Unit S03 Bighorn

KsGinner

Member
Messages
25
Hey Colorado Sheep Hunters,
After years of applying as a non resident for a bighorn ram I decided to throw in the towel and apply for a ewe tag. I know many will think this was a stupid decision and you don’t know how many times I thought about hitting the delete button before submitting my app. To be completely honest I just don’t know how many times a guy will ever get to hunt a sheep if ever in the lower 48. With the overwhelming onslaught on everything hunting I figure a ewe hunt is STILL a sheep hunt and I really don’t need to impress anyone. I just want an adventure. I’m 30 years old and I’m in good shape. Sheep shape? I’m sure of it. Nothing has slowed me down yet. I’ve ranched and worked cattle everyday of my adult life so I feel I’m in good shape even though it hasn’t been at elevation. My archery elk hunting is always high elevation so no worries there. Anyway onto what I am looking for…pretty simple. I just want to BS with someone over the phone, pm, email, etc that has experience in this unit. I have reached out via call and email to biologists all over the area and haven’t received anything back. The hunt starts in just over a month and I really just want to get some info to back my research on google earth, gohunt, OnX, etc. This $5 fuel and moving to the panhandle of Texas four months ago really cut out my “boots on the ground scouting.” If anyone has hunted this unit for rams or ewes please reach out. I would appreciate it greatly. I’ve looked into all the statistics on the CPW website yadda yadda yadda. Thanks again and good luck to everyone in the upcoming hunting season. I guess if I strike out on my ewe hunt hopefully I can slap a big bull in Arizona on my late muzzleloader hunt!

P.S. I have crept this site, rokslide, longrangehunting, for around ten years off and on. If necessary please hit me with your best, nice first post. Asking for honey holes hahahaha.
 
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Wanted to update this post in case someone has a tag in the future. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take off the 5 days I wanted to from work. Trying to find steady help that wants to show up everyday is next to impossible it seems. Since I already had the $2,000+ tag in my pocket I decided one morning after work to head to the mountains. I have a contract cattle processing crew here in the Texas panhandle and we work/implant/vaccinate cattle while it’s cool out to avoid heat stress. So Friday at 2:30am I get up and head to work at 3. Cattle hit my chute at 3:45 and we knock out 800 head by 8 o’clock. After cleaning the barn I can’t stop thinking about the tag burning a hole in my pocket. I get to my house at 10:30 and tell my wife to gather some clothes for her and my boy who is a year and a half old. We make the journey 7.5 hours to Georgetown, Colorado and arrive in time to check out Guanella pass before the sun goes down. Zero sheep spotted, but at least I get to see the country in person. After a bite to eat we get a hotel and head to bed. Woke up at 5:30 and head up Guanella pass to try to glass up some sheep. It was super busy with hikers and tree/leaf watchers. I glass up a band of ewes off the side of the road two miles away, but scrap the idea of hunting them after talking to a hiker/hunter that said it’s impossible to go up the face I wanted to. At around 10:30 I’m sick of people coming up to me asking me why I have a “telescope” and I’m in camo so we head into town for lunch. After that I drop my wife and boy off and pretty much told her I was just going to drive around and glass for fun. I ended up driving all the way around the unit to the Mount Evans area. The area looked extremely good so I said heck with it and started in through more hikers/tourist asking if I was a park ranger with my gun in my pack. After two hours of hiking I found myself in some steep rough country that I literally had zero chance of ethically harvesting and getting something out within the next 24 hours and still be able to make it back to Texas for work on Monday morning. At 4:05pm I said my last goodbye to my perch and started back to my truck with my lip and tail dragging between my legs. Less than 100 yards into my pity party walk I look up on the skyline and saw a sheep! After dropping prone I immediately grabbed my spotter that I had just been cussing for it’s weight and size and began to scan the horizon. It was definitely a ewe! After I caught my breath and laid my little 6mm Creedmoor coyote rifle across my pack I ranged her and 675 and dropped the hammer. She went 5 yards and started getting sick. After ten seconds I anchored her with another. The hike up to her was brutal but the adrenaline made it seem like a cake walk even at 13,500 feet. After some pics I began caping her out and quartering her. The sun was going down and I was a long long long ways away from my truck on a mountain I had never been on. I left her there to cool over night. After driving 1.5 hours back to the hotel I slept a little bit and hit the mountain again first thing to go in solo and pack her all out. My legs were shot and I was running on fumes by time I got her out in one trip. Loaded up and headed 7.5 hours back to Texas and made it to work at 3:00 am Monday morning. Long Long weekend with lots of driving and hiking with a tad bit of sleep thrown in. I’m just glad I made the journey. The harvest was a bonus, but not many people can say they hunted the lower 48 for sheep and had a tag in their pocket! If you ever have this tag please reach out with a pm. Thanks!

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Nice write up and congratulations for getting an ewe. Glad you were able to make it work with your job issues. You are right about people not wanting/come in to work. Makes me wonder what the economy is going to do next. My plan is to give myself a 60th birthday present and retire in April. ???
 
Spectacular! I've contemplated a ewe tag the past few years when I apply for Colorado. 2023 might be the year I actually do it.
Thanks for posting the story and pics of your hunt! Congrats!
 
It's too bad your work wouldn't allow more time to enjoy the high country, but way to still get it done. Nice.
Your Avatar buck pic is Outrageous. :oops:
 

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