S44 Success!!!
Wild Sheep
Im back home in Alaska after a trip of a life time in Colorado. I was lucky enough to draw the only Non-resident Bighorn sheep tag for S44 in Basalt, Colorado. I want to start out by thanking all the people on this forum that sent info and encouragement about the hunt. Through other forums as well like Facebook, Instagram and Huntin Fool to name a few I was able to connect with a multitude of past tag holders, Bios and game wardens, other hunters, outfitters and people that lived in the unit that jumped at the opportunity to help and provide information. It was humbling and overwhelming how much help I received. There's no doubt that a sheep tag is a magical thing. Although this hunt was not guided it would be ridiculous to call it a DIY hunt. Besides all the people I spoke to that provided info on the area I had 14 different people in basalt during the 6 days I spent there that helped in some capacity or another to help make my hunt a success. I specifically want to thank them for their time and efforts. Dave Waller and his girls Roo and Sam for opening up their home to my crew. Their hospitality and drive to see me succeed was overwhelming. Ill never be able to repay their kindness. My brother, His BF Gene and one of my Best friends Jennifer who drove up from Denver. My Guide Business partner Roy who flew down from Alaska with me. Matt Defrank who put in probably more hours than I did researching this hunt. Hawaii Dave and Mr White who are salt of the earth dudes.Jay Scott and Cliff Gray for making the drive over to help. Claude and Jeff who drove over from Utah to help out and last but not least the unit Game warden Matt who was a huge help and wealth of knowledge.
Ill post up the short version of the story!!! After 4 days of pre-scouting and only turning up a handful of lambs and ewes we headed to the back drainage of the unit where the Game Warden recommended. After now having been on the ground and seeing the unit in person it was easy to see that why statistically this unit has the lowest success rate in the state and why so many of the hunters I talked to went home with tag soup. We broke up into 4 teams to cover all the glassing spots we had scouted prior. On opening day at about 10am we finally found a group of 4 rams with the smallest being a shooter 3/4 curl and the biggest a ram that I put in the mid 180s. Fast forward through a blown stalk due to wind swirling at 55 yards and relocating the rams 3 drainages over in the steepest nastiest country and stalk lane Ive ever attempted (worse than any 10 mountain goat hunts or 2 trips to NZ Ive been on)!!! I end up stalking into 27 yards above the ram group. I spent 30 minutes here stuck peeking through a dead tree split at the top of one of the rams horns or leaning around the tree to see his nose with absolutely no shot opportunity. I had no clue what ram I was staring at of the 4 and I didn't care. The first ram I could get a shot at was getting torched!!! Finally the wind picked up enough to where I could drop down to the next ledge that stuck out a little further. I covered the next 3 yards over 15 minutes. Once I got into position I leaned out and lased the rams nose. My leica rangefinder said 24 yards compensated to 14. I drew leaned out from the side of the dead tree settled my pin and don't remember going through a single shot sequence check in my head. The next thing I knew I saw my arrow buried to the fletching behind his shoulder. When the dust settled my ram made it 10 yards. never in a million years would I ever think that I would draw a Chugach Dall sheep tag and a Colorado bighorn sheep tag in the same year and killed both on opening day!!! This followed a ridiculously awesome spring where I killed a B&C musk ox with my good buddy Brendan Burns, a trio of black bears with my daughter and a 25inch 8 foot mountain grizzly all with my Hoyt Carbon Defiant. Hoping to keep the streak going with a couple mountain goats and some Sitka blacktail bucks on Kodiak. Cliff Gray taped my ram out at 173 even. He is 36.5x15.75 and is 8 years old. He ended up being the 3rd biggest ram in the group and Im 100% ok with that. Just want to close in thanking everyone again who helped me with this hunt and supported me in one way or another along the way. Good luck to everyone this fall. Later JDS
Outstanding... congratulations. That's the way I envision a sheep hunt someday. More pics please... Ed F
Did I miss the picture of the ram??
This was the stalk lane the ram was in.......steep sketchy stuff.
This was the stalk lane the ram was in.......steep sketchy stuff.
heres a pic from one of the glassing teams through a Swarovski HD 20-60x80mm Spotting scope from 2.2 miles away. Im at the top left at 27 yards and the ram is at the bottom right. The other 3 rams were on the next ledge below him out of view.
Congrats look forward to the long version .
One last look at my ram and thanks again to everyone that helped.
Sorry for the smaller pics Im blaming my phone.
Good luck to everyone this fall......next up are mountain goats!!!
One last look at my ram and thanks again to everyone that helped.
Sorry for the smaller pics Im blaming my phone.
Good luck to everyone this fall......next up are mountain goats!!!
B&C scorer and outfitter Cliff Gray came over to put the tape on my ram.
Outstanding! Congratulations!
That's so cool... Congrats!
Small world. Waller is a friend of mine and "Hawaii" Dave is my blood bradda hunting partner. Great folks, none better. Dave Waller's horses I'm guessing?
What a great hunt. Congrats again!
If you see Waller tell him to get his football picks in before tomorrow for the pool..... Kahoe did already...... =D
Awesome story and pics. I love it when a plan comes together! :) Congrats on a beautiful ram, awesome friends, and all the memories! Thanks for sharing it with us!
Congrats on an amazing ram! What dreams are made of.
Congrats on a great ram. I love that country around Basalt. Looks like he could have fallen quite a ways down but luckily didn't.
What a great Ram! Congrats!
Great hunt and outstanding ram.
Congratulations on a beautiful archery ram. You succeeded on a super tough hunt where dozens of bow-hunters before you could not. Sweet success!
Absolutely incredible! Congrats!
That's awesome, congrats. A lot of tags go home for soup in 44. Well done.
Thanks for the sneak peek a couple days ago. And once again Congratulations!!
Congratulations. I'm glad you were able to make good use of what should have been my tag. It's always great to see someone put so much effort into what is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. You went at it right and got the job done. Thanks for sharing.
Great write up and pictures. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent, thanks for the story.
Now that's hunting. Congratulations on a well earned trophy.
Wow, steep and undoubtedly noisy if a misstep. Congrats on a great adventure! Good luck on your upcoming AK hunts.
Congrats man! I know how much that hunt meant to you and it was great to see you come out on top!
Sweet, thanks for sharing!
Congratulations... nice looking ram!!!!!!!
Awesome! Did you see any tag grams? Love the pictures of the ampitheater!
You did great Man!!
I just got back from Wyo as you already know.
Sorry for the late response--------------->
Congrats
Good luck, Robb
Outstanding post and accomplishment! Well done and thanks for sharing.
Congrats again, Justin. Awesome accomplishment.
Wow that is awesome, congrats!
Way to get it done good job!
wow thats awesome! Great pics
Congrats! Tremendous accomplishment!
Congratulations on one of the toughest sheep hunts in Colorado!
Missed this one in ‘17… Was just brought back to the attention of one of the lucky ones to draw a tag for archery sheep in there this year.
Sniper again thanks for taking time out and shareing that adventure ! Congrats , like others have stated " truly fantastic " !
I missed this one, but belated congrats in what looks like some badass real estate !
Out of 23 archery license winners since the year of this hunt, only 3 of those hunters have succeeded. And that's with a full month-long season. He did well!!!
Ball buster for sure. Those rams live in damn tough country to glass and, when they do stick their noses out in the open, are in damn tough cliffs with crappy, crumbly shale…
This hunt would be awesome if it was in November.
I drew this tag 15 years ago and missed a sheep. I hunted HARD for 17 days to get my shot. It was not the most physically demanding sheep hunt there is. It was actually "easier" them most sheep areas in CO and WY. It was very difficult because there is no treeline. I would spot rams in the 100 yard wide opening "somewhere" in a 8 square mile patch of timber. It was impossible to hike 3 hours to get there and find the spot you say them without a spotter and hand signals. Very difficult solo. At the time I went success was 25% - but most residents had friends who lived at the base of the mnt looking into spotting scopes all day long and calling hunter when they saw rams.
Definitely an accomplishment to get a bow sheep in That unit! Awesome!
