Wyoelk ... you got that right ... Too-Good a unit !
- - -
When we last left (er: heard from) our intrepid adventurers, they had spotted a bachelor group of Bighorn rams and
decided to home in on them. They dropped off to the "invisible" side of a separating ridge and had carefully worked their way down into position. Chris initially left his brother behind and snuck up and over the ridgeline. He was surprised that he was only 125 yards from the spot where the Rams had previously been feeding and milling around. Not spotting the rams, he waved his brother up and they hunkered down .. as the clouds increased and the weather deteriorated.
At nearly 8,000 feet, the winds gusted to 75-80 mph and the rain blew in your face and up your nose. They stayed just short of dark, but no rams re-appeared. They assumed that the animals sensed the impending weather change and had taken shelter as only a wild animal can. The following day, hunting (in a slightly different area) brought only Ewes and lambs.

They spoke with (2) other (60-something year old) hunters, who had planned to bug out ahead of the weather and were not sure if/when they would return. Those hunters had spotted Zero rams during the season. Chris and Bro now had spotted a total of 8 rams (over 9 days), all in bachelor groups. This concluded the first phase of his Bighorn hunt.

He had a chance to call and talk with the biologist the day they left ... and there were no reports of rams being checked in from this unit ... (yet). They towed the trailer back to the Salt-Lake City area and temporarily stored it. Then drove non-stop back to the Portland area, the next day.

Here's where it gets doubly interesting .... Since he has been consistently applying out-of-state (in 6 or 7 states) for multiple species, for the last 20 years or so ... this year in addition to the Wyo-Bighorn tag, he also drew a muzzle-loader Beeeg-Bull tag in Arizona ... For those of you familiar with the Eastern edge of the state, ... it includes Units 1, 2B, 2C. I'll start a separate thread to report on this hunt, but its only a 7 day season and offers the opportunity to hunt during the tail end of the rut and potentially "whack" <--- (a technical term) ... a 340-380 class bull. Think National Forest, public-lands ... bordering the White Mountain Apache lands, as well as the Escondilla mountains (along the AZ/NM. border).

While he has hunted with a muzzle-loader in Oregon (decades ago) ... you are limited here to "primitive" open ignition, no scopes and no saboted bullets. So while we were busy preparing him for his first ever Bighorn hunt ... in the background, we purchased a new CVA Accura-V2 front stuffer (with a 30" barrel), scoped it, sighted it in (in 5 shots), then played with pelletized Triple-7 powders, removable breech-plugs, primers and 250gr Barnes saboted TEZ "boolits" . When it was Good-to-Go ... we filed the knobs off and returned to thinking Bighorns.
- - - -
At home between hunts, there was just enough time for he and his (dedicated) brother, to stop by their work for a week ... re-introduce themselves to their respective Bosses and explain how they were about to hit the road (again) for a couple more weeks of hunting. They are leaving at O'Dark-30 tomorrow (Sat) ... back to Utah to get the trailer, then on Sunday, tow it down to Alpine, Arizona and start Elk scouting (for 4-days). The season is only 7 days long (23-29th) ...so after he takes a Bull, they plan to hustle the trailer over East to Alba-turkey ... then North on I-25 ... through Denver and back up into the Laramie country ... for Wyoming Bighorns part-Deux !

Will have more updates tomorrow ... including that there has now been one Ram checked in.

. . . Silver Bullet

That's' my Story ... N' I'm stickin to it !