Congrats! Wonderful animals.
If you don't mind sharing more details of the hunts I'd appreciate it.
The hunt was out of Norman Wells, NWT with Ram Head Outfitters. In my research there simply is no better outfitter if you want to take a Dall with your bow. George Lawrence of Spokane
2011 Washington state sheep governors tag holder was on his third trip with Ram Head and took his third archery sheep with them the day after mine. Damn *censored* got "Jesse" the guide I wanted
! Big plus about Ram Head is they have their own planes and helicopter so there are no charter fees or delays.
My mentor "Duke" Savora took the first bighorn with bow in Alberta by a non native archer. His guide on that trip was the father of Ram Head owner Stan Simpson. So it was fitting and special that I used Simpson to test the new Savora prototype broadhead.
We flew from Norman Wells to base camp with Stan Simpson as the pilot of some small tail dragger.
Sorry, I'm ignorant when it comes to planes Landing on an uncomfortably small island on the Keal river. From there we took a jet sled almost 2 hours up stream to the sheep area.
After three days of climbing seven miles and almost 3,000' in elevation from river side to the sheep area and back down each day we packed camp up the hill to within 1/2 mile of the area the three nice rams were using. My goodness was that appreciated!!! Moose and grizzly spotting almost every day was a nice treat.
There was a rock gateway passage that was way cool. On one side of it there was little to no sheep sign. On the other side sheep sign everywhere. Sure wish the pictures did it justice.
Rained every day. Gore-tex pants, gators and boots and we still had wet socks and feet almost the whole day every day. Hard to glass due to fog/clouds. And to my surprise I actually was able to get used to swallowing mosquitoes and ignoring being eaten alive. I did eat dinner inside my tent to finally have a break from them each day. The moment my arrow hit that sheep the sun came out and it was clear and hot - go figure!
Once back at base camp and the sheep was fleshed we jumped into the Raven R44 helicopter with Megan Simpson
(the hot chick) as our pilot and headed north west about 55 miles to the caribou grounds.
They usually sit on a rock pile about 2,000 yards from camp, eat noodles and hot coco all day until a good bull comes by. But at 10 a.m. when I spotted that herd with 14 big bulls on the mountain top three mountains away it took little discussion before we headed out after them.
At 7 p.m. I had a down hill shot at the bull but I forgot to make the down hill yardage cut. As I watched the arrow sail over his back I figured that was it - stupid, stupid, stupid. Luckily the whole herd was more stupid than I was. They came back toward us on level ground trying to figure out what and where that sound had come from. I held at full draw for almost five minutes waiting for a cow behind my bull and a younger bull in front of him to move. They were looking pretty hard to see where the previous noise came from so letting down was absolutely not an option. Finally the cow stepped backward and my bull stepped forward. The shot missed the small bull by about 10 inches and hit the big boy dead center through the heart. He ran about 35 to 40 yards straight away and then rolled another 20 yards.
My amazing young guide saw that we might loose him over a cliff with one more good roll. So he took off at full speed taking his jacket off as he ran. When he reached the bull he covered the bulls head with the jacket and held on to the horns just in case there was one more kick left in him. But it was all over by then. The prototype had made quick work of him.
Want to cure long term target panic? Just hold on the target for five minutes before release. It works GREAT! Best shot I've made in years.
Well that's about all the details I can give without writing a book. Hope that's good.
