Part 3 - game plan:
From reading articles and books about sheep hunting, as well as from advice from experienced sheep hunters, the 2 main methods to hunt sheep seemed to be either drive the roads, spot sheep and go after them, or lace up the boots and cover lots of ground where your scouting indicates the sheep are living, then stalk them.
For the first method, my unit had enough major roads going through it that seeing sheep from those roads wasn't hard - I saw sheep from the roads myself. These sheep are easily viewed from the public and because of negative public image, there is a 1/4 mile
"no sheep hunting" buffer from the 2 main roads through my unit. I heard several stories about this method of hunting that caused me to want no part of it. I much prefer to get away from other hunters and the public.
The second method seemed better for me, but my hunt would occur during the third season - the sheep would have already been pressured by the sheep hunters from the previous 2 seasons (about 2 weeks each, starting near the beginning of August) as well as deer and elk bowhunters. Turns out the muzzleloader season opened during my hunt and I saw more of those hunters than sheep or bowhunters. I am not a good stalker, especially in this open country. Another problem is that unlike the rams, the ewes and lambs tend to bunch up for protection so it is much harder to stalk up on a group like these 24 sheep I encountered late in my hunt.......
Another factor is the sometimes nasty country these sheep move into when pressured. Going after sheep in this type of cover is not easy for a flatlander like me, and dangerous since I hunted alone the entire 10 days....
Even with good boots and being careful, I took several spills and was pretty scared several times. I had a cell phone (which I managed to lose) but I could have been in serious trouble with a bad fall. Another factor was the daily thunderstorms in the early part of my hunt, which sometimes came out of nowhere. Once I got caught in the open and took shelter in some rocks. I got soaked and scared with lightning crashing around me, plus the boulder that rolled down the hill only 10' from me.
So I chose an unusual plan: pick a basin away from the roads and most other hunters, and hang out there and hope to learn the sheep's patterns enough to ambush a bighorn ewe. I picked this basin.....
I knew my plan wasn't going to result in many real chances at a sheep, but it would be easier for me as a flatlander and should offer chances to observe and learn about sheep. I always carry a Bible in my pack, and I had plenty of time to catch up on my reading during the slow days or during the storms.
Did I mention that I got a deer tag too? I saw some mule deer during my scouting trip and decided to hunt them as well, if the sheep were not cooperating. I'm still looking for my first mule deer. Turns out there are elk in this area too, but I resisted the temptation to buy that tag, since I have MT elk and deer tags for later in the season. This basin I chose had good sheep habitat on both sides - the adjacent basin to the east held sheep too....
The adjacent basin to the west was good but received more pressure. The sheep liked the timber at the south end of the basin - I hunted there on the slow days and saw a lot of sheep sign but never actually saw a sheep there....
However, I did find this in the timber close to my camp - maybe a lion kill?
More likely killed by a hunter and not recovered, but there are lions in this area. I did see bear sign in the timber near my camp, and there was a pack of coyotes living in the basin that I saw almost every day. It was interesting watching the sheep's reaction to them when they started howling - the ewes and young rams didn't seem to care, but the lambs crowded close to the ewes.
More to follow later.....
Topic: Join me for a bighorn ewe bowhunt (pics) (Read 1958 times)
