elkhuntin247
Active Member
- Messages
- 119
After years of waiting and long hours of training and shooting I finally got to experience for the first time what I have been dreaming of since I was a kid. My Dall sheep in the Makenzie mountains was finally here!!! The bush plane dropped us into base camp. After checking the zero on my rifle and a quick lunch my guide and I were off to spike camp. After an amazing and beautiful chopper flight we were dropped in the bottom of the valley along a creek where I would be able to hunt both sheep and mountain goat from the same spike camp location. I was now in Paradise valley, the most beautiful country that I had ever seen. Wow it was super steep and very cliffed up but I was ready for the challenge. After a good night sleep with the soft trickle of the creek in the background I found myself glassing for sheep. Moving ahead into the hunt we located a beautiful ram and after a long stalk I was finally out of the less than 1 club. He was beautiful and what I had been dreaming of!!
After a long pack out that took the better part of 2 days I was back in camp prepping the cape and recounting every moment of the stalk. The next morning we would get after some Mt goat. For the next few days we played cat and mouse games trying to get position on a big billy that we had located. The nannies, kids and young billys would make mistakes and offer us easy opertunities but the big billys we wanted were smart and always stayed cliffed up. While offering possible shots we knew recovery wouldn't be possible. On the evening of day six we headed back down to spike camp early and found a few caribou moving down the river bed. 2 good bulls followed only 3 miles up river and the annual migration out of the mountains had them heading out way. As light was fading a big grizzley chased them up another drainage and out of sight. My guide Stacey told me not to worry and that they would hold up and be moving past camp in the morning. He was correct. After a well placed bullet I had my hands on a beautiful mountain caribou.
We got weathered in for the rest of the day but we enjoyed tenderloin and stories while we worked on his cape. Day 8 brought us no luck on the mt goat and now it was noon on day 9. The final day of my hunt. With the chopper coming to pick us up late afternoon we started packing up camp and out of the corner of my eye I see a wolverine across the creek. I quickly grabbed my rifle but couldn't catch up to him. I sat on an elevated point hopping to catch a glimpse of this beautiful animal again but he was gone. An hour later my dreams came true. A wolf!!!! Only 300 yds away chasing a young caribou. Another perfectly placed shot and I was standing over an animal that figured I would never have the chance on.
That was just iceing on the cake in paradise valley. My dream hunt of a lifetime was now coming to a close as I hear the chopper blades approaching. I'm home now reliving the hunt with my wife and kids thinking to myself. There is no way this is just a once in a lifetime hunt. I definitely have the "sheep fever".
After a long pack out that took the better part of 2 days I was back in camp prepping the cape and recounting every moment of the stalk. The next morning we would get after some Mt goat. For the next few days we played cat and mouse games trying to get position on a big billy that we had located. The nannies, kids and young billys would make mistakes and offer us easy opertunities but the big billys we wanted were smart and always stayed cliffed up. While offering possible shots we knew recovery wouldn't be possible. On the evening of day six we headed back down to spike camp early and found a few caribou moving down the river bed. 2 good bulls followed only 3 miles up river and the annual migration out of the mountains had them heading out way. As light was fading a big grizzley chased them up another drainage and out of sight. My guide Stacey told me not to worry and that they would hold up and be moving past camp in the morning. He was correct. After a well placed bullet I had my hands on a beautiful mountain caribou.
We got weathered in for the rest of the day but we enjoyed tenderloin and stories while we worked on his cape. Day 8 brought us no luck on the mt goat and now it was noon on day 9. The final day of my hunt. With the chopper coming to pick us up late afternoon we started packing up camp and out of the corner of my eye I see a wolverine across the creek. I quickly grabbed my rifle but couldn't catch up to him. I sat on an elevated point hopping to catch a glimpse of this beautiful animal again but he was gone. An hour later my dreams came true. A wolf!!!! Only 300 yds away chasing a young caribou. Another perfectly placed shot and I was standing over an animal that figured I would never have the chance on.
That was just iceing on the cake in paradise valley. My dream hunt of a lifetime was now coming to a close as I hear the chopper blades approaching. I'm home now reliving the hunt with my wife and kids thinking to myself. There is no way this is just a once in a lifetime hunt. I definitely have the "sheep fever".
