There are two stories of Stone Sheep hunts on this thread, both with Thuchodi and both bow hunts. The first starts with posts from me on Sept 6. The second story is posted by KTH beginning on Sept 16 and is somewhat of a continuation of the first hunt since Kyle hunted the same general area and rams that I hunted. I appreciate his willingness to share his story following mine.
Scott
Here's my first post:
Sitting in a bar in Vancouver sipping a beer and on my way. All bags arrived with me from Reno. I fly to Fort Nelson tomorrow AND just got an email that Larry Warren will be taking me into base camp a day early so I should leave base camp Friday AM, pack into sheep camp and be glassing for rams Friday afternoon. Does is get any better than this!?!?!?
Bow is dialed, I'm shooting better than I ever thought possible, dropped 15# training for this, healthy as can be and can't think of anything I didn't do to get ready, plus my wife still loves me (I think!).
More to follow after September 1st......
Kill (not "harvest") a Booner!
Mark
Now, go have a great adventure and share every detail when your return for an even better beer.
Look forward to the story and photos
Good luck, Robb
Larry says hi back. I'll be hunting with Lawson.
About ready to head up river so my next post will be 2 weeks or so.
Can't wait to hear the story!
Kyle
He must have tagged out, otherwise he probably wouldn't have said it was the most amazing hunt of his life.
Good luck, Robb
BOOKING THE HUNT
Up until December 2011 I’d never given hunting Stone Sheep much thought. But after taking a great Dall’s ram in August 2010 with Ramhead in the NWT and a B&C Desert on a draw tag in my home state of Nevada in December 2011 (both with rifles, more on that later) I seriously began considering a hunt for Stone’s. The thought continued to brew in the back of my mind until January 2013 when I got real serious about booking this hunt. Fortunately both the SCI and WSF conventions would be held in Reno in January 2013 which gave me an opportunity to talk to nearly every Stone Sheep outfitter from B.C. I made a list of those that had come up in my light research over that past year and spent two days at SCI talking to all of them. I eliminated those who had never taken a bow hunter and many simply told me they didn’t take bow hunters. A few, such as Big 9 at $45,000, were simply out of my price range. After SCI I had the list down to three: Tuchodi, Stone Mountain (just north of Tuchodi) and BC Safaris (in large part due to a recommendation by Tony Mudd who lives a few miles from me). After checking references and talking to all three once again at WSF, a week after SCI, I decided to book with Larry Warren of Tuchodi River Outfitters. I booked the 2nd hunt of the season since goat, moose and elk would be open and I’d have a chance for a second and third animal if things worked out.
I developed target panic about 15 – 20 years ago while shooting traditional and along with the fact I’m pretty much a self taught archer I also had some real bad form errors. With help I cleaned up the form errors and beat target panic with the trad bows last year but I still had problems with flinching and not being able to hold on target while shooting pins and a release. In October 2013 I simply wasn’t confident in being able to hold it together on a Stone ram and I placed a call to Larry at Tuchodi to discuss rebooking for late September for a combo rifle sheep hunt and archery rut moose hunt. Larry couldn’t rearrange his schedule so I was stuck with the August dates. I had a December mule deer tag close to home and continued to work on my shooting. Although I was getting better I still was only to shoot about 80% of my arrows accurately at 80+ yards, target panic and punching being the reason why. I knew I had to fix this but I wasn’t sure how. I’d tried reading nearly every book but I read about “Idiot Proof Archery” by Bernie Pellerite and ordered it in February 2014. After reading about three chapters it was obvious this guy really knows his stuff so I decided to follow his teachings to the letter. As mentioned I’d cleaned up most of my form issues and his writings confirmed that. When I got to the section about target panic I couldn’t believe how perfectly he described my shooting problems. The cure? A surprise release! I worked on this for about a week before I finally had a “surprise release” and when it happened I thought I’d broken my bow then it dawned on me, “This is what’s suppose to happen!” I continued with the program for another eight weeks and finally began shooting spots in April. The real test would be a wild boar hunt in California in April. I nearly had a 20 yard shot at a big boar but due to low light I couldn’t tell if I was looking at his chest or neck. The cool thing was I wasn’t nervous at all.
With target panic behind me I began working on accuracy and confidence. One of the things Bernie suggests in his book is to write down goals on 3x5 cards and read them several times each day for a few months. Eventually they’ll become engrained in the subconscious and you’ll actually believe you can achieve them. The pictures reflect what I wrote.
The picture is a group I shot in late June; 3 from 100 yards, 3 from 90, 3 from 80. At that time I wasn’t able to do this consistently but with August approaching my groups got a little tighter and I was able to shoot groups like this and better with regularity. I shot 3D tournaments around Reno during the summer and placed in the top 3 in most. At the last 3D league I was two arrows from perfect on our 20 target shoot. In mid-July I began practicing steep uphill, downhill and sidehill shots using my Rinehart Stone target on nearly a daily basis. This shooting really taught me to pay attention to my bubble. (More on this later!)
This surprise release was really working!!!!!!!!
I tune my own bows and finally figured out how to do it right last year. With the surprise release and torque free grip I found tuning my Carbon Spyder 34 really easy and had nearly zero cam lean induced to get a perfect tune. Here’s a picture of a 100 yard shot with my set up that included a 125 grain Slick Trick. A few of the poorer shots were the result of shooting long range FBBH in high cross winds. These and other like them convinced me to carry of couple of Ulmer Edge expandable heads in my quiver if I needed to take a shot in the wind.
I stay in pretty good shape year round but obviously needed to be in better shape. Not to go into much detail here but my training consisted of 4 – 5 days of gym work (I’d get up a 4:00 AM and do this before work) and 1 – 3 days of hiking. Starting 6 weeks out, one time each week, I’d do a 10 – 15 mile hike in the Sierra’s at 8,000 to 11,000 feet with a 60# pack. The first one of these was not fun at all but the last was pretty easy. I also hired a personal trainer and he taught me stuff that put my body through things I didn’t know were possible. This core training really paid off during the hunt when doing things like “spider crawling” across slides during a stalk.
When it was all said and done I’d dropped 15 or so pounds and my blood pressure had gone from 150/90 to 110/68!
When I trained for my Dall hunt in 2010 my best time climbing a 700 foot high, 20 to 30 degree, hill outside my garage was around 20 minutes. I was in good shape then but now at 49 years old I was able to make it up this hill in under 13 minutes. Now I’m in sheep shape!!!
No way!!!! My last two sheep hunts had ended by pulling out a rifle. I didn’t realize it at the time but much of this had to do with a lack of confidence in my shooting. With the work I’d put in at the gym, hiking and especially my shooting I was going to hunt until the last minute with a bow on this hunt.
For work and otherwise I’ve traveled to every continent, except Antarctica, over the past decade and I’ve never had a trip go this smooth. I was through Canadian immigration is less than 10 minutes, my bags arrived and I got upgraded to a suite at my hotel in Vancouver for now charge. We arrived into Fort Nelson I during the trip I met two other hunters who were hunting Stones with Stone Mountain Safaris. When I was traveling back I got a text from Joe and found out he had the same guide, Scott, that I had during my 2010 hunt with Ramhead. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to find a legal ram but his friend, Joe, took both a Stone and a Mt. Goat on his hunt.
I hate riding horses….
I’ll refer to as “Caribou Canyon/Camp”, because Parker mentioned this little guy had visited them nearly daily on the last hunt.
The next day we started our hike into “Bear Canyon” to see if we could find the rams the other hunter hadn’t been able to get to. Before we would make it through the pass Lawson spotted an immature, 7 year old, ¾ curl, ram on the skyline. On to plan B. We went straight up the mountain 1,000+ vertical feet (might've more...). This is the view looking back at our little spike camp from the ridge between Caribou Canyon and "Bear Creek". The 8 horses are at a lake up a hill to the left of the picture. You can see a couple of them at the lake if you look carefully. It was the perfect spot to camp except the fact the wind blew hard and we had no protection from the rain and wind.
Lawson crawled around on top looking down into different areas at the head of Bear Creek while I glass faraway places. I spotted a ram a few miles off with my 10x binos and got my spotter on him but we weren’t able to tell if he was legal. No matter, he was in a place that was nearly impossible to get to.
On the way back we had to cross the Black Wall of Death and descend another 1,500 or so feet to spike camp. My right knee, which has been giving me trouble for the past several years, was already acting funny. If I kneeled down and sat on my heels my knee would lock then pop really loud and hurt when I extended it. I figured I just wouldn’t kneel and sit on my heels the rest of the hunt unless I needed to do that to shoot.
I kept up with him throughout the hunt except when we crossed rock slides. He liked to get about 50 yards ahead during long hikes then we’d keep an even pace. This was fine with me since I like to think random thoughts while hiking and I suspect he was the same. He's 38 while I'm 49 so my training was paying off. That said there's no way I could've done the back to back to back to back hunts these guides do. They truly amaze me!
He’s about 6’1” and 170 while I’m 6’5” and 230 which is the reason he blew me away on the slides; that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!! Throughout the trip and on a couple of stalks, he’d step on rocks that would hold him just fine, and then I’d step on the same rocks and nearly start an avalanche.
We packed up our five pack horses and saddled the other three and made it over the pass. Just after crossing through and starting down the other side on foot Lawson stopped the string. He’d spotted the three little rams from the pics above plus a legal ram. Yeah baby, the hunt is on!!! Fortunately the rams hadn’t spotted Lawson nor the horse or two that we’d quickly taken back behind the ridge. This ram was everything I’d thought of when dreaming of pretty Stone Rams. Although he was young, he was dark in the body, had a white neck and head and twisty horns that seemed to go on forever. Both Lawson and I knew we were looking at an great archery trophy. He looked huge but after a little evaluation it was obvious he was a young ram with a really tight curl. We figured him at 7 years and 36” but might’ve underestimated his length by an inch or so. We named him Twister but I’ve renamed him “Pretty Boy” in honor of his beauty and a Desert Bighorn ram my buddies at Hide n Seek outfitters in Southern Nevada had killed a couple of years ago.
Although the ram was within easy rifle range he was with three young rams and surrounded by ewes and lambs and wasn’t really in a good spot for a bow stalk but we quickly decided he was worth hunting so I stayed and watched the sheep while Parker led the string back to our original location and reset our camp.
Following are some pictures of Pretty Boy.
These pics were taken the morning of day 5, day 4 was nasty.
Rain delay…. I slept and read much of the day away while Lawson and Parker took some horses to tree line to cut firewood. When they got back Lawson put up a tarp next to a small cliff for a cooking area. This proved to be real nice since we had absolutely no shelter in this canyon except the little back pack tents. I told Lawson I was helping by staying out of the way and he thanked me for this. No really, he did!!!
One of the reasons I booked with Tuchodi is because they did the traditional horseback hunt that’s so intertwined with hunting Stone’s. Included in their hunt is real food! We at fresh eggs and bacon every morning, sandwiches and apples for lunch and ate game meat the first 5 or 6 nights along with potatoes, pasta, etc. After that we ate home cooked and canned meats such as moose stroganoff that Lori and Lawson’s wife, Romy, prepared in base camp. I’ve mountain hunted for 30 years and I really don’t like a diet consisting of freeze dried, oatmeal and Cliff bars. We at like kings and ate a ton but in spite of the good food I still lost another 5 or so pounds during the hunt.
It rained most of the night and we woke to rain and fog. The guys were at the tarp shelter with coffee ready and I made my way up there, ate breakfast and hung out waiting for the weather to clear. We had a small break so I grabbed my bow and took a cold 70 yard practice shot at the 12”x12”x2” ethafoam target I’d (the horses to be exact) packed in. I hit nearly dead center, following it up with two from 60 and two from 50 with similar results. I was now down to three practice arrows since I’d stripped fletches on two but my confidence was intact. About 11:00 the weather finally cleared and Lawson and I headed out to find Pretty Boy.
We made our way up and over the pass. I didn’t mention it but at this point in the hunt we weren’t using the horses other than to pack camp and gather fire wood from a few miles down canyon so all hunting had been done on foot. After glassing the canyon for a few hours, Lawson found Pretty Boy bedded a mile or two down canyon about halfway up the left side. We watch him get up and feed for a while then disappear in a gully and not come out. Figuring he’d bedded again we headed that way. The blind stalk involved sidehilling on a really steep sidehill covered with nothing other than shale, hard pack dirt and cliffs. Not my idea of fun to say the least. We were about 1,000 feet above the canyon floor and one slip would result in a quick trip to the bottom. I love this stuff!!! After about 3 hours of sidehilling Lawson spotted Pretty Boy bedded just in front of us. We ranged him at 130 yards. I told Lawson, “I have a 130 yard pin”. I really did; my Tommy Hogg tape goes to 150 but at 135 the sight ring gets in the way of the fletching. I’d shot with accuracy on 70% of my shots to 120 and nearly killed a jack rabbit at 130 but he heard the arrow coming and took off before it got there. That said there’s no way I was taking a 130 shot and we had no way of closing the distance to my comfort range of 60 yards or under. Moments later Pretty Boy got up and began feeding toward us so we began moving toward him when his head was down. After moving through cliffs and breaking loose big rocks that tumbled down hill we were getting closer. Remember I wrote about stepping on rocks that Lawson had just stepped one? Well I did this again on this stalk and broke two bowling ball sized rocks free that careened down hill less than 80 yards from the ram but it didn’t bother him a bit.
Lawson had an older Leica range finder while I have a Nikon that has angle compensation. After a careful stalk we’d moved into 62 yards line of sight (LOS) and 40 yards angle adjusted (AA). I was willing to take the shot, got set up but simply couldn’t get my body position right to feel comfortable with a long shot at such a steep angle. One foot was on a rock that was wobbling back and forth while my back foot was in a spot that caused me to be shooting with a severely closed stance. There was no way I was taking this shot and by the time I got my body moved around the ram had moved and was facing away.
Because we were nearly directly above him and he was feeding he hadn’t seen us yet and we thought we’d be able to get closer and we did. Now we’re at 50 yards (LOS), 35 angle adjusted with a beautiful Stone Ram and I’m thinking to myself, “Holy xxxx, this is going to happen!!!!”.
I began to move into shooting position and got busted. By his body language I knew it was coming and was able to get somewhat comfortable but after 10 minutes my arm shifted on my bow a bit and it got really uncomfortable. Another 10 minutes and my left arm and right leg started shaking and my right leg was close to cramping. Luckily he decided we were just a rock and went back to feeding. I wanted to shoot from my knees but it was so steep there was no way the arrow would clear the rocks at my knees so I stood up and came to full draw. When I stood he saw me but it was too late, I was at full draw on a Stone Ram and into my shot! I pinned him at 35 yards (50 true LOS) and began to aim. Just then I noticed my bubble was way off center due to the fact I was not only shooting straight down hill but also on a steep side hill. I got this corrected, got back into the shot, put pre-tension on the trigger, started to aim at a little spot high on his crease and began back tension (“started my motor” as Bernie calls it in his book).
In the picture below you can see where I was (the star) and where Pretty Boy (the oval) was just before the shot. The spot I was standing dropped off 100+ feet in three directions about 2 feet from my feet. On our stalk we’d come down from the right.
I can't believe all the thoughts running through my head after the arrow left the bow. It's amazing how time nearly stops in these situations isn't it?
He replied, “6” behind him.”
Now it started making sense. When shooting on steep side hills about 1 out of 10 of my shots would be about 3” to 5” into the hill at longer ranges of 50 – 70 yards. I’d level my bow but during the shot I sometimes cant it into hill just a bit. I apparently did this during this shot which accounted for some of the miss. After thinking about for a minute and talking it over with Lawson I remembered Pretty Boy started moving to the left a split second before the shot went off. Along with all the thoughts I posted above, just before the shot went off, I remember thinking, “He’s moving, let down,” but I was already deep into the shot and it went off a split second later. He probably took 2 or 3 full steps from the time the arrow left the bow until it traveled the 50 yards and it sailed harmlessly 6” behind him but at the perfect elevation. I’d had this happen on a cow elk in Oregon at 45 yards and I hit about 12” behind her so the miss started to make sense. I told myself later that I’d let down or wait for the ram to stop next time.
Lawson asked if I was okay and I told him it was all good. I’d executed a nearly perfect shot and stayed calm. There was always a question in the back of my mind whether or not I’d be able to keep it together and with the question answered I was even more confident than ever that a Stone ram was going to take a dirt nap before the hunt was over, plus we had around 10 days to hunt. I told Lawson, “Look at the bright side; we’re still hunting Stone Sheep!”
Amazingly, Pretty Boy didn’t seem spooked and only walked a short distance before he went back to feeding. I think I mentioned he was a young ram. Just what I needed, a young, dumb, pretty ram! We briefly discussed putting another stalk on him but decided to give him a day to relax and we headed back to camp. It was a couple hours away and it was getting late. On the way out we glassed back and found him feeding contently only 150 yards away from where I’d missed.
Oops, after reviewing my notes I got my days mixed up. Day 4 wasn’t the rain day, it was actually day 6. This was good since it gave Pretty Boy an extra day to forget about us. So on day 6, I slept and read while the guys cut firewood and so on…
We woke to fog and rain which began to clear about 11:00. Lawson and I hunted our way from camp up and over the pass to Bear Canyon looking for Pretty Boy but we could only find immature rams, lambs and ewes. We continued on to Cave Creek to see if we could make camp there. It appeared feasible so we headed back to our spike camp. We hiked 15+ miles this day without spotting any legal rams. Following are some pictures of Bear Canyon where Pretty Boy lived.
We moved camp to Cave Creek. With a full string of horses we crossed through the pass and once again we spotted Pretty Boy with the three immature rams. Can you believe it? We briefly discussed moving camp back to Caribou Camp but the rams weren’t paying any attention to us so we decided to continue on since we'd have access to the rams in Cave Creek and Pretty Boy from this new camp. It took us about 4 hours to trail down to the new camp and another 4 to get unpacked and set up. There wasn't a level spot anywhere so we pulled out moss and used it to fill in spots to lay our bags down.
The last 1/2 mile of the "trail", which was actually an elk trail, was straight down and very steep but with Lawson clearing the trail we made it down and across the creek without incident. I really didn't look forward to the climb back up to hunt Pretty Boy.
No one from Tuchodi had ever hunted this canyon so we were really looking forward to unlocking its secrets.
To be continued on Sunday…..
We glassed from the spot the above pictures were taken and immediately spotted 3 immature rams on the south side of the canyon. They were bedded below the cliffs and at the top of slides on the left hand side of the picture. Lawson also found 6 rams at the head of the canyon but with the heat waves and wind they were too far away to determine if any were legal. We continued on towards the head of Cave Creek to get a closer look at the 6 rams. As mentioned the trail from camp to the head was extremely treacherous in places so we had to lead the horses about 50% of the time. Tuchodi’s horses are massive, strong mountain horses that have the ability to traverse terrain I didn’t think was possible for a horse. I’ve probably done 8 – 10 horse hunts into Nevada’s Ruby Mountains and that terrain paled in comparison to what we crossed with Tuchodi’s horses. Getting on and off big Ringo with a bow was difficult at best, even at 6’5”. I used a sling that placed the bow high under my right arm but I still had to step up with my left leg in the stirrup then lean forward to swing my right over the horses back. During one mounting I went right over the top without slowing down and landed on my head. I landed head first without time to get my hands out, heard my neck crack and thought for just a split second that something really bad had just happened. I was somewhat okay and got to my knees, blurry eyed and with a bruised head, bruised ego and a really sore neck. About 30 seconds later I asked Lawson, “On a scale of 1 to 10 what would you rate that?”
He replied, “A 9.8 with a triple sochow.”
I replied, “Shoot I was going for a quadruple lutz”
From this point on I'd mount the horse without my bow and have Lawson hand it to me….
That behind us I got back on Ringo and we continued toward the head of the canyon to get a closer look at the six rams.
Mark
After a few more miles of riding through thick trees and willows we tied the horses at the tree line and covered the last miles on foot to a vantage point. We spotted a legal ram we named "Goofy" because one horn was shorter than the other and had 2 - 3 fewer age rings. He also had a rather ugly coat but was a legal ram. He was in a good position for a stalk but with 6 days left to hunt and not being able to locate the other rams which we knew were close by we decided to wait it out and try to locate the other rams.
At this time a cold front moved in and it rained hard, got cold and blew for the several hours. The picture below was taken just before the skies opened up and we sat out several hours of hard rain which was turning to snow half way up the canyon walls.
Mark
On the way back to the horses we came to a creek crossing littered with wet rocks. I walked up to one table sized rock at the edge of the creek, took one step, “good traction”, I thought, a second step, “wow, great traction”, a third step, BOOM!!!, I fell on my butt and before I knew what happened I’d ended up on my back waist deep in the creek. Surprisingly my rain gear and gators kept me mostly dry and I gathered myself and stood up, crossed the creek and checked my bow. Both cams were damaged and had some burrs in the string groove but fortunately Lawson had a set of files back at camp and I was able to take care of that the next morning at camp. Now my neck really started to hurt from the two falls and I could barely move my head at this point.
Shortly after mounting up Lawson spotted 8 more rams on the north side of the canyon. With my stiff neck I was completely worthless so I stayed on my horse. After looking them over with his scope Lawson determined none were legal. In total we saw 17 rams this day.
On the way back to camp I pulled the hood on my rain coat back to better see during a particularly hairy ride up out of a creek bottom and lost my hat. I didn't figure out I’d lost it for a couple miles. Bojangles also nearly went over backwards and fell down a 1,000 foot slide when a bank on the trail gave way right at the top. Lawson held on to the rains and somehow Bojangles was able to slide down to the bottom to the trail without rolling over on his back. Lawson then spent the next hour trail building, in the dark, with his ax and made the trail passable. We made it back to camp 2 hours after dark without further drama. It was obviously a tough day! I took a couple of Aleve after dinner and went to bed hoping to wake and be able to move my head.
Mark
We again rode horses but changed to Louie and Steel and hunted Cave Creek. We spotted the immature rams on the south side where they'd been the day before and eventually made it close to the head where we could see around the lake where we'd seen the legal ram the first day of the hunt. (We’d seen a lake at the head of the canyon the first day of the hunt but we never got high enough to see it again. That said we could see just a little of the edge where we’d seen the rams days earlier.)
Lawson found Goofy bedded in some cliffs and I got some good pictures of him that were shown earlier in this thread. He eventually got up and fed to the bottom so we moved toward him. Lawson spotted more rams bedded in the general direction Goofy was headed and we got the scopes on them. We named one Grandpa because he was at least 12 years old. Grandpa was one bad MoFo and I don’t care who you are and what you’re hunting with you’d be more than pleased to take this smart, old monarch off the mountain! Following are the best pics I got of the old guy.
My 3D pals; Tim, Rob, Rick, Micah and Mike along with others gave me encouragement every Wednesday night and most weekends. Mark Buehrer at Bowhunting Safari Consultants played a big part in me booking with Tuchodi.
I made the decision to pack my big, 4 pound Leica scope, and I’m glad I did. It’s important to stop and smell the roses and I made a conscious decision prior to leaving on this hunt to do just that. I hope ya’ll are enjoying the pics ¼ as much as I enjoyed taking them!
He eventually stood and limped down the hill like he was injured but his limp and stagger cleared up after several steps so we figured it was just his arthritis flaring up. I know how he feels, especially after day 9! Now the rams were in a better location to stalk so we move forward on our bellies across the side hill. We eventually spotted two new rams where Grandpa and his young buddy had headed so we patiently waited at 200 yards for two to disappear to make our move. Goofy was feeding by himself, on a ridge at 90 yards, and we eventually got busted by him due to the fact we were less than a football field away and the highest cover were three 6” high rocks. He blew out but the other rams, including Grandpa, had no idea we were in the zip code.
While waiting the wind decided to blow uphill for the first time all day and although it only blew for 30 seconds it was enough. The rams, now at 7, moved back below the cliffs to Grandpa's original bedding location. A new legal ram was now in attendance and we named him Twister Sr. since Lawson aged him at 10+ years. We’d originally named Pretty Boy “Twister” but to avoid confusion I renamed him “Pretty Boy”.
We knew the jig was up and the day was over so not wanting to blow the rams out totally we snaked backwards, with no cover, on the side hill for 200 yards in full view of the rams. With Lawson watching them nonstop and us only moving when they weren't looking we were able to make it off the hill without blowing them out. With the rams aware something wasn’t right we made the decision to hunt Pretty Boy the next day.
We now had 3 legal rams in Cave Creek including; Grandpa, Goofy and Twister. It was going to get good over these last few days!!!
To hunt Pretty Boy we couldn't use the horses, due to the fact the trail from camp into the canyon was too steep to ride and the canyon from there was too open. This day would be all on foot. With hard days and short nights, including 5 - 6 hours of sleep, I was beginning to wear down so I left my scope and Camel Back in camp. We hunted to the head of the canyon, climbed about 3,000 vertical and by 7:00 PM had only seen 5 immature rams and 11 ewes and lambs. Given we'd seen every sheep we knew to be in the canyon, except for Pretty Boy, we were a bit confused about his whereabouts. We headed back to camp and arrived about 9:00 and hit the sacks about 11:30.(I did take some of the earlier pics on this day so it wasn’t a total loss).
Mark
Good Luck on your last few days ! :)
Bill V.
I was thinking the same thing. I'm sure glad I did open it. Awesome report!!!
Wow! What pics and story! And great looking Stone rams. Sure wish some hunter will take Grandpa back home with them.
For a reasonable contribution to the NvaGvUp retirement fund, I'll share what I know. Cash, Cashier's Checks and Certified Checks only, please. ;^)
OOps! , maybe thats the delay!
Bill V.
By now it was obvious I’d made the right choice in outfitters. The trip into base camp, the food served there by Lawson’s wife, Romy, the cabins, the horses, crew and so on were all top notch. My guide, Lawson, and I were really clicking by now and when he looked at me half way up Cave Creek on the morning of day 12 I looked back at him and said, “We’re going to the top of that knob aren’t we”?
He responded, “Yep, I think Pretty Boy might be back in there”.
We made it the first 700 feet up to the knob and the majority of the climb was over one of the steepest “trails” I’d ever been on. We glassed back into the canyon, could only see 2/3 of it, and when I thought I heard a critter or critters walking up the bottom we continued on to the next ridge another 400 feet in elevation up. Not turning up anything, we hiked back down to the horses and continued up the canyon toward where we’d been seeing the sheep. At some point we stopped to glass and found Grandpa and Twister bedded in the area circled in the pictures below, which was a mile or more from our location, so we continued up to get closer and plan a stalk.
Better yet, Pretty Boy was now back in play as he’d joined the 8 rams Lawson had spied late on day 9. So here we are, 150 yards away from Goofy with a gusty 20 – 30 MPH wind in our face, 200 yards from Pretty Boy and 8 immature rams the opposite direction, down canyon but not yet downwind and Grandpa and Twister about a mile away up canyon. Pretty Boy was completely unstalkable (I took the above pics on this day) but we knew if we blew the stalk on Goofy that Grandpa and Twister would still be in play. Hopefully Pretty Boy and the rest of his young buddies wouldn’t wind us and would also be in play. Does it get any better than this?!?!?!?!?!
Did I mention I made a good decision on the outfitter and got an awesome guide? "Awesome Lawson"....
He replied, “62”.
As I settled back into the shot and waited for the wind to stop (it would gust for a while then stop for 5 to 10 seconds) Goofy took 4 more steps. I continued to hold 60 on the middle of his chest as best I could while that little voice in the back of my head was screaming, “Hold for 66 you dummy!!!!” The wind was blowing hard enough that my pins were completely off Goofy twice and I considered letting down but I’d practiced in wind all summer and given the fact I knew it’d stop shortly I continued to hold knowing I’d let down if I lost my form. Soon enough the wind settled down and I began applying back tension as my 60 was rock solid smack in the middle of body and on the crease. While the little voice screamed, “Hold for 66!!!!” the shot broke and now the little voiced screamed, “Low dummy”, which was confirmed when the arrow sailed harmlessly 1” low and 1” behind his leg. Mental error #2.
After running out past my comfortable range Goofy didn’t spook but rather decided to circle above us and bed in the cliffs high above our location. He literally came within 50 yards and stopped momentarily, then did the same at 60, 65, 72 but each time the wind would not let up and actually picked up considerably after the first shot.
There’s no way I thought I’d have two shots during this hunt and miss both but for some reason I wasn’t upset. It was simply time to get back to hunting.
A couple hours later Goofy had settled down and was feeding calmly only 250 yards away. During the time we were waiting for him and me to relax I took the pictures of Pretty Boy that were shown earlier since he still wasn’t in a good position to stalk. Goofy however was in a good location to play with again and I thought maybe I’ll get to go to Disneyland and hold Goofy’s horn this time. The wind was such that we couldn’t tell if it was rolling over the ridge he was around or going around the ridge and past the mountain side toward him. If the later he’d blow out which he eventually did. Now that Goofy was done for the day, Pretty Boy wasn’t in a good area to stalk and Grandpa and Twister were too far away to make a play on we headed back to camp arriving after 10:00 PM. After dinner, Parker looked up and said, “Guys, check out the Northern Lights”!
I’m not a real religious guy but this sure seemed like a message from above. I think you’ll agree when you see the following pictures!
I have ADDDHD...real bad!
Nicely done Scott!
Mark
Back up Cave Creek to find our four legal rams. We found Grandpa and later Twister in nearly the same general area where I’d missed Goofy the day before. There were six immature rams with them so knowing a stalk would be tough, since they also weren’t in a great spot, we waiting for them to make the next move. While waiting I found Goofy all the way at the head of the canyon while Pretty Boy showed back up in the same spot he was in on day 12. We continued to wait and a new player appeared across canyon on the top of the slides under the big cave pictured earlier in the thread. We now had 5 legal rams in our canyon and 3 days to hunt. Plus 3 of the 5 were within 500 yards of our hiding spot which was 800 feet above the canyon floor and at tree line. Our focus was on Grandpa and Twister since they were close and in a good area if they made 3 of 4 moves. Well all rams, except Grandpa, made the one right move for them while Grandpa re-bedded in a poor location for a stalk. Below are some pictures I got of Twister after he fed to the bottom of the canyon with the little guys.
I replied twice, “No Twister, I don’t have a shot at Grandpa”!
“35”
I placed my pins on Twister and tried to hold steady. To be honest I was so cold I don’t remember much but, including pin placement but I think I was able to get steady and don’t remember anything other than the arrow entering under the line of willows which were halfway up his body. He ran off, over a little ridge into a big slide and not being sure of the shot we ran after him. We closed the distance and I called for a range.
“75”
I dialed my sight to 80 since he was still moving. He was quarterly away hard and I only had a 2” – 3” avenue into his chest. Under other conditions I’d never take this shot but with a wounded animal and not sure of where the first arrow hit I knew I had to make it count. I hit just left of my point of aim, Twister traveled a bit further and was ours!!!
Old Twister is a Toad!
Have you had him aged? Horn length?
Incredible story, pics and persistence to get it done on the 13th day! This is one of the top al time great Bowsite features!!!
Mark
Congrats again.
I owe you lunch! Next week sometime? Twisted Fork? Silver Peak?
Great write up and pics. It's easy to see why the northern lights (in Alaska officially, but anywhere far north) are one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World.
Thanks for sharing
The end, thanks for following along....
But wait, I've got a Desert Bighorn ewe tag that starts in October then I'll be "subguide" on Kyle's November ram hunt!!!
Craig
Great story. Awesome. Congrats!
Better story than any magazine article I have ever read. Thanks again.
Bowsite's been rockin' here lately.....
Be sure to let WSF know of this, as you're now eligible for our "One More For Four" drawing in January.
Great story and even better Ram, Congratulations!
Stone Sheep are my favorite animal, and your story brought back some great memories of my hunts, I hope I get the chance to hunt them again someday.
John
Thanks for the comments and thanks to Pat and Bowsite for providing a means for me to relive this hunt. The experience was truly epic and I can't imagine it being any better. I just spent the last hour editing my poor grammar. I don't have the ability to do that well immediately after writing something so thanks for dealing with that!
Here's my setup:
Hoyt Carbon Spyder 34, 70#, 30"
Hamskea Full Containment Versa Rest
Spott Hogg Tommy Hogg Six Pin Slider
B-Stinger Front and Side Bar Stablizers with Quick Disconnect (I took these off and placed in the saddle bags when I rode)
Black Eagle X-Impact Arrows in .250 Spine
Slick Trick 125 gr Standards - 3 in quiver
Ulmer Edge 125 gr Stainless for long range or shots in the wind - 2 in quiver
Tight Spot Quiver
Arrow Weight 466 gr, 290 FPS
I wouldn't change a thing about my bow setup and all my gear worked great except the KUIU bino harness. I don't like the fact the top of the case isn't attached and has no support when you pull the binos out. It proved to be a pain in the field, especially during stalks, so I'm going back to my FHF bino harness.
I wore mostly KUIU clothes and KUIU Yukon rain gear. I wouldn't want anything less as far as rain gear for riding horses through brush. I messed up and left my KUIU Attack pants at home and packed the fleece lined KUIU Guide pants by mistake but that turned out okay since we had some really cold, wet, windy days. I could've easily gotten by with the Attack pants and long johns though. I also wore KUIU Tiburon pants a few days that started out warm (it was nearly 90 when I arrived in base camp) and pulled on my rain pants if it got windy or cold.
Congratulations
Scott
CONGRATULATIONS !!!
Huey didn't hunt with us, except one day when he broke free from Parker's watch and traveled a couple miles to find us. We didn't see a legal ram this day so it didn't have an impact. Later, he tore a toe nail completely off on the pack into our second location so he wasn't moving around much for several days after that. Great dog and it was nice to have him around so I had to get a picture of him thrown in.
Scott
My good friend Kyle is hunting with Tuchodi right now, I hope he has the same success!
Thanks so much for bringing it all to us and a huge congrats!
Congratulations!!
OFFHNTN
What an adventure, once in a lifetime hunt for a few of us, hunting remote country that most hunters will never see, what a super archery trophy, a great ram, unbelievable, awesome, epic!
I liked the look and age on Grandpa, but really love the look of Twister! A great older flaring out Stone still with his lamb tips.
You were really into the rams with multiple encounters/ opportunities on rams! Yes you picked a great outfitter and guide!
(Just wondering- Is the outfitter or guide planning another ram hunt this season back into this country to take another ram out of there?)
Those pictures are simply amazing, what an adventure!
Plz tell us more about Grandpa if you can.
So awesome!
Mark
That's awesome and congratulations! Thank Lawson for cutting the trail (I did a little work, but not much...)
Scott
Congratulations buddy! He's huge and dark, everything you wanted. Can't wait to hear the story. Call me when you get home and settled. Safe travels!
Lenny
Thanks for posting and it'd be cool if you'd post the rest of the story a pics on this thread.
I do have a request, I'd like to see a rear view of his horns. They looked gnarly from the back.
This is cool, 2 threads for the price of one.
Bill V
What a thread this has been! Two great bowkilled Stone rams from the same area! From the start w/ tilz's story about all the diff rams along w/ fantastic pics of them, thru his hunt and now the next hunt culminating with Grandpa being taken by KTH.
Certainly one of the top threads here that will be tough to beat! Thanks for sharing and taking us along.
Mark
Sheep hunting isn't for sissies!!!!!!
Thanks for posting and finishing the story of our three weeks in the sheep mountains. You made the memories of my hunt even sweeter. Congrats on one heck of a trophy!!!
Scott
Mark
No kidding, I literally jumped up and yelled.... "YES!!!"
What an epic adventure! Thank you for sharing!
Please bring the rest of your adventures here.
Great job!!
Scott, Kyle and Mad Trapper, Can't believe I will be at Tuchodi hunting Stone rams in less than 90 days! Thanks a million for sharing your hunts but more importantly your knowledge, insight and experiences!
Hopefully i will have a Tuchodi Stone Sheep - 2015 worthy of a sequel!
Mark
Incredibly lucky (and appreciative) to say the least! In December, Waterfowler (Brad) and I were talking hunts. He had Tuchodi River booked for a Stone's bowhunt for August 2015. Long story short, he wasn't going to be able to make it, so I ended up buying the hunt within a few short days. Normally, these hunts are booked out 2-3 years!
So.......Brad, THANK YOU for keeping this hunt within the Bowsite Family!
Mark
You guys should never be allowed to post threads like this in September!
Fantastic story...Congrats on a couple great Rams!
Best of luck, Jeff
Good luck on the Stone's! I was fortunate enough to hold KTH's ram from above right after it was scored, what a ram!
Lenny
Saw you walk in AZ.... certainly not slow.... I'd rate it as fast! =D
Glad to see this thread keep on going...hope it stays alive long enough the next few years for me to post my hunt.
HUGE amounts of character in KTH's old warrior Grandpa!!!
I get shivers up and down my spine every time I hold a ram....
KTH, you are doing a fullbody mount if I remember...where you going to put it?
Tilzbow, what are your plans for your ram?
Mark
Mark
