Cathy's Sheep Hunt

YELUM

Long Time Member
Messages
3,515
My wife drew a California bighorn sheep tag in North Central Utah and I wanted to be prepared for the hunt. I called biologists, previous hunters, and others with sheep experience.

We made our 1st scout trip on July 15th, and turned up 12 rams. Two were good ones.
9765847.jpg


9630888.jpg


2750889.jpg


1044893.jpg


5291903.jpg


A couple video clips. I don't have the brains to put them all together for upload.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1633/cali-ram
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1634/cali-ram2

Yelum
 
Trips two and three
Our second scouting trip was fun, but we didn't turn up any mature rams. My friend Ryan and his boy Porter came with Cathy and I. They hiked up to an old mine, while I glassed for sheep. Found 3 ewes and a young ram.

The third trip didn't go well. My friend Mike and I had planned his trip for a while and he drove up from Cedar City. It had rained for 3 days and we knew the area was gonna be wet, but went anyway. A half hour after we got there, we found ourselves stuck in the greasy mud. It really was worse than it looked. Four hours and a few prayers later, along with a bit of work on Mikes end, we were rolling again, but the roads were too gewy, so we heading home without seeing a single sheep.

Yelum
7059p1110726.jpg


3381p1110727.jpg
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-08-11 AT 03:45PM (MST)[p]Trip four
This started off awesome and ended the same way. We tried a new part of the mountain my friend Garth told me about, and we no sooner hit the end of the road when we were looking at two mature rams and a heavy 5 year old. Both the mature rams were collared, but this one was a lot prettier ram. We got awesome photos and video of this ram, and would be looking for him come hunt time.

The younger ram
3501sheep817.jpg


The other collared ram.
171sheep768.jpg


The good ram
4712sheep352.jpg

1349sheep354.jpg

5637sheep836.jpg


A few video clips.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1635/cali-ram3
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1640/Utah-cali-ram
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1641/Utah-cali-ram
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1642/Utah-cali-ram

We left him and hit a couple other areas, and I glassed up a smoker ram on a ridge 1 ? miles away. From the side I could tell he had a long right horn. He had one ewe following him, instead or the other way around. Then we watched a whole lot of head popping from two groups of rams. From a long way away, I could tell this ram had a lot of bone on his head. On the day, we saw 8 rams and 10 ewes.

A good ram from way off.
4079sheep490.jpg




Yelum
 
Trip five
This was a fun trip with a lot of sheep spotted. The rut was heating up, and we saw 18 rams and 16 ewes. We heard heads popping and watched and filmed two sets of rams ramming heads. We went to the area we saw a group of rams the previous trip, but only found 2 separate rams. One big, one average. The big one slipped over the ridge. This video clip shows the average ram.
5754sheep0881a.jpg



http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1644/Utah-cali-ram


On our way to the next area we saw this ram. He was collared and ear tagged.

2814sheep0890a.jpg



http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1643/Utah-cali-ram


When we got to the next spot, we found a group of 4 sheep. Two ewes, one 5 year old ram we'd seen the previous trip, and this toad. He had not broomed off his right side.

8799sheep1547.jpg


2069sheep1532.jpg



http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1645/Utah-cali-ram

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1646/Utah-cali-ram

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1647/Utah-cali-ram

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1648/Utah-cali-ram

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1649/Utah-cali-ram

When we hit the other side of the unit we found these two rams at the bottom of the mountain. Both were nice rams. One was the 4th collared ram I'd seen.

5723sheep0906a.jpg



They put on a show.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1650/Two-cali-rams

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1651/Two-cali-rams

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1652/Two-Utah-cali-rams

They also bumped this broken ram out of his bed in the brush.



While watching these lower rams, we heard some horn popping up the hill. We found these rams.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1653/two-cali-rams

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1654/two-rams-butting-heads




Yelum
 
I forgot to add this picture of the broken ram to yesterdays post.


1400sheep912a.jpg


Yelum
 
Cathy and I went to the range a few times, and she didn't miss a beat. The Remington 280, shooting 150 grains, with the Vortex scope was dialed in. She felt solid at 100 yards, but iffy further than 200.

Finally, it was time to leave for the hunt. We had skipped the 1st 2 days of the hunt, and opted for later in the week. We would be hunting Thur, Fri, and Sat if needed.

Going on the trip, were my friends Tracy, Mike, Rex, Ryan, Clint and his boy AJ. Also joining was Garth a sheep hunting fool. My friend Kade and his wife were coming out for the day. We met at my house at 7:00 am, and were on our way at 7:30. At 10:30 we were setting up camp. Two wall tents would be our home for the next 3 days. My first experience with them and it was awesome.
9335hunt0005.jpg


Once camp was set up we hit the road to start glassing for sheep. They were spread out in groups of one to three. It was after 1:00 before Ryan and Kade spotted a good ram after a long hike up a canyon.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1655/Utah-cali-ram

Tracy and I stopped to glass an area and I spotted this ram bedded. He's at the left base of the tree.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1656/Utah-cali-ram


After a while he got up to feed. Not A shooter, so we move on.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1657/utah-cali-ram


Kade headed back to his truck, while Ryan went over the top and gives a visual of the country.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1658/sheep-country

In the mean time, Clint spotted 3 rams bedded on a low ridge. We could tell one was a good ram, collared and tagged. We couldn't tell how good while bedded, so we waited for everyone to gather and decide what to do. Kade went to get Cathy and Garth, who had gone up a near canyon. This ram with yellow T?s on his red ear tags, which I had filmed 5 days earlier on the other side of the mountain, was bedded on the hill.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1659/Utah-cali-ram

Hind sight is wonderful, and if we could do it over, we would have sent Cathy after this ram asap, but we waited. Unfortuneatly, we didn't, and while we were watching, the big flared ram we were looking for, came barreling down the ridge with another ram, chasing a ewe. They ran right into the bedded rams and chaos ensued. All the rams started chasing her up the mountain through boulders and junipers. They went into a side canyon, and we sent Cathy and a few guys up the canyon to try for either of these rams.

They had one shot at this flared ram that Tracy got the camera on, but Cathy hadn't got up the ridge yet before the ram spooked over the ridge.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1660/Utah-cali-ram
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1661/Utah-cali-ram

Two mistakes cost us chances at two very good rams. And that ended day one of the hunt.

Day Two
After breakfast, Garth spotted a ram up the road from camp and we went to check him out. He was on the move up the mountain, and only stopped to bed when he reached the top. Not a shooter, so we moved on.

2702img_1634.jpg


Ryan was first up the canyon from the previous night and found the yellow T ram down low and the big sheep high on the mountain.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1662/Utah-cali-rams
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1663/utah-cali-ram
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1664/utah-cali-ram


With the flared ram, and several other shooters up there, it was decided to go after them. Cathy, Ryan, Clint, ands Garth left the trucks at 1:10, while the rest of us stayed down to spot. It was a long wait. We watched the sheep bed, and after a few hours they were up feeding, but we saw no sign of the two bigger rams. With the boulders big, we could never see the hunters or know went it would go down, but at 4:21, a lone shot rang out, and a ram was down.

Heres a few clips from the stalk. The mountain is step.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1665/utah-cali-ram-hunt

This ram kept following them.

7520dsc06213.jpg



http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1669/utah-cali-ram

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1670/utah-cali-ram

The ram, heading to his last bed.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1671/utah-cali-ram


They first set up at 210 yards, but Cathy didn't feel comfortable, especially with the wind howling, so they moved closer and she took the shot at 142 yards.

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1672/Utah-cali-ram


A few photos.
6645cathy2a.jpg


81425.jpg


66cathy3a.jpg


66613.jpg




I didn't get a picture of the guys packing him off the mountain, but a big thanks goes to Mike, Rex, Ryan, and Clint, as well as to Garth for bring Chathy back down safe.


What a great time we had. A big thanks to my friends for helping us out. I'm so proud of you Cathy for hanging tough and getting it done.

Yelum
 
It's ewasy to see why sheep hunting gets in your veins. They such fun animals to watch be around.

I found this shot on one of my cameras that shows the mountain the sheep was on. She shot him just under the saddle on the skyline.

Yelum
5088img_1642.jpg
 
I was wrong, I did have a pic of my buddies packing it down.
Also, We learned after we got home that the ram popping heads with the collared ram in post #3, is the one she shot.

Yelum
7150hunt6222.jpg
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.

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