My ram was aged at 6 1/2 years. Good bases and length.

This area has pretty good public access but lots of sheep on private lands that are leased or no hunting allowed. I was fortunate in that the ranch we do some work for allowed me some limited access to landlocked public parcels.
First weekend of elk season we spotted a band of rams working a ridge and going towards a public parcel I had access to. I had a bull elk down that day so we made mental notes of them and worked on my bull and got him home.
Next weekend we went up with hopes of finding some sheep on public ground and maybe a cow elk or two on the private. We were riding up a draw when we spooked a band of 5 rams on a ridge line right above us. They spooked and headed down a draw on private and across towards the state parcel I could hunt.
We headed over, by way of atv to a spot about 1/2 from where we thought they went. Made our sneak to the state land and no sheep. Looked around but didn't want to scent up the area so we headed back , no elk spotted either.
Got back to the same ridge we watched them from before and there they were, feeding up on top and headed back towards the state land. We made the exact same trek over and took our time making the way to the state. We got close to the parcel and slowed down to glass, no sheep we could see yet. Slowly inched down the ridge and there they were bedded down in the top of a rugged draw I guess you'd call it that.
2 young rams spotted us and got up and moved about 25 yards further away then looked at us and bedded down about 100 yards from us.
3 bigger rams were still in the draw, one saw us and just re positioned himself and bedded back down.
After a few minutes of watching them and nothing I made the decision to move in on them. We crawled forward about 10 yards and finally they got nervous, all stood up but the ram I wanted was facing me and I could not see his entire body.
He turned to go away and offered a Texas Heart shot, I took it at 65-70 yards offhand. He flinched somewhat but no other reaction to the shot. As they all then started moving off I took another shot and missed.
All the sheep then started running over the edge of the ridge, we went where we thought they went over and no sheep or blood.
I started to get a panic feeling then told my husband I was going back to the shot spot, he joined me.
We found tracks and finally a spot of blood . Followed the sparse blood at first but it soon picked up. The ram had broken off from the band and went below where they had been bedded and we found him dead on a finger ridge.
My bullet had gone in the right hip and traveled full body to be found just under the skin on front shoulder.
Had we gone to the spot he was standing when I shot , blood would have been found sooner, stupid mistake to follow them but it worked out.