Sorry guys. I haven�t been around much lately.
Had a fall/winter from hell but am damn happy to say that things once again have turned around quite nicely! Won�t go into detail, but losing my Dad, a very sick daughter, calling off a wedding, losing my job, problems with the ex and trying to get the ex-fiance out of a house she owned half of are just the highlights!
For the turn around, I�m happy to say that my daughter is out of the woods and loving life. The new job is going great and figured things out with the ex, while getting the ex-fiance moved out (bought her out of the house). I�m also quite certain, though she�s new to the hunting thing, that the new girlfriend is the love of my life. Life is not just good, it�s great!
So, along the theme of pulling things together, I managed to draw one of 2 ram tags for the first season in unit S4 in Colorado. The unit has a few good rams, but is not known for anything great. The big Pro is that it�s close to home so I can scout it easily. In fact, I keep my horses at a ranch that is inside the unit and within a few hours ride of one of the areas where there is a concentration of rams.
Scouting was full of setbacks and frustrations, but I finally made it into a nice area about 6 weeks ago as a major electrical storm was rolling in. At the last second, I found a group of 29 rams with one good ram in it. The weekend before the season, my girlfriend and I hoofed it hard and after 5+ hours of hard hiking, we caught a glimpse of the ram with 13 of his buddies. She shows some promise as she must have said �Oh, my God� and �He�s HUGE� at least a half dozen times over the minute or so we watched him! [get your mind out of the gutter, boys!].
Opening day was Monday, the 6th of August. My buddy Kelly and I spent the weekend trying to find other animals, but had very little luck. We backpacked 2 hours into a campsite that left us about an hour from the sheep I�d scouted. Didn�t want to camp too close and spread any of our stinky wind around! That Sunday night, we ran across a couple guys scouting for one of the later seasons (3 seasons in this unit with 2 ram tags in each). Pretty sure those guys ran our bunch out that weekend. Not a bad plan on their part, actually. Anyway, we couldn�t find our bunch Sunday night or on opening morning either.
Late morning on opening day, we ran across about a dozen smaller rams but nothing to get too excited about � other than popping in on them at about 60 yards and sneaking in to about 20 yards before they busted us! Lots of rain that day and LOTS of miles, all between 11K and 12K feet of elevation. We did manage to find a couple more areas where sheep were hanging heavily, but most of the �prime� spots were without sign.
The next morning at daylight, from a peak almost 12,000 feet high, we managed to locate the big ram from the group I�d been scouting before the season, but he slipped into the timber before we could get into position for a shot so we backed away so as not to spook them. As planned, we hiked out late that morning to re-supply and grab a quick shower. Since we were planning to come out Wednesday evening, we made the smart move to ride my horses back up to camp. That evening showed no sign of the rams and the next morning we were in a better spot for a stalk at daylight.
Sure enough, the group was there! We shucked our packs and belly crawled through the high mountain grass and boulders, trying to get a good look at the rams in the group. Over the course of the next half hour, we froze our friggin� tails off while looking over 7 rams � but our big one either wasn�t in the group or kept himself hidden just over the ridge. Rather than pushing a bad position, we decided again to back off. Those rams had found a home and getting too aggressive was the one thing that would knock them out of the area and make them next to impossible to find.
Not long afterwards, we were in a position to spot again and in one of the spots with heavy sheep sign we find 4 rams feeding. The spot was over 3 miles from our location and the rams were showing signs of movement. For 20 minutes we watched them head in our direction until they fed out of site. We figured they were heading over to an area we knew about to bed and if we were lucky, they�d bed above timberline and not in the trees. We finally had decent weather to deal with, which meant the trees were a valid concern, so we humped it hard to get as close as possible as fast as possible. After covering a couple miles (as the crow flies) NOT measured from zig-zagging through the trees and boulder fields, we found the rams at about 550 yards, bedded on an open hillside above timberline. There was a small knob between us that would put me at about 300 yards from the bedded sheep and the wind was absolutely perfect so we moved out fast.
A few minutes later, I was sneaking up over the knob, slowly moving my rifle out in front of me (Rem Model 7 in 7mm shamu � McMillan light fill stock, Leupold 2.5-8x with turrets, 160 gr accubonds (I know they�re not TSX�s but the little bastards shoot sub 1/3 � 3 shot groups all day long!) and weighing in at a light 7.5 lbs, all up).
� and no sheep! They�re gone! I back off and whisper to Kelly and start to thinking that there aren�t many places they could go and unless they blew out of there (unlikely), they were probably right below us. Sure enough, I�m sneaking through the big boulders and as I peek over, there are 4 rams standing at 72 yards (why I felt the need to range them when they�re this close, I�ll never know!), They�re staring right at me so must have heard me and they�re getting nervous. I know the rocks will get in the way of a prone shot, so slowly move up a bit and get on my elbows so I�ll clear the rocks. There was a small ram, a teenager and two decent rams in the group. One was obviously pushing full curl on one side and the other was a nice heavy, broomed � curl. No doubt which was the prettiest, but he was hanging out behind the other 3. As they fidgeted, watching me, I had clear shots at the other 3 rams, but couldn�t get anything clear at the one I wanted. Finally, he worked his way below the other 3 and gave me a quartering towards shot � PERFECT! At the shot, they ALL bolt away � what the hell???
I wait patiently for my ram to fall, but he doesn�t! At 266 yards, I range the group again and they stop momentarily to look back. My ram is behind another and I can�t shoot! I�d be tempted to take the shot at the heavy � but I don�t know for sure mine isn�t hit, so I wait. As they begin moving again, I get a momentary walking shot at my ram when the others are clear and I jerk the shot off. Absolutely NO reaction other than for all 4 rams to hoof it across the hill and down into the timber and out of sight.
I looked at Kelly in utter disbelief. Long story short, I find were my first bullet caught the very top of a boulder. Though I�d accommodated for that when I set up, the rams were slowly working their way down hill and put the rocks back into play. When the big ram finally cleared below the others, I took the shot and the boulder took the hit. So, what the hell happened on the second shot? Was I too freaked when all hell broke loose? We hike over to the spot of the shot and there are no signs of a hit, but tracks leading down through the rocks and into the timber. We follow, but Kelly�s comment was �if it weren�t for bad luck, we wouldn�t be having any at all!!�
As we track the sheep down the hill, things aren�t looking particularly good � until I look to my right and see my ram laying within 20 yards of where I�m standing! Yipppeeeee!
The shot took him well back on his left side, but due to the angle, exited in his right shoulder. Still surprised that he didn�t act hit!
He�s a beaut! Gross, green score puts him a fair amount over 170. DOW measured his bases at 16� and 16 3/8�. He�s 35� by 33 5/8 in horn length and is just shy of full curl. A fantastic animal and a fantastic hunt! We had approx 4.5 miles to pack him out on our backs and another 5+ for the horses. Crap, that�s a lot of work! But, worth every moment.
Here�s a few pic�s, including the ones from the �Muley Stalker�� thread on the Hunter�s Campfire forum:
![[Linked Image]](http://www.hunt101.com/img/511372-big.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://www.hunt101.com/img/511343-big.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://www.hunt101.com/img/511342-big.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://www.hunt101.com/img/511373-big.jpg)
