438 Ram Hunt

[dave99]

Late last week a good buddy found out that he had won the lottery draw for 438 sheep. He was drawn for the November 11-20 (second) season. He (and I!) are pumped to spend some time chasing big sheep during the rut.

It is such a special tag to draw that I would like to help him any way possible to succeed in finding a Cadomin ram. I folded a 438 ewe draw in 2017 and have hunted rams in the area during the general season, but wanted to reach out to see on the AO community whether anyone else is drawn for 2022, or has recently held the tag.

I plan to do some scouting in the next few days and weeks at the usual spots that are accessed via right-of-ways from the mine. Any tips that people are willing to share are much appreciated.

I will post pictures and updates of scouting missions and the hunt on this thread. Please reach out or post if you have any intel or advice.

Thanks!

[marky_mark]

Order the warmest gear you can buy
Like that kuiu burner jacket etc
It’ can be extremely cold and windy at that time of year

[dave99]

Originally Posted by marky_mark

Order the warmest gear you can buy
Like that kuiu burner jacket etc
It’ can be extremely cold and windy at that time of year

Thanks Mark, I appreciate the advice. We will not leave for this hunt without packing our puffy jackets, down mitts, and ski goggles for the wind. Cadomin can be nasty!

Mark (my hunting buddy, not marky mark) and I did a Zama bison hunt a few years ago and both of us are backcountry skiers with snow camping experience.

I hear that the cold weather and rut pushes them off the mine. Any truth to that?

[marky_mark]

Originally Posted by dave99

Thanks Mark, I appreciate the advice. We will not leave for this hunt without packing our puffy jackets, down mitts, and ski goggles for the wind. Cadomin can be nasty!

Mark (my hunting buddy, not marky mark) and I did a Zama bison hunt a few years ago and both of us are backcountry skiers with snow camping experience.

Awesome
Rack master will have some advice
His wife had the tag a few years ago

[marky_mark]

209x50 had the tag a couple of times
He should be able to share a bunch of info as well

[Rackmastr]

Wife drew it in 2010 (likely still a thread here if you do a search). Same season. She shot a ram on the 15th.

We had a good hunt, missed some of the really crazy snow and had pretty 'nice' weather. That being said, that wind can get howling and it can be miserable no doubt. Goggles arent a bad idea when the wind gets howling.

Warm weather gear, and being prepared to sit for hours and not have rams come off the mine was the name of the game. Back in 2010 I think we had 4 (or possibly 5) legal rams come off in the time we hunted it. My wife missed a really good ram on day 4 in really strong winds. Shot a ram the next day. We had a young baby at home at the time so the time away was limited with work as well.

Not sure what its like these days, but the bright side is there are plenty of great people who have drawn who have a lot of info that they're willing to share. Feel free to reach out if you want any info.

GPS and coordinates are important for obvious reasons.

[dave99]

Thanks for the info Rackmaster. Sounds like it can be a really tough hunt. A few years back I watched a YouTube vid of Archie Nesbitt’s archery hunt up there. Looked like a rough hunt, in more ways than one!

Marky, I will reach out to Rich and see if he has any advice. Thanks for the lead.

[nimrod]

IF you need a tipi tent with a titanium wood stove, around 5 pounds for the tent and 3 pounds for stove, i have a few, but replace if not usable, also have a - 30 sleeping bag, well 2 of these

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by dave99

Thanks for the info Rackmaster. Sounds like it can be a really tough hunt. A few years back I watched a YouTube vid of Archie Nesbitt’s archery hunt up there. Looked like a rough hunt, in more ways than one!

Marky, I will reach out to Rich and see if he has any advice. Thanks for the lead.

I gather from people I know, it's basically a sit on the mine boundary and wait for a ram to come out, it It can be really miserable. I hunted the early season in 437 some years ago without luck, the late season has a lot going for it.

Grizz

[dave99]

Originally Posted by nimrod

IF you need a tipi tent with a titanium wood stove, around 5 pounds for the tent and 3 pounds for stove, i have a few, but replace if not usable, also have a - 30 sleeping bag, well 2 of these

Thanks for the offer. We’re already pretty well kitted out for cold weather- I run a Hilleberg Nallo and my partner has a tipi/stove of some sort.

I was thinking of doing this as a day hunt, but do those that know better than me recommend spending nights on the mountain?

[fishnguy]

Good luck, Dave! Can’t wait for pics and a thread, hopefully with success!

Don’t have much to contribute, but nice to see the difference in response this type of threads between someone who greatly contributes and… well, and others. The others should take note

[saskwhitey]

I had the last season tag in 2013. Super fun hunt. I got my ram on day 3. Tower basin was the hot spot that year. Winds hit 120 on the ground in hinton the day we packed mine out. Wind would gust and knock us flat. Good luck!!

[pikeslayer22]

Had the tag in 2012. Was the first week so not much moving. Tough hunt to stay in the game. Although there’s not alot of climbing what you have to do is twice as hard due to all the snow. Like waist deep in a lot of places. We packed all gear up on first day and left it on hot rocks and glasses from there. Winds are Nuts!! Used a big tarp and sleeping bags to stay warm.m while glassing. Ended up killing a ram on day #8 on Slaughter. Would consider a guide if had the tag again. Couple years later someone from the forum got drawn and exchanged info with him. He seemed to know the area a lot better than me.

[dave99]

Thanks for the input and sharing your experiences guys. Sounds like it is different and more of a grind than the backcountry multi-day sheep hunts that I’ve done. The payoff is a chance at a booner rather than combing many mountain ranges to scratch up a legal ram.

[Prairiekid]

Can you take skins and skis?

[dave99]

Originally Posted by Prairiekid

Can you take skins and skis?

You know me too well, lol.

You could take backcountry touring gear but the terrain may dictate that you would be boot packing a good ways. Might be an advantage if the snow gets deep. Snowshoes (which I hate BTW) may also be helpful.

[Big Grey Wolf]

I agree with Dave about snowshoes, broke one way back in 4 ft of snow once, a little rough getting back to camp on one foot.

[dave99]

Thanks to all of you guys that reached out with useful tips and info. My buddy who has the draw and I spent the day yesterday scouting 438.

We hiked in at one of the access points to the sound of bugling bulls in all directions.



On our way through the mine, we bumped a lone wolf at about 60 yds. He trotted away and stopped at 100 yds to stare back at us. Pretty fun to see.



We made our way uphill and off the mine and spent some time behind the glass to look for animals and get the lay of the land.



We found a couple bands of ewes off the mine, and a pile of elk and big rams on the mine.







On our next scouting trip we plan to check out another of the access points. It’s hard to not get excited about November 11th when you’re seeing rams in to 170” range!

[fishnguy]

^ Good stuff there, Dave!

[teledogs]

Best of luck! I know the tag holder is super excited! I look forward to hearing the updates on how my neighbors make out! Hope there is a big one out there for ya!

[dave99]

I wanted to update on this hunt.

The tag holder hunted hard on 7 of the 10 huntable days. Each day he hiked into the only area that he saw rams off the mine. He spent two nights snow camping and the rest in his camper in Cadomin.

Despite 3 potential opportunities, he never was able to touch off a shot. I was able to join him last Saturday, and we put in a 21km day in deep snow that was the norm for his week but kicked my butt, lol.

Other members of our group on that day triggered a size 1.5 avalanche while hiking through a cross-loaded terrain feature that nearly took one of our guys for a ride!

Good luck to the rest of the tag holders for the last hunt. I am not aware of any successful hunters from the first two hunts.

Thanks to all those that reached out with tips and advice for the hunt. I will post some pictures when I have time.

My opinion of the hunt is that you need to work hard and earn your success. Even then, coming out empty handed is a real possibility. Then again, there are times that survival itself is a success, and time spent amongst friends while hunting is always good for the soul.

[338wea]

good luck but be careful up there, there are some sketchy ass spot

[Hooter]

It’s certainly no gimme!!! Good luck!

[alder]

Sobering update. When I moved here almost a decade ago, drawing a 438 tag was a dream. Seems like that hunt has gotten harder to score on.

[DRhunter]

Thanks for the update Dave, always nice to see a follow up to these threads. Too bad you guys didnt have any luck, but as always a bad day hunting beats a great day at work! Looking forward to the pictures.

DR

[snowman160]

Good on him for putting in as much effort as possible. This is a once in a lifetime draw and sadly the turnout for tag holders this yr was very slim. I just got back from helping a close friend score on his ram an there was only one other that was there trying as well. My friends wife also had a draw an she was fortunate enough to get her ram as well. So that leaves two tagholders that didn’t show up. And yes I know life gets in the way and things happen that keep us from doing things we have planned from the future but people should really think about the effort that needs to go into this as well as how rare this tag is and if your NOT willing make that happen then don’t apply an let someone else have a chance. The first two hunts had even less turnout for tagholders. Terribly sad IMO.

[ram crazy]

Originally Posted by snowman160

Good on him for putting in as much effort as possible. This is a once in a lifetime draw and sadly the turnout for tag holders this yr was very slim. I just got back from helping a close friend score on his ram an there was only one other that was there trying as well. My friends wife also had a draw an she was fortunate enough to get her ram as well. So that leaves two tagholders that didn’t show up. And yes I know life gets in the way and things happen that keep us from doing things we have planned from the future but people should really think about the effort that needs to go into this as well as how rare this tag is and if your NOT willing make that happen then don’t apply an let someone else have a chance. The first two hunts had even less turnout for tagholders. Terribly sad IMO.

I don’t apply for this tag as if I were to get drawn then I can’t hunt the general season for 2 months.

[marky_mark]

Originally Posted by snowman160

Good on him for putting in as much effort as possible. This is a once in a lifetime draw and sadly the turnout for tag holders this yr was very slim. I just got back from helping a close friend score on his ram an there was only one other that was there trying as well. My friends wife also had a draw an she was fortunate enough to get her ram as well. So that leaves two tagholders that didn’t show up. And yes I know life gets in the way and things happen that keep us from doing things we have planned from the future but people should really think about the effort that needs to go into this as well as how rare this tag is and if your NOT willing make that happen then don’t apply an let someone else have a chance. The first two hunts had even less turnout for tagholders. Terribly sad IMO.

That’s the problem when it only cost $4 to enter

[dave99]

As promised, here are some pictures.

Early morning access across the mine-

[dave99]

Crossing the river-



Up into the alpine. Heavy winds!





Avalanche as seen through the spotter. You can see my friend in the frame as well as the crown of the avalanche.



Beautiful country but no sheep off the mine.



The bitter taste of defeat, lol.