Umtanum south youth big horn sheep update....

[elkoholic1]

first id like to thank all of those who reached out with info and offers to help with hunt  , I have a co-worker who asked me about putting his son in for some youth hunts so with some nudging from me he's been putting his son in for all youth tags possible, this year he was one of the lucky #3 to be drawn for the Umtanum south youth tag, this would be his first ever hunt. we did some early scouting trips like most who drew special tags did a lot of hiking all around the whole unit which isn't very big and found every time we went over the sheep where in different areas. like most we talked to biologist and they said cross river at county line at the ripples as water is very low there this time of year and wait for them to come to water. well we wanted to make his first hunt a little more sporting then just sitting and waiting for them to come to water. so we had plans of waking up early and start hiking the 3.5 mile skyline trail before light and get about half way up then start glassing down in the rocks and shelfs looking for bedded and feeding sheep, we had hopes of getting a juvenile ram at first but in all out time over we had only seen 4 legal youth rams, so we started to consider shooting a good old ewe if the opportunity presented itself to us. We showed up on Saturday and did a lot of glassing along the canyon road like we found many other doing some with tags in pocket others just taking in the views, we put some sheep to bed Saturday night and got up early Sunday to see if they moved far, found they hadn't moved much at all, talking with other hunter and seeing what they had planned for the opener had us second guessing our move come Monday morning, we did drive all the way around and found others as well at the top doing the same as us, as Saturday evening came we kept moving glassing and trying to find a smaller group with hopefully a legal juvenile ram in it. We decided to go back to the dam and walk across it and put the binos and spotting scope to work and low and behold we found a nice size group that where just coming from water by where the cannel enters the mountain side, we found this group had 2 legal juvenile rams in it. we decided to watch them and we sat for 3.5 hours till they all had mostly bedded up. New plan for opener were coming back to same location before daylight and going to hope they would still be in same location, yes I know these animals aren't very spooky and allusive like elk and deer can be so we felt real good about our decision. we wanted to make this young fellers first big game animal hunt to be one he would remember for ever, not that we just showed up and walk out and shot one like no big deal, as we arrived Monday morning all bundled up as it was a little nippy outside, we walk down across the dam to the rail road tracks crossed and headed up the hill a few yards and sat and waited for day light, as day light started to show up we started to see sheep popping up they had move up the to the base of the steep hills, we decided to make our move hoping the shooter rams where still in this group (yes we probably could have walked right up the middle and got within the distance we needed to make a shot 300yrds or under) but to make it a little more exciting for this youngsters first ever big game hunt we decided to start crawling on our hands and knees using the rock mounds and tall grasses and depressions in the ground to our advantage and staying out sight of the rams that where up and feeding by know, we where almost to our rock mound we had set as our destination when dad says there's our ram were looking for feeding to our right all by himself we continued crawling till we reached the rocky mound dad and hunter climbed to the top got bi-pod out and pack back out to give the shooter a rock solid bench style rest, ( dad had been taking son to Bellingham several times a month getting son use to gun and shooting out to 300yards and dad had gun dialed in so all he had to do was hold cross hairs dead on and squeeze the trigger) I called out range 308yards dad set the scope and got his son ready was very impressed with this little guy as he did not rush the shot and advised dad that all didn't feel right so with some adjustments with another back pack to lock in the steadiness of the gun he got back behind the gun and settle in and made really good shot as the ram dropped right in his tracks and the celebrating and high fiving began. the hunting lesson hadn't ended just yet as he got first hand closeness on how to gut tear down an animal and bone out the meat of course we made him pack out the cape and head as dad got the heavy end packing the meat out. I know these sheep can be easily hunted and all the scouting and hiking trips weren't really necessary but we wanted this young guy to realize hunting isn't always easy and you have to put in the time and effort that's needed if you want your chances of success to go way up..... think we have him hooked as he's already bugging dad about what he gets to go after next theirs nothing better than getting out in the woods with todays youth getting them away from their electronics and gismos and teaching them theirs a lot more to life then social media and games and if your willing to put in the work theirs and amazing beautiful world out there worth exploring that many people never get to see because they don't wanna put in the work it take to get there... 

[JakeLand]

Nice job ! And good idea on making it a work and hunt !

[Skyvalhunter]

Congrats on the sheep!! I wish they would cut back on the number of permits and let some sheep mature so we can harvest some older ones

[HntnFsh]

Congrats to the young man. I like the way you think! You handled it perfectly!

[millerwheeler]

Great story way to make   him work for it

[boneaddict]

   Congrats

[Karl Blanchard]

I disagree! I think all the scouting, prep work, and HUNTING were important! You guys showed that young man that dedication and hard work=success! Well done and thank you for sharing

[X-Force]

Very cool. Great to see

[7mmfan]

I agree, I think it was handled perfectly. The emphasis on preparedness and scouting is super important to instill in them early. The belly crawling and using cover may not have been necessary, but he got to put the sneak on them and make a shot at unaware animals, which is always better. Great work to all involved!

[hunting4sanity]

Congratulations to the young man and the adults for making this hunt truly memorable!

[jstone]

That is fantastic

[quack98282]

 

[huntsonofgun]

Congratulations!!

[Skyvalhunter]

Very nice!! What did you end up seeing for big rams?

[lonedave]

Awesome job.  The smiles always say it all!