Tom, how many days did you hunt? DIY is much more feasible and successful when you can hunt for a month. Condensed to a week, I'm leaning on a guide.
When you can hunt an endless amount of days and gather information from the internet and magazines and whatnot it makes it a lot more feasible, especially in country that's forgiving and you typically don't need horses. Thats not to say a high country horseback wilderness hunt is tougher or better but there are situations where hiring a guide is the smart move. Hell, if you place a value on time a guided hunt may have been cheaper on the OP's hunt report given he went out and back and down to AZ and back and all over the west for god knows how many days. Sometimes the private access gained is worth it on a once in a lifetime hunt but that's for each individual to decide. Subtract the time, the gas, the food and lodging and it's a good deal
Looking forward to seeing pictures of your ram Tom, it damn sure was big in person
