2015 Swakane sheep tag

[coachcw]

WhAt a stud  !

[rtspring]

Awesome Ram! Well done

[Jaques Bonet]

Congratulations, Very nice Ram, what did he score and Life size mount? How far was the shot?

[quadrafire]

Looks like you are just below the Dam. Were you able to come in from above or did you have to hike up? I've been up there from below, it is a pretty tough hike.
Nice work. Beautiful Ram!!!!

[Bullseye108]

What an awesome last few days!  When I drew this tag I made a couple of goals I wanted to accomplish.  The first goal was to make sure this was a fun experience not only for me, but my family and friends.  Second was to shoot the largest ram in the unit.  I am sure the first goal was accomplished and I am confident we got the largest ram in the unit, at least he was the largest ram we saw.  As a bonus to the hunt I met what I will consider to be lifelong friends.  Thanks Shawn, Rob, David, Aaron, and Dan for all the help, you guys are all class acts.  The hunt would not have been the same without them and my regular hunting partners, Ryan, Johnny, and Dennis.  I think Ryan made as many or more phone calls than I did and was there for every scouting trip except for one. 

Shortly after drawing the tag I got some photos of what Shawn and Rob thought might be the largest ram.  The ram had a distinct chip in his right horn and both of those guys thought  I should try and find him.  During all the scouting trips I don't think I ever saw this ram.  I sent pictures to Shawn and Rob of some of the nicer rams, and there was some discussion about one of the rams possibly being him. 

Fast forward to Monday the 14th, day before season, I still hadn't found him for sure and I hadn't seen one of the big rams I was thinking about again.  At daylight Ryan and Dennis headed up Swakane Canyon.  Johnny and I started classing up the draws from the highway and Rob was on his way.  We glassed up the first canyon and we  didn't see anything, so we started down the highway towards the next canyon and at the last second I pulled off the highway to glass the first canyon one more time.  Almost right away I spotted a couple sheep, and after looking for a second I told Johnny one of them was big.  We pulled off and got a better position to set up scopes and got a good look, and I got a little excited.  I called Ryan and told them to come back and check this ram out because if it was season I would be shooting this ram, even if it wasn't four chip.  We got ahold of Rob and he finally got to us.  After looking at the ram for a little bit he turned and said good job that's him!  We watched him all day until just before dark when Shawn showed up and confirmed it was him. In case anyone was wondering I didn't sleep very well that night.

The next morning it took a little bit to find him but Rob finally spotted him up high on top of the ridge.  For some reason four chip decided to take off with the other rams and head over the top and down into the next canyon and up the other side.  We lost him for awhile and finally Shawn spotted him on top of the ridge between second and third canyon.  We watched him bed and then began the long stalk up the draw to the back end then up to the top of the ridge.  We walked down the ridge glassing in a couple spots to see if we could see the bedded rams but ended up getting to what we figured was just over 100 yards from the rams, and we still couldn't see them.  We set up on some huge rocks and waited hoping the rams would get up and feed out to where we could see them.  After about 10 hours (actually 15-20 minutes) the rams finally fed in to sight.  I put the crosshairs on each one to see if it was him, and had Ryan laying right next to me saying no not him.  I was under strict instructions from Ryan "your not shooting till I say its him."  When he finally stepped out I said that's got to be him I'm shooting,  Ryan said no your not, not till I see the chip.  This little discussion happened three or for times until Ryan said its him shoot.  Talking about it afterward Ryan is pretty sure I shot before he actually finished saying shoot.  The shot was good, right through the heart, at 130 yards, that was the good news, the bad news was the ram started rolling an tumbling all the way to the bottom catching a considerable amount of air off two different rock bluffs.  We made our way down to the ram looking for chunks of horn, and Shawn gave me a good scare when he found an old piece of bone and acted like it was a chunk of the horn, I didn't really think it was as funny as he did, but he kept telling me the horns would be fine not to worry, and of course he was right.  We found the ram in the very bottom of the draw in a little brushy hole, everything was intact, it was a great feeling and I was glad I had some great friends, both new and old, there to share it.  I was also glad that Shawn, Rob, and David are great photographers, and took a lot of time to make sure we got lots of good photos.  The pack out was short and the rest of the evening was spent at the Dept. of fish and game, then over to see Dan at Four Point Taxidermy, then to Shawn's parents house to celebrate and relive the hunt a few times.  Thanks Ron for your hospitality.

I hope I didn't leave to much out of the story, it was a great experience, and everyone on the forum made it even better.

[Harbor_hunter]

Congrats on an awesome ram!  It was fun looking at the pictures. 

[Skyvalhunter]

Nice write up and congrats!!

[CaNINE]

When you gonna be on the cover of Eastman's? So, is sheep meat as good as they say?

[PolarBear]

Congratulations!!!!  Awesome ram! 

[M_ray]

Congrats again, That's a nice write up thanks for sharing! 

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

Awesome pictures, awesome story, congrats!

[Elkterd]

 

[starbailey]

Congratulations on killing a great trophy. That is one beautiful California bighorn!

[suga]

Congratulations on killing a great trophy. That is one beautiful California bighorn!

X2

[Timberstalker]

What an unbelievable ram. Nice work. Awesome set of memories you've created.