GO4STEELHD's 2020 unlimited Ram! Montana Whitetail

[go4steelhd]

Some of these rams share winter range and they come from two possible three different units.

[go4steelhd]

After reaching my vantage point I was starting to dry out, so I simply put on my rain gear over the out side of my clothes and by noon every thing was dry except my feet and boots. Still no ram. Again this is very big country with lots of terrain changes there is 5,000 vertical feet elevation gain between the bottom and the top of the mountains. I had also been told that these rams go into the timber in august and rarely come out. I did not believe that until hunting these guys for two seasons. These are not like drawing a tag by Yakima where you could see the rams on any give day, those rams are easy to find and stay in the open. They may go down the ridge but they can be relocated. These unlimited rams are totally different, they receive hunting pressure every day year after year. There for the put there nose in the timber for weeks, and combine that with one band of rams in 30 miles of heavily timber back country and you have a real challenging hunt.I had to go back to work and catch up. Of course my mind was on finding a ram. I went out a few more times and my horse remembered exactly where we ran into the grizzly. He kept acting up, in fact one morning he was fighting me pretty good and I kept pushing him to go. I figured he was going to buck me. He was very tense and pinning his ears back. Finally we stopped in the trail by his choice and stood there for 15 -20 minutes. He tried to turn around twice simply because he thinks the bear is still there even though this is over a week later. I figured I would wait him out and then head back up the trail. We were on a trail cut into a very steep ridge where if the horse goes off the trial it is going to be a disaster. After standing there and me not letting him turn around he decided to turn around and make a mad dash and run full speed down the side of this very steep ridge. I reined into him slowing him down some but I could tell we were going to roll. Which would mean I was going to be heading to the ER more than likely. So I bailed to the up hill side while we were running across the ridge. My foot got caught in the up hill stirrup and me jumping off spooked the horse more. I was able to clear my foot, and laid there and watched him run out of sight. Which was not far with a head lamp.

[go4steelhd]

My ram on the winter and summer range. The photos are from 2019 and 2020

[go4steelhd]

After spending my time rounding up the horse I did not get a lot of hunting in on this day.

 After doing my research I set a five year goal to kill a ram, again this is half what they say it takes most guys. I figured my scouting and time spent in the field would shorten that curve. I can honestly say this is the hardest hunt I have ever done, physically, and mentally. You can go weeks with out even seeing the species while scouting. Then during season they are even harder to find. My goal was simply to find a legal ram and harvest it. Sure I wanted to find the giant Boone and Crockett ram I had seen a few times scouting, but I was not going to pass a legal ram to get to him. When I wold talk to people about my 5 year plan I got laughed at a few times, and I did have one friend say that’s supposed to be a hard hunt but if anyone I know could get it done it would be you. The laughs kept me motivated, my pride and desire to kill a ram kept me heading out on what seemed to be an impossible feat.

[go4steelhd]

I hunted all over the unit hoping to turn this band of rams up. Checking the quota every day to see if the season was still open and to find out if others had located a ram. I would glass every bit of county I came across, but I would focus more time on the locations I had seen a ram or ewe’s while scouting. I was getting very use to not seeing anything.

This day would be no different, I glassed a ridge that I had envisioned seeing a ram on during season many times before. Early afternoon I glassed it and just like every other day during season when I was in this area,  I seen nothing. In fact I had only seen the rams in this area twice during scouting. I hunted around that evening and night seeing nothing except a few ewe’s. When I came back through this area In the evening I instantly picked up a band of rams. There were 6 of them that were all legal. They were feeding down the ridge. I could not believe it, this is what I have hunted long and hard for. I seen one giant ram in the band, I quickly got into range and put a heart shot on the big ram. He ran about 30 yards and fell sliding down the hill. I had done it! I just harvested  a ram in the unlimiteds. I walked up to the ram and knelt down to check this massive ram out. After putting my hands on his horns I figured this ram would go 180. It turns out he is way bigger than that

[go4steelhd]

My ram

[go4steelhd]

My ram

[Wetwoodshunter]

What a ram, awesome job lots of boot miles and effort for that one. You earned him.

[Skyvalhunter]

Has that ram been aged? beautiful

[Jimmy33]

Congratulations!


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[go4steelhd]

My ram

[Boss .300 winmag]

Love the mass , and tight curl.

Beautiful Ram nicely done.👍

Man the growth rings on those Rockies are harder to see than the California ones.

[trophyhunt]

Sounds like you kicked butt this year, congrats on a huge ram! 

[Boss .300 winmag]

I’ll take a WAG at his age 10 1/2 to 11 1/2.

Can’t stop looking at his curl.🤣

[Lightning_Rider]

Man, great stories and great pics!!!! Do you have a spare bedroom by chance??? Congrats on some beautiful harvests!!!