Alaska Dall sheep

C

CameronsRule

Guest
LAST EDITED ON Oct-18-05 AT 12:07PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Oct-18-05 AT 12:03?PM (MST)

Hunted in the Chugach Range this year and took what I felt was a nice ram.
 
>LAST EDITED ON Oct-18-05
>AT 12:07?PM (MST)

>
>LAST EDITED ON Oct-18-05
>AT 12:03?PM (MST)

>
>Hunted in the Chugach Range this
>year and took what I
>felt was a nice ram.
>
43553a2c370cc094.jpg
 
CR:

That is a awesome ram. I am booked for 2007 in the Alaska Range for my first dall hunt. Please give us all the details of the hunt!
 
This was a great hunt. Real unusual, but a great hunt. I went with a buddy of mine, and it was his first sheep hunt, so the outfitter spent a lot of his time making sure my buddy was taken care of. We got him flown into an area in the Talkeetnas where the outfitter had seen a good ram from the air. My buddy and his guide spent 3 days getting on this ram, and then decided he was too small. Then the 4th day, they got within 60 yards of the ram, and my buddy couldn't resist, and shot it. He measured 33 inches.

Then we had to get them out of that area. The upshot of all that is the outfitter and I spent every morning and every evening flying in a Super Cub in the Talkeetnas and the Chugach range. Over the course of that time, I saw over 100 black bears, dozens of grizzly, moose, caribou, sheep, goats, whales, salmon, etc., etc.

When I finally got dropped off in my area with the guide, we saw a real nice ram while we were coming in to land. The next day we spent working our way through the fog trying to find him, only to discover later in the early evening that he'd changed mountain ranges. We put a high speed stalk on him, but he made us at about 500 yards. I tried one shot at him, shooting nearly straight up as he crossed a slide, but shot a couple inches low.

We went back to our tent that night, pretty dejected and discouraged. My 7 day hunt was pretty much over and we were going to walk out the 7 miles to the trail head the next morning. That night it rained real hard, and then froze. The next morning, I flipped back the tent flap to see what the world looked like, and spotted 3 rams on a distant hill, grazing their way to the bottom. It was clear they were going to cross from one mountain range over to another. The spotting scope showed one exceptionally heavy horned ram that was over 10 years of age.

We hurried and threw our clothes on, grabbed minimal gear, and literally sprinted the mile up the canyon where the sheep were just crossing. I made a 250 yard shot and the rest, as they say, is history.

This ram is 37 inches long and has 14 inch bases, and he carries his mass way down the horn, for a Dall sheep. The Fish and Game aged him at 12 years old.
 
I booked with a guy named Dee Deoudes. Dee only books 3 or 4 hunters a year, just enough to pay for his plane expenses and so forth.

I've heard of Snyder, but can't remember where right now. Where are you hunting in the Alaska range? I hunted there in '02, between Healy and the Wood River.
 
CR:

Great story and a great ram to boot. You mentioned you hunted in the Wood River area in 02. I am booked with Max Schwab who flys out of Healy and hunts in that general area. Who did you hunt with, and how did you do?
 
I hunted with Les Cobb. There were 5 of us hunters and we all killed sheep. Nothing terribly big, but we all killed sheep. That area has pretty good access so I think the rams get cropped pretty hard. I think the biggest ram was 36 inches; everything else was 33-34 (which is the average ram for Alaska).
 
Nice ram, congrats. Hopefully I can draw one of those Chugach tags for next fall.
 
Congrats on a great ram. I hunted the Chugach last year and count the days until I can go back and hunt the white sheep again.

Splash
 

Click-a-Pic ... Details & Bigger Photos
Back
Top Bottom