Colorado Bighorn Sheep Hunt

[Steve O]

"All you need to do is go stand over there"


I wish I could start out this story with a picture of me with my hands wrapped around a massive ram, but that was not in the cards...

I thought you guys might want to see/hear about my month in Colorado hunting for sheep.

[Steve O]

My archery hunt started August 4th and ended August 28th.  I hunted every day.  We got into CO on the 2nd and I headed over to Marv Clyncke's.  Before I put in for this permit, Marv told me he would show me around the unit and let me know where some rams were.  Quite a bit of this unit can be scouted from long range:

 

[Steve O]

Thru Marv and some other Coloradoans, three weeks before the season, there were a ridiculous number of rams being watched.  Two weeks before the season started, Marv sent me a note about the monsoon type storms they were having and the sheep were in hiding.  I knew he was joking around, but none of my group of helpers/hunters saw a good ram until Marv and I spotted what turned out to be my nemesis on the evening of the 3rd day of the season.

We hunted in the rain:

 

As a side note, I tested out some new gear on this trip and two of my best purchases were clothing.  

I have been saving up for a set of Sitka Gear since it came out.  What great stuff.  I purposely wore it in the light to moderate rain we got on the first couple days of the season without my raingear.  The stuff dries out quick and sheds water pretty good to begin with.  The base layer is incredible...I climbed a LOT from 10,000 to 13,500 feet and even though I sweat a ton, I was always comfortable.  Not hot.

The other piece of clothing I was real happy with was my new socks...I tried out the "Ingenius" sock.  It has the inner liner sock somehow woven to the outer insulating sock.  I don't know how they do it, but it works!  I put a lot of miles on those babies and did not have a hint of a blister and they really pulled out the moisture.

[Steve O]

So, this ram we spotted turns out to be living on the mountain right behind the cabin I had rented for the month.  I rented a cabin so I could make this hunt a big family vacation.  My wife would take the kids sightseeing while I was hunting.  With the ram so close, I was able to show them the ram.  Seeing how excited they got was one of the highlights of the trip.

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My wife was so fired up, she said next time she wants he own optics and she will flag me into the sheep!

[Steve O]

Flagging.

Another highlight of the trip was spending time with Marv Clyncke.  I learned a TON.  Marv has a system of directing the hunter to the animal using your optics and two different colored flags.  It is really an effective system; it should be, Marv has been hunting animals in the high country for 42 years!  Unfortunately, we only got to do the flagging a couple times, most of the time, I was on my own.  Marv is a great storyteller and he has more jokes than the Wensels if you can believe that    .

[Steve O]

Here is a shot from one of my evening ambush spots.  I hunted that ram we spotted on day 3 for 20 days!  I tried everything I could think of.  I stalked him on my own.  I stalked him with a group watching me thru their spotting scopes and flagging me into him.  I climbed the mountain at 3am to catch him going to bed.  I patterned him to try to ambush him in the evening when he would come out of the timber.  All told I had this ram 4 seperate times under 30 yards and I could not get a shot at his vitals.  Frustrating and thrilling at the same time.

[Steve O]

Just about every day, I would cross this stream at 10,000' and climb to 12,500-13,000' after that ram.  I want to go back sometime to just fish, I could not believe the Brook Trout that would shoot out as they were disturbed.

[Steve O]

All the rain really put the wild flowers in bloom; very rare for August I am told.

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[Steve O]

There were many old mines on the faces of the mountains and in the timber.  You really had to watch where you were going!

 

[Steve O]

I was lucky enough to meet and become friends with a resident hunter.  Originally, I had planned to backpack into a wilderness area in my unit to hunt.  Finding the ram behing the cabin changed my plans drastically.  Towards the end of the hunt, both of us thought we should try something new, so he went home and got his mules and we packed into the Buffalo Peaks to try and find the AWOL rams.

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[Steve O]

Exploring the Wilderness Area, I discovered we were not the first hunters there:

 

This was an old indian blind on the top of one of the "smaller" mountains.

[swp]

Great pics and story! I am envious, a month in the high country and the family along. It just doesn't get any better than that.

[Steve O]

Looking back on the whole experience, I would not change a thing.  I was fully prepared, mentally and physically.  I was able to hunt a mature ram for almost the entire season and if not for the fickle mountain wind, I would have had him to take home.  I am proud of the fact I was able to get in on him so close.  I have taken a Stone Sheep with a rifle and until this year did not think I would be able to do it with the bow...it CAN be done, I just need another chance.  Marv told me it took him 102 days of hunting to get his first sheep.  My friend Rick Duggan said it took him 7 years to get his first CO Bighorn!  Unfortunately, those were the old days, when residents could get over the counter tags!  Hopefully I will be blessed with another tag someday.  That would be the silver lining to not killing a ram; I am eligible in 4 years to draw another permit  

[Toecutter]

That's a trip of a lifetime for sure (hopefully to be repeated in four short years), thanks for sharing.

[mparks]

Thanks for posting the pics and story Steve!  Truly a great adventure.  Really cool that you were able to spend a month in the mountains and take your family with you.

[robslifts]

truly awesome sounds like alot of fun

[Tuttu]

Thanks for posting and sharing.  It sounds like it was a tough hunt.

[PA Bones]

Great post.  Really enjoyed the photos.  Thanks for sharing your hunt.  Bill

[Mike Orton]

Steve,
Thanks for sharing your experience.  The way the lotto tags are setup now it is difficult for the average guy to establish enough institutional knowledge to know how to hunt these specialty species.  We all have to be willing to share with each other just to have any improved chance of scoring.

Hope your family enjoyed the mountain as much as you did.

[fireman_3311]

What they said!!! Awesome pics, thanks for sharin the story!!!