Hunt of a Lifetime : Desert Bighorn Sheep Dream Hunt – Part 2

A New Hope

(Read Part I Here)

Our motel gave us free coffee fills in the morning, for which I was immensely grateful. Day one of the hunt was underway. A short drive of 15 minutes got us to our access point to start this bighorn sheep hunt, and we left with good cheer and optimism. As we got closer, we noticed a number of vehicles scattered around the base of the mountain. Not good.

When we got to our access road, we found it blocked by another hunter parked in a narrow section of road. Now, this is not a tactic I employ in public lands hunting. In fact, I think it is pretty crappy. Normally, I might have a “crucial conversation” with someone taking this path; however, I knew we had 20 days to hunt and I just wasn’t going to turn this into a big deal. I had a lot of confidence in my wife and our team, and so I figured in any head-to-head situation, we had the advantage. We waited…

As shooting light came, the team from the other vehicle came to visit with us. They had a specific ram they were after from the previous day. They also gave us a key piece of information…that the rams there were down on the flat eating barrel cactus. I knew sheep did this, but didn’t have the experience to really understand what it meant. So off they went on their hunt and we came behind them with our glass to pick the country from a different angle. Karma paid us back for taking the high road…lesson learned, or so I hope.

Now We’re Cooking

Ok, now we were officially having fun!! We started seeing some pretty nice rams that we knew the other guys couldn’t see. Since we still hadn’t found the one bighorn sheep Tammy wanted, we backed out of there. As an aside, the party up the hill from us grew by a couple of trucks as the day went on and we are pretty sure they tagged out that day. Good. One down.

With the traffic around the mountain being more than we bargained for, we looked in some less sexy country for the rest of the day. We continued to find nice rams, including one beautiful long full-curl ram that just didn’t have a lot of mass. We saw new country we’d never scouted, and it seemed like we could turn up a ram just about anywhere. This was getting more fun by the minute!

To Dream or Not to Dream

On day two, we bumped into our dream-hunt friends around mid-morning. Everyone was a little tight-lipped, but we didn’t have much good info to share. We’d seen quite a few rams, but not the one. After they left us, we found two groups of rams on a nearby ridge. One of those rams was a beautiful 5-year old ram with full curls and really good base mass. They worked their way to the shady side of the ridge away from us. We decided to continue around the mountain until we could circle back to get a better look at him.

Later that afternoon, we found our ram. He was lying at the center of a camouflage-clad crew of hunters who were busy being photogenic. I was optimistic, as, at first blush, we still didn’t think he was the one. It appeared that maybe the magnificent 17 were out of play henceforth. We confirmed this over cocktails at dinner that night! We were relieved that the troupe was headed home, and we didn’t think they did us any harm in harvesting that ram. Two down!

Tools of the Trade

As we folded up our scopes and headed off the hill, we spotted a beautiful heavy ram only a few hundred yards below us crossing the main road in the open! He had uneven horns and we couldn’t quite make him out to be the one we wanted, but he was beautiful. I was able to get us close enough to him to take some excellent pictures for review that night at dinner.

By the way, if you are a hunter who is hoping to be selective in a hunt, I have some advice. Digiscope. Use your camera or phone through your spotting scope or high-power binoculars to capture animals in the field. As your hunt evolves, you can compare each day’s animal to previous. This is particularly useful on sheep, where a little variation in mass or horn length makes a difference.

We had inspected all the guzzlers, some from afar, others close up, by day four of the hunt. We’d had plenty of close encounters with rams but we still hadn’t found the one. At this point we’d seen about 150 or so rams, with maybe a score or so that were full-curly. We kept passing by an area I wanted to look at that was great sheep country but seemed to be drive-by country for most. On day three, we finally stopped to have a look. Imagine my surprise when we quickly spotted an unmapped guzzler only a half mile from the county road!

Surprise

We picked our way up to the guzzler and my wife did a quick inspection. Amazingly, she found drops of water both on the side of the guzzler and in the dust nearby. At 75 degrees and in full sun, those droplets could not have been more than 20 minutes old! I quickly hustled up a nearby rock face to get a better vantage. As I crested, four rams saw me before I saw them. The funny thing about these rams in Tammy’s area is they seemed to be a bit used to people. The rams gave us a good show at 240 yards. One of our team was a little surprised my wife took a pass on the biggest full-curl ram there.

We continued the next couple of days to eyeball that guzzler and to look at “cactus rams” on the west side of the mountain. On day five we found a very big nine year old ram at the surprise guzzler. He had great mass, but his tips were broomed and didn’t come to the bridge of his nose. This made it hard to judge his horn length. We looked him over pretty close for about two hours, but again, my wife passed on him. I texted my buddy that I thought he’d go high 160s if his length was there.

Patience of a Hunter

Later that evening we found another stud ram on the west side of the mountain. With fading legal light and without being able to get this lone ram to turn, my wife passed on him as well. Even after shooting light was over, we kept watching him, hoping to get a better view. Nada. She knew better than to take a lone ram with only two angles observed, as these guys can be very deceptive. The frustration in our hunting party was starting to become a little more evident, but I was psyched that my wife continued to hunt her own hunt. I couldn’t have been prouder of her to be so methodical and decisive.

The next morning, we all agreed we’d try to find that stud ram on the west side. After about three hours of looking hard, no dice. We decided to go around the other side of the mountain and keep looking, but on our way we stopped at our four-ram guzzler. My wife quickly spotted rams at the guzzler, and she felt like there was some size there in the heat waves. She and I stepped out of our civis and donned our full camo and went to have a better look.

Evolution of the Decision

In the meantime, some fellas in a white Dodge Ram came up to us, turned around, and came into the same area on a parallel road. They finally backed out, but I knew they wanted to be where we were. Hmm. As Tammy and I slowly topped the rise about 250 yards from the guzzler, she spotted the rams lying in the brush ahead. We carefully set up and started to evaluate them. As we watched, the four rams became five, and then became six. We repositioned slightly and were finally able to get a good view of all six through my Swaro.

It seemed that the four rams from our first guzzler encounter had joined the two others from the day before. This now included the beautiful 5 year old full curl ram that had Ken’s attention, and the big heavy ram Tammy had passed on the day before. Tammy had passed over all of these rams previously. This time she wanted to get a better look, so we hatched a route that would get us much closer. We snuck along, finally trimming our 500 yards down to 280, well within my wife’s slam-dunk range. We set up to have a look and make a decision.

After 30 or 40 minutes of looking the herd over carefully, my wife was clearly leaning toward taking the big nine year old ram with the broomed tips. Concerned her patience might be flagging a bit, I mentioned he’d be there tomorrow if she wanted him. After some careful thinking, she started to agree that “yeah, he’ll be there tomorrow”. Now I was on an emotional roller coaster…one moment I was worried she’d take a consolation ram, the next minute I was worried she was passing on a toad. More than anything, I was worried I might be influencing her decision. So I said “What if those guys in the Dodge come back this afternoon and take him? Will you be disappointed in that?” She QUICKLY said “yes” that would be very disappointing. At that time, it looked like the decision was made, and I hopped back onto that emotional roller coaster.

More Patience

I sat thinking to myself “is he the one?” or “will she be disappointed with him?” or “are we rushing this?”.

All of these thoughts raged a battle inside my pea brain. Finally, after dozens of trips to the spotting scope, much hand-wringing, and arguing with myself, I asked Tammy one last question. “Hon, we think that ram will be high 160s or better, but if we are wrong and he is 158, will you still be happy with him”? She answered with a clear and decisive yes. At this point, my mind settled and calmed, and I knew the outcome was well considered and her own decision. Finally, I was at peace and we could settle on the finish.

As the rams were lying, there was some separation between all; however, the big boy was in the middle and a pass-through would endanger a ram behind and to the right of him. Also, if a nervous or unsteady shot was taken, the clearance was not enough with rams about three feet in front and to the left of him. Tammy decided not to take a risky shot and to wait. So we waited…and waited. We watched the big guy get up and bully several rams on a number of occasions, choosing their beds over his, or just pushing them away for grins. The shot didn’t present, so we waited.

After about four hours on the hill, the shadows crept toward the rams and a couple of the young ones got up and started eating. Then, one by one, each got up and put their head in a bush, with the big guy standing last. My heart absolutely raced as I watched through the scope. They criss-crossed and wandered, making it sometimes hard to stay on the target. Fortune smiled as the rams walked directly toward us and Mr. big boy took the lead. Finally, he had isolated himself enough from the crowd for an ethical shot.

Big Ram Down!

I waited. I shook. I tried to film a video. The ram turned broadside. I waited…and shook.

Later, Tammy explained the ram’s horn was covering his shoulder and she was patiently waiting for a better shot. All I knew was my heart was in my mouth and the ram was standing broadside somewhere between 220 and 260 yards. I didn’t dare pop up to range him better than that as I knew it didn’t really matter at that point. Center reticle.

At the rifle report, my videographer dreams were dashed as I flinched massively and gave up, switching into spotter mode. Wounded animals are no bueno and so my role became critical. Not to worry. The ram got to full speed in about three strides, then faltered, then crashed headfirst into the ground. Like something from a kitschy Quentin Tarantino movie, I saw clearly a great fountain of blood shoot skyward as the ram flipped and hit hard on his side. He never twitched again.

There had previously been only three times in my life where game animals didn’t suffer from ground-shrinkage. My 238 mule deer, my 356 bull, and my son’s massive 89 inch pronghorn all blew me away as I got closer. This ram became number four, as he became unbelievably huge in my eyes as we got close. Wow! I later scored him at 173 gross and 171.5 net, green. The biologists scored him at 173+ gross, and 172 2/8 net green. Even though he should make B&C all-time, and that is a bonus, this was the sheep Tammy wanted…and she made a perfect and ethical hunt on him.

Retrospective

As I’ve had weeks to ponder this hunt and the events leading up to it, it just gets better. Tammy did her research.

We familiarized ourselves with the country. We brought help, and people we cared about. More than anything, we committed to hunting 20 days. That gave my wife the courage, calmness, and decisive edge in her hunt. We had decided that it would be a travesty to take a ram on day one or two. This was a one-time hunt of the highest order, and we would not cheat ourselves of the adventure.

Tammy’s decisions resulted in our viewing most of the rams in the area, twice or more. We could have waited for others to migrate in; however, she chose the ram she wanted the most. She took her time in coming to that decision, and the rest of us benefited from seven glorious days in the desert. Based on our experience with this hunt and last year’s, I put desert bighorn sheep hunting in a class by itself. Easily the greatest hunt of my life.