I have put in several times for Idaho trophy species but only twice before for sheep and more often for goats. I don't know why but I just knew either my wife or I was going to draw this year, we even began scouting before the drawing results were published.
Sarah didn't want me hunting the wilderness by myself so I asked four of my very good friends to join me on my hunt expecting 1 or maybe 2 to actually make it. You can imagine how happy I was when I learned all four not only agreed to go but actually made the hunt. Imagine all four of these guys going on a hunt and not being able to shoot anything; a couple of 9mm and one Contender pistol was all they brought.
I first saw the ram from the plane about a month before the hunt. I was surprised by how easy it was to see and judge the rams from the air. This ram just stood there while we made several tight circles in my friend's Spirit airplane. I attempted videoing him but that didn't work out. Lots of other rams were spotted but none had the wide flare of this guy and his image stuck in my mind.
The five of us headed out Friday at 6 pm and didn't arrive in camp until 12:30 am. Having selected the exact campsite the previous weekend made this late night arrival possible. I should point out this is sheep country and finding a flat, rock free, tent site isn't easy.
Saturday morning I headed in with Ryan in an attempt to locate the ram I had spotted the previous month from the plane. The other three headed off looking for another group of rams that I had spotted on an earlier trip.
We climbed to the highest point in the area and had been glassing for about an hour when the rams appeared in the bottom of my binoculars.
I was looking about three miles away when two rams came into view across the canyon about 1000 yards away. Ryan set up his Swarovski spotting scope and then placed his High Definition video camera on a second tripod and aligned the two. This provided excellent video of the ram the day prior to the season opener. We watched and video'ed the ram for 3-4 hours before I moved off to check another draw where I had seen rams but found none. The other three returned that evening and hadn't found any rams.
Opening morning had the five of us climbing into position. Finding an obsidian arrowhead on the way in was surely a sign of good luck. As I said in my initial post, two hunters came in on top of us. They had illegally driven into the Wilderness area but not after having driven through a second hunter's camp at the edge of the Wilderness - no reason to dwell on the negative here.
Ryan first spotted the rams but I had already started down to cross the canyon. He signalled me to return and I climbed back out and hurried to him. Three rams, including the wide one, had angled down into the canyon below us but where headed in our general direction. We believed the other two hunters, who stood on the skyline, had spooked the rams. We closed the distance towards the rams and took up a shooting position on a side canyon where I expected to catch them climbing out while out of view of the other two people (I have a problem calling them hunters). My Duovids where perfect, allowing me to range various points in and across the side canyon, plus to the bottom and across the main canyon, all distances were under 400 yards and I could see all escape paths headed down streams.
My other three friends, by pre-arrange plan, had circled around and were watching the upstream routes. We all know how best laid plans fall apart, and after sitting there with my rifle on a near perfect rock for what seemed to be 1/2 hour but was likely 10 minutes I heard something and then I heard something again. Rocks in this area are plate size and about an inch thick and produce a loud distinct noise - and there I heard it again. I signaled for Ryan to close the 20 yards between us and when he reached me I told him I had heard something walking in the bottom - "There's sheep" he said as he pointed to the bottom. Three rams in the bottom slowly feeding - a quick look confirmed the wide one was there.
I'll never know how Ryan got the camera aligned and on the sheep so quickly but when I had repositioned my rifle and asked "are you ready" his reply was "don't wait for me!". I was anxious, extremely anxious that the two bozos (I have a problem calling them people) had worked down the draw after the same ram. For some unknown reason at this very moment the rams busted out of the bottom and started up the away face. My ram stopped broadside for an instant, I rushed my shot a tad and hit him pretty much dead center, too far back but a fatal shot. The second shot was even worse hitting even further back. (One can see all of this in the video.) My ram was tired of all this crap and walked towards me about 10 yards and bedded down. The other two ram had out distanced their partner but stopped and returned. The bigger of the two eventually bedded about 10 feet below his fatally wounded leader. While bedded all we could see was the glare from the bosses of his horns. I was unsure which way he was pointed so we waited, then waited some more, impatiently on my part. The second ram stood and my ram followed, it crossed my mind the other two twits may shoot my ram but this time I took the extra couple of seconds and squeezed the trigger - my hunt ended.
Wish I could now tell how much work it was to pack the sheep out but you all know there were five of us and Idaho's California Bighorns aren't that big. And to top it all off, this was the coldest day since spring PLUS when we began the climb the good Lord provided a light drizzle of rain, raised the rain level as we climbed the toughest section and then shut it off right when we reached the top.
Once on top it was mostly flat with a slight down hill to the 4 wheelers less than two miles away.
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