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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