I don't come from a hunting family. But I have developed a real obsession of it. Not knowing which animal is THE best to hunt, a year ago, I made a goal to try hunting all of BC's animals. The incredibly long winded tale that is about to ensue is only a couple of this years quests. But probably the best. Hang on for the ride.....I hope you enjoy it. I know I did!
The Disappearing Act
After a quick flight over some of the most pristine wilderness, our plane touched down in northern BC. I knew immediately we were in for a spectacular hunt. We got base camp tent set up and were just starting to relax when I figured I would grab my spotting scope and look at some of the hills around us. Almost like magic, within less than a minute of looking I needed to zoom in my spotting scope as I had a big set of curls in my glass. Wow! This was going to be easy! It was almost a gift! A massive broomed off Stone’s Sheep filled my spotting scope. Standing there almost a mile away, I was impressed by this ram. I had heard sheep hunting was tough, mentally and physically, boy was everybody wrong. All I now had to do was wait until opening morning and go get this titan. However it was July 30th, and Stone’s don’t open till the 1st of August. So as I took a final mental picture of his exact location confident he should be there in the morning, I put him to bed around 10pm.
This hunt was taking place in beautiful northern BC. The trip up north had been incredible in itself. On the way we saw almost every creature in the province! Wolf, grizzly and black bears, moose, caribou, deer, and even some near curl Stone’s sheep out on the highway! While on this hunt we added a wolverine and goats being sighted! However there are only 2 animals with current openings, they were sheep and wolves. I have come to realize that hunting the opener for sheep makes quite a big difference in your hunt. For one, your eyes are glued to the areas sheep are, not looking above and below for other sorts of animals, not to mention when you get a different animal you have got to deal with it, which can sometimes take days, taking your time away from finding the ram of your dreams. Also, if there is one legal ram in the herd and you are the first person to find that heard, you have the best chance of taking a ram from that herd. Once it’s gone, you’re out of luck! Also, the obvious one, they haven’t been hunted yet this year! This would be my first time for the opener, I have had two other sheep tags, but both were mixed bag hunts in September, neither hunt connected me with a sheep. As far as I was concerned now I was already planning how to cook this ram, and I wondered aloud if I should just cut my tag for the first of August.
I woke up at 6:20am with great anticipation after putting that monster to bed just a few short hours ago. Even before breakfast I was already filling my spotting scope with horns. Within the first two minutes of our 2nd day I found the two young rams that were located 200 yards from where I had last laid eyes on this giant which I had tucked nicely into bed. They were up and feeding and I watched them for hours, guessing the score of this ram. I constantly found my jaw dropping due to the stunning scenery. I couldn’t wait for my first taste of sheep meat! With one ram in the bag pretty much, we would have an easy 17 days finding a second ram. We knew these sheep were staying put, and so we decided to hike to a bowl just up behind us. We may as well look for a second ram for my hunting partner and good friend, also named Dave. Maybe we could get two rams opening morning and call the plane!
As we walked away, I asked Dave if it was foolish to take our eyes off of them, but we figured it was 9am and we had a whole day to kill anyways. Plus they didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Taking our eyes off the sheep was a mistake I will never do again. Losing visual reference, the sheep completely disappeared in the expanse of boulders and lichen, the hunt had gone from a give me to a give me that again. We had completely lost them. We hiked to a better viewing position and got on the glass. We studied every inch of that mountain. We looked all day through two spotting scopes and still northing. They were gone! We had come to the conclusion that these sheep must have been related to David Copperfield. We searched from top to bottom, like an investigator on a crime scene, we covered every inch of that mountain side at full 60x zoom... and nothing. Then at 6pm, like Houdini, they just appeared, feeding in the middle of the mountain, in full view. Now, I wouldn’t take my eyes off them again. I felt a huge sense of relief and my heart pounded with anticipation of the next morning and how things would go. We planned a couple of different stocks from different angles depending on the wind and set the alarm for 3:30am. They weren’t leaving that mountain. All I had to do was get up and shoot one.
TO BE CONTINUED
The Disappearing Act
After a quick flight over some of the most pristine wilderness, our plane touched down in northern BC. I knew immediately we were in for a spectacular hunt. We got base camp tent set up and were just starting to relax when I figured I would grab my spotting scope and look at some of the hills around us. Almost like magic, within less than a minute of looking I needed to zoom in my spotting scope as I had a big set of curls in my glass. Wow! This was going to be easy! It was almost a gift! A massive broomed off Stone’s Sheep filled my spotting scope. Standing there almost a mile away, I was impressed by this ram. I had heard sheep hunting was tough, mentally and physically, boy was everybody wrong. All I now had to do was wait until opening morning and go get this titan. However it was July 30th, and Stone’s don’t open till the 1st of August. So as I took a final mental picture of his exact location confident he should be there in the morning, I put him to bed around 10pm.
This hunt was taking place in beautiful northern BC. The trip up north had been incredible in itself. On the way we saw almost every creature in the province! Wolf, grizzly and black bears, moose, caribou, deer, and even some near curl Stone’s sheep out on the highway! While on this hunt we added a wolverine and goats being sighted! However there are only 2 animals with current openings, they were sheep and wolves. I have come to realize that hunting the opener for sheep makes quite a big difference in your hunt. For one, your eyes are glued to the areas sheep are, not looking above and below for other sorts of animals, not to mention when you get a different animal you have got to deal with it, which can sometimes take days, taking your time away from finding the ram of your dreams. Also, if there is one legal ram in the herd and you are the first person to find that heard, you have the best chance of taking a ram from that herd. Once it’s gone, you’re out of luck! Also, the obvious one, they haven’t been hunted yet this year! This would be my first time for the opener, I have had two other sheep tags, but both were mixed bag hunts in September, neither hunt connected me with a sheep. As far as I was concerned now I was already planning how to cook this ram, and I wondered aloud if I should just cut my tag for the first of August.
I woke up at 6:20am with great anticipation after putting that monster to bed just a few short hours ago. Even before breakfast I was already filling my spotting scope with horns. Within the first two minutes of our 2nd day I found the two young rams that were located 200 yards from where I had last laid eyes on this giant which I had tucked nicely into bed. They were up and feeding and I watched them for hours, guessing the score of this ram. I constantly found my jaw dropping due to the stunning scenery. I couldn’t wait for my first taste of sheep meat! With one ram in the bag pretty much, we would have an easy 17 days finding a second ram. We knew these sheep were staying put, and so we decided to hike to a bowl just up behind us. We may as well look for a second ram for my hunting partner and good friend, also named Dave. Maybe we could get two rams opening morning and call the plane!
As we walked away, I asked Dave if it was foolish to take our eyes off of them, but we figured it was 9am and we had a whole day to kill anyways. Plus they didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Taking our eyes off the sheep was a mistake I will never do again. Losing visual reference, the sheep completely disappeared in the expanse of boulders and lichen, the hunt had gone from a give me to a give me that again. We had completely lost them. We hiked to a better viewing position and got on the glass. We studied every inch of that mountain. We looked all day through two spotting scopes and still northing. They were gone! We had come to the conclusion that these sheep must have been related to David Copperfield. We searched from top to bottom, like an investigator on a crime scene, we covered every inch of that mountain side at full 60x zoom... and nothing. Then at 6pm, like Houdini, they just appeared, feeding in the middle of the mountain, in full view. Now, I wouldn’t take my eyes off them again. I felt a huge sense of relief and my heart pounded with anticipation of the next morning and how things would go. We planned a couple of different stocks from different angles depending on the wind and set the alarm for 3:30am. They weren’t leaving that mountain. All I had to do was get up and shoot one.
TO BE CONTINUED
