So you want to hunt sheep? Part 7 - Opening Day
Kyle Sinclair-Smith
We didn’t have a care in the world, and this was exactly where we wanted to be. The anticipation of opening day, the solitude of the mountains, the sound of the running river, and the smell of the cool evening rolling in; it was one of the most memorable nights that I will cherish forever. If you’ve never been sheep hunting before, it is something that is hard to describe but is easily felt.
With our bellies full of Mule Deer tenderloin and cheap whiskey, it was time to turn in. The night air was cool but we were warm tucked into our down sleeping bag. Either that, or the fact that we had two 250 lb guys sandwiched into a two person tent; there was no room left for cool air to get in. As we laid there listening to the animals of the night, dreams of legal rams filled our thoughts.
Right on que, at 4:00 am, the alarm went off. Although it was somewhat redundant at that point, I am sure I was wide awake at 3:00 am with anticipation of what the day would bring. The crisp air was refreshing as I crawled out of our 3ft x 6ft sweat box. It didn’t take us but thirty minutes to jam a Cliff Bar down our gullet, take care of morning duties, and get packed up for the day to come. At 4:30 am we were loaded up and read to gain some vertical. We figured that it would take us roughly an hour and a half to get to where we would start glassing and hunting from. Even though it was roughly 15C, I made sure to wear minimal layers for the morning hike. I knew that as we started upward, I would get warm and I wanted to try to avoid getting all sweated up. Even though legal sunrise wasn’t until right around 6:30 am, light was breaking the eastern horizon as we approached the ridgeline at 6:00 am. We continued our way up the ridge sticking to the tree line and avoiding the skyline, we didn’t want to blow out any sheep that were around but we wanted to make sure we had a good vantage point for first light. Just before legal light, we arrived at our planned “Spike Camp” and dropped our bags. Since we knew we would be going back to camp the same way as going up, we decided to drop some of the non-essential items here for the day so we could lighten our load for the rest of the day. At this point we now had good light and started looking for sheep. The first area we were looking over was very easy to tell if there was any sheep present or not. After thirty minutes of glassing, we decided to pack up and gain some more elevation to our main area. Just after we started heading up, we noticed two people in the area that we intended to hunt; this was disheartening to say the least. I was somewhat confused by the situation as they were headed down and towards us, I thought it must have been hikers. As we got closer, I could tell that one of them had a bow. When we got up to them, it was a father and daughter that hiked in the day before. The father was the one with the bow, and the daughter was there to spend some time with her dad in the mountains before she went off to her fall semester of University. Although I didn’t know them personally, I did know the gentlemen’s brother. We had a quick chat and I informed them that we passed a 150” class mule deer on the way in, they seemed interested in checking that out on their hike down.
My hunting partner and I decided that we would keep going up even though it seemed that they had covered the ground that we were headed into. We were already up here so we might as well use the time to try and find some sheep. We hadn’t hiked no more than 400 yards up the trail and I spotted some Mule Deer coming out of the trees. Actually, I was wrong, it was the band of rams. The father and daughter had walked past them as the rams were still in the trees when they passed and they were just now coming out to feed. We slowly moved off the trail and into the edge of the trees to remain hidden. We dropped our packs and pulled out the spotter. We quickly confirmed that this was the same band of rams that I had found earlier in the summer and there was for sure one legal ram, and another that needed a closer look. We had to rein in our excitement in so we didn’t barge in and blow this hunt in the first hour of opening day. We sat and watched the rams for a good half hour while we made a plan on how to hunt them. It looked as if they were working their way up a small ridge spine right along the edge of the trees. We made a plan to drop back, circle around, and get above them inside the trees. Now I’ve read many articles that says, “Don’t hunt rams from above” as they tend to spook easily because their escape route is from above. I can’t comment on this due to my limited experience hunting sheep but I can tell you why I thought this would be a good idea. First, the rams were already moving upward and our plan was to get in front of them and just wait for them to come to us. With us planning on being inside the tree line, we would be in the shadows and hunkered down, not moving. Also, it was early morning and the day was warming up, this mean that the thermals would start to create wind movement in an upward direction. From the knowledge we had at the time, this would give us the best chance.
The rams feeding up the edge of the trees
Almost an hour later, we were inside the tree line, right on the edge and above the rams about 300 yards. Everything was working out perfect, the grass fifty yards out from us was indicating that the breeze was indeed going uphill just at I thought it would. The only thing we had left to do was wait. It was easy to tell these rams were in no hurry to get to us. I took full advantage of this to clear an area of branches, twigs, grass, and anything else that would make noise when I moved. Once that was done, the rams were still a good 250 yards away, it was snack time. I wanted to make sure that I was well hydrated and full when the rams started to get into distance. It was a pretty surreal moment sitting there, watching a band of rams feed towards me, bow by my side and a cliff bar in my hand. This was a very big moment for me personally, I was sheep hunting. Eight months prior to this, I never thought this was possible. Eight months, some hard work, slight lifestyle change, and here I was actually hunting sheep. As I said previously, at the start of all of this, I wasn’t even sure if I would enjoy sheep hunting. When going into this, I had to make a decision as to what gear I was able to live without for the first season. One of the pieces that I decided to wait on was a cook pot like a Jetboil or MSR. I felt that I would save the money for the first season and just pack sandwiches, wraps, cliff bars, nuts, trail mix and any other foods that didn’t require boiling water. Was I able to make it through the first season, yes. Was it enjoyable, no. The sandwiches were always soggy, even though the cliff bars were good, they got old, and one person can only eat so many nuts. Now that I’ve decided that sheep hunting is for me, a cookstove along with an InReach are two things that will be in my pack for the 2020 season. Dehydrated foods have come a long way in terms of palate friendliness, are great sources of energy, and a warm meal can go a long ways in those low moments.
At this point, I was full and fully hydrated and solely focused on the rams feeding towards me. They had now gotten to about 125 yards. It was easy to tell the legal ram and the ram that was maybe a squeaker from the others, but when they were feeding head on, it was hard to tell those two rams apart. Every once in a while, I would get a semi profile look at the two but it was still hard to tell which was which. There was a good difference in length between the two, but I wanted to make absolutely sure that I shot the ram that was legal by a good margin. Shooting a squeaker ram did not interest me not only because he was a younger ram, but I also didn’t feel my skills were good enough to judge a squeaker. The rams were now at 60 yards and still feeding towards us. They had absolutely no idea we were there and everything was working out perfect. The line in which the rams were feeding would have them come past us at 40ish yards. I was very comfortable with this shot should it present itself. As the rams got closer, they also became more broadside as opposed to straight on or quartering. As they were feeding and lifting their heads, I got the look I need to tell what ram was what. The ram of interest was the third one from the front and the squeaker was second last. This was great as there was a good distance of separation between the two so I didn’t have to worry about getting them mixed up. I now had my bow in my hand, I was on my knees, and the rams were feeding directly across from us. The ram of question was feeding contently at 42 yards. At this point, everything was coming together and I was quickly losing my composure. Ram fever had fully set in, I was visibly shaking and my breathing was shallow. I had to pull myself together if I wanted any chance at making this shot. As I sat there, I couldn’t believe this was all unfolding. Here I was on opening day of my first sheep season and I had a legal ram feeding at 42 yards. The target ram was feeding as the other sheep were slowly moving and feeding around him and past him. Every time a ram would clear him in the front giving me a clean shot, another ram would walk behind him. I was getting very nervous that I wouldn’t get a shot. This was going to happen, I just knew it. With the legal ram now at 46 yards and slightly uphill from me, the other rams in front and behind him cleared him. This was my chance, this is the opportunity I had been waiting for. I start putting tension into my string and just like that there was sheep running and before I knew it there wasn’t a sheep in sight. I had hardly moved, so they couldn’t have seen me; what the heck just happened. I looked at my hunting partner in utter disbelief. I was so focused in on the legal ram that I hadn’t noticed a smaller half curl that had gotten above us and fed over to the tree line. He was only 30 yards above us and I don’t think he seen us but there is a good chance that he did smell us.
The half curl ram that winded me
This was a very conflicting moment, kind of like watching your mother in law drive off a cliff in your new sports car. I was heartbroken that this opportunity had ended without me even drawing my bow back and at the same time I was ecstatic that I had gotten to 42 yards of a legal ram with my bow. After a quick conversation with my hunting partner about how cool this experience was and what just happened, we decided to hike up higher to see if we could spot the rams. When getting positioned on the rams earlier in the day we got into some pretty steep terrain. It took us a good hour to get up and out of there. Once we got close to the top, we started picking apart the cliff bands, trees, and shale slopes looking for the rams. It didn’t take us long to find the band of rams already bedded 400 yards away from our encounter. I was happy that we didn’t blow them off the mountain completely. Unfortunately, they had decided to bed on a ledge that was not accessible, at least not by me. Above it was a rock wall that was a good 100 feet high, and below was a cliff that was 50 feet high with a steep shale slope below. I could see the steep chute they climbed to get in there and there was no way I could climb that. Even if I could, I would be climbing right into where they were bedded. We decided that it was best to find a comfy position and just watch them to see what they did. The day was really warming up, and it was time for lunch and some liquids. The rest of the day we sat there at 300 yards, napping, eating, and watching the rams bask in the warm sun. We sat on them till dark that evening hoping they would move but they didn’t. It was time to head back to camp for the evening. Although day one didn’t play out how we wanted to, we were basking in the events that did take place. We were quick to recognize how lucky we were with not only how the day went, but the fact that we could even hunt these amazing animals on a general tag. We kept saying to each other, “If day one was this good, can you imagine how awesome the next four days are going to be”. We would not be disappointed.
