A 2023 Sheep Hunt - the sequel
Wild Sheep
Sometimes lightning strikes twice. As most of you know I had the privilege of taking a nice Ram with the bow last August here in Colorado. As luck would have it, my Son drew the exact same tag in the same unit this year!
He just turned 18 and the odds of us drawing in back to back years are probably astronomical. I’ve been up scouting quite a bit this July and once again things are looking pretty good. He’s been hunting since 8 years old but kinda crazy this is actually going to be his first archery hunt! By now I have over 60 days of scouting and hunting in the unit so confidence is high and I have some ideas to try to keep shot distances as short as possible.
We’re hiking into the Wilderness on Sunday. I’m packed for 10 days. He can stay out for 17. I can’t put into words how blessed I feel and how excited I am to share this Father Son experience before he moves to Montana.
Keith
attached is a link to last years semi live hunt I posted here if ya missed it and a few photos.
Hopefully, for our sake, the hunt with your son will be just as well chronicled and as successful as last year’s hunt was. Awesome that you and your son will get to experience it side by side. Best wishes and looking forward to following along!
Awsome!!!
Another batch of great adventures on bowsite seem to be starting.
Looking forward to following along. Not many of us get to share a sheep hunt with our son. Best of luck!
Super cool Can't wait to follow along
Have a great time with your son!!!!!!
Can’t wait for your son hunt!
Looking forward to it! Good luck!
Wow, amazing luck to have him draw the tag on the heels of your hunt! Should be set up well for success...good luck!
Awesome stuff. I couldn’t dream of a better way to spend time than hunting with my son on a hunt like this. You are indeed blessed. Good luck on the hunt and I just prayed that God Bless’s you both with safety and a kill.
Spectacular! Looking forward to the recap! Definitely a hunt of a lifetime!
Good luck! Can’t wait to see how it goes.
Good luck guys! Can’t wait for the photos and story.
This is going to be fantastic, hope you get a dandy ram, but more importantly have a great time with your son!
Wow! Enjoy every minute of the experience Keith! A dead animal at the end is just a BONUS.................... ;-)
Good luck and God Bless!
Congratulations to you and your son. Have a great time. Looking forward to the story and pictures.
Just imagine setting on a rock at 11,000 feet and watching your son stalking to within 22 yards of a 150 PY ram. He draws back, holds and then releases.
Now finished the story.................................................................................
I have a son his age. It’s pretty impressive that he has the ability and drive to possibly pack in for 17 days. That can be a mentally challenging hunt for a large percentage of hunters on here. Sheep hunts are as much a mental game as a conditioning game.
Hope he has a great hunt.
Good luck Keith get it done!
Oh wow- what a great turn of fortune for all of us who get to tag along! Thanks for posting and I know lots of us look forward to this thread now. Good luck to your son! I hope you two have a wonderful trip!
Good luck to you and your son, Keith. A dream hunt for a Dad!
You know what Quinn. He’s 18 years old and trust me has made some horrible decisions along the way, but as far as this goes he is super determined to make it happen. He thought my hunt last year was super cool but I questioned if he really grasped the gravity getting a Ram tag. Doing apps this spring I basically told him I would be done fronting the money after this year and asked if he wanted to try for a ewe tag. He said he was willing to wait as long as it takes for a ram tag so I guess he had already made up his mind this was something he really wanted to do.
We’ve done a couple of week long backcountry hunts in the past and he’s spent a good bit of this summer romping around the wilds of Montana, so I feel comfortable leaving him out there if we go past 10 days. Our packs are weighing in at 55 and 58 ponds with 10 days of food. If he has to he is gonna hike back out with me on the 8th and restock at his truck.
Man that's great can't wait to see what happens!
What an awesome opportunity. Any scouting pics?
Arlo (Small Munsterlander)
Arlo (Small Munsterlander)
A little early for scouting this season
A little early for scouting this season
As far as scouting pics go I do have a couple. I would say that I’ve had a completely different approach this year. I love to find and watch sheep, but I would say my focus has been on more family oriented trips up there and trying to incorporate my wife into the adventure a bit. I also have a new bird dog pup that I’ve been bringing with me so my goal has been to glass from a far and and kinda work the outskirts of my honey holes.
Awesome Congrats looking forward to the stories
Very rare indeed for that to happen in the same family!
Kool scouting pix too,
Robb
Awesome, and a big congrats to both of you, looking forward to some bowhunting!
Good luck. Can’t wait for the stories and pics from this adventure!
I loved your thread from last year. Best of luck to your son! Enjoy making memories!
Hey guys here’s a little update.
My daughter had a tonsillectomy today so I pulled an all nighter yesterday and hiked out after the evening hunt. Kaden is still up there hunting solo today and I’m heading back up in the morning for another few days. We have been having a blast. What an amazing special experience to share! Tons of sheep and we’ve only seen about 10 people the whole time.
We have been into Rams in a big way! We have seen more than 50 rams, some real good ones for the unit. More 3/4’s then last year for sure. The first day we got camp set up pretty late and did some glassing but didn’t turn up any rams. Monday we didn’t locate any sheep until the evening but we saw a bunch once we found them. Opening day was special. A bunch of rams came into the basin throughout the day and our total count was 32 different Rams that we glassed from one spot!! Kaden went on a stalk in the morning and got busted at 60yards. He was heading right, they were heading left and they caught him moving. Really fun to watch through the binos though. We blew another stalk on Wednesday and have since kinda changed our tactic. What we’re doing now is when we locate a band of rams we try to guess where they might end up later and set up there. Big time roll of the dice with several hour climbs just hoping they show up but after a couple of years watching them I can often predict where they might go. Hopefully the ambush technique will come through.
12,500ft 200yds from 11 Rams
12,500ft 200yds from 11 Rams
200yds…as close as we could get
200yds…as close as we could get
Getting me excited for my upcoming ram hunt! Good luck!
Hope your daughter is doing well. I knkw that's not a fun procedure. Hope you guys get a ram sounds lime a fun time!
How cool is this?! Good luck, guys!!
Pretty sweet! Looking forward to the updates
Thanks for the update. Looks like it’s going real well up there. With that many rams around the right situation will present itself soon. Good luck!
Getting good! Keep after it!
Thanks for sharing. Looks like an incredible adventure!
Thanks for sharing. Nuttin better than to have a son or daughter that you can hunt or fish with. Hunt of a lifetime just bein there.
Fantastic thanks for keeping us updated- good luck!
Good luck again this year.
Looks like you’re having a blast! Awesome to do this with your son!
Any news from the mountains?
Well guys I’m a little late with this update. We had one hell of a special father son experience and saw things that most can’t even imagine. Our second to last day we had the best opportunity of our whole time out there. We glassed a band of 11 at sunrise and just went for it. Dropped off a ton of gear at camp and went light. We climbed straight up for almost 1500ft and got 76 yards from 11 rams. We spent 2.5 hrs crawling to several different areas just hoping to get to a spot to take a shot. Unbelievably we did get to the very last bit of vegetation without getting caught, and these sheep are always turned on. There is never a time where one or two aren’t up on a lookout. We had a big 7/8 curl climb onto a pinnacle rock about 50 degrees above us at only 58 yards! It was incredible. He was majestically poised on this spire above us while the sun just broke the ridge line behind him. Like a silhouette with sun rays behind him. Amazing experience. Although we tried we just couldn’t get a shooting lane and honestly that’s just out of Kadens range. We hiked out with our heads held high after hunting hard for 14 of 16 days. We literally left nothing on the table. Every time we had a chance we went, no matter the climb or the distance. We tried stalking, ambushing, sitting in a makeshift blind, me flagging him in. In the end we have no regrets and although nothing hit the ground it’s one of the highlights of my hunting career.
Heading out all smiles! NO Regrets
Heading out all smiles! NO Regrets
Sounds like one hell of an experience, congratulations to both of you. My son and I shared in amazing hunt together last year and even though hes still bitter about not making good on an opportunity,i still think of it as one of the most enjoyable hunting experience I've ever had. I imagined you can relate.
Remember you had a great adventure hunting with your son. Are you going back?
Sounds like a great father / son adventure. Memories to last a lifetime! Congrats!
Love to hear you gave it your all and had a blast. Those are the memories that are forged forever Thanks for taking us along
Sounds like a great adventure with lifetime memories made!
Great stuff, thanks for taking us along!
