Cheers fellow sheep enthuistists. Its been an un believeable run from the time I found out I drew the Sangres ram tag. Wanted to post a report on the hunt. Unfortunately, no sheep has hit the dirt, yet? Injury has taken us off the mountain for the time being. More on that later on the report. Me and my father have been in the Sangres back packing into different areas and hunting. Got into 1 area that was golden, seen 2 bands of rams. One group held 4 rams. 2 of which where very nice. 3/4 curl ram and another made that ram look like a dink. An un believable ram. The other 2 rams where little fella's. The other group had 5 rams, one of which was a nice mature ram worthy of harvesting.
I did have a shot at one of the rams of the first group referred too, 459 yards in holwing winds. Snow and ice made climbing down the ridge where they where impossible so had to go around the mountain for a cross canyon shot. Bullet drift was un believeable, held on the rams tail in terms of windage thinking it would drift into the chest and bullet went passed the chest about about 2 feet. Ive got my own personal range at home out to 500 at 50 yard intervels that I use alot, never seen drift like that before at the range or while hunting.
Anyways, the 2nd band of rams where living high on a north facing peak. Too much snow and ice to make a frontal assault and not possible to make a climb on the backside and come over top due to large rock faces.
So we decided to try a different area for a few days while we waited for the snow to melt off the north facing slope. This is when disaster struck. My dad stepped on a tree branch that snapped and flipped up and caught him in the eye. Eye instantly swelled basically shut, yellow puss all over, totally bloodshot and he couldn't see anything from him. So I did my best in first aid care, giving eye drops and patched it up. Did a quick examinization on my part. I made a climb into position to make a cell call to my mother and aunt who is a RN. Asked for advice with the circumstances, said to take it easy for rest of the day, give him my moisturizing drops every 2 hours, keep it banaged up and see what the next day would bring and then make a decision if to come off the mountain or stay put. Next day no improvement so we got off the mountain. Took him into the ER in Salida where they did an awesome job to get him in, less than 2 hours we where in and out. Which I thought was good considering it was on a Sunday night. And that they called the specialist on a Sunday night and gave him an appointment first thing the next morning. The ER Cleaned it out, examined it, and patched it up correctly He has to go back Wed morning to know more. Got antibotics for infection. No infection so far, however, his outer skin/flap of the eye has a big tear in it. The 2 big concerns at this point is infection, and weather the tear will repair correctly to regain his vision.
So that's where Im sitting right now, where waiting till Wed to know if I can head back onto the mountain or not??? I told him my sheep tag is important, but obvously his eye sight is more important than any hunt. If able will head back into the one area where we saw the group of rams where we didn't mess with them and hoping the snow has left the ledges good enough to make a climb into position. We saw them 3 different times within 200 yards each time.
So far its been a fun great run, hopefully circumstances gets me back on the mountain to finish this great adventure before season closes. If not, I accept my fate on this hunt. Too bad sh&t happens, just goes to show have to be prepared for anything to happen at anytime. Spend enough time in the wilds something bad will bound to happen no matter who you are.
Will report more on how things finish up.
I did have a shot at one of the rams of the first group referred too, 459 yards in holwing winds. Snow and ice made climbing down the ridge where they where impossible so had to go around the mountain for a cross canyon shot. Bullet drift was un believeable, held on the rams tail in terms of windage thinking it would drift into the chest and bullet went passed the chest about about 2 feet. Ive got my own personal range at home out to 500 at 50 yard intervels that I use alot, never seen drift like that before at the range or while hunting.
Anyways, the 2nd band of rams where living high on a north facing peak. Too much snow and ice to make a frontal assault and not possible to make a climb on the backside and come over top due to large rock faces.
So we decided to try a different area for a few days while we waited for the snow to melt off the north facing slope. This is when disaster struck. My dad stepped on a tree branch that snapped and flipped up and caught him in the eye. Eye instantly swelled basically shut, yellow puss all over, totally bloodshot and he couldn't see anything from him. So I did my best in first aid care, giving eye drops and patched it up. Did a quick examinization on my part. I made a climb into position to make a cell call to my mother and aunt who is a RN. Asked for advice with the circumstances, said to take it easy for rest of the day, give him my moisturizing drops every 2 hours, keep it banaged up and see what the next day would bring and then make a decision if to come off the mountain or stay put. Next day no improvement so we got off the mountain. Took him into the ER in Salida where they did an awesome job to get him in, less than 2 hours we where in and out. Which I thought was good considering it was on a Sunday night. And that they called the specialist on a Sunday night and gave him an appointment first thing the next morning. The ER Cleaned it out, examined it, and patched it up correctly He has to go back Wed morning to know more. Got antibotics for infection. No infection so far, however, his outer skin/flap of the eye has a big tear in it. The 2 big concerns at this point is infection, and weather the tear will repair correctly to regain his vision.
So that's where Im sitting right now, where waiting till Wed to know if I can head back onto the mountain or not??? I told him my sheep tag is important, but obvously his eye sight is more important than any hunt. If able will head back into the one area where we saw the group of rams where we didn't mess with them and hoping the snow has left the ledges good enough to make a climb into position. We saw them 3 different times within 200 yards each time.
So far its been a fun great run, hopefully circumstances gets me back on the mountain to finish this great adventure before season closes. If not, I accept my fate on this hunt. Too bad sh&t happens, just goes to show have to be prepared for anything to happen at anytime. Spend enough time in the wilds something bad will bound to happen no matter who you are.
Will report more on how things finish up.
