Just call me the Bighorn Sheep Whisperer

ss7mm

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2005
Messages
3,706
Location
Yakima, Washington
A few days ago was the last day of deer season. I was going to switch to a different area for the last part of the day when I saw some sheep. Initially it was a single ewe and when some more came out I started taking pictures and video. You'll have to excuse the shakiness in the video as it was cold and I was hand holding the camera. I've seen a few ewes and maybe a single ram here before but never this many sheep this far away from the rocks and steep stuff where they always stay. I keep putting in for a tag but so far no luck. Some day I'll probably draw the tag and won't be able to find a single ram.

When the sheep started coming out to where the ewe was I tried making a couple of "sounds" and it seemed to calm them and even seemed to attract some of them as more of them showed up. They even got so calm that they laid down in the road and I was in plain sight right in front of them about 100 yards away.

After the third bunch came to see what was going on I slowly went towards them and they just walked off to the left about 200 yards and bedded down. All in all I saw these 3 bunches and another big bunch on a farther hillside as well as singles and doubles on another hillside.

All the time I was in plain sight but they seemed calm and relaxed. Whether the sounds I made had anything to do with it or not I don't know as I've never been this close to this many sheep and I just thought I'd try it. I will definitely try it again if they ever co-operate like they did here.


This is the first sheep that came out to join the initial ewe. They were standing in the road and when they heard the sounds they just started laying down.
[ame="http://youtu.be/eE_i5hGNp8g"]Bighorn sheep lay down - YouTube[/ame]


This is the third group coming around the corner to join the first two groups. Sorry about the wiggles, but hand held in cold weather is not easy to do. Hind sight is 20/20 and had I known how they would react I'd have put the tripod to use.
[ame="http://youtu.be/mVROOlld1Hw"]Third group comes to join first two groups - YouTube[/ame]



This is one ram coming to see what his buddy was doing.
[ame="http://youtu.be/9ZMAqQAQWIQ"]Ram comes to see what his buddy is doing - YouTube[/ame]



A couple of pics. One of the sheep laying in the road and one of the rams from the bush bashing as they crossed the hill above me. The sounds you hear in the video are not the ones I made to see how the sheep would react. It was noises I made while trying to use my rifle as a rest to steady the video camera but it didn't help much as you can see by the shakiness of the videos.
DSC02973 edited.jpg


DSC03001.jpg
 
Someday I'd love to get out there to hunt sheep. Guess I shoud probably start putting in for this stuff now I ain't getting any younger :D
 
Someday I'd love to get out there to hunt sheep. Guess I shoud probably start putting in for this stuff now I ain't getting any younger :D
Now would be a good time to start. Some people get lucky and draw early but a lot of people go 20-30 years and never draw.
 
I have a few videos of my Dall kills at long range, I need to figure out how to post them.
The last time I tried, I could not get them loaded up to YouTube. I also have them on a DVD as we had them on our TV show.
I'll try again.
 
I have a few videos of my Dall kills at long range, I need to figure out how to post them.
The last time I tried, I could not get them loaded up to YouTube. I also have them on a DVD as we had them on our TV show.
I'll try again.
I tried to upload a video to YouTube a month or so back and had problems and couldn't get it to work but for these I had no problems and they uploaded fine.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 13 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top