2011 Dall Sheep Hunt
 

Here's a few pics from a recent Alaskan Dall sheep hunt I took my Dad on. It was a 45-mile round trip walk-in and at one point we got stuck in the tent for 44 hours while it rained and snowed on us. The hunt was extremely physically demanding, but well worth it to get my Dad his first ram.

- Dad hiking down the trail on day 1
- Cow moose by our first camp
- The Alaska Range
- Caribou cow circling to figure out what we were
- Hiking through the cotton grass with our destination up ahead

- Almost to sheep camp
- Glassing caribou the morning before the season started
- Dall rams through the spotter the day before the opener
- Snow and rain opening day
- My friend Matt was with us to look for caribou and he headed down low opening morning. He didn't see any shooter bulls, but he shot a wolf in the process.

- Ewes and lambs through the fog, near our camp
- Trying to glass rams through the fog
- Hell yeah, legal ram on the left, across the valley
- Dad's ram feeding through the spotting scope
- Dad's ram upright through the spotting scope

- We used the rolling fog and shrubby willows to sneak down into the stream channel below. That allowed us to use the cut bank to sneak back up the other side to get within range.
- Ram down!!!
- Great wide flare to the horns and over full curl on both sides
- Another angle
- It truely doesn't get any better than getting to pose up a big Dall ram with my Dad.

- I have to give a plug to the TAG bags. I love those things and they are an absolute necessity for backcountry meat care.
- Dad with his trophy. Thankfully we had absolute bluebird skies as we broke camp and started the long trek back.
- Mediocre bull caribou. Matt debated taking him, but opted not to.
- Little bull moose hanging out by the trail.
- Grizzly tracks in the trail.

Nice pictures Jeff. Man that's beautiful country.So where's the photo of your dads ram?
Being a whitetail hunter from the northeast i'm curious on how do you prepare for a hunt like that? What equipment do you bring? Your over 20 miles in not much room for margin of error. You know i'm talking about? Tent,sleeping bag, cooking gear ect ect...
What caliber rifle do you carry on a hunt like that? I know you don't need a magnun to kill a ram.........but you're in Alaska.
If you want to post how you prepare for a wilderness hunt and the equipment you take along with you i'd be very interested in reading it.
Congrats on a succesful hunt!!

Nice ram!!!!!!

Great looking sheep, glad you could do it with your Dad.

Exciting hunt and great pictures!

Very Cool Jeff! What a great memory to share with your father. Please extend my congratulations to him.

Jerry,
You obviously have to do a lot of physical and logistical planning for a hunt like that. 45 miles on foot means you have to get in shape so you don't crap out half way in and have to give up. Gear selection is paramount as well. You have to decide what's necessity and what's luxury. Little things like the rangefinder, that most people would throw in their pack without a second thought, get left behind. I even went so far as to cut half of the handle off of my toothbrush just to shave some weight and space. I brought my small Brunton stove and we ate primarily Mountain House, Clif bars, oatmeal, and jerky. Canned foods and anything with excessive water weight is out of the question. My Dad used my .300 Win Mag for this hunt. It would have been a hassle for him to fly his rifle up, so we just took mine to the range beforehand and he got himself dialed in with it. That 300 shoots flat and hits plenty hard for anything out there. That's my go to firestick 9 times out of 10 when I head out around here. Here's some of my favorites from my gear list...

Kenetrek Hardscrabble Boots - I've beaten the hell out of those things on sheep and goat hunts and they look like they're just broken in.
Wiggy's Sleeping Bags - Light weight and they keep their loft when they get wet.
T.A.G. Bags - They're the hands down best light weight game bag on the market.
Kryptek Cadog Shield Jacket & Pants - Really comfortable in a wide range of weather.
Badlands 4500 backpack - I've run that thing through the ringer for almost 10 years and it's still going strong.

Hope that answers your questions.

Yes it does Jeff thanks.All together different world then what i'm used to.

Awesome Story! pictures speak a 1000 words