My 16 year old Zane drew a sheep tag this year. it was nowhere on our radar but the hunting gods smiled and the $300 charge was a sight to behold. Tag 1!
i immediately reached out to my hunting buddy @buglethemin who had the same tag a few years ago and happens to be a sheep guide with Arizona Desert outfitters, which made the situation a whole lot more doable. On a side note If anyone needs help on a sheep hunt, they are a top notch outfit.
We Scouting started in July, and we located some good looking target rams.
One of the problems when a 16 year old draws a sheep tag is school. When the hunt finally rolled around, he missed a Friday and a Monday, and we hunted four hard days. But there were final projects, finals, etc. We located a couple possible shooters but not anything that was an immediate go in the first couple days.
When we came back the next weekend, we found all the sheep had moved and that many days away between hunts was going to be a problem. We were not able to find the previous rams. After a couple more 12-15 mile days, we were still looking for that mature shooter ram. The late rains and green up and changing weather had them doing strange things.
Zane finished finals and we headed back out on Friday the 19th. At this point, he had been in school or hunting sheep for 19 days straight. We had split up to cover different areas.That afternoon, @buglethemin called and said he found a mature ram in a bowl they were glassing. We hurried over (hurry means mile or two hike then 30+ minute drive then more hiking) but got to the other side of the bowl before sunset. The ram and 3 smaller rams came over the top to our side. It was too late to make a play, but we bedded the ram and had a plan for the morning.
The next day, we were there before sun up and immediately located the rams. The shooter ram and a smaller ram then immediately went back over into the bowl. We hiked a three mile loop around and picked them back up. We were looking into the sun and the rams never stopped moving, and no shot presented. The rams eventually fed onto the bench on top of the range and moved west where we lost site of them.
We climbed the mountain , and started working the edges looking for them. By early afternoon, we had one cut left to cover. About that time, another buddy called and said he had found them in that cut. We worked our way to about 300 yards from the edge they were over. The wind was in our face, and the plan was to wait for them to feed up and cross over and present a shot.
It was a great plan, until the wind shifted, blowing directly at them. They spooked down the cliff face. We hurried to the edge, and hurriedly got a range and the rifle set up. The first shot was a miss low, and they ran another hundred yards up the opposing mountain face, bearing the top before they stopped broadside. We got a new range, and Zane sent it. The sheep ran a bit, wobbled, then was down. After 8 hard days of hunting, he had his sheep. Old ram with a ton of character, and a scarred up old nose. Game and fish aged at 9 laying down the 10 ring.
i cannot thank the sheep hunting collective of friends and family that showed up to help enough. It was a grind of a hunt but ann amazing one.
