Before I get started, a special thanks to "Elkstuffer", Rick Shirrod of ALL THAT'S WILD TAXIDERMY and "Starbailey",Brian Bailey.
Here we go... I drew an Umtanum sheep tag for 2014. I had 16 points, what a shocker to draw this tag. Sent my money in and put it out of my mind. I had been training for a mountain goat hunt in Alaska so I was ahead of the game a little.
After contacting "starbailey" about where to scout, I found Hunting Washington and this led to Rick Shirrod. We talked a couple times and he was nice enough to offer to help me. He's a real sheep hunter for sure. He helped with pre-season scouting and we made our plan.
My goal was to hunt all season alone if I had to. All my hunting friends were already committed to other hunts.
Day 1 : We decided to use two ATVs I brought with me to go around Roza Dam. We had scouted 12 rams on the back side the day before and felt there were a couple shooters in the bunch. We got towards the top, parked and hiked to the vantage spot to look for the rams. After awhile, we started to see sheep coming from the dam over to our side. Then we saw 9 rams work their way down in a rocky cut between the hills. there they bedded down as it was getting really hot.
Rick and I crawled down on to a flat spot to get a better look. We decided to circle back around the hill and work our way to the cut. We were right above them and could peer down to see them, but had no shot as we didn't dare spook them. 85 degrees, no shade, we sat two and a half hours, they came out below us and were too far for a shot I was willing to take. Somehow the big ram slipped out on us, we never saw him or where he went. We climbed back up to the ATVs and headed down the mountain to work on a new plan. About two miles down, I see my rear wheel come off and I see it roll down the mountain in front of me. We had to take a lug nut off each wheel to get us down to the bottom of the mountain. (I had had new tires put on before
I left town). More on this adventure later.
Day 2... Rick and I did some scouting along the river later to spot and make a plan. We stopped to see another tag holder we had met several times on our scouting trips. He had filled his tag with a nice ram. As we were checking out his ram, we were told there were some rams on the cliffs across the river behind their camp. We got the spotting scopes out and saw they were on their way to the top of the hill. One ram stood out in the crowd and the other hunting party had named him Roman Nose. He looked good to me, but there was no way to get to him and the other rams. We headed out to check out some other rams we had been watching further up river. We sat and watched but they were too far up and it was getting late. On the way back, we stopped again to see if Roman Nose and his buddies might be headed down. They were further up the hill from where we had first seen them. We gave up, for light was waning. Rick said he had to work and take his son to school in the morning, so I decided to hunt in the morning alone and come back the following Sunday when Rick would be able to get some time to hunt with me.
Day 3... Just getting light and I'm in my spotting position. I'm not even set up and there they are, in a spot I feel I can get to the rams and take a shot. I changed into my wading shoes, put my boots and socks into my backpack, grab my 338 RUM with 225 TTSX Barnes bullets. These bullets are great for not ruining hides. OK, I crossed the river and changed into my climbing boots. I started climbing to get to a spot where I could get a steady rest for my rifle. The rams didn't see me... my luck was holding, I dialed the scope in and told myself to stay calm. That sort of happened, squeeze,bang, a hit. He's still standing but the other rams were heading off. I jacked another round in and BANG, he's down for good. Well, except for his 50 yard slide in the loose rock. Luckily he didn't ruin his hide or horns in the slide. Now I'm shaking like a leaf, hearts pounding, and I'm grinning like a cheshire cat. I sit down and think "what's next". This is one steep hillside, so I climbed down and crossed over the river to stash my gear. I called Rick and said "The Eagle has landed" he said "You got him?" and I said "yes I did". He told me he'd be there in about one hour. While I'm waiting for Rick I can sit and watch my ram on the rockslide across the river. I plot a plan to bring him down. Rick arrived with my inflatable raft and his one-man raft in his truck. We crossed the river and changed our boots and the climb is on. We got to the ram and Rick said "He's a pig". Just what I had hoped for..dark hide, good mass, 15 inch bases. After dressing him, we wrapped him in a mante cover I had from my horse packing days, tied a rope around him and slid him down the steep a.. hill to the river where the rafts were waiting.
We then crossed to the other side to a waiting biologist, who we had called earlier. The biologist took samples and measurements. I told the biologist that Ricks quick measurement was 166 to 168 and he said he thought that was conservative. So I'm going with Ricks measurement until I can get it scored at the Puyallup Sportsmans show. The biologist said it was the largest ram he had measured in that unit in seven years. Rick is going to do a full mount. Aram like this deserves that.
P.S.....the rest of the ATV story, I took my ATV back to the tire shop and they asked me to leave it overnight. The next morning I got a call from the cops telling me that my ATV had been stolen from the tire shop the previous night... GO FIGURE.
P.S.S....also scored on a 9 inch mountain goat in Alaska (story )later.
Jaque Bonet
