Manson Sheep hunt 2015

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I have an airbrush somewhere in my fathers old stuff... If I get a chance to come up this December, and I can find it,  I will bring it with me. Someone should get some use out of it.

[lokidog]

Curious as to how many different Rams you saw on your Hunt?  Great job by the way!

Eleven or twelve maybe.  They were a lot more scarce this trip than they were in the beginning of October.

I have an airbrush somewhere in my fathers old stuff... If I get a chance to come up this December, and I can find it,  I will bring it with me. Someone should get some use out of it.

Thanks.  He's got one, just won't take a class to learn how to use it.   

[lokidog]

More pics.

This one is of the band after they busted us trying to sneak up on them.  I dropped my bow and traded for the ML at this point.  I can't tell if the larger ram is the one I got or not.

The second pic is of the mountain, illustrated to give an idea of what the sheep and we did to get up there.

[lokidog]

Here's a photo looking up the first "easy" draw we went up.

[lokidog]

I guess you can't read the key very well. 

The blue line is roughly our path, the sheep were at the green oval and moved up to the yellow by the time we went up the valley and headed left. 

We moved up a little on them when they stopped at the darker yellow area (on the hoof photo) but then decided to circle way around to the right to try to get above them.

While we circled, and climbed like mountain goats, they continued to move up the hill paralleling us. 

[pd]

Great Scots!  That was a heckuva hike.  Did any of you fear they would top out, and descend the other side?  I didn't see it elsewhere, how far did you range the shot with the muzzleloader?

[lokidog]

Great Scots!  That was a heckuva hike.  Did any of you fear they would top out, and descend the other side?  I didn't see it elsewhere, how far did you range the shot with the muzzleloader?

We knew this hill went up quite a bit more than what we could see from the lake.  I'll get to those other details....   

But now, I have gotten ahead of the story.....   

During our first scouting trip, we did not go up past Safety Harbor and saw most of the sheep from just above Mitchell to Grade Creek with one larger band at Safety Harbor.  That was the group with the "shooter" in it.

The day before season, we saw no sheep from Mitchell Creek, where we were camped, all the way to about Lime Kiln Point. Somewhere near there, we spotted a small band with two rams, one being quite small and the other mid-sized but with his left horn broken off quite a bit shorter than his right. He was tending a ewe above the others. Later, looking at the photos, I realized I got one of him attempting to mate the ewe.  At Grade we saw two rams with the two ewes.  Being somewhat small, I decided to see how close they would let us get.  We drifted in to about thirty yards from shore and they actually came down and drank from the lake, with the younger ram laying down on the beach.  The bigger one stayed a little farther away.  I think I got some good video of these animals but have not yet looked at it.  The next, and last sheep we saw the day before season, was at Falls Creek.  He was a decent looking ram, but was by himself, as far as we could tell.  This was all a bit discouraging as we had seen a lot more sheep in our previous scouting.  We ran into the other tag holder shortly after I found the weather balloon.  They had been scouting much farther up the lake.  We then worked our way back to camp with no other sheep seen.

[250savage]

Congratulations on getting a great ram . I'll be giving you a call next year when I am drawn for that hunt . Sounds like you had a blast.

[lokidog]

I would enjoy doing this hunt again with someone, though I think I will stay in the boat.....      

[lokidog]

One nice thing about this hunt, is that you do not have to drive or hike a long way to start looking for animals, so there is no need to be up before dawn.  We rolled out at about 7 a.m. to the sound of the other tag holder heading up lake, he was hoteling it in town.     We had a good breakfast, scanned the hills above camp, and got under way.  We motored fairly quickly while watching the hillsides since we had not seen much the day before.  We got up to where we had seen the biggest ram, but he was not there.  We had looked at the maps the day before and saw that it was just a treed ravine up above him so it did not seem to make any sense to hike up there to look.

We passed Safety Harbor and started watching and glassing the hillsides.  Overall, this upper portion of the unit seems to be quite a bit steeper than the lower area.  I spotted a small band ahead at the top of some cliffs near the water, two rams, but no first day shooters.  Too bad since the topography here would have made getting into bow range relatively easy. Moving up the lake, we did not see any more animals.  We came across the other hunters, but they indicated the same thing. Eventually, we turned around and worked our way back down lake.  We spotted a ewe and a lamb where we had not seen them before, but no other animals.  This whole area has lots of little benches and draws that could easily hide sheep.

As we neared the area where we had seen the band earlier, I spotted a lone ram heading in the direction that we soon saw the earlier ones had headed. He was not a "shooter" either.  We slowly worked our way back down lake enjoying the partly sunny, mild November day.

As we approached the Deer point Campground, I spotted a band of six sheep up above.  Then, we noticed another nine or so slightly above them.  There were two smaller rams in the first group but the others were somewhat screened by trees.  We motored in to shore to try to get a better view and set up the spotting scope.  Unfortunately, here, as in a lot of this area, there was no easy view up the hill from the shore.

       

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

What a great hunt! Congrats!!!!

[lokidog]

Being that is was only about 12:15, the first day, and nice weather, we decided to hike up a ways and "take a look".  Corey said he didn't think there were any larger rams....   

I donned my day pack and grabbed my bow, Corey carried my ML and decided not to grab his pack (since we were just going for a midday hike        ).

We picked our way uphill hoping to keep a small ridge between the sheep and us and get up even with them to take a look.  After a while, we decided to ease over the ridge working our way up the rocks.  Movement ahead, busted!  We could see one ewe to the left and a ram (um, I think he's a shooter Corey...) and ewe to the right nervously watching us.  Ranged, they were 130 yards.  Suddenly, the rest of the band that we could not see bolted up over the ridge.

We moved over to where we could see them milling up behind a screen of trees.  At this point, I decided that this was a ram I would be happy to have.  I also decided that with this more open area, I would likely not be able to get into bow range since they were already alerted.  We set the bow down at the base of some rocks with a split top tree behind us (we didn't notice this today though and I didn't think about marking the location with a waypoint on my gps).  We dropped back and attempted another flanking move.  Eventually we reached a ravine where we had to skirt the edges of the cliffy rocks to gain elevation.  We calculated that we were above where we had last seen them so crept up the rocks to get a look.  Corey is a bit taller than me and suddenly he reported the sheep just over the ridge (at the orange circle) and pulled his head back down.  I ranged a tree, on the far side of the little scree filled bowl, to be 100 yards.  I got into shooting position but could only see the upper portion of the bowl.

A ewe stepped into view and Corey told me the ram was coming up behind her.  He stepped into view and then went uphill turning to our right.  I lined up the bead behind his shoulder and touched it off.  The ram and the others trotted up the hill with no visible indication of a hit.      I quickly reloaded, just in case, but not actually expecting, I'd get another shot.   

Suddenly they came out on a little knob above us with the big guy behind the ewes, he gave me about a half second clear shot at 80 yards or so, but not enough time with the peep sight to get on him before he stepped behind the ladies.  They milled for a while in a clump with his horns sticking up from behind everyone.As the ewes turned left to move off, I had a fairly quick shot to make when he was in the clear, BOOM. It looked like he stepped sideways (fell I hoped) and disappeared from sight.  Corey said he thought I hit him hard as he saw the shoulder ripple at the shot.  I reloaded again, leaving me two extra rounds and one in the gun.

We advance, slowly along the steep rocks, to where we thought the sheep were, blood on the trail!  It is bright red but, there's not much of it.  We heard and saw movement  across the ravine, it was the band of sheep, with no large ram.  OK, even more excited now, I walk up the trail to hopefully find him down... nothing on the bench.  We see a ewe up above us in the opposite direction.  I start circling above the trail, nothing, Corey looks down lower, nothing.  We figured if he had fallen down the ravine, we would have heard something, but we did not.  I continue zigzagging up looking for any sign.  There appears to be only one easy access off the bench up above it, a funnel through the rocks.  I work my way through it finding nothing, not even a track.  A bit of despair settles on me, this can't be happening, I lost a buck earlier this season and can't believe it might happen again.   

Lucky you all, you know how this story ends, I did not yet know.

[billythekidrock]

Thanks everyone.

Anyone want to come visit and be the boat tender?  I'm a little worried about access off the lake if it gets windy since the shoreline is pretty inhospitable.  I do have a bungee anchor system to try to keep it off the rocks though.

Good trout fishing along the shore as well.   

Loki

Damn.. wish I would have seen this earlier. I have several days of vacation to burn.
Congrats on a successful hunt.

[lokidog]

So, I get up on "top" of the funnel and start zigzagging and looking for a "trail", nothing.  I get over to the side and happen to notice some movement below me, looking with my scope (peep sights remember    ), I see a sheep.  As it lays down, I see that it is the ram I shot at.  I estimate the distance to be about 80 yards, again, and get down to take a steady shot.  He is kind of in the shadows so it is a bit hard to pick a tiny target.  Cock the gun, squeeze the trigger, and CLICK!  The cap fell off.     I stick another cap from my capper on and decide to try to get closer as he seems to not notice me.  At about forty yards, I lay down over some rocks and CLICK! Lost another cap? Uugghh!  Now I'm starting to get nervous, frantic maybe?  I place another cap on and oh oh, he's looking up at me.  Line up, BOOM, he stands up and quickly walks away.  WTH? I quickly reload and realize that somewhere along the way, I have lost one of my powder charges.  This is my last shot in the gun and my last cap.  I squeeze it a bit so it will not fall off, but as I slip it over the nipple, it crimps under a little on the side.  I carefully push it onto the nipple with the hammer so it will be tight.

I walk down to where the sheep was bedded, nothing.  I see his tracks and follow for about 40 or 50 yards where I kind of lose them in the rocks, then I hear Corey holler from above.  I meet him back where the ram was bedded and we look at the spot, there is about a silver dollar-sized spot of blood.  Oh yeah, at this point, I could barely walk back up the slight incline to meet Corey as every muscle in my legs was cramping up on me. 

Despair was settling in again, fueled by exhaustion.  Corey then takes lead on the tracking. He indicated some tracks farther on and then I saw a couple drops of blood on the rocks. Luckily the hill is pretty steep both above and below so the ram is side hilling.  At one point, Corey was moving on and I saw a spot where maybe the ram dropped down a little, so I followed that trail.  After another eighty to hundred yards Corey whistles and I see him motioning that he can see the ram. I painfully move up to the rocks just below him.  He shows me where the ram is, about eighty yards ahead, bedded in a more open grassy area quartering away facing downhill.  I cannot advance directly as there is no cover between me and the ram so I drop back down a bit.  At this point, I am literally crawling as I cannot stand up because of my legs and due to lack of cover.

I realize I have to get close, really close.  Luckily there are two trees that I can keep between the ram and myself but as I get to the first one, I realize I will have to go over or under a log running up and down the hill.  I cannot go over as the ram will be able to see me and I am still about fifty yards out.  I also cannot lift my legs over the log.  I am going to have to drop my pack though to get under the log that is only about fourteen inches off the ground.  At one point, I have to sit and let my legs stretch out so I painstakingly move some sticks to have a quiet place to sit.  I also remove my pack and my can of caps, forgotten in the heat of battle, falls to the ground.  I decided to replace the crimped up cap.

I crawl under the log, thanks Corey for the binocular harness, it made it a little easier to squeeze under. Advancing about another ten yards, there is now a bush between the ram and I, I sit up to get ready to take the shot. Because I am below the ram, all I can see is his head, upper shoulder and part of his back.  I need to move uphill to get a better angle, also to try to make sure there are no rocks in the grass between us.  I crawled another ten yards forward and three or four yards up the hill.

I've got to make this count, my legs are screaming, my head and heart are pounding, my thoughts are racing, it is getting darker in the shadows of the hillside... did I mention that the fiber optic bead in my front site fell out at the first shot? Should I try to get him to stand for a better shot angle?  No, take the shot, please, no rocks in the grass.  I sit up, carefully aim behind the shoulder, steady, BOOM!  The ram stands up, I can see it was a fatal hit as there is a good stream of blood behind his shoulder.  He walks forward and out of my sight though.  I fall back, I can't even stand up at this point, but I know I finally put an end to this chase.

Corey, still mobile, moves forward and gets eyes on the ram.  I try to move forward but Corey motions me to stop.  The ram is still standing, but at the top of a steep rock field.  He stumbles, moves down hill,, stumbles again, farther downhill, finally face plants, rolls a little, and stops.  Corey feel free to clean up any details.   

We approach my ram, at a snails pace due to my legs hardly working, and admire this beautiful animal. We take a few photos, not as many as I would have liked, and get started gutting.  The location was so steep, that I pretty much gutted him at waist level.  The light is fading fast so we quickly get him gutted and caped out.  We hung the head and cape in a tree and propped the carcass up as much as we could without it tumbling down the hill.  At this point it is about 5:30 and light is fading fast. 

As we are packing up, we realize neither of us has a flashlight!     So much for that be prepared thing....  Over the next hour and a half, we slowly worked our way back to the boat using Corey's flashlight function on his cell phone.  Thank goodness for Apps.   

It turned out that my first "hit" was high above the spine in the hump of his shoulder.  This would probably have been a survivable hit as the bullet passed pretty cleanly through just clipping one of the spinal processes.  He was apparenly a bit sore though.  My second shot somehow hit the side of one of his horn tips, embedding a chunk of horn in the nape of his neck (he must have turned his head and was looking up at me).  My third shot passed through one lung and exited the top of his off side shoulder blade, still a bit high.  Not sure what happened with all of the high shots as it was dead on at 100 yards and about 2 1/2 inches high at 40.  It was probably operator error but have not yet had a chance to shoot the gun again to see.

We hiked in the next day, found my bow (turns out we walked within thirty yards of it on the way out in the dark), finished boning out the ram, other than the front shoulders, and hiked him back to the boat.  It took about seven hours to cover the seven tenths of a mile (by crow) and 1500 foot elevation gain, butchering, and packing.  We also overshot the ram by about 500 feet of elevation, though that helped Corey find his first shed.  This was fortunate since he had walked by a bright white four point shed on the way in and was lamenting the fact that everyone else he knows has found sheds but him.     

We did get a nice show on the way up from a young ram and three ewes.

[lokidog]

Oops, forgot these ones.