Okay..........onto hunting............
We arrived into sheep camp a little before noon. Since we were the second hunt of the season, I was expecting to meet two hunter departing from the first hunt. However, nobody was there to leave so the floatplane went out empty. One of the hunters from the first hunt bid on and drew a special sheep permit and got to hunt in the Kluane national preserve. I think he paid big bucks for this and took a trophy 176 ram. The other hunter did hunt out of sheep camp but after a few days was in agony with a dental issue and had to call it quits. The outfitter, Dave Dickson, offered him a do-over by allowing him to go home and get the dental work done and come back for the third hunt.
So we were introduced to the guides and wranglers and shown around the base camp. Several various log cabins structures, some new and some more on the rustic side. All in all, a very nice and comfortable spot with an incredible view of the lake and mountains.
Some of the horses grazing. The horses were "hobbled", which is sort of like handcuffs on the front legs of a horse. They also get a collar with a cowbell. All this makes it easier to round them up.
This was our cabin. We left most of our gear here and packed a smaller duffle for the trip to spike camp.
This is the main cabin with kitchen and den. Outfitter Dave Dickson handled a lot of the cooking chores including making fresh pies from scratch.
Outdoor laundry courtesy of Maytag and Honda. Inside this cabin was a stall shower and an on-demand hotwater heater.
You'll notice the roofs look a little strange. They actually put a layer of dirt on top of the wood and metal roof to provide a little insulation. All cabins had a wood burning stove, however it wasn't all that cold during our stay. We had a fire just one morning in our cabin.
This cabin was the supply cabin or pantry. Also a bit of a workshop. Note the large moose antlers. The red and blue boxes are pack boxes to go on the horses.
Getting the horses ready to head to spike camp.
After spending one night in the luxury of a log cabin, I was paired with a guide and wrangler and told what our hunt plan was going to be. We were heading to a spike camp about a 7 hour ride. However, the plan was to load all the pack boxes into an aluminum boat and for me to drive the boat to the other end of the ~6 mile long lake. The guide and wrangler would ride the horses and meet me there in about 2 hours. When I got to the end of the lake, one of the other boats was coming down the lake, bringing our lunches which were left behind. When that boat pulled up, the guy asked me if I saw the moose a couple hundred yards away and I had not. We went to get a glimpse but it was already gone. He said it was a small bull.
The guide and the wrangler arrived and we transferred all the pack boxes to the four pack horses. Mounted up and started the 5 hr ride. About half way, we stopped at one of the cabin spike camps and stretched the legs and ate lunch.
This is my hunting guide,Rod Collins. Rod was soft spoken, easy going and knew his business. Rod and I are the same age and he's been guiding in Alberta, BC and the Yukon all his adult life. Rod was "old school" with a plaid Filson wool vest and jacket. The leather chaps for protecting the legs while riding through some thick brush. Between the chaps and the hat, I could tell this wasn't Rod's first rodeo.
This was our spike camp. The wall tent was plenty big for the 3 of us and the cooking area was under the blue canopy. Breakfast was typically eggs, bacon (sliced from a large slab of bacon) hash browns toast and coffee. We'd pack our lunch and stay gone all day. It was about a 2 hour ride from this camp to where we actually hunted.
This green stuff looks like it would be easy hiking or riding but it wasn't. This was the "non-frozen tundra" and it was tough going. Very wet, boggy stuff.
Some of our horses. Well behaved and hard working!
Leaving the horses behind and starting to climb. I'm starting to breathe hard just typing this.
This rocky stuff isn't much fun to climb on either.
Rod glassing with his Swarovski scope. We were seeing lots of sheep this first day. We tried to get closer to a group of rams but another group of ewes and lambs was watching us and we couldn't do anything. If you look to the right hand side of this photo (above) and about half way from top to bottom, you'll see the edge of a small lake, just over the ridge. Our spike camp was just to the right of that. We could see our tent from this vantage point. It didn't look that far, but it was a hour hike back to the horses and then a 2 hour ride back to spike camp.
Rod doing some more glassing while my wrangler, 14 year Thomas Dickson, catches a nap.
On the next day, we rode up the same drainage, but went to the opposite side. We immediately spotted some sheep and started climbing. After climbing for about an hour, Rod climbed a bit higher and peeked over the ridge. He looked back at me and motioned for me to chamber a round in the rifle. I did so as quietly as possible. After about an hour of waiting and watching Rod glass them, Rod came hustling down and whispered that a group was headed this way. All 3 of us sat down against a rock cliff and remained motionless. One smallish but legal ram and two very young rams came walking by, about 30 yards from us. They grazed for about 5 minutes, looked straight at us and then walked off. About 10 minutes later, the same group came around from a different direction. As long as we remained motionless, they didn't seemed too concerned with us.
Once the youngsters left, Rod moved down and around some large rocks. I stayed close to him. We belly crawled across some rocks and then some tundra and got to where we had a good view of 6 rams. Rod rolled his jacket up to give me a shooting rest and I was in the rock solid prone position. Rod drew a little sketch in the dirt of the rams position and gave me a yardage of 230. The ram was standing with it's rear end pointed towards me, but very quickly turned and gave me a perfect broadside. I squeezed off a shot from the Remington 270 Winchester and the Hornady 130 gr SST did the job. The shot appeared to be a little low and a bit too far back, but it got the heart. The ram took 2 steps and dropped. I had my Dall Sheep!
The view of where I shot from and the white dot is my Dall sheep ram at 230 yards.
Right after I dropped the ram, it looked like we were going to get wet. Rain was coming in from across the valley.
A rainbow appearred as we were preparing to field dress the ram.
Estimated to be 9+ years old and a rough score of 150. The horns were broomed, meaning the tips had worn off. You lose a few inches, but it adds character.
The next day we took it easy in spike camp.
After spending a down day in spike camp, we packed up and prepared for the day long trip back to base camp.
Note that none of the pack horses are tied to another horse. They all just simply follow the horse in front of them.
Once back at camp, we went into moose hunting mode. Since the rut had not started yet, it was simply ride to a high vantage point and glass. The photo above are some small lakes about an hour ride from the main camp. Beyond the lakes is Alaska.
One day we jumped in a boat and went to the far end of the lake to sit and glass the shoreline. The shot above is sunrise.
A view of the main lake shoreline and the main camp.
Lake Trout for lunch
Really fresh fish.........
Dickson Outfitting has lots of good horses.
Our gear ready for the flight out of camp.
My hunting buddy, Scot, took a black bear (no extra trophy fee on black bear)
The jaw above is from Scot's 10+year ram. Teeth are in bad shape and this ram probably wouldn't have lived much longer.
My ram was 9+ years old and had much better teeth.
A De Havilland Beaver from Alpine Aviation bringing in 2 hunters and 2 observers for hunt #3.
A Cessna 206 from Alpine Aviation bringing in the hunter that had a dental issue during hunt #1 and had to leave. The Outfitter, Dave Dickson, was able to accommodate this hunter and allowed him to return for hunt #3.
Scot (R) and me (L) posing in front of the De Havilland Beaver, with the pilot in the background.
This photo is a little out of order, but it shows the two guides, the two of us hunters and one of the wranglers, along with the two rams and one black bear hide.
FINALS COMMENTS.
Dall sheep hunts are an expensive and tough hunt. However, it it a very rewarding experience to0 and I am glad I did it. If you have a Dall on your bucket list, come prepared. Get in shape and you should also be comfortable with flying in a small plane and also riding horses.
Dickson Outfitters did a great job and I can highly recommend them. They know where the Dalls are and how to get to them. The only take about 6 sheep hunters a year and average 100% success rate. As mentioned at the beginning, this concession has been in the Dickson family for over 100 years. I plan to go back in a few years for a moose hunt during the rut. The run the moose hunts from a different camp, so it will give me a chance to see some more of the Yukon.
A few comments on hunting gear and misc details:
I wore Kenetrek Hard Scrabble Hikers (
http://www.kenetrek.com/KENETREK-HARDSCRABBLE-HIKER/productinfo/KE-420-HK/ ) for this hunt and loved them. I've had them for about a year and they are a very comfortable and tough, non-insulated boot.
My daypack was a Eberlestock H2 Gunrunner (
http://www.eberlestock.com/H2 Gunrunner.htm ). I liked the rifle scabbard feature on this pack and sizewise it was big enough to carry rain gear, lunch and water bottle, plus a few other items.
Hornady SST bullets: I continue to be impressed with the performance of these bullets. My daugher and I had 8 one shot killed on eastern cape PG in May and my Dall sheep was one and done. Good shooting and a good bullet are a deadly combination.
CBP Form 4457 (
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CBP Form 4457_0.pdf)
When we flew out of Whitehorse, we flew to Vancouver and cleared US Customs there. It was really quick and easy. Our bags had been checked through to our final destination. CBP scanned our boarding pass and photos of my duffle bag and rifle case came up. The officer asked what was in the rifle case and I told him a rifle. He asked for the 4457 and I pull the original out of my wallet. I told him a copy was also in the gun case. He handed the form back and asked me about the hunt and then told me I was good to go and my bags were cleared for the final destination. Piece of cake.
Scot, my hunting buddy, was in a different line. The guy in front of him could not produce a Form 4457 (apparently didn't know he needed one) and CBP confiscated his rifle. Not a good way to end a hunt.
). Lots of nice places to eat and drink and several museums and neat things to see. Whitehorse was a boomtown during the Klondike gold rush in the early 1900s. There is a real paddlewheel boat you can tour.
