Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game #50

I got lucky enough to draw a California Bighorn permit for this season In the Owyhee River Wilderness. I guided sheep hunters in Wyoming for 21 years so this turned out to be my #50 sheep hunt.

Personally my only ram was a Dall I killed in the Yukon in the 1986.



I had never been to the Owyhee desert wilderness before obtaining this permit so I knew I really needed to scout it out well to be successful. I spent four days each week since the middle of July through August learning the country. Some of it was finding good ram locations and some was eliminating places to look when the season started. I found one dead ram during these trips.



This area is all Wilderness, non motorized travel so a lot of walking is involved. I used my ATV to get around on the trails which are the boundary of the wilderness in many places. The closest you can get to the canyon rim is one mile and often the rim can be up to three miles from the Jeep trail. I only saw one person for five minutes off in the distance while scouting and no evidence of other people in the places I went. It is a very remote location. I was always alone during all of my scouting trips.



My hunt opened 8/30. I did have a friend who went with me and planned to stay with me for the first three days. I brought enough supplies(food, water and fuel) to spend 20 days since the season was only 16 days long and I left home three days before the season opener.

The first day of the hunt we hiked around a big area which was like a horseshoe but saw only seven ewes. We moved to another location where we decided to pack food, water and minimal camp gear to spend the night where we ended up at dark.
We hiked nine miles starting at 5am trying to get to a section that we knew would hold rams. We reached the canyon rim at 8:30am then offed our packs to start glassing the canyons and flats above the rims.

At about 10am we heard three loud, yet muffled cracks in succession which came from the lower canyon behind the canyon walls. I told my friend I was going to check it out so I skirted the canyon rim to a saddle in the next southern peak.

I heard loud shale noises echoing below which sounds like dinner plates shattering. Glassing, I spotted nine rams feeding in the river bed below. I ranged them at 494 yards. They were very active, clumping together when one found some good feed then scattering to other lush greens. I watched them for several minutes while devising a plan to get to a good shooting location. I decided to shift around to the left of the peak then move lower to get to the edge of the cliff for a good vantage point and possible shot.

I reached the edge of the 500 foot cliff where I pulled out the legs of my bipod and set up for the shot. Watching the rams, I chose the one I thought was the largest which I could see had well broomed horns. I ranged him at 286 yards as he moved to the left of the group to eat by himself. I was looking at him below at about a 60 degree angle so I held the crosshairs of my Bushnell 6500 2.5-16X scope even with the bottom of his body. When he was broadside and still, I touched the trigger of my Rem 700KS .280rem. He flattened out on his right side when the 145gr Speer hit him in the shoulder. I watched him struggle to rise for a few seconds before deciding to give him an anchor shot. I watched and waited for another ten minutes before heading back to my friend at the only access point to the river bed below.

We emptied our packs of gear then started for the ram. We walked the river bed for 1.5 miles which snaked around several big turns. We reached the ram and then took photos of my 10 1/2 year old Bighorn. I commenced to caping while my friend skinned the rear and took off quarters. After I finished caping and prepping the skull I deboned the quarters and loins for the lightest loads.

We headed back to our gear where we spent the night. We got up Monday morning, ate, then hiked back to our base. Loaded up the ATV's to return home.

It was a great hunt in spectacular, wild country. It has lots of Indian history including that of Claude Dallas back in the 1980's. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to enjoy this experience.

Thanks for reading.
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Oh man! Nice job and thanks for sharing!

dukxdog,

Wow, outstanding! Thanks for sharing, love the photos, and great story. Don't care much of the snake photo though..haha.

That is Awesome !!
A friend of mine videoed his friends hunt in the same unit. He killed an awesome ram also.

Thanks,RS

Congratulations on a great adventure and thanks for sharing it with us.

Dukxdog - What a fantastic writeup, and great photos! Congrats on your bighorn!

Eric

Saaaawwweeeeeeet!
Thank you for sharing your fine trophy and story with us. Congrats!

Congrats!! Beautiful ram & great pictures. That's some awesome country for sure.

Great ran and great photo documentation. Thanks for sharing. Good job.

+10 couldn't say it any better, dukxdog hard to believe any could put it together from A to Z better than you did.. Magnum Man

Great Ram, Hunt of a lifetime! Thanks for the story and pics.

Wow, what a hunt, congrats!!

That's some kind of country out there. You look out over the flat desert and often can't see those canyons from any distance. If you do, it looks like a black line through the sagebrush. Suddenly, you're looking straight down hundreds of feet. The Idaho deserts actually have quite a bit of water but it's all at the bottom of those canyons.

Super! I helped a pard get a Calif. bighorn out of very similar country two years ago. Very, very cool country and history.

Congrats on a very good sheep and great hunt.

dukxdog:

Terrific! I too enjoy that kind of dry lonesome country. Spectacular scenery and photos.

Thanx 4 sharing.

KC

dukxdog,

Great pictures and write up. Thanks for sharing! Congratulations on an outstanding bighorn!

Great trophy and beautiful scenery! Congratulations!

Enjoyed the read, beautiful country

dukx,

Great story! Thank you for taking the time to take us along!




Pic of the rattler -- Totally Unnecessary! I hope you killed it and made it into something useful...

Conglads on a great hunt. Was the rock walls old Indian ruins? Looks like what we have here in SW Colorado. The small square one----an idea on what it's purpose was?

Cal ram is a Rocky Mtn or a desert bighorn? Bob

Great job. Nice pictures

Awesome pictures and story.

Nice job.

There's nothing quite like the Owyhees in terms of steepness and ruggedness. It truly is a unique geologic area. I have some good friends who own ranches in that country intermixed with BLM land.

I would love to draw one of those tags one day.

It is a desert variety of Rocky Mountain Bighorns

Awesome.. Congrats.

DUDE!!!!






YOU SUCK!!!!

Congratulations, and thank you for the great write-up and pictures.

More likely sheepherders or ranch line camps. There are still a few old line cabins standing, more or less, out there. I've seen sheep herders stack up rocks just for something to do. They get bored out of their minds out there alone all the time.

Thanks! Great story and pictures!

Dukx, WOW, thanks for the report and pictures you sure earned that one. I was impressed at seeing the face on that cape. I wish I could skin that well. I guess I should kill some more stuff and get more practice.

mike r

Congratulations!!!!! Nothing better than hunting hard and killing a mature ram

Dukx

I've always loved that country. It's rugged and sorts out the sportsmen from the road hunters, for sure. Did you see any chuckar or Huns while scouting?

Congratulations on a Great trophy well earned!

Congratulations on the ram.

Congrats on a great hunt. I killed my one and only ram on my one and only sheep hunt (so far) at the bottom of the canyon several years ago with Jon Barker. Amazing country.

Gotta love it!

Great story, pics, and country. Congrats!

Don't know how I missed this.

Great write up and pictures!

Congratulations again....

Thanks for sharing a great adventure.....

Absolutely, well said. I agree completely. Thanks for taking the time to write that up, and congratulations on a beautiful bighorn.

Awesome! Congratulations!

dukxdog;
Thanks for sharing the hunt story and photos with us sir, I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

I've got to say hearty congratulations on the California too - that is a smoker of a ram!

We've got a decent sized herd of California Bighorn locally and I've watched and hunted them as often as possible over the last 30 years, so I can say with some certainty that a nice broomed ram that old would be a keeper and then some up here.

Thanks again for the story and good luck on the rest of your hunts this fall.

Dwayne

Did you shoot the snake?

.280 and a sheep hunt.
Well done.
John

What a great story and pictures. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure you will treasure the experience.

Awesome story and awesome ram. Congrats!

Dux,

I've not had great internet access for the lady couple months. Congrats on a great trophy and thanks for the writeup and sharing the experience. Each year I keep saying I'm going to put in for sheep instead of elk....maybe next year will be the year.

Congrats on a magnificent #50!