sight and they spot us.  I’m not worried because the big one hasn’t though and we are a ways out.  I figure we have a minute or so until the small ones spook.  We climb up to the top of the ice/rock hill and I lay my rifle on a large boulder.  Bill brought his sleeping pad and puts it on the boulder.  Nice guy!

I tell Bill, grab your swaro.  I want you to confirm he is full curl one last time.  I look at him, he looks good to me.  I see a perfect circle but it’s just there.  Bill looks and confirms.  I’m not passing a ram this big with good mass.  My Nosler box says the 120 grain ballistic tip should be 7” low at 300 yards when sighted in at 200 yards.  I aim for the top of the shoulder as Bill ranges him now at 330 yards.  He stops and I ready for the shot, then he starts walking again right to left on the hillside.  He comes to a large rock on the hillside, oblivious to us.  It’s sunny out, blue skies, and I’m 30 miles from the nearest town.  I have a sheep tag, I’m in rugged amazing country, experiencing an adventure. 

The large ram stops again, and looks over the large glacier below him.  He turns back toward the 3 younger rams following him that he picked up last night.  I’ll never forget the majestic look he had when he looked back.  I take the shot and he is down.  The rifle shoots flatter than I thought as I hit right where I was aiming.  I give him one more just to speed up the process for this beautiful animal.  A flood of emotions hit me.  No high fiving and no screaming like kid.  I sit there with myself and take 5 minutes.  I let Bill know I don’t hunt for the kill, that actually my least favorite part about hunting.  He let me have a few minutes to collect my thoughts. 

40 years of waiting for this moment and it finally happened.  Most people I know love sheep after they have killed one but I always have.  This was sort of the pinnacle of my hunting life and my love for sheep.  I’m not sure I will ever do this again and I’m not sure I need to.  I’d like to though if WA or ID ever draws my name!  We make our way over to the ram.  I always told myself I’d like to take a moment and go up to the ram myself.  Before I could tell Bill that, he said, “take the lead and go get your ram”.  I walked very very slowly to him, trying to savor the moment.  I put my pack down and he was a great ram.  I say my thanks to the ram, Bill, and grab on to the horns. 

It’s 7AM and we have all the time in the world.  I set up my camera and we take tons of photos, from various angles.  The sun was great but it made shooting images tough as the sun was coming in perpendicular to the mountain.  We take images from a few angles for about an hour.  Satisfied, we begin the caping, deboning, and process of packing the animal up. 
















We take our time, and head toward the nearest landing strip (glacier).  Bill tells me there is one 7 miles (or 21 hiking miles) down the glacier, or we can go back up where we came from which is 5 straight miles (~15 actual miles/2000 vertical feet).  The Bernard glacier was tough, and the unknown in the next 7 miles with packs that are now twice as heavy seems daunting.  I tell Bill I’d prefer to go up to where we were dropped off.  The rivers on the glacier get wider and deeper the further you go down.  I really didn’t want to have to do many more harrowing stream crossings.  On the way back up, we could avoid the streams as we aren’t out in the middle of the glacier and hiding from the big ram now.

Mystery Ranch makes good backpacks.  My Metcalf I just got worked well.  However, no backpack is fun at over 100 lbs.  Each step was hard.  We hiked a half mile in 3 hours.  Then the rain hit again.  We set up camp for the night.  After a nap, we woke up and the rain stopped.  We took turns on my 9oz bottle of Glendronach 15 year scotch I brought for after the kill.  Bill got a flat rock and put his stove below it.  We put pieces of fat on the rock and it melted into grease.  We cut up chunks of tenderloin and backstrap.  Nothing better than rock seared backstrap with scotch on a glacier!  I must have had 2 lbs of meat, maybe more.  Sheep is a cross between lamb and venison to me.  This dall sheep is better than any rocky ram I’ve had.  Must be the green grass and lack of sage/bitterbrush in their diet.

I fall asleep a happy man to more rain, all night long.

[Hawkeye270]

Congratulations again!  Awesome ram in unbelievable country!  Great story and photos too! 

[Ricochet]

Congrats to you, Shawn, fantastic hunt.  Thanks for sharing your experience with us. 

[popeshawnpaul]

Day 4 living on a Glacier

The next morning comes, we have our coffee and prepare for a long day of hiking.  We know we aren’t going to make it out today.  We take a moment to explore an ice cave. 





What’s for breakfast?  Why sheep of course!  Were on to the backstraps as we finished all the tenderloin for dinner last night.



The first ¼ mile takes almost 2 hours.  We have to scale a river canyon.  Bill makes it up first.  At the top, the hardest part comes and I try and make one last jump up.  It will be a long hard slide to the bottom and I surely would be injured if I didn’t make it.  I wasn’t going to make it…I was slipping and Bill reaches down, grabs the horns attached to the top of my pack and lifts me up to safe ground.  Thanks!

We hike/climb/muscle/battle long and hard for 10 hours, but only make it 2 miles as the crow flies.  Then the rain starts to come on hard.  Time to set up the tent.  What’s for dinner?  You guessed it, sheep!  This time I mixed it up and added it to my Mountain House mac & cheese.  Yum!  At this rate, we should eat half our pack weight in no time.









I get into my sleeping bag and guess what?  It rains all night again.

[SilkOnTheDrySide]

Wonderful story! Great pictures! I'm putting my deposit down with Paul this spring, can't wait to have a similar experience!


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[popeshawnpaul]

Day 5 – Still living on a glacier!

Today we have 3 straight miles up a side glacier to our pickup point.  It’s going to take about 7 hours as the last mile is on open ice and while steep, it’s easier going as we won’t have to snake our way through rock canyons, outcrops, crevices, etc.  There was one tough part where we had to take half the load at a time so we didn’t hurt ourselves crossing a river canyon.  It’s sunny and nice for the first time all day!  Hoping it holds by the time we get to the top of the glacier so they can fly and get us.  We make it to the top, exhausted and tired.  I was physically in shape for this, but you can’t simulate a 100+ pound pack and a glacier in my Bellevue spin class.  A call on the sat phone and the planes were there in a half hour.  At 7500 feet, at the base of a 14,500 foot mountain straight above us…it was cold.  I put every piece of clothing on to stay warm while waiting for the planes.  A quick 15 minute fight and we were at the remote lodge, in 70 degree weather!  Time to strip off all the layers.  I fell asleep early, passing out and I couldn’t even finish my glass of Crown Royal I was so tired.



















Guide Bill and I at the glacier, getting on the Supercub. 



And with horns plugged and sealed, I'm in Anchorage.  Ram ended up being 7.5 years old.  He was symetrical 38.25" on each side.  Bases are 14.25".  I rough rough scored him at 163.5".  If he doesn't "dry" up too much and my math was correct, he might make the 160" B&C Awards.  What next?  I'm going to Denali for a week to shoot sheep pictures of course!

[Ridgerunner]

Such great shots!  What a great ram!  Great write up.  Good job Shawn, enjoy Denali, its a very cool place.  A dall sheep hunt is the pinnacle of my hunting adventures so far too, what an amazing experience. 

[Hunting Cowboy]

Awesome Hunt! Congratulations.

[shanevg]

Congrats Pope!  That looks like so frick'n much fun!  Glad you got your ram and didn't get hurt!