Picked up some more details from Chris (over a Lasagna dinner Saturday night in Troutdale) ... about the Bighorn hunt and the conditions in Wyoming. In no particular order:
When he checked the Ram in at Wyo Fish/Game on Monday ... they asked about unit/county of harvest (but not a GPS location or even a push-pin in a map). They took a couple of measurements ( L+R horn length and Base circumferences) and approximate age. Unfortunately, they did all the measurements in CM’s (vs. inches) and just scribbled it on a piece of paper. The drilling and pinning is a quick/simple process.
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When the head was dropped off here (in PDX) at the Taxidermist, the guy looked it over and estimated it will go in the 160’s. Once cleaned up and dried, he has someone who will officially measure it. The guy is based in Portland and while there are not that many Bighorn Rams taken in Oregon each year, many Portland-based hunters take Rams in other states (even some of the those Casper-white Sheep from Alaska) ... so he knows his stuff across the sheep families.
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The harvest date (Oct.-21) was sliding towards the typical Early November start of the Bighorns rut. As Chris snuck along, side hilling up the flanks of Bear head Mountain (<--- there, I said it) ... he cautiously peered into each new draw and constantly glassed ahead, in order to see ... before being seen. When he spotted the band of ewes feeding some 500 yards ahead and slightly below, he slipped into the rocks above them and glassed for any associated Rams. It was over 20 minutes later, that he picked out the Ram that was behind and above him ... it had its head cocked sideways and was giving him the stink-eye ... right up until the leading edge of the 180gr Speer grand Slam entered its chest (just under 3,000 FPS). He had some time to judge it, before deciding to shoot and recalled a conversation with his taxidermist, well before the hunt. “If the Ram has large bases and carries that mass well (through at least the first 2 quarters), then even if he’s broomed off and has shorter overall length, then he’s a shooter.” Also, looking at the last (of 3) photos above (Ram-on Rock), you can see that just another step or 2 and the Ram would have been doing his best impression of Wile E. Coyote .... and attempting to “Walk on Air”.
Don’t know if you can zoom-in on the photo looking down, but there are big chips/chunks missing from the leading edge of the Rams horns ... clearly he was both a "fighter" and a Lover.
Looking back, Chris felt that this Ram was not really squiring the small band of ewes below him (yet), but simply keeping track of where the band was located and making sure no other mature Ram (besides the one teenager Ram, that the ewes were already tolerating) was anywhere near them. Essentially, the Ram was on "Overwatch".
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As we went through his photos, he has a picture of his Ram, taken after the first shot, with the ram bedded down above him (just head and horns visible) ... it clearly shows a tree branch in the way. You always need to know your Boolits line-of-flight ... relative to your scopes line-o-sight. He did ... and compensated, by imperceptibly moving up along the boulder he was using as a front rest ... with his folded jacket underneath the fore-end, as a soft front pad.
... Silver Bullet
“Tarzan Know .... where Tarzan go ....” <---- well, most of the time anyway
