California Bighorn Ram Officially in the British Columbia Record Book!
09-25-2005, 01:18 AM
#1
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Join Date: Jun 2005
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Posts: 128
California Bighorn Ram Officially in the British Columbia Record Book!
Well, after a few different trips out to the area I drew my Ram tag for I still did not turn up a monster ram, but after passing on a number of young rams I decided with only one more day of hunting left, to take this nice ram. He will look great on my wall regardless of how he scores. The country these rams live in is absolutely stunning in every aspect. This is the first time I have hunted sheep and loved every minute of it. I can see myself getting the bug! I will try and get pics up as soon as I figure out how to!!! Hope everyone else is having a great season!
09-25-2005, 10:06 AM
#4
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Join Date: Jun 2005
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Posts: 128
RE: Smoked a California Bighorn Ram today!
Ok, Im a little more with it this morning! Was quite exhausted last night when I finally got home and could post! Anyways it feels great to have that tag filled! Everyone including myself figured you just drive over to Vassaux Lake (my region drawn) and pick out a book ram from the parking lot and shoot it......NOT THE CASE!!!! The entire bottom of the valley where the sheep hang out most is protected in a Federal Land Reserve where my tag was not valid. ( Was led to believe that it was until I called the Canadian Wildlife Service to find out otherwise) That changed the strategy considerably! Alot of hiking in unknown terrain etc...That area is extremely rugged. I will post some pics of the area when I get them developed. Where I took my ram is probably one of the easiest places it could have happened. Just beyond is sheer cliffs, rattlesnake infested shale slides etc.
We spent all morning hiking some big basins and spotting like crazy all afternoon hoping to catch a glimpse of a ram.....any ram!!! no luck at all...they talk about the highs and lows of sheep hunting and I can speculate on that, now that Ive gone through it!! Knowing that Sunday would be my last day in the valley to fill my tag the pressure and dissapointment was growing. The wind was raging and to top it off on the way out, on the trail head I took a small tumble and landed harshly on my rifle and scope. I cleaned the gravel and dust out of the action and cleaned the scope covers etc as best I could and carried on with some anxiety knowing that my scope may very well be knocked out of line and I may still face a very long shot in heavy wind. The pressure built up more and more. I was hoping for a miracle on the way out on the trail head that just maybe....maybe a ram would step out on one of the ridges that we were skirting and if he was decent enough to look at I would take him...time went on and still nothing but a set of Sow bear tracks and her cub heading up the trail in front of me. I figured it was even more bad luck that a bear was winding the area ahead of me and this trip was going to go south. 500 yds further up the trail the bear tracks headed off the trail to the south, climbing onto a rocky ridge above us. I thought great now the bear is walking adjacent to the trail head as there was no other place to go and is deffinitely winding thearea out because of the wind direction blowing from the bear down to us. We carried on and my partner noticed a Golden Eagle flying against the mountain with the sun reflecting off his feathers. Beautifull!! I rememerd why we as hunters and outdoorsman are drawn to the mountains and valleys in the first place!!! Mother nature is absolutely stunning in every aspect, fromher sheer ruggedness and awe inspiringweather changes to theincredibledisplay of carved outrivers,streams and basins full of game. My buddy quitelymentioned tome that theeagle weseen soaring above isa good luck sign......and he was right! We carried on another800 yds up the trail and in ablurr 8california rams burst through the timber not more than 80 yds away....completely unaware ofour presence....how could this be I thought, I realized the bear had spooked them to us....instinct took over rapidly as the rams caught sight of us... they were milling around the biggest ram waiting for him to make a move and show some guidance....I scanned the group quickly back and forth to pick one out...all the rams were close in size but I wanted the one in the middle and had no shot as one other ram was in front of him... the ram I wanted was almost straight on at 80 yds and they were ready to bolt...at the last second the one ram took 2 steps forward, his feet barely hit the ground and cleared the ram I wantedwhen the .338 win roared. The ram hit the groundlike a freight train nailed him head on. Finished! The poor angle I had worked out in the end...the 225 grain TBBC went through his right shoulder dead at an angle and the bullet passed through his vitals and we found the bullet in his left hind quarter. full expansion, fully intact. Unfortuneatly the shoulder was destroyed but the rest of the meat is mint!!! The celebration began!!! All the emotions that have built up over the last month with this ram draw, the fact the elk are bugleing in my back yard and I cant even hunt etc... was finally let off my back in one big boom! Exciting! Im so stoked today its going to be hard to focus!!!
Sorry for the long winded story but I know I owe it to the people that have not been fortuneate enough to hunt sheep. Im thankfull for drawing this tag...even more thankfull for filling it and hope one day each one of you that are interested in hunting sheep fullfill your dream as I did yesterday!!!
We spent all morning hiking some big basins and spotting like crazy all afternoon hoping to catch a glimpse of a ram.....any ram!!! no luck at all...they talk about the highs and lows of sheep hunting and I can speculate on that, now that Ive gone through it!! Knowing that Sunday would be my last day in the valley to fill my tag the pressure and dissapointment was growing. The wind was raging and to top it off on the way out, on the trail head I took a small tumble and landed harshly on my rifle and scope. I cleaned the gravel and dust out of the action and cleaned the scope covers etc as best I could and carried on with some anxiety knowing that my scope may very well be knocked out of line and I may still face a very long shot in heavy wind. The pressure built up more and more. I was hoping for a miracle on the way out on the trail head that just maybe....maybe a ram would step out on one of the ridges that we were skirting and if he was decent enough to look at I would take him...time went on and still nothing but a set of Sow bear tracks and her cub heading up the trail in front of me. I figured it was even more bad luck that a bear was winding the area ahead of me and this trip was going to go south. 500 yds further up the trail the bear tracks headed off the trail to the south, climbing onto a rocky ridge above us. I thought great now the bear is walking adjacent to the trail head as there was no other place to go and is deffinitely winding thearea out because of the wind direction blowing from the bear down to us. We carried on and my partner noticed a Golden Eagle flying against the mountain with the sun reflecting off his feathers. Beautifull!! I rememerd why we as hunters and outdoorsman are drawn to the mountains and valleys in the first place!!! Mother nature is absolutely stunning in every aspect, fromher sheer ruggedness and awe inspiringweather changes to theincredibledisplay of carved outrivers,streams and basins full of game. My buddy quitelymentioned tome that theeagle weseen soaring above isa good luck sign......and he was right! We carried on another800 yds up the trail and in ablurr 8california rams burst through the timber not more than 80 yds away....completely unaware ofour presence....how could this be I thought, I realized the bear had spooked them to us....instinct took over rapidly as the rams caught sight of us... they were milling around the biggest ram waiting for him to make a move and show some guidance....I scanned the group quickly back and forth to pick one out...all the rams were close in size but I wanted the one in the middle and had no shot as one other ram was in front of him... the ram I wanted was almost straight on at 80 yds and they were ready to bolt...at the last second the one ram took 2 steps forward, his feet barely hit the ground and cleared the ram I wantedwhen the .338 win roared. The ram hit the groundlike a freight train nailed him head on. Finished! The poor angle I had worked out in the end...the 225 grain TBBC went through his right shoulder dead at an angle and the bullet passed through his vitals and we found the bullet in his left hind quarter. full expansion, fully intact. Unfortuneatly the shoulder was destroyed but the rest of the meat is mint!!! The celebration began!!! All the emotions that have built up over the last month with this ram draw, the fact the elk are bugleing in my back yard and I cant even hunt etc... was finally let off my back in one big boom! Exciting! Im so stoked today its going to be hard to focus!!!
Sorry for the long winded story but I know I owe it to the people that have not been fortuneate enough to hunt sheep. Im thankfull for drawing this tag...even more thankfull for filling it and hope one day each one of you that are interested in hunting sheep fullfill your dream as I did yesterday!!!
