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<blockquote data-quote="Michael Eichele" data-source="post: 40616" data-attributes="member: 1007"><p>This story was posted earlier in another forum and it is just moved here.</p><p></p><p>I will warn you all, this is a very long story, a story that was published in a magazine called "The Ram" a magazine put out by the foundation for north amarican wild sheep, Alaska chapter. Before it was published it was reduced in size a little. This is the original. The first picture is of my buddie and the second is of me.</p><p></p><p></p><p> It all started in the spring of 98 when a friend of mine, Charlie Hansen and I went fishing in the Matanuska valley when he invited me to drive up the highway with him and then back in off the highway a short ways where there was able to look for grizzly bears and at the same time we were able to look up at a section of mountains where I had seen a bunch of sheep. We were not yet then hunting partners, but he seemed to know a lot about hunting. He had moved up to Alaska in the fall of 97 and I in the spring of that same year. We hit it off when we first met as we were both "elkaholics" and loved shooting and the outdoors. I had never given sheep hunting a thought, but I had tried moose hunting and bear hunting and found it quite frustrating due to all the thick brush and vast country. I seemed to have little success at finding anything, not being able to see my quarry. When I had seen the sheep I thought to myself, I can see what I would be hunting. I liked that idea. I learned that it was a long time dream of Charlie's to go on a sheep hunt. We tried to plan a sheep hunt together and it never seemed to work out. I got a harvest ticket that year and went back to the spot we had seen all the sheep, but there were no sheep. I had no idea of where to go or how to do it. The next year we tried to hook up again and we couldn't seem to work our schedules out. He sent me to a place he knows and loaned me some gear and explained to me how to hunt the high country. I had my first Alaska success by harvesting a small ram, but I had no one with me to take pictures or share the excitement with and I made it a point to no matter what make our schedules meet next season. Needless to say they never did work out. I went on 3 more solo hunts and scored 2 out of the 3 hunts. This year we decided we would quit our jobs if we had to if that's what it took to go sheep hunting. Charlie on the other hand was not so sure now if he wanted to hunt side by side with someone else, after all, if you are by your self you can do what you want right? Well I felt like he had started all of this sheep hunting stuff and I wanted him to go with me. I made him a deal that if we hunted together, I would let him use my spare Nightforce scope to increase his odds of making a slightly longer than normal shot (as is often times the case in sheep hunting) on his long time dream trophy. He thought about it and agreed. Everything was falling into place when we had seen a ram that we thought was the ram I had seen on my last hunt. This ram had long heavy horns broomed off at full curl. A pilot friend of ours, had thought he had seen him this year, and that he had been watching him as a legal ram for 4 years. We had to get him. The problem was we both wanted this ram. I scouted the pre season intensely looking for this ram, and I had never seen him after we had "thought" we saw him. This pilot friend of ours had taken Charlie on a scouting flight where they had seen quite a few legal rams not too far from a semi remote landing strip. Since I hadn't seen the ram we were after, we decided to both fly into this area and hunt there. We had flown in on the Friday before the opener and set up a big base camp by the strip. Friday we hiked around a little and quickly saw and video taped a wolverine which came within 20 yards of us when he finally saw us and quickly evaporated! Shortly after that we saw 4 rams. We watched them for a while and then made our way back to camp. Saturday we got as much rest as we could and packed a couple days of gear and started hiking up to a peak that would put us in striking distance of the rams that our pilot had told us about. He told us where to go and showed us which ridges to climb as he flew us into the valley, he opted not to fly us around and show us the rams as we flew in just so that nobody could even claim that we took something without following the fair chase rules. I did not sleep all night except for 1 hour. I laid there and watched the first northern light I had seen this fall, several meteors fall and the moon rise and set as we opted not to set up a tent and just slept in our bags under the rain fly. The weather had been clear and sunny the whole time we were at base camp and it was still clear all night. 4 am had rolled around and I woke Charlie up so we could eat, pack and hit the ridges before any other unknown competition. We had to drop down into a huge basin and hike up a steep loose face to reach a saddle where we would hopefully spot some rams from. When we finally reached the top of the saddle we crept over and just peeked over the other side where we instantly spotted sheep about a mile away. We slowly dumped our packs and dug out our spotting gear. He looked only at a group of 4 and identified them as rams. I asked him if I could look as I wanted to put the things I leaned at the Last Frontier Guiding school held the weekend before by Tony Russ into practice. I scanned from sheep to sheep picking out and separating the rams from the ewes as he scanned the surrounding landscape with his 10x40 Zeiss binoculars for more sheep. One ram quickly caught my eye and I instantly said I think we have a legal ram here. Charlie took a look and quickly agreed. We determined that there were at least 2 legal rams. We were not necessarily after huge rams just whatever was legal. We decided that if we could tell they were legal at 1 mile (according to the map) they would be better than average rams. We discussed how we would approach them with the stalk. This is where Charlie and I differ. I know very little about stalking and a lot about shooting longer than average distances. Charlie knows a lot about stalking and little about shooting at distances past 300 yards. I knew though that I had to get at least 2/3 of the way to even get close to being in position for a shot. I reluctantly followed Charlie's lead and followed him down the rock slides so as to get to the bottom of the valley. We walked straight at these sheep, slowly and quietly we made our approach. At one point we had to sit down and slide down a small sheet of ice that we couldn't walk down and couldn't get around. After what seemed like an eternity we made it to the bottom. Now we had to cross the valley in the open with no brush and no folds in the earth. We would periodically look at the through our optics only to see the rams actually nodding off and paying no attention to anything. Charlie whispered to me, "We are destined to kill these sheep!" Soon we would reach the real challenge, crossing an opening in direct sun light. Charlie suggested that we should go at it on our hands and knees and move very slowly. Charlie led and I was continually apprehensive as the ewes, which were 200 yards closer to us than the rams kept looking our direction, right at us in fact. I would stop and Charlie would continue. I was getting very frustrated as I knew he was going to blow our opportunity. I had told him at the edge of the sun light I was ready to shoot from here. He said "nonsense, this is where it gets exciting." I thought he was nuts and continued the stalk. At last Charlie had reached "the safe zone" which was a mound of gravel that would hide us from all the sheep. As I continued I would look up to see Charlie celebrating his success as he would flex his muscles and give me big smiles and not one but 2 thumbs up. I was becoming very nervous and tired and my knees were getting sore. My legs were cramped and sweat was pouring down my face. Finally I reached the safe zone. We greeted with smiles and a hand shake. He asked me "how did that feel?" I replied awesome! We took a short brake and filled up on liquids and snacks before sizing up the rams. I set up the spotting scope to where I would look at the first ram without exposing myself to anything else. We agreed that the first one was legal, but he was slightly out of my responsible shooting range. We sized up one that was about 500 yards away and decided he was legal. I was very indecisive about if he was legal or not, and I couldn't make up my mind. Charlie asked me if he could look and he took one look and immediately determined in his mind that he was legal and there was no way we could get any closer to these rams. I looked again and would say "yep, he's legal, nope he's not legal." After about 5 minutes of my hesitating Charlie said "I want to shoot that ram." My heart sunk as I knew in my heart he was legal and he was well within my personal responsible range and not Charlie's. I said "ok" I quickly tried to determine if anything else that was at the same range was legal. Nothing was even close. I looked at Charlie in disgust and since the wind was still, I offered to let Charlie use my rifle. He decided to take me up on my offer. I quickly checked the wind and shooting angle and performed a quick calculation and set my scope for 600 yards as the ram had moved about 100 yards while we were deciding what to do, we agreed that he would have to hurry because he was moving away from my set limits as to how far I would shoot this year. My goal was to harvest my ram this year at 100 yards or less, but if I had to I would take one up to 600. With the rifle set for 600 yards and 20 degrees up hill at 5000' and 60 degrees F. I told Charlie to move forward 15 yards and get ready. He opened the bi-pod and stabilized the butt of the rifle with some nearby rocks and acquired his ram in the scope. I told him to wait and I monitored the ram and wind. All this time I was setting up his video camera on my tripod, acquired him in the view finder and hit record. I motioned to Charlie to fire when he was ready, just then I noticed some wind affect the mirage between us and the ram, just a couple MPH and I quickly told him to aim forward, aim on the shoulder instead of behind the shoulder. A moment later the rifle spoke. I could see the bullet hit the hillside behind the ram after it had passed through him. He thought he had missed him, but a second later he stumbled and collapsed. I said nice shooting Chuck! Have you ever harvested something that far away? He smiled and replied "no" I said well lets go get him. As we walked up to him we both agreed that he was a pretty nice ram and a real nice first ram for Charlie. He measured 37" with 14" bases and had 8 growth rings with a nice 360 degree circle. I asked him if he minded if I took off after the other rams that had ran over to the other side and he said "Michael, I want you to get a ram in the worst way. Go and I will take care of this one." I took lots of photos, bid him congratulations and took off. As I worked my way up a 35-40 degree pitch on the loose shale I watched and took pictures of a ewe and lamb that would not leave a mineral lick that the other rams were camped on. As I got within 30 yards she moved of to the side and let me pass at 20 yards! I continued my way up to the top when I finally realized why I was able to climb this nasty mountain, all the terrain was beaten down with sheep activity. The mountainside was thick with beds trails and tracks. It even reeked of sheep. When I made it to the top I saw sheep tracks across a small snow field and quickly looked into the drainage below me and spotted the rams. With a better angle and a little less range, I could see that 2 of the rams were legal and one that was a little bigger than Charlie's nice ram. They bedded down in front of me at 652 yards when I was planning my approach as I still wanted to harvest one close in the worst way when they decided something was not right. The biggest ram got up and ran farther away. The others followed. I was skunked. While I was happy for Charlie and excited, I couldn't help but feel a little envious and alone, as he had a nice ram and I didn't. I thought to my self, (trying to ease my feelings) we have had a great adventure and a good time and we have pulled together as a team to harvest his ram. Once I realized that I played a part in his success I felt much better. With high spirits and renewed vigor, I made my way back down to Charlie where I was greeted by the same ewe and lamb that I had seen before. It is the encounters and experiences like these that truly are the trophies of any hunt, and with pictures and videos we can share these moments and relive them for years to come. I reached Charlie's kill site where he was 90% done trimming and packing his new acquisition. He asked me how many rams I had seen and I replied "10" he then asked me how many were legal, I grinned and said "2" I then told him that "the big one had bedded down in front of me at 650 yards, but before I could do anything about it he decided he didn't want anything to do with all of this." A trait that is no doubt going to make him even bigger for the next season! After the packing was done we shuttled the meat and horns to a snow field where we would leave him for the night as he decided he didn't want to pack the weight up and down several thousand feet of elevation changes. He decided that there was an easier way out that was all down hill a few miles to another landing strip. We hiked back up to our spike camp where we shared hunting stories and even our food. We reflected on the activities of the day and the entire weekend. I had no problem sleeping that night despite the fact that my sleeping pad had blown away that day. We looked everywhere for it but had no success in finding it. As we woke up in the mid morning light, Charlie made the comment that my pad must not be able to live without me. I looked over just in time to see my pad blow by us in the morning thermals!! I got up and grabbed it, ate packed up and we bid each other farewell. Charlie was heading down to get his ram and hit another strip while I headed down for our base camp at the first strip. Our pilot friend was out hunting so we called a commercial pilot we knew to come and pick us up. I opted to get out as the weather was going to change from hot to thick fog, wind and rain. I decided to talk my boss into letting me cut my vacation time short in exchange for the time off later when I could maximize my efforts in an area that is only accessible by foot that I like to hunt. To make a long story short, I hunted this area the 2nd weekend and saw 50+ sheep and 6 rams that were 2 miles away and couldn't tell if they were legal. I decided to leave my base camp and return the next weekend to try and get closer. I went back and picked a route. Half way there I drew the line when the rocky face I was skirting around started to slide. If the rocks you are on slide, traditionally you take a step forward and its all history, but when the rocks behind, below, in front, and above you start to go, its time to stop! I reluctantly but slowly backed out the way I came and decided to head back to base camp and pack up and head back home where I would figure out where I would hunt the late season. As I made my way down the steep mountain side where it had finally turned into grass and vegetation, I looked up on a knife blade ridge in front of me with my newly acquired "Alpen Apex" 10x50 binoculars and looked right at a "big sheep" I could see at 1300+ yards that he was nice. In my mind I said, oh yah! That's the one I want. I dug out the spotting scope to size him up when another ram appeared! He was not nearly as big as the 1st one but legal. I quickly changed my mind about pulling up stakes and leaving. It was getting too late in the day to make a move on him for the terrain. I decided where and how I would approach him the next day. Morning rolled around and it was fogged in thick. I decided to wait until dark if I had to just to see if it would lift and I might have a half chance at this ram. My friend Charlie had showed up about 10am as I waited to check on me and see if he could help. I shared with him the events of the day before and he had new hope for my possible success. The fog never lifted and we left my base camp. Needless to say I did not pack it up and take it with me!! I called my pilot friend of mine and begged him to fly me around and try to get a better look at him if the weather would stabilize. He agreed to it and Wednesday we flew. We found a group of 4 nice rams and one real nice ram that he thought was about 38" and broomed on one side. The only problem was that they were up and over into some country I didn't want to go. We worked our way back into my area and quickly found a couple and the one I had seen less than ½ mile away from where I had seen him the last weekend. He said to me that that ram looked just like the other nice one except he wasn't broomed on the 1 side. I was ever so happy and was trying to concoct a way out of work for the next few days but had projects I had to finish. I would go back the Friday before "Labor day" as I started at 5am and worked ½ day. I reached the high country that afternoon where I was greeted by 2 other hunters coming out. They had been there opening weekend for about 5 or 6 days and left there base camp in the drainage. I had bumped into the first time I went in as they were heading out. They said they hadn't been hunting since and that they just went in for their camp. After a brief conversation we went our separate ways. Not 5 minutes after they left I looked up on the skyline above where I was headed where I saw what looked like a hunter standing on top. I was quickly disheartened when I soon realized it was a ram! I then saw 2 more. Now I became focused and determined. I made a beeline for the area not sure if it was even passable. I worked my way up a bowl and found a nasty but doable route up to a saddle adjacent to where I had seen the rams go over. It took me several hours to make it up there. I had ditched most of my gear along the way to lighten my load so I could get up there before dark. Taking only the bare necessities I made my way up. When I finally reached the top, I stopped and slowly dropped my pack. Taking only my rifle, binoculars and rangefinder, I crept slowly over to peek over the other side. When I looked I saw only a deep and steep drainage. I decided which way I should go to find them. I slowly worked my way to my left when in only a couple minutes I looked down to see a sheep. I lowered myself out of view and got my binoculars and rangefinder ready. I looked at him closely and saw that he was only a 7/8 curl. I quickly ranged him, just in case one of his buddies appeared and just happened to be legal. He was 275 yards! Yes!! I thought, with my 308 Win holding a 300 yard zero. I thought to myself, all I need is to find his buddies. I slowly crept further forward looking intently for the others when I noticed the downhill thermals now taking affect. Shortly after, I could hear rocks falling as if the ram had spooked. I peeked up to see him start to flee. He ran up towards the top of the ridge. He stopped and I heard more rocks falling. I was starting to feel relief. Just then, 3 more rams appeared. I pulled up my binoculars to look at the first ram, he was only a 7/8 curl. I looked at the second ram, BINGO!! He was legal. I didn't have time to size him up or think about how big he was or wasn't, I just knelt down and got into position. He decided to run away. I waited until he stopped. I held on him the best I could for the position and decided that was not going to put him in the freezer. I unfolded my bi-pod and pulled the legs into place. He became more nervous and had taken the lead of the 3 rams while the other 7/8 curl was keeping an even greater distance. I sat down and acquired him in my Leupold Mark 4 ten power. He was heading away from me and when he turned slightly where I could hit something solid, I aimed forward and fired. Due to the unconventional position, the scope had nailed me in the face. I didn't think much of it and knowing he was hit in the shoulder and not going anywhere, I lied down in a better position and fired again where he went down. I stood up in time to see him roll down the other side into the country I didn't want to go. I went back the 50 or so yards and retrieved my pack, grabbed my phone and called my wife to share the moment with her. She was wondering why I was calling her, she said "get out there and hunt silly!" I said that not 5 minutes ago I had just harvested my ram. She was in disbelief and then became overjoyed for me in my success. She congratulated me when I felt something wet on my face. I hadn't noticed that the scope had cut my nose and eye lid! I mentioned without thinking, "I'm bleeding from my eye" She asked how and how bad, I told her how and that it wasn't bad. I then called my friend Charlie and told him. He almost didn't believe me, but I asked him if he could hear me shaking? It dawned on him that I wasn't joking. He thanked me for sharing the moment with him when I watched my ram finally stop rolling down the drainage. I told him it would take me a day just to get him back up to the top. I said my goodbye's and went to retrieve the ram. Getting there seemed like an eternity. When I finally got there I put one hand on one of his curls and the other hand I ran through his coat. I have had few feeling that beat this one. He had heavy horns and a long right horn and a broomed left side with a very wide tip to tip spread. I set up the camera and took some pictures and self portraits of me and my ram. I skinned and cleaned him with what little light I had left. I then put on all my clothes, raingear and covered myself with an emergency blanket to keep the rain off. I had to sleep in my pack to give me comfort from the rocky drainage. When I awoke, I trimmed him up, packed him and headed for the top. Up the loose steep drainage I hiked. For the 1st 100 yards I questioned whether or not I would even be able to get out of this hole. I slowly worked my way up, sometimes walking only 30 feet and stopping for 10-20 minutes. As I gained some headway thick fog started to roll in. I didn't worry about it as I knew all I had to do was go left when I reached the top. As I got to the top I had worked my way out of the drainage and up the side. When I reached the ridge to the side of the drainage it was so level I thought I had reached the main ridge. Knowing I had to go left, I went left, but this only put me in touch with the main ridge. When I reached the main ridge it made a tight curve where the ridge I was on met. Knowing I had already gone left I didn't even think about hooking another left at the junction and I went straight. After walking a half mile or so, nothing looked right. The skyline I remembered wasn't there. I realized I had made a wrong choice and went back the way I came. The ridge turned so many times and sprouted other ridges and in the thick fog I was totally turned around, to the point where I had no idea which side I had even come up. Hoping the fog and rain would leave I called Charlie to see if he knew anything about the weather. He looked outside and said that all the weather was heading my way. I told him of my predicament and told him that if I didn't make it out by tomorrow night I would be in trouble. He asked me what kind of gear I had and tried to boost my spirits. I went through a rough spot mentally for a few minutes and then became more than determined to make it through the night despite the fact that all of my clothes were wet from all the moisture. He told me to stay put and he would come up in the morning to find me. I told him I would be fine and that if he didn't want to, he didn't have to come up. I told him all I needed was for some fog to lift and I would know the way. He said he would be there anyway, I told him when he reached the top to fire a shot, and I would return a shot in answer to his. I told him on the phone exactly which route I had taken and where on the map I was within ½ mile or so. He could see on his map where I was. I just told him I didn't know which way the map sits. I had never even thought of a GPS because on the top you can see so many land marks you always know where you are. Now I know better! I took my watch off so it would display an accurate temperature. By 8pm it was 32 degrees. I realized that I would have to exercise all night if I were to stay warm and possibly alive being that cold, physically drained and wet. I determined to eat something on the hour every hour and take 1 sip of the ½ quart of water I had left. So as it got darker I found a dry spot in front of a big rock face that provided me with shelter from the wind and rain that was also becoming snow. After I got settled in and organized I did jumping jacks and ran in place. When I would tire I would walk in place for a while and then sit to rest. As I sat, I would move my body and feet to the sound of my favorite song playing inside my head. Eventually I would doze off and sleep a while. I would wake up cold and shivering so I would start the whole routine over again. Fortunately, as the night progressed it got a little warmer. It warmed up as much as 6 degrees. At 2am I lit my cotton long underwear which was in a dry bag in my pack on fire. I was afraid if I took off my rain gear and pants to put them on I might not recover from the wet and cold, also knowing that if they got wet the cotton would actually make me colder. Burning them provided me with not only instant warmth it was also a huge morale booster. They burned for about 10 minutes. Great I thought! At 4am I will burn my spare set of briefs! 4am rolled around and I burned the briefs. Now all I have to do is make it for a few more hours and it will be light and will warm up. When it got light, the fog lifted briefly and I instantly knew where I was. I packed up and headed over to the saddle I needed. Knowing Charlie had told me to stay put, I knew he would not want to hike up the nasty chutes and loose steep ridges with over an inch of snow on the ground. I made my way over and then down into the bowl beneath me. As I got to about 4000' and got out of all the big folds in the landscape, I fired a shot. What a sweet sound it was to hear a shot in answer to mine a moment later! Soon we were close enough to yell a conversation with one another. He had also brought his son Seth with him. The first thing he asked me was how I was doing. I yelled back into the gloom, "not too bad, getting very tired though." He then asked me, "Are you on top?" I yelled back, "No!" I could almost feel his relief through the dense fog. He then yelled, "Do you have your sheep?" I yelled back as loud as I could, "YES!! YEEEAH!!" I worked my way down as he set up a tent with warm food and yummy liquids and he even brought me dry clothes. They offered to split up my meat to take the load off and I quickly refused, saying, I've made it this far. I talked Seth into letting me put the meat in his pack and letting me carry it out as my pack's hip belt was tearing off the main supports shifting all the weight to my already sore shoulders. He agreed and we swapped packs. We ate up, filled up on liquids and headed out with big smiles and even bigger hopes for next season stopping periodically for breaks and pictures and to enjoy the best part about sheep hunting, blueberries! We would just sit and chow down like pigs on the big ripe berries. We finally made it down the mountain where we called the Alaska State Troopers to cancel the 6pm S&R party that Charlie responsibly called. When I got home I eagerly measured my ram and he turned out to be a dandy 38"er with 14 ½ bases! He also has a 10" 3rd quarter measurement making him big enough for the SCI book. I was ecstatic to say the least, thinking I would do it all over again for such a beautiful specimen, as I am sure any other successful sheep hunter would, however, I wouldn't tell my wife that! I don't know why I wanted to hunt with Charlie so bad. Maybe it was because he got me started on all this high country and sheep stuff. Maybe it's the need to share the excitement and success with a good buddy. Whatever the reason, I couldn't think of a better or more timely season to finally hook up.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Michael Eichele, post: 40616, member: 1007"] This story was posted earlier in another forum and it is just moved here. I will warn you all, this is a very long story, a story that was published in a magazine called "The Ram" a magazine put out by the foundation for north amarican wild sheep, Alaska chapter. Before it was published it was reduced in size a little. This is the original. The first picture is of my buddie and the second is of me. It all started in the spring of 98 when a friend of mine, Charlie Hansen and I went fishing in the Matanuska valley when he invited me to drive up the highway with him and then back in off the highway a short ways where there was able to look for grizzly bears and at the same time we were able to look up at a section of mountains where I had seen a bunch of sheep. We were not yet then hunting partners, but he seemed to know a lot about hunting. He had moved up to Alaska in the fall of 97 and I in the spring of that same year. We hit it off when we first met as we were both “elkaholics” and loved shooting and the outdoors. I had never given sheep hunting a thought, but I had tried moose hunting and bear hunting and found it quite frustrating due to all the thick brush and vast country. I seemed to have little success at finding anything, not being able to see my quarry. When I had seen the sheep I thought to myself, I can see what I would be hunting. I liked that idea. I learned that it was a long time dream of Charlie’s to go on a sheep hunt. We tried to plan a sheep hunt together and it never seemed to work out. I got a harvest ticket that year and went back to the spot we had seen all the sheep, but there were no sheep. I had no idea of where to go or how to do it. The next year we tried to hook up again and we couldn’t seem to work our schedules out. He sent me to a place he knows and loaned me some gear and explained to me how to hunt the high country. I had my first Alaska success by harvesting a small ram, but I had no one with me to take pictures or share the excitement with and I made it a point to no matter what make our schedules meet next season. Needless to say they never did work out. I went on 3 more solo hunts and scored 2 out of the 3 hunts. This year we decided we would quit our jobs if we had to if that’s what it took to go sheep hunting. Charlie on the other hand was not so sure now if he wanted to hunt side by side with someone else, after all, if you are by your self you can do what you want right? Well I felt like he had started all of this sheep hunting stuff and I wanted him to go with me. I made him a deal that if we hunted together, I would let him use my spare Nightforce scope to increase his odds of making a slightly longer than normal shot (as is often times the case in sheep hunting) on his long time dream trophy. He thought about it and agreed. Everything was falling into place when we had seen a ram that we thought was the ram I had seen on my last hunt. This ram had long heavy horns broomed off at full curl. A pilot friend of ours, had thought he had seen him this year, and that he had been watching him as a legal ram for 4 years. We had to get him. The problem was we both wanted this ram. I scouted the pre season intensely looking for this ram, and I had never seen him after we had “thought” we saw him. This pilot friend of ours had taken Charlie on a scouting flight where they had seen quite a few legal rams not too far from a semi remote landing strip. Since I hadn’t seen the ram we were after, we decided to both fly into this area and hunt there. We had flown in on the Friday before the opener and set up a big base camp by the strip. Friday we hiked around a little and quickly saw and video taped a wolverine which came within 20 yards of us when he finally saw us and quickly evaporated! Shortly after that we saw 4 rams. We watched them for a while and then made our way back to camp. Saturday we got as much rest as we could and packed a couple days of gear and started hiking up to a peak that would put us in striking distance of the rams that our pilot had told us about. He told us where to go and showed us which ridges to climb as he flew us into the valley, he opted not to fly us around and show us the rams as we flew in just so that nobody could even claim that we took something without following the fair chase rules. I did not sleep all night except for 1 hour. I laid there and watched the first northern light I had seen this fall, several meteors fall and the moon rise and set as we opted not to set up a tent and just slept in our bags under the rain fly. The weather had been clear and sunny the whole time we were at base camp and it was still clear all night. 4 am had rolled around and I woke Charlie up so we could eat, pack and hit the ridges before any other unknown competition. We had to drop down into a huge basin and hike up a steep loose face to reach a saddle where we would hopefully spot some rams from. When we finally reached the top of the saddle we crept over and just peeked over the other side where we instantly spotted sheep about a mile away. We slowly dumped our packs and dug out our spotting gear. He looked only at a group of 4 and identified them as rams. I asked him if I could look as I wanted to put the things I leaned at the Last Frontier Guiding school held the weekend before by Tony Russ into practice. I scanned from sheep to sheep picking out and separating the rams from the ewes as he scanned the surrounding landscape with his 10x40 Zeiss binoculars for more sheep. One ram quickly caught my eye and I instantly said I think we have a legal ram here. Charlie took a look and quickly agreed. We determined that there were at least 2 legal rams. We were not necessarily after huge rams just whatever was legal. We decided that if we could tell they were legal at 1 mile (according to the map) they would be better than average rams. We discussed how we would approach them with the stalk. This is where Charlie and I differ. I know very little about stalking and a lot about shooting longer than average distances. Charlie knows a lot about stalking and little about shooting at distances past 300 yards. I knew though that I had to get at least 2/3 of the way to even get close to being in position for a shot. I reluctantly followed Charlie’s lead and followed him down the rock slides so as to get to the bottom of the valley. We walked straight at these sheep, slowly and quietly we made our approach. At one point we had to sit down and slide down a small sheet of ice that we couldn’t walk down and couldn’t get around. After what seemed like an eternity we made it to the bottom. Now we had to cross the valley in the open with no brush and no folds in the earth. We would periodically look at the through our optics only to see the rams actually nodding off and paying no attention to anything. Charlie whispered to me, “We are destined to kill these sheep!” Soon we would reach the real challenge, crossing an opening in direct sun light. Charlie suggested that we should go at it on our hands and knees and move very slowly. Charlie led and I was continually apprehensive as the ewes, which were 200 yards closer to us than the rams kept looking our direction, right at us in fact. I would stop and Charlie would continue. I was getting very frustrated as I knew he was going to blow our opportunity. I had told him at the edge of the sun light I was ready to shoot from here. He said “nonsense, this is where it gets exciting.” I thought he was nuts and continued the stalk. At last Charlie had reached “the safe zone” which was a mound of gravel that would hide us from all the sheep. As I continued I would look up to see Charlie celebrating his success as he would flex his muscles and give me big smiles and not one but 2 thumbs up. I was becoming very nervous and tired and my knees were getting sore. My legs were cramped and sweat was pouring down my face. Finally I reached the safe zone. We greeted with smiles and a hand shake. He asked me “how did that feel?” I replied awesome! We took a short brake and filled up on liquids and snacks before sizing up the rams. I set up the spotting scope to where I would look at the first ram without exposing myself to anything else. We agreed that the first one was legal, but he was slightly out of my responsible shooting range. We sized up one that was about 500 yards away and decided he was legal. I was very indecisive about if he was legal or not, and I couldn’t make up my mind. Charlie asked me if he could look and he took one look and immediately determined in his mind that he was legal and there was no way we could get any closer to these rams. I looked again and would say “yep, he’s legal, nope he’s not legal.” After about 5 minutes of my hesitating Charlie said “I want to shoot that ram.” My heart sunk as I knew in my heart he was legal and he was well within my personal responsible range and not Charlie’s. I said “ok” I quickly tried to determine if anything else that was at the same range was legal. Nothing was even close. I looked at Charlie in disgust and since the wind was still, I offered to let Charlie use my rifle. He decided to take me up on my offer. I quickly checked the wind and shooting angle and performed a quick calculation and set my scope for 600 yards as the ram had moved about 100 yards while we were deciding what to do, we agreed that he would have to hurry because he was moving away from my set limits as to how far I would shoot this year. My goal was to harvest my ram this year at 100 yards or less, but if I had to I would take one up to 600. With the rifle set for 600 yards and 20 degrees up hill at 5000’ and 60 degrees F. I told Charlie to move forward 15 yards and get ready. He opened the bi-pod and stabilized the butt of the rifle with some nearby rocks and acquired his ram in the scope. I told him to wait and I monitored the ram and wind. All this time I was setting up his video camera on my tripod, acquired him in the view finder and hit record. I motioned to Charlie to fire when he was ready, just then I noticed some wind affect the mirage between us and the ram, just a couple MPH and I quickly told him to aim forward, aim on the shoulder instead of behind the shoulder. A moment later the rifle spoke. I could see the bullet hit the hillside behind the ram after it had passed through him. He thought he had missed him, but a second later he stumbled and collapsed. I said nice shooting Chuck! Have you ever harvested something that far away? He smiled and replied “no” I said well lets go get him. As we walked up to him we both agreed that he was a pretty nice ram and a real nice first ram for Charlie. He measured 37” with 14” bases and had 8 growth rings with a nice 360 degree circle. I asked him if he minded if I took off after the other rams that had ran over to the other side and he said “Michael, I want you to get a ram in the worst way. Go and I will take care of this one.” I took lots of photos, bid him congratulations and took off. As I worked my way up a 35-40 degree pitch on the loose shale I watched and took pictures of a ewe and lamb that would not leave a mineral lick that the other rams were camped on. As I got within 30 yards she moved of to the side and let me pass at 20 yards! I continued my way up to the top when I finally realized why I was able to climb this nasty mountain, all the terrain was beaten down with sheep activity. The mountainside was thick with beds trails and tracks. It even reeked of sheep. When I made it to the top I saw sheep tracks across a small snow field and quickly looked into the drainage below me and spotted the rams. With a better angle and a little less range, I could see that 2 of the rams were legal and one that was a little bigger than Charlie’s nice ram. They bedded down in front of me at 652 yards when I was planning my approach as I still wanted to harvest one close in the worst way when they decided something was not right. The biggest ram got up and ran farther away. The others followed. I was skunked. While I was happy for Charlie and excited, I couldn’t help but feel a little envious and alone, as he had a nice ram and I didn’t. I thought to my self, (trying to ease my feelings) we have had a great adventure and a good time and we have pulled together as a team to harvest his ram. Once I realized that I played a part in his success I felt much better. With high spirits and renewed vigor, I made my way back down to Charlie where I was greeted by the same ewe and lamb that I had seen before. It is the encounters and experiences like these that truly are the trophies of any hunt, and with pictures and videos we can share these moments and relive them for years to come. I reached Charlie’s kill site where he was 90% done trimming and packing his new acquisition. He asked me how many rams I had seen and I replied “10” he then asked me how many were legal, I grinned and said “2” I then told him that “the big one had bedded down in front of me at 650 yards, but before I could do anything about it he decided he didn’t want anything to do with all of this.” A trait that is no doubt going to make him even bigger for the next season! After the packing was done we shuttled the meat and horns to a snow field where we would leave him for the night as he decided he didn’t want to pack the weight up and down several thousand feet of elevation changes. He decided that there was an easier way out that was all down hill a few miles to another landing strip. We hiked back up to our spike camp where we shared hunting stories and even our food. We reflected on the activities of the day and the entire weekend. I had no problem sleeping that night despite the fact that my sleeping pad had blown away that day. We looked everywhere for it but had no success in finding it. As we woke up in the mid morning light, Charlie made the comment that my pad must not be able to live without me. I looked over just in time to see my pad blow by us in the morning thermals!! I got up and grabbed it, ate packed up and we bid each other farewell. Charlie was heading down to get his ram and hit another strip while I headed down for our base camp at the first strip. Our pilot friend was out hunting so we called a commercial pilot we knew to come and pick us up. I opted to get out as the weather was going to change from hot to thick fog, wind and rain. I decided to talk my boss into letting me cut my vacation time short in exchange for the time off later when I could maximize my efforts in an area that is only accessible by foot that I like to hunt. To make a long story short, I hunted this area the 2nd weekend and saw 50+ sheep and 6 rams that were 2 miles away and couldn’t tell if they were legal. I decided to leave my base camp and return the next weekend to try and get closer. I went back and picked a route. Half way there I drew the line when the rocky face I was skirting around started to slide. If the rocks you are on slide, traditionally you take a step forward and its all history, but when the rocks behind, below, in front, and above you start to go, its time to stop! I reluctantly but slowly backed out the way I came and decided to head back to base camp and pack up and head back home where I would figure out where I would hunt the late season. As I made my way down the steep mountain side where it had finally turned into grass and vegetation, I looked up on a knife blade ridge in front of me with my newly acquired “Alpen Apex” 10x50 binoculars and looked right at a “big sheep” I could see at 1300+ yards that he was nice. In my mind I said, oh yah! That’s the one I want. I dug out the spotting scope to size him up when another ram appeared! He was not nearly as big as the 1st one but legal. I quickly changed my mind about pulling up stakes and leaving. It was getting too late in the day to make a move on him for the terrain. I decided where and how I would approach him the next day. Morning rolled around and it was fogged in thick. I decided to wait until dark if I had to just to see if it would lift and I might have a half chance at this ram. My friend Charlie had showed up about 10am as I waited to check on me and see if he could help. I shared with him the events of the day before and he had new hope for my possible success. The fog never lifted and we left my base camp. Needless to say I did not pack it up and take it with me!! I called my pilot friend of mine and begged him to fly me around and try to get a better look at him if the weather would stabilize. He agreed to it and Wednesday we flew. We found a group of 4 nice rams and one real nice ram that he thought was about 38” and broomed on one side. The only problem was that they were up and over into some country I didn’t want to go. We worked our way back into my area and quickly found a couple and the one I had seen less than ½ mile away from where I had seen him the last weekend. He said to me that that ram looked just like the other nice one except he wasn’t broomed on the 1 side. I was ever so happy and was trying to concoct a way out of work for the next few days but had projects I had to finish. I would go back the Friday before “Labor day” as I started at 5am and worked ½ day. I reached the high country that afternoon where I was greeted by 2 other hunters coming out. They had been there opening weekend for about 5 or 6 days and left there base camp in the drainage. I had bumped into the first time I went in as they were heading out. They said they hadn’t been hunting since and that they just went in for their camp. After a brief conversation we went our separate ways. Not 5 minutes after they left I looked up on the skyline above where I was headed where I saw what looked like a hunter standing on top. I was quickly disheartened when I soon realized it was a ram! I then saw 2 more. Now I became focused and determined. I made a beeline for the area not sure if it was even passable. I worked my way up a bowl and found a nasty but doable route up to a saddle adjacent to where I had seen the rams go over. It took me several hours to make it up there. I had ditched most of my gear along the way to lighten my load so I could get up there before dark. Taking only the bare necessities I made my way up. When I finally reached the top, I stopped and slowly dropped my pack. Taking only my rifle, binoculars and rangefinder, I crept slowly over to peek over the other side. When I looked I saw only a deep and steep drainage. I decided which way I should go to find them. I slowly worked my way to my left when in only a couple minutes I looked down to see a sheep. I lowered myself out of view and got my binoculars and rangefinder ready. I looked at him closely and saw that he was only a 7/8 curl. I quickly ranged him, just in case one of his buddies appeared and just happened to be legal. He was 275 yards! Yes!! I thought, with my 308 Win holding a 300 yard zero. I thought to myself, all I need is to find his buddies. I slowly crept further forward looking intently for the others when I noticed the downhill thermals now taking affect. Shortly after, I could hear rocks falling as if the ram had spooked. I peeked up to see him start to flee. He ran up towards the top of the ridge. He stopped and I heard more rocks falling. I was starting to feel relief. Just then, 3 more rams appeared. I pulled up my binoculars to look at the first ram, he was only a 7/8 curl. I looked at the second ram, BINGO!! He was legal. I didn’t have time to size him up or think about how big he was or wasn’t, I just knelt down and got into position. He decided to run away. I waited until he stopped. I held on him the best I could for the position and decided that was not going to put him in the freezer. I unfolded my bi-pod and pulled the legs into place. He became more nervous and had taken the lead of the 3 rams while the other 7/8 curl was keeping an even greater distance. I sat down and acquired him in my Leupold Mark 4 ten power. He was heading away from me and when he turned slightly where I could hit something solid, I aimed forward and fired. Due to the unconventional position, the scope had nailed me in the face. I didn’t think much of it and knowing he was hit in the shoulder and not going anywhere, I lied down in a better position and fired again where he went down. I stood up in time to see him roll down the other side into the country I didn’t want to go. I went back the 50 or so yards and retrieved my pack, grabbed my phone and called my wife to share the moment with her. She was wondering why I was calling her, she said “get out there and hunt silly!” I said that not 5 minutes ago I had just harvested my ram. She was in disbelief and then became overjoyed for me in my success. She congratulated me when I felt something wet on my face. I hadn’t noticed that the scope had cut my nose and eye lid! I mentioned without thinking, “I’m bleeding from my eye” She asked how and how bad, I told her how and that it wasn’t bad. I then called my friend Charlie and told him. He almost didn’t believe me, but I asked him if he could hear me shaking? It dawned on him that I wasn’t joking. He thanked me for sharing the moment with him when I watched my ram finally stop rolling down the drainage. I told him it would take me a day just to get him back up to the top. I said my goodbye’s and went to retrieve the ram. Getting there seemed like an eternity. When I finally got there I put one hand on one of his curls and the other hand I ran through his coat. I have had few feeling that beat this one. He had heavy horns and a long right horn and a broomed left side with a very wide tip to tip spread. I set up the camera and took some pictures and self portraits of me and my ram. I skinned and cleaned him with what little light I had left. I then put on all my clothes, raingear and covered myself with an emergency blanket to keep the rain off. I had to sleep in my pack to give me comfort from the rocky drainage. When I awoke, I trimmed him up, packed him and headed for the top. Up the loose steep drainage I hiked. For the 1st 100 yards I questioned whether or not I would even be able to get out of this hole. I slowly worked my way up, sometimes walking only 30 feet and stopping for 10-20 minutes. As I gained some headway thick fog started to roll in. I didn’t worry about it as I knew all I had to do was go left when I reached the top. As I got to the top I had worked my way out of the drainage and up the side. When I reached the ridge to the side of the drainage it was so level I thought I had reached the main ridge. Knowing I had to go left, I went left, but this only put me in touch with the main ridge. When I reached the main ridge it made a tight curve where the ridge I was on met. Knowing I had already gone left I didn’t even think about hooking another left at the junction and I went straight. After walking a half mile or so, nothing looked right. The skyline I remembered wasn’t there. I realized I had made a wrong choice and went back the way I came. The ridge turned so many times and sprouted other ridges and in the thick fog I was totally turned around, to the point where I had no idea which side I had even come up. Hoping the fog and rain would leave I called Charlie to see if he knew anything about the weather. He looked outside and said that all the weather was heading my way. I told him of my predicament and told him that if I didn’t make it out by tomorrow night I would be in trouble. He asked me what kind of gear I had and tried to boost my spirits. I went through a rough spot mentally for a few minutes and then became more than determined to make it through the night despite the fact that all of my clothes were wet from all the moisture. He told me to stay put and he would come up in the morning to find me. I told him I would be fine and that if he didn’t want to, he didn’t have to come up. I told him all I needed was for some fog to lift and I would know the way. He said he would be there anyway, I told him when he reached the top to fire a shot, and I would return a shot in answer to his. I told him on the phone exactly which route I had taken and where on the map I was within ½ mile or so. He could see on his map where I was. I just told him I didn’t know which way the map sits. I had never even thought of a GPS because on the top you can see so many land marks you always know where you are. Now I know better! I took my watch off so it would display an accurate temperature. By 8pm it was 32 degrees. I realized that I would have to exercise all night if I were to stay warm and possibly alive being that cold, physically drained and wet. I determined to eat something on the hour every hour and take 1 sip of the ½ quart of water I had left. So as it got darker I found a dry spot in front of a big rock face that provided me with shelter from the wind and rain that was also becoming snow. After I got settled in and organized I did jumping jacks and ran in place. When I would tire I would walk in place for a while and then sit to rest. As I sat, I would move my body and feet to the sound of my favorite song playing inside my head. Eventually I would doze off and sleep a while. I would wake up cold and shivering so I would start the whole routine over again. Fortunately, as the night progressed it got a little warmer. It warmed up as much as 6 degrees. At 2am I lit my cotton long underwear which was in a dry bag in my pack on fire. I was afraid if I took off my rain gear and pants to put them on I might not recover from the wet and cold, also knowing that if they got wet the cotton would actually make me colder. Burning them provided me with not only instant warmth it was also a huge morale booster. They burned for about 10 minutes. Great I thought! At 4am I will burn my spare set of briefs! 4am rolled around and I burned the briefs. Now all I have to do is make it for a few more hours and it will be light and will warm up. When it got light, the fog lifted briefly and I instantly knew where I was. I packed up and headed over to the saddle I needed. Knowing Charlie had told me to stay put, I knew he would not want to hike up the nasty chutes and loose steep ridges with over an inch of snow on the ground. I made my way over and then down into the bowl beneath me. As I got to about 4000’ and got out of all the big folds in the landscape, I fired a shot. What a sweet sound it was to hear a shot in answer to mine a moment later! Soon we were close enough to yell a conversation with one another. He had also brought his son Seth with him. The first thing he asked me was how I was doing. I yelled back into the gloom, “not too bad, getting very tired though.” He then asked me, “Are you on top?” I yelled back, “No!” I could almost feel his relief through the dense fog. He then yelled, “Do you have your sheep?” I yelled back as loud as I could, “YES!! YEEEAH!!” I worked my way down as he set up a tent with warm food and yummy liquids and he even brought me dry clothes. They offered to split up my meat to take the load off and I quickly refused, saying, I’ve made it this far. I talked Seth into letting me put the meat in his pack and letting me carry it out as my pack’s hip belt was tearing off the main supports shifting all the weight to my already sore shoulders. He agreed and we swapped packs. We ate up, filled up on liquids and headed out with big smiles and even bigger hopes for next season stopping periodically for breaks and pictures and to enjoy the best part about sheep hunting, blueberries! We would just sit and chow down like pigs on the big ripe berries. We finally made it down the mountain where we called the Alaska State Troopers to cancel the 6pm S&R party that Charlie responsibly called. When I got home I eagerly measured my ram and he turned out to be a dandy 38”er with 14 ½ bases! He also has a 10” 3rd quarter measurement making him big enough for the SCI book. I was ecstatic to say the least, thinking I would do it all over again for such a beautiful specimen, as I am sure any other successful sheep hunter would, however, I wouldn’t tell my wife that! I don’t know why I wanted to hunt with Charlie so bad. Maybe it was because he got me started on all this high country and sheep stuff. Maybe it’s the need to share the excitement and success with a good buddy. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t think of a better or more timely season to finally hook up. [/QUOTE]
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