Author Topic: Selah Butte Ram (Read 18105 times)

soccerguy · « **on:** November 26, 2012, 05:18:41 PM »

Well I'm done with the hunt and pictures of the ram are attched. I only hunted for three days and did not pay the $1500 fee demanded by Red's/Eaton. My experience was that there were numerous rams on the public land along the river in two areas. One we nicknamed the "Bald Mtn" area was a narrow band just west of Bald Mtn all the way to the Yakima River. This area was very steep and had more vertical distance (maybe 2000' to the top from the highway) than the area further north, but we saw lots of rams there...just never that I would call a shooter since my goal was something close to a 160 ram. The area to the north had quite a bit of huntable public land and we also saw a lot of rams in that area.

A lot of the mature rams in this unit seem to be somewhere in the 150's...either because they do not have the mass, horn length, or other qualities. In three days hunting, we probably saw at least 10-15 per day in this category...a lot of them being in the low 150's. All of these rams were on public ground, some of them were a long way up vertically but after all, it is sheep hunting isn't it??

The third day of the hunt, we spotted a couple of potential shooters about 1200 feet above the highway. They walked over the top of the ridge out of sight so we decided to climb up and take a closer look. After a rather interesting climb, we topped out and, of course, couldn't find them. We did locate some other rams but they weren't shooters, so back down to the road we went. Driving down the road only another mile or so, we located another ram on the side of the hill much lower than than the original two "shooters" and he looked bigger! So, friend Eric and I climbed up the hill far enough to be within shooting range and I was able to make the shot...with help from friend Steve spotting from the road and waving arm signals.

His estimated score is 162-163. He's a chocolate color and I'm very happy with him.

clindsayrun · « **Reply #1 on:** November 26, 2012, 05:24:17 PM »

Awesome that you found him on public land. I wouldn't have paid either...

Boss .300 winmag · « **Reply #2 on:** November 26, 2012, 05:24:44 PM »

Nice ram, good on you for not paying extortion fee.

carpsniperg2 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 26, 2012, 05:32:10 PM »

Congrats, I was hoping you would find your ram

ellensburgpo · « **Reply #4 on:** November 26, 2012, 05:42:45 PM »

Quote from: Boss .300 winmag on November 26, 2012, 05:24:44 PM

Nice ram, good on you for not paying extortion fee.

cem3434 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 26, 2012, 05:43:14 PM »

Congrats on a nice looking ram. Hopefully you can help out other members that draw this tag in the future, so they can avoid paying the fee as well.

singleshot12 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 26, 2012, 05:53:55 PM »

Oh man I bet you're happy, nice ram

, I'm pretty sure I saw that same ram while chuker hunting, he was with two others similiar in size.

elkoholic1 · « **Reply #7 on:** November 26, 2012, 05:58:55 PM »

soccerguy · « **Reply #8 on:** November 26, 2012, 08:06:39 PM »

Quote from: cem3434 on November 26, 2012, 05:43:14 PM

Congrats on a nice looking ram. Hopefully you can help out other members that draw this tag in the future, so they can avoid paying the fee as well.

I will be more than happy to help any way I can. I did a lot of public land map research and can pinpoint the public areas very well. One annoying thing was the "Eaton Ranches" signs posted on what was obviously public ground...I totally ignored them and used my map info instead.

fishngamereaper · « **Reply #9 on:** November 26, 2012, 08:09:47 PM »

Nice ram...thats the quality I like to see coming from that area...crossing my fingers while I still have two good legs.

carpsniperg2 · « **Reply #10 on:** November 26, 2012, 08:10:00 PM »

You should call that in. It is illegal to post land that does not belong to you. If they have their sign on it then they can get into trouble for that.

MLBowhunting · « **Reply #11 on:** November 26, 2012, 08:14:30 PM »

Great job and a awesome ram

NWWA Hunter · « **Reply #12 on:** November 26, 2012, 08:17:47 PM »

That's awesome

Ridgerunner · « **Reply #13 on:** November 26, 2012, 09:35:46 PM »

Great looking ram,way to hold out for what you wanted.

JLS · « **Reply #14 on:** November 26, 2012, 09:41:37 PM »

Gorgeous sheep!

csaaphill · « **Reply #15 on:** November 26, 2012, 09:58:22 PM »

really nice ram want to go someday before I kik the bucket.

JoeE · « **Reply #16 on:** November 27, 2012, 04:32:54 AM »

Nice ram! I'm glad you got it done without having to pay the trespass fee to Eatons.

Wanttohuntmore · « **Reply #17 on:** November 27, 2012, 05:10:03 AM »

Nice ram!

coachcw · « **Reply #18 on:** November 27, 2012, 06:39:26 AM »

way to prevail

RG · « **Reply #19 on:** November 27, 2012, 06:44:50 AM »

That's really a nice ram, sounds like a great hunt. I'm still collecting points, maybe some day I'll collect a ram before I need a wheelchair to hunt.

Kioti · « **Reply #20 on:** November 27, 2012, 08:36:32 AM »

Nice Ram....you should be proud of that one.

rychek · « **Reply #21 on:** November 27, 2012, 08:42:25 AM »

That is a great Selah Butte Ram. You earned a beautiful trophy there.

Bullets_n_Octane · « **Reply #22 on:** November 27, 2012, 08:51:00 AM »

Great Ram, one of my dream hunts! It's too bad the State wants to rape our wallets just for a chance at the beasts, bet they overpopulate like rabbits in the next few years now...

C-Money · « **Reply #23 on:** November 27, 2012, 08:54:31 AM »

Very nice ram! Congrats to you! Like Carp said, May not be a bad idea to let the authorities know about the posting of public land.

BoomWhop · « **Reply #24 on:** November 27, 2012, 08:59:38 AM »

wow very nice

400out · « **Reply #25 on:** November 27, 2012, 09:04:42 AM »

congrats on a very nice ram!

johnsc6 · « **Reply #26 on:** November 27, 2012, 10:05:22 AM »

well done .......

gunnarnewt · « **Reply #27 on:** November 27, 2012, 10:26:50 AM »

Nice ram! extremely jealous.

PAW66 · « **Reply #28 on:** November 27, 2012, 10:35:51 AM »

Congratulations, great Ram

bearpaw · « **Reply #29 on:** November 27, 2012, 10:38:42 AM »

congrats....

250savage · « **Reply #30 on:** November 27, 2012, 10:45:37 AM »

Congrats. on a great looking ram. Glad you got one that met the goal you set, and glad you didn't have to pay to get it. Thanks for offering to help someone else out.

Falcon · « **Reply #31 on:** December 02, 2012, 09:29:32 AM »

Nice job on a beautiful ram.

He holds his mass well.

He looks like an older ram.

arrowflinger · « **Reply #32 on:** December 02, 2012, 10:07:45 AM »

Hopefully I might get drawn for this tag some day, nice ram!!!

lil_red_wagon · « **Reply #33 on:** December 03, 2012, 03:22:37 PM »

great ram. i have video of him fighting with another ram. i found that same thing you did. seams like that the average ram in that are. Nothing to monsterish.

cohoho · « **Reply #34 on:** December 04, 2012, 05:12:57 PM »

Freaking nice... I have the same mind set when it comes to paying to access land, just can't do it - must be my teachings on hunting from my Dad many- many years ago.. Excellent job...

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #35 on:** December 04, 2012, 05:20:18 PM »

Very cool looking ram.

DeerThug · « **Reply #36 on:** December 04, 2012, 05:29:52 PM »

Just ran across this... Good ram for the area and the restrictions. Nice mass around the curl and like you said the color is really good. good to know your were able to stay on public land and tell the privates to shove it.

As far as I am concerned the Yakima River Canyon is ruined with "urban encroachment' on a wild area. while i understand private land, it is a sad day when that great resource is off limits to those of us with out $$. I know a guy that paid big dollars a few years ago to deer hunt up there. Opening day it was so crowded they took so many guys to cash in it was ridiculous. No one got anything...

I quit turning in for this unit because of this.

mkcj · « **Reply #37 on:** December 04, 2012, 05:44:11 PM »

Great job on your hunt

Pilot_Hunter · « **Reply #38 on:** December 05, 2012, 10:31:40 AM »

That's right where I grew up. I always hoped to get drawn for that tag. There are so many bighorn sheep on public land in that area.

luvtohnt · « **Reply #39 on:** December 06, 2012, 09:54:31 AM »

Quote from: soccerguy on November 26, 2012, 08:06:39 PM

One annoying thing was the "Eaton Ranches" signs posted on what was obviously public ground...

They have the mentality that if they lease they own it. I have a major issue with some of the things I have herd of them doing down there. Every time I see one of them all they do is complain about the damage the sheep are doing. It seems simple but they can not put 2 and 2 together to figure out if you allowed access for cheap or even free there would be no problem!

I herd that reds took over the fee for access because they have the hunting lease for Eatons ground.

Brandon

hardcorecarnivore · « **Reply #40 on:** December 06, 2012, 07:43:53 PM »

Congrats on a very nice ram!

I ran across this post the other day and was surprised to read some of the negative comments about the lease, signs etc... It didn't sound right so I decided to contact Steve at Reds and I urge anyone who wants to comment on this topic to do the same before saying too much.

A couple points after talking with Steve:
-No one can really demand any kind of fee, as many have said, there is plenty of public land in that area.
-I've hunted Eatons in the past and looked at some great rams! There are good rams on the PL but I would definitely consider Eatons if I got a OIL tag.
-There are plenty of things I can't afford but you can't always hold it against someone.
-Reds took over the deer hunting a couple of years back and nearly cut the # of hunters in half so I think the crowd has lightened up.
-There's quite few other areas to hunt/apply for.
-As for the Eaton signs, I thought that was wrong too. There are BLM signs next to each one explaining that it's our responsibility to know the boundary. Eaton does have ground beyond those signs and never put any No Hunting signs where they don't belong.

Hope this is helpful. I always thought the guys at Reds were decent and god knows, WA could use a little more quality game management! Again, I would contact Steve if you truly have interest in this subject.

BOWHUNTER45 · « **Reply #41 on:** December 06, 2012, 07:51:36 PM »

very cool ...congrats !

RB · « **Reply #42 on:** December 06, 2012, 08:10:46 PM »

Nice Ram!

sirmissalot · « **Reply #43 on:** December 07, 2012, 09:45:48 AM »

Very respectable ram, good work.

curlewkiller · « **Reply #44 on:** December 20, 2012, 07:46:40 PM »

Nice ram

bullcrazy · « **Reply #45 on:** December 20, 2012, 08:48:06 PM »

Great ram! Love hearing the stories on those kind of permits. Hope I can be lucky enough in the future

Dan-o · « **Reply #46 on:** December 20, 2012, 09:01:34 PM »

Nice.

I am sooooooooo jealous.

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Author Topic: Selah Butte Ram (Read 18105 times)

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