Big, Old Alaska Dall Ram, Modern Day Mountain Man Season 4, Episode #3

I was eight years old trapping muskrats on lightning Creek when something came alive inside me I promised myself I would somehow live like the mountain men of old [Music] since then I've guided hunters in Alaska for more than two decades in counting all poll eight years of my life has been lived out of a tent in the wilderness [Music] the majesty solitude trials endure and tribulations overcome the endless wonders of nature and divine orchestration of everything in it keep calling me back you [Music] August 6 par for the course man's late yep I should make her in time and then of course gas gauges Ani [Music] I'll rest easy when I get on the plane two months later she hopefully some guys will have some caribou tags Risley bear and moose hunting I'm ready to ready to get back at her and anchored flights delayed irregular occurrence up there [Music] just got in this evening and had some supper how many yards away in my arena three and a half going through our gear getting there all lined out here's got a little seedling tonight so hopefully we'll get out in the morning and get out her August seventh about eight o'clock in the morning I'm gonna try to guides are gonna try to get out today sheep season starts August 10th as you can see she's pretty foggy and cloudy in the background Kurt's gonna try to get one guide out guide that's in the lowest elevation camp and if he makes it out he'll check the weather and maybe I'll be able to get out neck so hopefully we'll get out of here and we'll be able to fight through those weather [Music] 2010 Sheep season begins we got to get a bet going here you know well I think the largest RAM instead of the Mohawk if I win 10 cans you gotta buy me 10 cans of Scooby Snack tobacco if you win I'll buy you some baby formula or some diapers that's a nice diapers will come in handy that's that's my only vice no it is any diapers and baby wipes or vice versa you could give me some time yeah Reno's got a little one on the way I got a four week old baby girl at home so this season gonna be a little tough for being away from home and renal and renal got one on the way in jewelry and you know fixing is stove there's all my garb that's my fancy dry bags their personalized even compact your bags that's my personal stuff got all my camp gear outside ready to go just waiting for Kurt to return and I'll be heading to the mountains hopefully [Music] are we good all right load her up I don't know and up there nice tighter squatting a little big one well they were watch your melon [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I am home [Music] [Music] never been here before what I liked it flying in we flew over that ice pack along the river that's a real good caribou spot when it's real hot if we get years where we got a lot of warm weather then caribou just like to go there and lay on that ice cool off get away from the bugs but it's been pretty cool and wet here lately there's a few caribou around in this area so hopefully my sheep on her lap a caribou tag and and we might be able to get a couple critters but never hunted here before probably half the time I'm in new spots the other half I'm in spots obviously that I've hunted before but yeah it looks like a good area real green I don't think I've ever been coming up here 11 years now I don't think I've ever seen it so green so we'll set camp up and get her all dialed in today's the seventh it's about 11:30 in the morning and I don't think I'll get a hundred right we have one hundred coming in today but probably the earliest I'd get a guy would be tomorrow but more than likely the ninth so I have some time just to poke around a little bit and just keep my eyes peeled and see if we can see some sheep caribou and some bears season opens this year they change it from the 25th of August SAR used to open to the 10th because the grizzly bears are killing so many musk ox so they extended the season and opened it the 10th August but the hunters have to draw a tag so some of the hunters hopefully will apply for the tag I think actually it was the first come first serve so hopefully some of the guys will get some grizzly bear tags and we can get rid of some of them and keep them from killing all the sheep and the musk ox after I went for a little nature hike came back to set up my tent this is we're all sleep and then we'll use that for a spike tent in case we go spike out for a while but I use these extra long guy ropes tie a little I think it's called a clove hitch and that way so you can slide it and tighten it up as the tent gets wet or if you're in a storm or something you can tighten it up easy biggest thing you don't want to do is over tighten everything to set up I always make everything as long as possible set it up and then as it gets wet everything's going to stretch so then you can tighten that up but leave yourself plenty of room you don't want it over tighten and if you do set up a tent in the rain you definitely want to leave plenty of slack because once that Sun comes up and dry dries it up it's going to contract a lot and yeah it's just not gonna work well if you got it real tight so I'll get the hunters tent and set up the bigger tent and get it all organized here [Music] by no means is it a bright sunshiny day but talk about ambience I think I said that right per meal crying me up a late lunch two o'clock Keith's luckily a New York strip steak I always want to stay on the cooks good side you can make your life pretty sweet out here and Keith always sends little goodie bags Oh for the guides in the hunters [Music] looks like a heck of a good blue barrier this year yeah went hadn't get blueberries for a couple of years no August 8th about 11 o'clock in the morning and then I wanted coffee and breakfast already just rain and real foggy and let's crawl back into the Ken hunters are getting into base camp today so there's weather lifts I might might get a hunter in tonight but if not hopefully the weather will break and we'll get him into a while we don't lose the hunting day and having kind of a hard time getting through be required to get you ringing right away hello it's Billy yeah it's about the same it's it's pretty marginal at best you guys got anything there okay yeah I'll just call you in the morning then sevenish yeah okay all right very good okay yeah it sounds like they just gave up I think they got one one or two guys out but it looks like it's actually clearing up high but this ground the surface fog just so low I mean you can see just just a hint of blue sky above here and there hopefully tomorrow it breaks and usually this country you don't get a ton of a ton of rain like we've been getting but you do get a lot of fog especially in the mornings but usually afternoons it clears up so hopefully we'll we'll get a guy in here in a while what a difference a day makes first time I've seen the Sun three days I should be getting the hunter anything chickens and amenities wide open unlimited visibility [Music] [Music] [Music] I don't know if you're gonna see him or not but there's seven sheep right in the center of the screen I think that are all used I don't think there's a lamb one in there they're pretty far away but I don't see any horns and they look kind of skinny necked so not a real good sign if seven years have zero lambs usually this time of year about a third maybe 40% 50% on a really good year what about a third usually of the use will have lambs with them named Elena had a once in a while you'll see two lambs whether you are not very often it'll have a once in a while but one will get nabbed by something here comes Kurt there's my man who I've never met before I think his name is Mike unless they switch to that base camp he pretty much just came buzzing straight in over the hill got a little bit of crosswind from right to left this is a long bitter rough strip it didn't have much of a problem I'm Billy Billy hi I'm Mike Spencer hi I'm getting this pad all situated [Applause] a bit of a tail and what a beautiful day 65 degrees finally broke down and bought a little thermometer stuck on my pack it was 80 degrees and that little teepee thing there I haven't seen a ram in here yet but I've hunted all over in the backside of these mountains so I've seen the Sheep leave and come over into this country and it's always just been too far to go where I've been camped so but other guides have hunted in this area before and done pretty well so we need to see some new country now we did spot one Ram right from camp at the center of the screen about a 3/4 her old Ram all by himself it's always seen some Rams or three miles away [Laughter] 7 o'clock p.m. are already going down for the evening lay and relax few sprinkles so she's gonna go down for the night probably get up about 4:30 in the morning do a weather check hopefully these clouds stay up and my guess is we might have some clouds in the morning but if we don't get up bright and early and I think we're gonna go through a little low saddle right between these two peaks and hunt this other side here for tomorrow day number one well we've been started doing weather checks at quarter to 5:00 this morning fog was right on the deck it's starting to lift but real slowly Mike's got a caribou tag so we're keeping her eyes peeled for caribou but the add the fog still got a lift quite a bit for us too to see any country that might hold cheap so we're keeping our fingers crossed and hope she breaks well hey I'm my name is Mike Spencer I'm from up from Southern California Orange County area to try out my hand sheep hunting here with Billy done a few other times in the Yukon and had some success but it's my first time here up in Alaska for cheap and we're just kind of sitting around a camp here today waiting for the weather to let up a little bit so we can get out and see if we can shake anything out of these mountains but as you can see and off in the distance here we're kind of clouded in on tops of the hills aren't a very accessible day one about three o'clock rain starting back up again Mike understands the sheep huntin so this hunker and a break day - 11:30 and I thought these fog would break but been waiting around all morning and still isn't breaking so we're just gonna go do a little hiking climb over that Ridge look down that Canyon try to see over here maybe see if we can't see a caribou because this fog is not moving Mike and I are just getting some exercise looking for caribou spotted a black wolf thing about dumb buggers is there like a coyote they never stopped moving jet-black your first wolf in the wild I'm like pretty me yeah kind of black wolf yeah jet-black a lot of times you see them they're kind of that mangy grayish but this one was black black probably mile and a half away 2:30 p.m. so she it's kind of shot for the day we're gonna head over there and set up on that kill and hopefully we'll get lucky yeah I would say ten days old anyway this is the Gil that we saw the wolf on spotted him from up over there he hiked over and sat waited for about two hours we didn't realize there was so little left I thought the wolf might come back a quarter after 6:00 now we're headed for home this is what the caribou Tundra looks like you've gotta place your foot right in between all these little things if you use the tussock you step on them they'll bend over they're kind of a pain in the butt so you got to go high knees through this stuff and it's real spongy especially now with all the rain we've been having pack a caribou over three miles of this stuff and you will have done something believe me that's where we came from you know where that little Ridge there we had about another half mile to go it's right over this right here I think I'm ready to get back to sheep huntin this caribou country's tough work 10:00 p.m. and bay number two has done rain the most of the day today man I haven't seen it rain like this in a long time bald in the base camp we got one sheep down some of the other guides have the same thing we've had just all fog and green hopefully this breaks my starting the real gills here but yeah I just waiting for it to break and when it does we'll be we'll be going like mad well hopefully it rains itself out and clear in the morning got the alarm set the quarter to 5:00 morning a day three and the last we have a break in the weather got up at 4:00 this morning got it before my alarm right away spotted Aram actually I saw him late last night and he knew it was a sheep anyway and he ducked in a little drop there and then he got up to feed there when I got up this morning broomed on his left side and looks like he's darn near full krill but I think he's broomed on his right but mike wants to take a chance look at some of this other country there's a monster ram in here that guy a couple other guides have been chasing for two years we don't know if he's still alive but we're gonna go look for him you ready to do this Mike we're just gonna crack up over the hill here see if we can't get into some cheap on the backside of this mountain oh yeah I'm ready to go our bought a bought two hours and today three slamming our second saddle I haven't seen any sheep other than the one right but I can't but just came across some sheep poop we just had a good rain squall but that's that's fresh within the last two days for sure I'm on the right track we got some fresh sheep scat does Mikey likey no I wish we would have just went up to the top we just came over that side when we were thinking about running this Ridge I'm like well let's just go down to the bottom and we'll see if there's anything up there that way we can cover more country but that right there isn't one heck of a rim shall we that's our RAM we're gonna be I was just his honor on her way down here I was like I don't know if we can cover all this country in a day I was like if we don't find a sheep here close we might be spending the night but I mean there you go anywhere but if he beds in there we should be able to get him but we're gonna have to go this sheeps right in that green right there there's a big lick that dark stuff right there the lick and there's tracks all over it so we got to go up and around back on top of them oh yeah I've only seen one side of the sheep and then I let Mike look out that's enough dad doesn't need to see any more than his one side to me I don't even know if he's full girl but he's just so massive and dark left now when you can get a good look inside looks just the same you need a big body dude we got a banyan there's all kinds of sheep sign in here and it don't mic yet but I mean yeah this Rams got to be 38 inches anyway he's a dandy and good math so well we got a lot of work who knows where he's gonna bet he'll probably be bedded by the time we get up there we're making good time you spotted beer and just out of sight through that mountain so he's on this backside probably twelve hundred yards away and there's always the case it looks different from the bottom right there over the back side there's only one legal ramp this time to get over it yeah I'm gonna be kind of tough to get on them there's no good rocky outcropping to get above them but ten thirty now they might move up a little farther come on I'm gonna play the thermals we'll be shootin up they'll we can sneak around on this backside dandy now we're working up an around these sheep I don't know how or why there's a little bush right there Mike is definitely wishing he had a couple pole there's some nasty stuff and we got another probably close to a mile of it go up and around hopefully this big boy is there I don't know if this is the RAM the other guides that on earth that have guided here the last couple of years I've been seeing but he's a dandy cool he's a smoker the scenery sucks doesn't it like looking at this not not so hot [Laughter] here you can hear you can get an idea where we came from or camp just around that moment so we came up that little saddle kind of went down and graded into this saddle walk down here sort of look in this country over walked around this corner peek back up over here Shaunda ram so now we're working back around we're a little over a mile away from the Sheep now so we're just gonna slide in there hopefully I'll get won't be able to get one more visual on the sheep before we get out of sight oh good then pop over up on beautiful day kill the Beast I don't we're over the top the big Moran must have just got up I'm kind of thinking they very well might move up a little bit they're usually better for goodbye noon so the other Rams are down below I'm still feeding so we're gonna get around here try to come up over top of them might be a long poke but they might go up in bed by that lick will this have to see we're on the final stalk are gonna sneak over here sneak up over those Peaks hold for 2:20 he's 220 hold for about 200 right where the shoulder and the neck ameed God is the shoulder if you go forward yell at the neck let's take your time you got all the time in the world yeah to make the first one go date Erdem reload that is an official dirt nap there his head just went right down yeah you popping right in the neck Michael Spencer you just shot yourself one heck of a ram there's no there was a lot of things that could have went wrong on that stock but it worked we first spotted this Ram right down there for our stock nice shot thank you are you a little tired holy lightning that's where I was planning on going today was up over this saddle of that drainage over the top and around and then coming back to camp I'm glad we don't have to do that to say the least really here's a bandage on my order there buddy nice shot perfect shot yeah Mike gettin no hesitation I'll just shoot him in the neck are you sure yep perfect there was about a million and one things that could went wrong in that whole deal but it just worked out perfectly luckily I love it when a plan comes together he's a big old RAM he's been wandering these mountains for many many years we're gonna get the dark horns like this Rim has it pretty good sign or at least ten years old they've probably been and running together for quite a few years should we go get our hands on yes I was newer look at this yeah there's a little bit of a lick mineral look right in there and they're betting all around it that'd be the flattest spot I've ever taken care of a sheep yeah it's gonna be good in 11 years of sheep guidance oh this is gonna be nice hopefully we can hide some of the blood and I'm getting real good picture good man good man I like it yeah you you did take care of me yeah well let's see how he looks in your hands wow what a beautiful beautiful sheep holy man look at all that is a humongous sheep when I first saw him I said that's a huge body Wow this an old bugger oh yeah he's an old around I'd say he's full curl oh yeah he was unmistakable from when he'd give that thousand yards oh yeah I was thinking a thousand but yeah it's probably but that's that's probably close to a mile yeah twelve twelve fourteen hundred yards yeah I mean I looked at him in the scope for about two seconds I'm like Mike check this guy out no we didn't need to his bases his bases aren't you know huge but he just carries it so well oh yeah yeah yeah he's probably better than what I was thinking well he is look at the neck on him congratulations link boy he is stocked he is a chunk in the shot of these hooves babies are made for climbing this stuff you know and close that is to his eyeball you would think that would monkey with you you think I'd give you a headache so bad yeah you'd be one that I think so bad Billy and I come out of camp this morning behind that mountain below us and Billy just caught this with beautiful ramps up here on the side of the hill and we made a first attempt back up the mountain straight across about a thousand yards away obviously no good and had to come completely around the mountain it's been about four hour four and half hours doing that worked our way over to this side got up in behind him above him and had a nice clean shot down on him he was laying down here and took this beautiful Ram right here where he sits and one of the best friends that I've shot in about well how did she probably now for five years I guess and this is definitely the best Graham thanks to Billy and his patience we did a good job getting on him and he resets after the photo session Mike and I have decided he looks even better Beauty so we're gonna butcher him up doing the full-body cape so nice day and perfect weather good spot for it nice and flat beautiful backdrop for more information on other DVDs books and modern-day mountain man apparel log on to Billy moles adventures.com here you'll also find information on Alaskan hunting opportunities with Billy for doll sheep caribou moose brown bear grizzly bear as well as white-tailed deer hunting in Wisconsin much of Billy's offseason is devoted to public speaking he travels across the country sharing his knowledge and passion for the wilderness at corporate events schools conservation organizations wild game dinners Christian outreach events and much more Billy is a master storyteller attendees are sure to be entertained educated and inspired log on or call for more information [Music]

Channel: Modern Day Mountain Man

Views: 245,038

Keywords: Billy Molls, Modern Day Mountain Man, Alaska Dall sheep hunting, brooks range dall sheep hunt, alaska dall sheep hunt, brooks range dall sheep hunting, Alaska dall sheep guide, Alaska dall sheep outfitter, diy Alaska dall sheep hunt, mountain hunting, yukon dall sheep hunting, alaska hunt, alaska hunting video, Alaska hunting documentary, Alaska sheep hunt, sheep hunting, sheep hunting 2019, sheep hunting Alaska, Stone sheep hunting, stone sheep hunt, NWT sheep hunt

Id: L9FpGrwlC8g

Length: 38min 4sec (2284 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 02 2020