Dall sheep hunt with Joey Klutsch
Brooks Range, Alaska
cooperjd: 7mm Rem. Mag.; 160gr Accubonds, hand loads @ 3,030 fps.
Dad: 7mm RUM; 175gr Accubond Long Range, nosler factory ammo.

This hunt has been a dream of Dad's since he was a boy. He has had 2 life long dreams; a dall sheep and a sable. We got him a sable in 2015, and finally after a new hip and a new knee, he thought he could take on a sheep hunt. I tagged along as his packer; and Joey graciously allowed me to hunt as well on a trophy fee basis.

Without doing a complete play by play, we had a great hunt. It was truly amazing to be that far north and that remote.

Joey has a federal concession in ANWR, so he is the only outfitter allowed, but residents can hunt it if they can fly in. Unfortunately this year, a TON of them did. Generally Joey only has 3-4 residents a year fly in, this year there were a dozen or so. The residents flooded his key area and did end up taking 7 rams out of the prime drainage.

Not to deal with the crowds, myself, Dad, and 2 guides headed about 6 miles up another drainage and found a big old double-broomer. He was in a horrible spot that Dad couldn't climb, so we camped on him for a few days to see if he would move to a better spot on the mountain. I did not want to separate from him and our 2 guides and hunt with one of the guides on my own; I wanted him to tag his sheep first. Goal #1 was Dad's sheep. He also had tags for caribou and grizz.

The double-broomer never did cooperate with us, and went the opposite direction up and over the mountain. So we had to head out the drainage to go re-supply at the airstrip camp. When we reached the main river valley, a herd of caribou were working towards us. Luckily we had the high ground, so a short stalk put us within 250 yards. Dad picked out the biggest and filled a caribou tag. After quartering and moving the meat 1/2 mile or so from the carcass, we set up camp and got some hard earned rest. The next day we split him 3 ways and took him the 4 miles back to the airstrip camp with the bear fence.

At this point it was day 6 or so, and the residents were starting to clear out. The next day we went south to the main camp they like to use to spot sheep from, and looked for another legal ram. Dad had worn blisters on his heels on day 2, and they were progressively getting worse, even with a ton of moleskin and tape. His mobility at this point was severely impaired by the blisters.

We saw a ton of sheep from this camp. At one time I counted 70 visible sheep, mostly lambs and ewes, with a couple borderline legal rams. Since we couldn't determine that they were legal, they didn't want to push Dad up the mountain to get up there and not be able to shoot and burn out his one climb.

We never did find another legal ram. We were watching a herd of caribou up on top of one of the peaks behind us for a couple of days; and there were a couple of really good looking bulls in that group. The evening before our last full day I decided that if they were there in the morning, I would split off with a guide and go get one. Sure enough, they were there in the morning, so Chris (guide) and I took off after them, leaving Dad and Jared (guide) to look for sheep.

We had a hell of a climb, but we figured the 'bou would be on the backside of the saddle to get out of the sun when we got to the top of the peak. That was not the case. As we approached the top the herd of 'bou were on the tip top of the peak and had us pinned down. We were pinned for about 6 hours until they finally started feeding down. We were sneaking up and trying to figure out the landscape and find the best position that would get the big bulls in our comfortable rifle range. A couple hours of this and we could see the 2 biggest bulls of the group slowly feeding our way. We had lots of eyeballs to deal with, probably 30 caribou or so spread out in front of us. There were probably 5 or 6 "shooters" in the herd, but 2 standouts. The herd bull was a really beautiful bull with long tops with lots of vertical points that was very symmetrical. Then there was the bull we were calling 'Freakshow', a heavier bull with more character to his rack. Either were fine with me, I was prepared to shoot whichever gave me the best opportunity; though I really wanted 'Freakshow'.

They were both heading our way, but to get in position we needed to crawl about 100 yards to get to a shooting position. The wind was howling pretty hard and I wanted to be within 300 yards with the crosswind. We crawled and got to right at 300 yards from the big herd bull, but 'Freakshow' was below us that we could now finally see. Laying prone I couldn't see him, sitting up I could. So we crawled/scooted a bit more to get a better position where I could see Freakshow feeding with a few cows. Sitting on my butt and using the lid of my Kifaru pack in my lap, I could get my rifle just high enough to get a shot at 217 yards. Luckily the wind died down pretty suddenly and it was a pretty easy shot through the shoulders and he only took one step and folded over.

We quartered him, split the bounty in half, and hiked down the mountain and 4 miles back to camp, rolling into camp just after midnight. That was a long day! The river bottom was right at 2,400'. I shot Freakshow at 4,860'. We were watching sheep well below us when waiting for the caribou to get off the peak and start feeding. Joey said I set his altitude record for caribou. I earned that bastard!

The plane came to get us the next morning. Dad never did see another legal ram. The other hunter that Joey guided got a grizz on day 2 and a nice ram on day 7 or 8. They got that ram 14 miles from base camp.

We saw a few grizz, but all sows/cubs. While caring for Dad's caribou meat at main camp a muskox walked within 20 yards of us, that was awesome! I never though I'd see a muskox in its natural habitat.

It was a great trip. I'm not sure if I can talk Dad into trying for a sheep again, but I will have to go back to Alaska. IDK how, guess I'll have to start playing the lottery, but I have to go back. It was simply, amazing.

Dad's 'bou with one really palmated side




muskox @ 20 yards


Pretty good view


My caribou




The pack-out, I am 6'2" for reference


Looking at sheep

outstanding well done you accomplished what many of can on dream of

WOW! Congratulations to you and your dad! Great caribou!

Excellent hunt you two shared. Couldn't be better than a father/son experience in a new place.

Congrats on two fine looking Caribou.

Borrow the money if you have to, so you can return, both for yourself and for your dad before he's too old to go again.

It's just money, and you can always make more. Do it while you're both young enough to make it up those mountains one more time.

Now, your dad knows what he needs in the way of better boots, or more time to break them in if they were new.

Again, very nice trophies!

Well done! Great pics.

Sounds like a great hunt, great for you and Dad.

Outstanding. Congrats to you and dad.

Great report and a couple of serious caribou. Congrats and a memorable hunt with your Dad. You two will recount that adventure over and over in the coming years.

Nice bulls. Glad you guys were able to connect.

There are outfitters that hate and spend a lot of time trash talking resident hunters. I guess that is the same everywhere, including here in New Mexico.

To the point that they pay or coearse bush taxi companies to discourage flying residents into the same areas they use.

It is all public land, and they don't own the concessions. Most of Alaska is administered by the Bureau of Land Management, the same agency that manages most of the elk, antelope and mule deer hunting areas in the Western USA.

Most Alaskans would like to see a limit to the number of over the counter non-resident tags available.

Canada on the other hand is much more expensive, known for bigger sheep trophies and has very limited resident pressure. In most of the Yukon, NWT, BC and Nunavut resident pressure is either very minimal or non-existant.

Lived in Alaska several times, we miss it and would love to move back. Sharing public lands in Alaska is just as much of an issue as it is in the lower 48. A lot of hunters are sold a dream of Alaska when it reality they would be better off spending another 10-20% and hunting in Northern Canada.

It is very easy to have a "bad hunt" anywhere, but Alaska's weather, local hunters and lack of game make it pretty easy to have a bad hunt in Alaska.

Congrats to both of you!

Nice Boo!

Hi John:

Beauties! Congrats.

As much for the ol'man getting around
on that new knee as anything. Sometimes
they don't work very well.

Great pictures,

George

quote:

Joey has a federal concession in ANWR, so he is the only outfitter allowed, but residents can hunt it if they can fly in. Unfortunately this year, a TON of them did. Generally Joey only has 3-4 residents a year fly in, this year there were a dozen or so. The residents flooded his key area and did end up taking 7 rams out of the prime drainage.

Good for the residents of Alaska!