When Craig Daniel bought a raffle ticket for a stone sheep hunt on the border of British Columbia and Yukon, Canada, he didn’t tell anyone. Instead, he did what most of us would do. He threw the ticket in a drawer and forgot about it. After all, he wasn’t really buying a chance to hunt sheep. In his mind, he was donating part of the $100 to OVIS, a sheep conservation organization, and buying the chance to keep dreaming about hunting sheep.
But the odds were one in 2,000. Somebody was going to win a sheep hunt and a custom-built rifle from Gunwerks and a trip to the Gunwerks Long Range University Shooting Course in Cody, Wyoming and a Leopold Mark 5HD scope and a $400 bipod. Why shouldn’t that somebody be a roofer from Petoskey, Michigan? No one had a good answer to that question, least of all fate, so when his phone went off during a lunch break on the jobsite last April, Daniel shouldn’t have been surprised. But he was.
He was also recorded for the whole world to hear in a video by Mark Peterson, former Oceana County family fruit farming native and now owner of Utah based Worldwide Trophy Adventures. WTA purchased Cabela’s Outdoor Adventures booking agency in 2016, so this company is a big deal. And Daniel’s hunt, custom rifle package and shooting course valued at more than $80,000 is WTA’s biggest sweepstakes. What can you intelligently say to a phone call like that other than, “Seriously? Are you kidding? And thank you, thank you!” In the world of hunting and fishing adventures, Daniel had just been given Wonka’s golden ticket.
And just like we all cheered for Charlie, the humble, deserving underdog, I cheered for Daniel. He is not a trophy hunter. He eats what he shoots, and he’s always grateful for it. I’d say his house is not covered in mounts, but his wife would disagree with me, which speaks to the idea of relativity. He has taken a couple elk on hunts out west, and he’s also been lucky enough to draw a Michigan bull elk permit. He’s a normal guy — hunts deer near Gaylord. He has zero social media presence, and he never brags about the game he bags. He and his brothers own Norm’s Roofing Company, but you are more likely to find him on a roof along with his crew than you will in his office.
Because of the sweat equity he puts into his business and the fact that in his early 50s, he still has a lean, strong build without an ounce of fat on him, I was surprised to hear how much he trained for his hunt. He worked his way up to carrying a 60-pound pack nine miles up and down the ski hills at Boyne Mountain during the summer. Many days the temperature was in the 90s, and it was raining. But he knew the mountains of Yukon would be steeper and wetter, and after all, much of the draw was experiencing the physicality of a sheep hunt while he still could.
In mid-summer, Daniel and his wife, Kerri, celebrated their 30th anniversary at a hotel in Cody where he could attend the Gunwerks long range shooting school while she read books by the pool. The two of them have a good relationship, enjoying and attending all of their children’s band and sporting events together while still supporting the other’s independence. The shooting school was taught by ex-military snipers who coached Daniel how to get the most out of his bolt-action ClymR mountain rifle chambered in 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Magnum (7 SAUM). Daniel was the rookie in the class, but he quickly became proficient with his new $12,000 rifle.
In a nutshell, they taught him to accept the wobble you’ll see in a scope. You simply need to breathe through it, trust your rifle and slowly squeeze the trigger. If the wobble is bothering you, lower the magnification on your scope so you don’t see it. That, and check the bubble mounted on the side of the scope to make sure your gun is level every time before squeezing off a shot. Remember, Daniel is humble, but he still said shooting from the prone position with a bipod and a good scope on an amazing rifle really wasn’t that hard. He felt confident to 600 yards but was hoping to keep any shots at sheep under 500. Turns out that wouldn’t be a problem.
The end of August came, and accompanied by his brother Josh, Daniel flew from Traverse City to Minneapolis to Vancouver, British Columbia to White Horse, Yukon. Worried that his rifle might not arrive when he did, Daniel allowed for an extra day in White Horse where he and his brother found the most wonderful sporting goods store they’ve ever seen. Picture Cabela’s on steroids. He had been battling plantar fasciitis, and this sporting goods store had a machine that scanned your feet with a laser then molded custom insoles for your boots. While messing with footwear before any hunt is never recommended, once again Daniel gambled and won. His new insoles removed the pain immediately. It seemed as if his winning streak would never end.
The next day they hopped on a float plane that flew into a basic base camp complete with an actual cabin. The last one they’d see for 10 days. Then they drove 30 minutes further into the wilderness before boarding a boat to get them across a river followed by a seven-hour hike in the rain to where they pitched their tents at about 4,000 feet. After sleeping in special mountain sleeping bags designed to wick the moisture out of their clothes (your own body heat becomes a clothes dryer), the day after, they climbed up to 7,000 feet and pitched their tents again.
But here’s where the luck runs out. This is where the dream hunt turns into a nightmare. Sheep live in places where there are no trees. That means there are no fires to sit around and warm up with. There are no cocktails to sip as you stare into the embers and tell stories or sing campfire songs. There are no marshmallows to roast. There is only scree to climb up and down. So, you take a step and slide five or six feet. The wind comes up so strong that you can’t hold binoculars steady against your face. Setting up a spotting scope to look for sheep is out of the question. And then the rain and fog set in. For 56 hours, you lay in a three-man tent that would never fit three men, with your brother. This is not a wall tent with chairs. It’s the kind Charlie Brown uses. You poke your head out, but you cannot see anything. There is nowhere to go and no safe way to go there if there was. You understand why some hunters pay $50,000 for a hunt like this and quit part-way through it.
But if you’re Craig Daniel, you revel in it because you are getting the full sheep hunting experience with a weather buffet including rain, fog, wind, sunshine and snow. And deep down, despite other hunts where midway through the trip you sensed you weren’t going to bag an elk or shoot a deer, this one feels different. Deep down, a belief that you wouldn’t have won this trip and come this far to walk down the mountain empty handed, keeps your spirits up.
And on day eight, after three days of sitting in a tent, the fog clears. Daniel and his brother and their guide named Dawson who grew up in the bush and whose 80-year-old father still lives in the bush, spot sheep 1,300 yards away. Coming up with a plan to reach them requires an hour and a half of studying topo maps in which the goal becomes figuring out how to climb up two mountains and back down two mountains without being seen and without ending up on a dead-end at the edge of a cliff. It will take the better part of a day to bridge the distance. The hunters spent the rest of the afternoon just getting to a place where they could spend the night closer to the sheep.
The next day, they awoke and moved closer, only to be surprised by the small group of rams, some of whom decided to disappear around the side of the mountain while two others appeared over a knoll and forced a rushed 200-yard shot. Daniel didn’t even have time to glance at the level on his rifle before he fired. Snow began falling heavily about then, but so did the ram, only running 20 yards. There’s no way to fully describe all the climbing that took place before shooting the ram, but as Daniel and his brother began boning out the meat, they had miles more of it ahead of them. This time with full packs.
So, on day nine of a 10-day hunt, the golden ticket was punched. Upon hearing the full story, I’m still not sure whether to offer Daniel congratulations or condolences.