Craig's Sheep Hunt 2015
Page One
First posted September 16, 2015 4 Last edited September 16, 2015

This is Craig from the Oregon Hunt in 2014

 

Lay of the Land

This is the corner of the Dry State that Craig drew:

Bilk Creek Mountains are in northern Nevada

 

Here is a bit more of a detailed map. He got gas in Orvada.

 

After 17 years of trying, I finally drew one of the 66 Calif. Bighorn rams tag issued for the state. The unit I drew the tag in, is considered the best  area. Additionally, there are only 9 tags issued for this unit. The sheep in this unit are located east of the Bilk Creek area. The sheep live in three mountain ranges, the trout creek range (the northern portion of the unit), the Montana’s (middle) and the Double H’s (southern part). Traditionally, The best hunting and where the most of the rams are killed has always been the Montana’s, however, last year 2 of the 9 rams were killed in the Trout Creek area, 6 were killed in the Double H’s and one only in the Montana’s. Based on that info, I felt the Montana’s would hold some large rams because they really weren’t hunted for 2 years. My plan was to scout for a few days in the middle of August (season starts 9/1) and then go back up 4 days before the season and scout until the season begins( the season is two months long). I would then hunt for seven days and if unsuccessful, I would came back the last 10 days of the season and hunt.  According to the experienced sheep hunters I know, they stated the rut begins about the last part of October and the big boys are running around banging their heads together, thus I would have a good chance to find a big ram. My first scouting trip began on 8/18. I planned to head up to the trout creek area and spend two days scouting the area. I know one of the hunters who killed his sheep in this area(3rd largest ram taken last year) and he highly recommended that I hunt that area. The first night I camped by china creek. I got up before daylight and hike into a basin to see if I could find any sheep and saw nothing except deer, lopes and yotes. After three hrs. I headed back to my truck and decided to drive to the next drainage west of China Creek(e.g., Granite Creek), this took me two bumpy hours to get to the drainage (I know why people have atv’s, they are sure easier to drive around the rocky dirt roads of NV.). I hike up to a nice knoll and begin to glass the surrounding hills for the next two hours, all I find are cows and chucker, but no sheep. I head back to the truck and decide to head to the next drainage west (W. Granite Creek), this time it only took me one hour of driving on rocky roads. I hike to a vantage point and began to glass the surrounding hills for the next three hours, I find no sheep. Disappointed, I decided to head south for the night. The Montana’s and Double H’s slowing rise from the east and drop off abruptly on the west side. The sheep favor the west side of the Montana’s and the Double H’s. I set up camp at Thacker Pond which has some shade (nothing like hunting in 90 plus heat with no shade) and have a cold brew to cool off.  My plan for tomorrow was to drive on valley floor along the Double H’s and glass the west side hoping to find sheep.  After having dinner, I decided to pull out my fly rod fish the pond. To my surprise I caught bass, trout and crappie.

I get up in the morning before dark and have a quick breakfast. I began to drive just at sunrise and noticed a lot smoke had moved in from the massive fires in Oregon. As the sun kept rising, the visibility was so bad I could not see the west side of the Double H’s from the valley floor. Frustrated, I decided to drive up to top of the Double H’s and see if could look down the west side and find sheep. On my up to the top, I run into two archery deer hunters. After talking to them, they pull out their camera and show me the sheep they had seen yesterday on top of the Montana’s. I pull out my maps and they  pinpointed where they had seen the sheep. After 11/2 hour drive through the dustiest road that I have ever been on life, I finally make it to the top.  As I sit in my truck figuring out where I want to go, a Utv drives up and it is local boy who was scouting for lopes (season starts in 2 days), we began to chat and he tells me last year there were 20 rams hanging around a ridge to my east all season, but this season he cannot find them. We part ways and begin to drive further north on the road when I run across  a truck coming down the road. I began to talk to him and  I find out he is lope hunter. He begins to tell me where he had seen sheep 2 days ago on top of the Montana’s. I pull out my maps and he pinpoints the same area as the deer hunters. I finally make it to the edge of the Double H’s and try to glass, but the smoke is so bad it’s useless. At that point I decided to pack it in and head home. The trip wasn’t a complete waste because I was able to learn the road system.

This is not Craig's photo (he only took the shots of the ram) but this is an area close by, found on the Net.
It just gives you an idea of the territory.

 

On 8/28 I leave Reno, my plan was to head to the top of the Montana’s where the hunters had spotted the sheep the week before. I arrive just in time to scout the last two hours of daylight, however, I find no sheep. All I can figure is with all the lope hunters running around, they drove them off the top and are now hanging around the steep cliffs on the west side. I sit up camp 100 yards from the edge of the Montana’s. This spot allowed me to glass the Calavera canyon area where a lot of sheep have been taken over the years. I get up at daybreak and begin to glass the canyon, I find no sheep. After an hour of glassing, the wind got so bad that I could no longer hold my binocular’s steady, therefore, I decided to head to the valley floor and glass from there. For the next three hours I glass every canyon on the west side of the Montana’s without finding a single sheep. I am now getting a little frustrated that I can’t find sheep. As I am having lunch underneath one of the few trees in valley, a truck with a trailer pulls up and asks if I was camping here. I tell him that I wasn’t and moved my truck so he could set up his camp under the tree. We began to talk and I found out that he was lope hunting. I told him where I had seen lopes in the china creek area and that he should think about hunting that area. I decided to go back and scout the top of the Montana’s again. The low front was supposed to pass thru tonight and be calmer the next day. I set up camp in the wind and headed to bed. During the night the wind got so bad, my truck was rocking as if it was in an earthquake zone.

Talk about wind.  I get up before sunrise and head off to the Thacker Canyon area, this is about 5 miles south of Calavera area and also is an area where sheep have also been killed in the past.

 

 

For the next 2 hours I cannot find a single sheep, this is starting to piss me off. At this point, I decided that I will go to Double H’s and spend the night/ morning near a big game guzzler hoping some sheep will be in the area. I find no sheep that evening. The next morning about 2 miles from the guzzler on the steep west side I finally find 8 rams and one of the rams is a shooter. My excitement is tempered because they are an area in which you cannot get to them from top and if you tried to approach from the valley floor they could see you coming a mile away. They had the perfect safe spot and they knew it. The season starts tomorrow and I had to decide where I wanted to hunt. After much internal debate, I decided that I will try and hunt the Trout Creek area first since my buddy felt that was the best chance to get a big ram. After stopping for gas in Orvada, NV, I was headed north to the Trout Creek area.

I was heading north I noticed a truck glassing a canyon on the west side of the Montana’s. I pull up to the truck and begun to talk to them, it turns out one of the guys has the only nonresident tag and they were looking at 2 rams. The hunter was going to try and get one of the rams opening morning, so I wished him good luck and I continue north. As I was driving north A truck was coming down the road and it was the lope hunter who I meet while I was eating my lunch under the tree. The truck stopped and we began to talk, he had shot a nice lope in the China creek area. He thanked me for telling him about the lope and stated a day ago while in the Montana’s he got within 200 yards of two rams with his truck. He stated one of the rams was a shooter and he would take me to the area where he had seen the rams . So now I had to make a decision, Do I continue to go to the Trout Creek area or do I take chance and go to the area where this hunter had seen the rams? I decided to take a chance and go to the area where the hunter had seen the rams. After helping him skin his lope  I follow him in my truck up to the area where he had seen the rams. I cannot believe it, it was Thacker Canyon. Somehow when I was scouting that area a couple days ago, I had missed these two rams. At this point, I decided set up my camp ½ mile where he had seen the sheep. This spot was behind a hill and I wouldn’t spook the sheep. I also decided that I didn’t want spook the rams before the season, therefore, I wouldn’t try to find them. My plan was to get up at 4:30 am, eat a quick breakfast and hike into the area in the dark.

Opening morning arrives with the alarm  going off at 4:30 am. I eat breakfast, shave and brush my teeth. I head out about 4:55 am. As I am walking in the dark, I see truck lights coming down the road, the truck sees my headlamp, and stops. I think he was going after these rams, but I beat him to the area. I continue walking down this ridge and finally get to a spot where I could look over a canyon where I think the rams should be. I sit there until it gets light enough to glass. After 15 minutes of glassing I realize I am in the wrong spot. I need to be on the other side of the ridge.

After I realized that I was on the wrong side of the ridge. I made my way over the ridge and got into position to start glassing. The time was 6:10 am. After glassing the bowl for about a minute, I locate 2 rams feeding at 305 yards. These are the rams the lope hunter told me about and this is the first time I had seen them, what luck. As I studied both rams for about 40 minutes, one ram carried his mass all the way thru and his tips were broomed off. This ram would score well. At this time, I am thinking what do I do. The ram looks good, but it’s only the first ½ hr. of a 2 month season and I really hadn’t been able to look at a lot sheep. As I ponder this decision, I am also thinking that I am hunting alone and the sheep isn’t located in some steep canyon. Additionally, there is road about 200 yards from the sheep. After thinking it over for about 2 minutes, I decide to take the ram. I set up tripod for a steady rest and then wait for the second ram to clear the ram that I wanted to shoot. After one minute the second ram is now about 50 yards to the right of my ram. I now have clear broadside shot my ram. I touch off a shot and the shot sounds like I hit him, but he doesn’t go down. I jack in a second round and fire again, this time he goes down. I am now thinking I have finally got my first sheep, so lay down my tripod and let out sigh of relief. As I look up the hill I see a ram slowly walking towards me, I thinking it must be the second ram so I pull out my bino’s and to my amazement I find the second ram standing about 200 yard to the right my ram. I could tell this ram was hit  just by the way he was walking. I quickly set up my tripod and take two ill-advised shots. I rushed both shots. I finally tell myself to slow down, take a deep breath and make this shot count. I touch off a fifth shot, this time the ram goes down for good. I gather my stuff walk towards the ram. As I get closer to the ram, it’s looking bigger than I thought, no ground shrinkage on this ram. After 2 hours of caping, quartering and tough hauling, I had the ram by the road. The time was 9:00 am and I was finished with my hunt.

 

 

FYI, I hit the ram 3 times: one shot was little low and too far back, one shot clip his horn, and one shot hit is spine. After getting the ram checked into the wildlife department, I was talking to the biologist about the trout creek area. He said I made a good choice not going up that area on opening morning because he flew that area a week earlier and found no sheep. 

My final thought, it’s better to be lucky than good.

 

 

Inside the Cook Tent, 2014
(Craig has no pix from 2015 except the sheep)

Post script: the ram was about 7 years old