http://www.alaska.com/inalaska/story/6984431p-6885332c.html

Old ram no match for 10-year-old huntress
TROPHY: Rachel Juliussen follows in her mom's hunting footsteps.

By CRAIG MEDRED
Anchorage Daily News

Published: September 18th, 2005
Last Modified: September 18th, 2005 at 05:18 AM


The shot was long, but Rachel Juliussen settled into the stock of the cut-down .243-caliber rifle, peered through the 2 X 7-power scope, and said she could make it. Her father, Sagen, was skeptical. Grandpa Roger Morris, though, had faith.

Morris had his reasons. The full-curl, Dall sheep ram had fully exposed its flank. Rachel had a good rest to steady the rifle. And a 10-year-old, unlike a more mature hunter, was less likely to get those jitters known commonly as "buck fever."

Morris remembers well the whispered chat that followed:

"I said, 'What do you think, Rachel?'

"She said, 'How far is it?'

" 'Two-eighty (280 yards).'

"She said, 'That's a long ways.'

"I told her to just put the cross hairs on the sheep's back and to be sure to squeeze the trigger."

"That was the first time I ever shot at any big game," Rachel said. "I'd only shot the gun twice before we went.''

The Anchorage fifth-grader's hunting credentials were, however, well established. She'd been shooting small-caliber rifles for years and killing grouse and hares even before she started shooting.

On this adventure into the Alaska Range west of Tok, in fact, she'd already managed to bag a ptarmigan with the most primitive of weapons -- a rock.

Long brown hair and a sweet smile aside, Rachel was a hard-core huntress and had been for a while.

No one had to prod Rachel into the mountains to hunt sheep, said grandmother Karen Morris. She was drawn to hunting since the time she picked up a bow and arrow as a tot.

"They (Rachel, her brother and her sister) have been shooting longbows since they were 4," Sagen said.

Still, it was a bit of a fluke that Rachel's first foray after big game turned out to be a hunt for a Dall sheep, the most revered of Alaska's trophy animals. Sagen and luck were responsible for that.

After 19 years of unsuccessfully trying to draw a sheep hunting permit for the Tok Management Area, Sagen this year paid an extra $5 to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to enter Rachel in the draw to see whether she might be luckier.

When her name was drawn, it shocked everyone in the family.

"(Sagen) called me and said, 'Rachel got drawn,' " Roger Morris said. "I didn't even know he put her in. He was a little concerned. He wasn't sure she could do it."

A longtime Alaska hunter, Roger quickly made it clear that bagging this hunt was not an option. The family was going to give this a go no matter what.

"Do you realize how many people who put in for these permits don't get drawn?" Roger said.

And so Rachel, her dad and her grandfather set off for sheep country in August. There were the expected miles of tough hiking, and a couple of difficult creek crossings, but it didn't take long to find sheep.

An old hand at this sort of hunting, Roger spied the first band of rams from a river bottom and then led a long, tiring climb up a mountain to get above the animals.

One of the sheep was among the biggest Roger had ever seen. It was also well out of range.

"We laid 400 yards from a giant," Sagen said.

"We laid for three hours up above them," Roger said. "Then the wind changed. They scented us and took off."

The family did better on the next legal ram they spotted. This time they were able to stalk within 280 yards. After that, there was nothing but open ground between them and the ram. There was also no way to retreat, find a new route and climb into position for a shot.

So the family waited, hoping the ram would get up and feed in their direction. As they waited, they watched the sheep through a spotting scope.

"Every once in a while, he'd look over at us," Roger said. "Rachel looked at it in the spotting scope. She obviously felt some pressure."

Darkness was beginning to creep into the Alaska Range. The hunters couldn't wait forever. Roger decided that if Rachel was going to have a chance, she would have to take a long shot.

"I knew I could do it," Rachel said.

She nestled into the stock of the .243, trying to get as steady as possible, and squeezed the trigger. The rifle roared. And Rachel had herself a spectacular full-curl ram with 38-inch horns.

"I was surprised, and I was excited too," she said.

Sagen and Roger, meanwhile, were more concerned about the fact that it was now so late and so dark that they would have to spend the night high on the mountain without camping gear. Fortunately, the weather was dry and warm.

"She thought spending the night out was a big adventure," said Sagen, who said the bivouac was comfortable enough that he got some sleep and Rachel slept quite well. The only one who didn't sleep well was grandpa, who was up at 5 a.m. caping and butchering the sheep.

The meat is now in the freezer. The head and horns are at a taxidermist. The head mount is destined for the entryway of the Juliussen home. Sagen confesses to being only a little jealous.

"Rachel has the dream trophy," said grandma Karen Morris, who pretty well sums up how well the hunt went by noting the report from the two senior hunters in their first call home:

"They said there was no whining, no complaining."

Why would there be? Rachel wonders.

"It was really fun," she said. "There was really no hard part."

She's looking forward to going again, she said, although she would prefer chasing something else, "probably a caribou or a bear.

"Her mother killed a black bear at 11," Roger said. Rachel could follow in those footsteps.

And what do all of her schoolmates think of this?

"A lot of them don't get to go hunting," Rachel said. "The ones that do think it's pretty cool."

Wow! Great ram, great story.

Very very cool story! Thanks for sharing.

I would be supremely honored and exploded with pride to tell such a story!!! Give her a congrats from a grand-dad from Texas from me!!!