Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Wyoming - Bighorns (Laramie Peak) help !

Been enjoying this thread too. I was able to hunt my Wyo sheep this year up NW Wyoming. Did they confirm the age with the Biologist? 6.5 or 7.5 years?

Would love to know the measurements. I would have judged the ram differently from the couple photos posted. Not to say he's not that size ram, just that I would have gotten it wrong .

Thanks for taking the time to post all the updates.

When I started this thread (way back in May) I was hoping to find one or two fellow Campfire hunters, who had hunted Bighorns in or were very familiar with the Laramie unit in Wyoming. To be able to pick the brains of someone with local (and current) knowledge ... getting answers to serious questions, available at the speed-o-light (OK, at the speed of the Inner-net) would be invaluable, for a DIY hunter. As Ken Howell used to say ... “There’s some pretty Fart-Smellers on the CampFire”. I had no idea it would turn into a nearly 5-month odyssey.
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I want to personally thank those who responded with positive suggestions and/or answered specific questions we had. I knew that Chris (even pushing 60), was the real-deal as a hunter and determined to make his sheep-hunt a success ... not some Wanna-be flatlander from New-York-Ciddy, who needed to be pampered and led by the hand, to a Ram (potentially bedded on private property) that he was then told to “Shoot”.

While some of the initial responses to our requests were along the lines of the infamous ... “You can’t get there from here.” ... we simply took that as a warning that: “This wasn’t going to be an easy hunt.” ... and not to brush it off. That the responders just didn’t know our level of dedication and emphasis on pre-hunt preparation wasn’t a concern. To be doing prep simultaneously, for two trophy hunts, whose seasons overlapped and were both over 1,400 miles from home, was a blessing and a handicap. No matter how many Bull Elk, Deer, Bears, Speed-goats, Cougars or Coyotes you have notched on your stock ... Bighorn Rams “are” different ... (and addicting).
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Solving the many riddle(s) of hunting Bighorns, was a little like being a good (experienced) puzzle solver. You know, the box says on the cover, that it has 250 pieces inside and they show a completed photo, of a monster Muley ... The difference here was that there were 1,000 pieces in this puzzle ... there was no photo of a Ram on the cover ... and you had to assemble it ... with all the pieces turned upside down ... then when you think you have it solved, turn it over. If it’s not right ... someone comes in, takes it all apart, shakes the pieces in the box and you start all over again.

I’d especially like to thank wyoelk, Jaguar, WyoCoyoteHunter, Broomd and test1328, for adding important pieces (and content) to the assembling of this puzzle. Their cautions about checker boarded lands, Sheep (Ram) behavior and how it changes with the weather, seasons and the rut, along with other preparations/cautions we needed to heed, were taken to heart. No way would it have been as successful without their inputs. In the early season (1st hunt) Chris and his team spotted 8 rams ... tried to put the hurt on a couple potential shooters and yet were consistently hammered by the poor weather. The weather also caused him to cut-short the second attempt, with his brother ... and yet the lure of taking a Ram (and the fact that he left the travel-trailer over there), drew him back for his solo hunt during Part-3 and a final closure. He recorded 10,700 miles on his trucks odo ... doing the AZ-Elk and 3 Wyoming trips ... but when he’s sitting in the rest home ... the Stories he will be able to tell !
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I was asked to hold back on posting a photo of his ram any earlier, as he was considering doing a 2-hunt (DIY) article for one of the magazines, but has decided to pass. Instead, he’s spending all his spare time, building his own home (DIY of course) and studying the harvest stats, scouting reports and preference-point levels in 7 Western states, so he will know where to apply, for some 2017 tags. Note: He didn’t pick the Laramie-unit this year ... by chance. He has an entire room at his place, dedicated to out-of-state hunting ... what’s hot, how unit harvests are trending, application deadlines, etc.
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Now that the season is over ... it would be nice to know how the Elk Mtn. guides 2nd client did and see any photos of their Rams ... and also learn how many total rams were taken (believe it is 4 ? of the 8 tag-holders) ... (which would be below average ?).

... Silver Bullet

“ It’s dirty ... because I drive-it ! ”

Congratulations to all involved on the ram!

Gies--how did your hunt go? What unit did you hunt...if you don't mind saying.

tomk - had a blast. Don't want to take away from this thread but I was in Area 4; 9.5 year old ram.

will PM

was in 9...

Nice. He looks like he has pretty decent sized bases. Also, a very deep and open curl, which may deceive a viewer, but actually adds a fair amount of horn length. That little flip outward at the tips is a nice touch. Hard to read the rings on that one. Maybe 6 1/2 years old?

By comparison I regularly see full curls up outside of Cody that have nowhere near the base circumference, nor the horn length this boy shows. On some of those rams, the bottom of the curl is barely below the jawline. You might not be able to pass a softball through the opening in the curl. If the horns dip well below the jawline like Chris' ram appears to, it is a decent ram. The photo indicates that the top of the horn at the low point of the curl may actually dip below the jawline. That may be camera angle, but the head on shot shows the horns dipping fairly low also.

Outstanding for a DIY in new country that is all chopped up with no-entry private land. He really had to do his homework first, then double down to get that ram. He really ought to be proud of his hunt, and the ram.

This has been a fun read. Thanks for all the details.

Unpacking, he found the notes from the Fish/Game check-in,
(converted from mm into inches/eighths).

Right horn:
Length 32-4
Base 14-3

Left horn:
Length 30-5
Base 14-1


The biologist noted 7 annual rings on one horn and 6 on the other. Now I’m no Ram-scoring expert, but I’m pretty sure they don’t start growing at different times, on opposite sides of their heads ... so if there 7 (identified) on one side, lets call him 7.5 years old.
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Tomk and Gies340 ... you guys are holding out on all the Vicarious Ram hunters on 24hr ! As long as you are safely home and “Mostly” unpacked, you guy each owe us a separate thread on your hunts. Understand if you need to obscure a few landmarks and scrub the GPS coordinates off your photos, but we need to know days hunted, solo or with buddies, base-camped or packed in, elevations trekked, rifle/scope/boolit combos ... est. age/horn measurements, autopsy reports ... etc, Oh yeah .... and PHOTOS !

Pretty please ...

Silver Bullet

“Book-em Danno ”

I went guided. Will post on a new thread mid-December cause deer season(s) are at hand...:) It may be of interest to anyone having points in WY after a sheep.

The outfitter/guide Dustin Stetter is a friend who I have known for years. Stephan Hoadley came along as a guide and those two made it a fantastic hunt for me. After watching them spot and plan stalks, they deserve the highest recommendation, imho. The SCI was 173 1/8"

I was lucky enough to see this ram and he is an absolute stud! Congrats again my friend

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

Since no one is telling stories, here, at least is a ram photo. This is an example of a ram north of Cody that has a tight curl. He is about a full curl by some standards, but does not have the length or mass of rams in other places.



And for comparison, Chris' ram.


They look to be similar in age, but the Cody ram may actually be a year older, though smaller. The Cody ram has no flare, either, though that is hard to tell. That strain sometimes pinches in rather than flaring.

J

Bit of season wrap-up here:
Of the 8 Bighorn Sheep tag-holders in the Laramie unit, there were 6 Rams checked in and 2 hunters who will have to add some Campbells Vegetable Beef, to their tag-soup. The “average” harvest rate for this unit over the last few years has been almost 90% (7 of 8). So with the weather being a real negative factor, the fact that 6 of 8 still connected, shows that Ram hunters can be pretty determined.

I received 2 additional photos (below) of Rams taken in the unit. The first one is pretty much full curl and has good mass. Believe it was from the Father (of the Father-Son team) and was shot within a couple miles of where Chris took his Ram. As previously described (by Jaguar), this Ram has the “tighter” curl, typical of “Cody” area rams ... where the bottom of the horns "sweep" barely reaches the lower edge of the jaw. The curl makes a beautiful doughnut or “Bagel” and is what most people envision, when the term Bighorn Ram is mentioned.

I’ll have to get my book back “Return of Royalty” (by Dale Toweill and Valerist Geist), that describes where the sheep transplants that revived the herds in this Laramie area came from. There are 2 slightly different genetic pools that populate SE Wyoming and one pool produces Rams with the tight horn curls and the other the more sweeping/flaring ... almost Marco-Polo looking horns on Rams. They are not a different species, their ranges overlap and they do interbreed.

PS. That book is a very good read on Bighorns and the efforts to re-introduce them to their historic ranges in the West. Used copies are available (very reasonable), from Jeff-Bezos-is-a-Billionaire.com.

The second ram photo appears to have been taken at the check-in station ... based on the numerous horn sets on the shelf and floor that look to be pick-ups ... (ie: the skull edges were not squarely cut, but are fragmented, typical of what scavengers would leave behind). The slightly broomed Ram horns being held, have great mass, and the wider/deeper sweep of the latter genetics. Believe he said it was 9-10 years old (<-- probably on Medicare) . It was shot further South in the unit, off the mountain complex near where Chris camped and spent most of his early season time scouting/hunting.

... Silver Bullet

“Get off my Lawn ... (and stay out of the rose garden) ! ”