19 minute read
Gear Review
GEAR REVIEW RAMPAGES–ALASKA’S GREAT WHITE DALL
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BY PHIL SHOEMAKER
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Avid sheep hunters truly are a different breed. Possibly it has something to do with the razor sharp, crystalline views to be found at higher altitudes. Or maybe it’s the act of physically pushing your body toward your limit of endurance. Whatever the cause, it becomes an overriding passion and obsession for many. Lewis (Lew) Bradley is one of those. In 1968, being stationed in Alaska was a dream come true for a 22 year old, newly minted Green Beret soldier. The 2 ½ years at Ft Richardson as a training NCO was far longer than the average hour-long refueling stopover most of us experienced enroute to Vietnam. Lew made the best of his off time by hunting the mountains at every opportunity. In 1970 he and his wife Carol returned to Oregon to complete his education and three years later they returned to Alaska for a 33-year teaching and coaching career in Wasilla. One might say sheep hunting was an overriding passion for Lew, he has taken 35 rams, 14 of them over 40”, but he was also an educator. One of his former students, Gov. Sarah Palin, appointed him to a 3-year term on the Board of Game, which eventually spurred him to devote 11 years of his time compiling photos, maps and stories of Dall Sheep hunting in Alaska.
The massive, 3 volume set contains 1800 pages, 1200 color photos and covers stories and hunter profiles of over a hundred years of Alaskan sheep hunting from 1914 – 2018. It also includes 95 Charts, tables, maps and 65 pages of AK F&G harvest data. Like most long time Alaskan resident hunters, Lew experienced and heard stories of unsavory, unethical and even illegal hunting activities; both by guides and residents. He doesn’t shy away from some of those stories in the books and it is only natural that his opinions vacillated over the years. But in recognition of the hard work and dedication of honest hunters and guides in the APHA Lew is donating $100 of every book sales to the APHA. Not only is this 3-volume set a Must Have for dedicated sheep hunters, its a fantastic way to support the APHA. It is an invaluable reference tool and may be the best $350 investment a serious hunter can make.
RAMPAGES I, II & III
• 3 Volume Set Collector’s Edition in Slipcase • Culmination of 11 years of research and interviews • History of Alaska Dall sheep hunting 1914-2018 • 98 Sheep hunter profiles/stories • 1800+ pages – Equivalent to 6 normal sheep books • 10 of the Top 15 B& C Dall rams and major profiles
(Swank, Cook, Lentfer, Sheets, Oney, Summar, Effler,
Lyons, Nelson, and Harrower).
• 14 Photos of Swank Ram hunt never before released • 95 Charts, graphs, tables, and maps • 1289 Color photos • 600+ Sheep photos • 200+ 40” rams • 82 B&C rams • 20 Rams scoring 180+ • 80 Illustrations & cartoons • 57 Poems • 65 pgs of harvest statistics LEW BRADLEY
• 47 years Alaska resident • Served in US Army 1967-1970 • Hunted Alaska since 1968 • Married for 53 years to Carol • Teacher & Coach 40 years • Antler, Horn & Bone Carver
• Harvested 35 Dall Rams (14 over 40”, 9 B&C Dalls, 3 180+)
RAMPAGES is unlike any previous sheep hunting books, and is 6 times their size. One review states:
Priced as a 3 Volume Set in Slipcase for $350.00 US funds + $30 Shipping in USA Overseas depends on destination. For orders call: 907-745-4644 Hm or 907-669-0043 Cell or Email - lcbradleyak@gci.net Website: Rampages123.com Happy Trails, Lew Bradley
2021 APHA
The Alaska Professional Hunter
This is an amateur photo contest for our members and their immediate family. We have changed the categhories this year to the following:
Live Wildlife and Scenery/Landscape.
There will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in each category and there will be prizes for the 1st place winners in each category.
You must be a member of the Alaska Professional Hunters Association or immediate family of a registred member to participate. Registered member of APHA must participate in the Hunter Preservation Program. Photos must be taken in Alaska. Each person is allowed one photo submission in each category. We understand that you may have several pictures you might want to submit, but we are only accepting one per category. If you submit more APHA will select the photo to use. For further information regarding the contest please contact the APHA office. Thank you and good luck!
FEATURE #1 {
A SHEEP FOR CAMI
BY RUSSELL CUNNINGHAM
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Summer of 1985 my brother Clint and I were packing our duffle bags for Alaska. Our dad was taking us to The Brooks Range to hunt Dall sheep and Caribou! I was 10 years old and my brother was 12 that summer. Dad had been to Alaska the year before with his brother hunting moose and grizzly. When he was there, he dreamt of bringing his boys someday to the last of the wild frontiers. Blue jeans and old ski coats are about all we had packed. Dad’s friends and family told him he was crazy taking us hunting in Alaska! How could you spend that much money on those young boys? You will surely spoil them! Thankfully, he didn’t give it another thought because that trip was to change my life forever. I’m sure each of you reading this story can remember a time in your life that altered your path for the better. I could write an entire book about our hunt with my father, but this is Cami and Stormy’s story! My daughters…. Cami is 9 yo, Stormy is 7. I have told them bedtime stories about my hunt in Alaska for years. I promised I would take them when they turned 10 if that is what they truly wanted. As we have been planning the hunt Cami has been interested in all wild sheep! I booked the Dall sheep hunt several years ago in order to have our spot available the summer she turned 10.
You see, I want for my girls what my Dad gave to me. “Gave” to me… I call it “active parenting”! He gave us autonomy; He gave us freedom to make our own choices and mistakes. These are things that few kids get these days. I feel like we are leaving a generation behind. Like the old parable says, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime”. A lot of kids now days are soft, and most have never had to endure discomfort. My favorite saying from Jim Shockey is “embrace discomfort”. With incredible experiences comes a certain about of hardship. These experiences are what make us who we are. I feel the more experiences that challenge us, the more whole we become. I will say that it saddens me to see my daughters’ friends come to visit that won’t touch a fish or won’t swim in the creek or get muddy…. I want to inspire our youth to get back outdoors and unplug! I recently saw a study that shows prison inmates spend more time outdoors than our youth. The number of hunters in North America is declining because we have failed to encourage it in our youth. I especially want to inspire our young ladies to hunt and fish. All too often it’s the boys that get the invite to learn to hunt.
I was recently on an antelope hunt with Cami at my best friend’s ranch in NM. There was a 14 year old boy hunting with his grandfather. His grandfather told me he had 8 grandchildren. I asked how this young boy got so lucky to hunt antelope. His response was, “He is my only grandson”. As the grandfather and young boy watched Phil skin their antelope, Cami was skinning hers! We need to empower our youth! We need to give them autonomy and stop being helicopter parents. Young boys and girls can do it! Let’s sit back and let THEM shoot the grand slam of wild sheep!
Back to being “spoiled” on my Dall sheep hunt when I was 10. The experience was EPIC!
We worked so dang hard for those sheep…. I think about the time spent with my Dad and brother at least once a week and that has been almost 35 years ago. That experience has made me who I am. When I returned home that summer, I made a commitment to myself that I would put myself in a position to afford to take my kids on hunting trips like my father had done for me. I decided then to make good decisions and work hard to pay back those experiences I was afforded by my Dad. “The stronger we ALLOW our children to be, the stronger they WILL be….”
When I first contacted Joey Klutsch about taking a ten-year-old girl on a Dall Sheep hunt, He jumped at the opportunity. It took a little explaining that this is not your typical ten-year-old girl. You see, she is tougher than most men and has the poise behind the trigger like a professionally trained sniper. I had all the confidence in the world that she could do this intensely physical hunt and be mentally strong enough to get it done. It was fun preparing for the trip. I had a lot of help from Brendan Burns with Kuiu. He helped us choose which gear Cami would need. The Kuiu youth line is amazing and kept Cami comfortable in the harsh conditions of the Northern most portion of the Brooks Range. August 2019 came quickly and found us on a plane to AK!
We met up with Joey Klutsch and his associate Jason Cook in Coldfoot Camp and prepared, weighed and loaded our gear into Coyote Air’s Beaver Bush plane. We were off!! Its hard to describe the feelings and emotions I was having as I reminisced about sitting side by side with my brother in a Piper Cub 35 years ago. There has been a lot of water under the bridge and lots of stars had to align for me to be in this position as a father repeating what my Dad did for my brother and me all those years ago.
We landed on a strip by the river at our base camp. We organized our gear again and were off to find sheep. The sheep opener was not for another 3 days but caribou season was open. The plan was to hike until we found enough sheep to set up a spike camp and hopefully find a shooter ram over the next few days. The area we were hunting is a backpack only area and let me tell you I thought to myself “what have I gotten into” when we left base camp with those HEAVY packs. I am 6’ tall and weigh 150 lbs., not exactly built to hike with that kind of weight!
Cami was pulling her weight too with her awesome Stone Glacier Pack. Fortunately, we found several groups of sheep just a few miles from base camp. We decided to spike out here until opener. After setting the tents up and eating a delicious Mountain House we were off to bed. Day one was in the books.
Day two found us in our tents most of the day with steady rain. I think we needed the rest because Cami and I both slept through most of the rain. That afternoon we had a break in the rain and began to glass from camp. Not 5 minutes into glassing, Joey found a herd of Caribou with a nice bull bedded about a mile from camp. We scrambled to gather our packs and off we went. After a river crossing and closing the distance in marshy tundra to about 350, yards we got set up for the shot. Cami’s bull finally stood up after what seemed an hour. She put a well-placed bullet in him, and he was down! What a great start to the trip. I felt like the pressure was off at this point! We rolled into camp at 10:30 that night with heavy packs.
Day three was another scouting day looking for a legal ram. We were able to acclimate a little more to the climbing and Cami was Charging up the mountains with ease. We didn’t find a shooter on day three but were optimistic about the number of sheep we were seeing.
On day 4 we found a beautiful ram from spike camp. We watched him until he went out of site in an area, we figured he bedded. We planned for our approach and off we went! This was to be one of the most challenging days of my hunting career and I have seen some tough days on the mountain at 18,000 feet after Blue Sheep in Nepal. The difference was that I was now the Sherpa!! After a long, marshy traverse, we reached the base of the mountain and began our ascent.
After about a third of the way up, we were met with rain and high winds. Joey, not wanting to burn Cami out on the first major ascent, asked if we wanted to go down and try again tomorrow. Cami looked at him like he was crazy! There was nothing getting in her way today! She has been anticipating this day for years. We passed a pretty nice legal ram that was an option, but Cami wanted the bigger ram even though it meant a lot more climbing. We still had a good wind direction and were getting close to where we thought the ram would be bedded. About the time we positioned ourselves to start looking for this sheep he popped over the rise at about 80 yards. The wind direction had changed just enough for him to smell us. He was gone as quick as he appeared. We hustled up to the saddle and found him climbing at 350 yards. Cami set up and took a great shot but missed by less than a couple inches. Of course, he went through another saddle and vanished. Joey felt confident he would get with some ewes on the other side and settle down. We made the decision to continue to pursue him vs go back for the smaller ram. As we made it to the other side of the mountain, we found him with several ewes. We got Cami set up about the time the sheep saw us. Cami took a shot that we thought was lethal. We watched the ram go through a saddle away from the ewes. We made our way to a band of cliffs the Ram had made his way toward. He had to be bedded there. Joey found him about 100 yards bedded and he jumped up before Cami could get a shot. We watched as he side hilled through the scree out of our lives forever, so I thought.
We spent several hours searching for potential bedding areas but found nothing. Not even a single drop of blood. We began to second guess ourselves about the lethality of the shot. After a very long day on the mountain we headed to camp with the plan to get up in the morning and glass from the valley floor. I thought our chances for a sheep were over and it was a tough pill to swallow. I slept very little that night.
The next morning, while eating breakfast, we spotted two nice rams on a different part of the mountain, but Joey was not even interested in looking at them. After breakfast we headed out to find Cami’s Sheep. After setting up in the valley floor and glassing for two hours staring at the same cliff band that we thought he might be Joey spotted the top of a ram’s horns and an ear! The sheep finally stood up with a slight limp. This was Cami’s Ram! I could have hugged Joey for being so persistent in finding her sheep. The Hunt was not over! After closing the distance to 550 yards we found the sheep where we had last seen him. I had suggested to let her shoot him at 550 yards since it was a very controlled scenario and she had plenty of time to set up. Joey had other plans! He climbed above the sheep and found it in its bed. He motioned to Cami and me to come to his position. Cami and I scrambled to his position after a steep 30-minute climb. I was exhausted and Cami was ahead climbing like a sheep herself with determination in her eyes! Joey told us where we had to be to see him. He said it will be very close to a shear ledge but safe if we took our time. He said to expect to see only his neck and head. Cami and I positioned ourselves to slip over the ridge and set up. I was holding her as she crept up on her belly and set up. She got positioned, found the ram in her scope and made a perfect neck shot at less than 100 yards! The ram fell from his bed which was on a ledge with a 20-foot drop. This was an AMAZING hunt and Cami EARNED this ram!
Joey told Cami congratulations and said, “that is how its done Cami, get in close and earn it”!
After 16 hours on the mountain that day, we got back to camp at 1:30 in the morning and never once heard Cami complain. Little did we know our hunt was far from over.
The next day, we made our way to base camp to prepare the cape and meat. We got to base camp and began to dry the meat, cape and flesh the sheep hide. We draped the hide over a YETI cooler that my friends Ryan and Roy Seiders provided us. Cami fleshed her side and Jason Cook fleshed the other side while I helped Joey with the meat. After fleshing was complete, Cami and I took the cape to the river to rinse the blood. When we got back to camp, we draped the cape over a small bush to dry. About that time Jason spotted a bear about 1,000 yard off coming our direction at a steady pace. Fortunately, we had a bear tag and decided to leave camp to get to a small rise where we could set up for a potential shot. The bear was on a mission and was on course to come straight into camp! As soon as we knew what he was doing Joey and Jason ran into camp to run the bear off. The bear charged in and stole the sheep cape and charged Joey at the same time. Luckily, he was not interested in Joey and just wanted to cape! The bear ran out to about 712 yards and began to eat the cape. We decided he was a big boar and we got Cami set up for a shot. She dropped the bear in its tracks with a single bullet from her 7 LRM Gunwerks. What a shot, what a hunt and what a story!!
Cami was fortunate to take a huge Desert Bighorn with Jim Breck Bean of High West Outfitters in West Texas a couple months prior to this hunt and is officially a ½ slammer!!
I am proud of my girls, they have zero quit and they are tough because my wife and I allow them to be tough. We encourage them to be outside “unplugged”, we afford them opportunities like this through our own hard work. I was told once by one of my mentors, “the best way to instill work ethic in your kids is to lead by example”. They see our sacrifice every day when we leave for work. America, it’s time to unplug and get outside! It’s time to show our children how to work hard and encourage autonomy. It’s time to teach our young ladies that they can be great outdoorsmen too. It’s time to be selfless and invest in our children. I hope our story inspires moms and dads to get their boys AND girls into the woods and “Spoil” them!!
It is amazing how tough and self sufficient our children can be if we teach them and allow them to explore their capabilities. Special thanks to Joey Klutsch and Jason
Cook for taking Cami and me on this adventure!
Stay tuned for more awesome adventures with my girls, Cami and Stormy Cunningham!
