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I am writing this on behalf of my husband Kevin Noble. He has purchased your magazine faithfully for years. I would love for him to have his story posted in your magazine about his recent sheep lottery draw he won, and the beautiful sheep he shot in November (2011).
My husband is an avid hunter. My daughter and I also hunt, but nothing compared to my husband.
He had been dreaming for years to get a sheep draw and to him it’s like winning Lotto Max. I have never seen a hunter as excited as him and as appreciative as he is. The gentlemen that helped him get his sheep were great too.
When he got his tag, the sheep hunt was on his mind from that day forward. I could tell he would drift off day-dreaming and I would ask him what he was thinking, knowing well that it was about getting his sheep.
He went a couple of times to scout the area ahead of time and he knew it was going to be a lot of work to get a sheep but he prepped himself well. With the gear and clothing he had, he could survive in the Arctic. He would call me every day and tell me how these outfitters were awesome and great guys.
When he came home with his sheep, his smile was the biggest I have ever seen. My husband is a quiet, low-key guy, but if you ask him about his sheep, he is so open and talkative.
Overall, Kevin is a great husband and father of our four kids and this would mean the world to him to have his story posted in your Alberta Outdoorsmen magazine. He posted his story online, so I copied and printed it for you. I would love for this to be a surprise for him. Thank you so much.
Yours truly,
Sheri Noble
I arrived in Cadomin on the 19th and headed out the morning of the 20th to do some scouting. I planned on heading up tower but there were already three vehicles there, so I decided not to hike in and possibly ruin someone’s last day to hunt. I drove around the roads and glassed some sheep on the mine site.
I was stopped by a couple of guides who were out spotting. They asked what size of a sheep I was after and I told them it would be my first ram, so all I wanted was a good mature ram. They said they might be able to help me out and would talk to me later in the day.
I then headed to Hinton to pick up my groceries. Later that day, I ran into the two guides again and they said that if I wanted, I could join them in the morning. They had two clients already, the minister’s raffle winner and a gentleman from Red Deer. I asked what they would charge me, and they said nothing. They just wanted to try to avoid shooting over each other’s heads and try to prevent any conflicts that may arise.
The minister’s permit holder had one specific sheep picked out he wanted, and their client from Red Deer would have his choice of sheep that left the mine before I could fill my tag. I decided to join them although at first I was a little skeptical, trying to figure out if maybe they were trying to pull something on me.
The rut was late this year and there wasn’t much rutting activity the first few days of the hunt. I think it was the evening of the 23rd or 24th when the rutting activity started to pick up. The outfitters said that last year it was the 18th when it started to pick up.
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| Kevin Noble packing out his Cadomin bighorn sheep. |
On the morning of the 26th there was an extreme wind, so we ended up sitting in the timber trying to wait it out We were debating whether we should call it a day when a couple of good sheep started to work their way to the mine boundary. We headed up the mountain and tried to get in position for a shot. One good ram and a short ram left the mine, but the other good ram turned and went back down.
We followed the rams around the backside of the mountain, where Neil, the hunter from Red Deer, was able to take his ram. It was a beautiful ram that the guys figured would score around 174.
I hunted with these guys until day 8 of my hunt. They all worked hard and I really wanted to kill my sheep with them, but there was just nothing legal leaving the mine.
The night of day 8, a young guy that was helping guide the auctioned minister’s permit tag holder came and talked with me. He said their hunter had left to hunt whitetail and that he had seen some sheep off the mine over at the hot rocks. He had been sitting at the motel waiting for their client to return and just wanted to get out and hunt. He said he would be more than willing to take me out in the morning if I wanted. I decided to give it a try and went to talk to Jonas and his guys to let them know I wouldn’t be meeting them in the morning. I felt bad for ditching them, but they said that if I didn’t see anything at the hot rocks, I could join them in the afternoon or for the last day of the hunt. They also gave me a radio so they could let me know if anything came off the mine, so I could head back there.
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| Kevin poses with his once-in-a-lifetime draw bighorn. |
I headed out in the morning with Landon, the young guide from the other outfit. We made it back to where he had seen the sheep and they were still there. One other tag holder and his friend were sitting above the sheep, so we decided to go talk to them before we started our stalk. The hunter already had a couple sheep at home, so they were hoping for something bigger. They said to go ahead and get him if we wanted him.
It took us quite a while to get close to the sheep. We were struggling through waist-deep snowdrifts and no cover. At 600 metres, the sheep started getting nervous and moved across the valley. We started to wonder if they were park sheep, because they were not acting like the typical Cadomin sheep that you can just walk up to. We got to within 220 metres of the sheep when the ewes started to work their way up the side of the mountain. We decided we had better just try to make the shot from there. I got on the ram, but there was a ewe standing just behind his head. After about two minutes, the ram walked ahead and I was able to take the shot. I hit him right behind the shoulder, probably three inches lower than it should have been. I fired another shot at him when he was running, but missed. He stopped at 330 metres. I was trying to load my gun but I couldn’t get the last shell out of my clip to load. It just kept jamming. I threw another shell in my clip and was able to get my gun to load. I was able to put the ram down with a final shot.
I’m not sure who was more excited, Landon or me. Both groups of outfitters were great guys, and I don’t think I would have had a successful hunt without their help. ■
For previous Reader Stories click here.
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