2021 Arizona Desert Bighorn; Lefty the Miracle Ram

[Steve O]

This is going to take me some time. I have not figured out exactly how I am going to do it and I will probably take a few detours along the way but I am going to start with photos of my ram that I worked incredibly hard for. I don’t want anyone to think I’m drawing this out for suspense or any other nefarious reasons.

It is a RARE opportunity for ME to hunt Desert Sheep and I’m going to document it as well as I can do it and I think many will find it interesting. Lefty is nothing short of a miracle in many many ways which I believe will be very clear by the end.

So this is me and Lefty. He is a 39 6/8” x 31 5/8” stud Nelsoni ram from my favorite and hopefully someday retirement state of Arizona.

 

[realunlucky]

Subscribed

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

[Steve O]

I’m quite proud of my computer wizardry to put this Jack O’Connor quote on one of my photos:





That is exactly how I feel. I scrimped and saved for many many years to go on my first sheep hunt in 2002. It was a 12 day mixed bag hunt in the farthest northern hunting territory in the Yukon. It was as close to heaven on earth as I will ever get. I worked hard for that Fannin ram. Spent a very wet then cold night on the mountain after killing him. There is no animal I will work for like I will work for a wild sheep. They are my huckleberry. I’ve hunted 20 big game species in 21 states and 6 Canadian provinces. I’ve seen 25 of the NA29 in the wild. I love hunting but I love hunting wild sheep the most by a huge margin. In addition to that Yukon hunt, I was fortunate to draw an archery tag for Rocky Mountain Bighorn in 2007. I hunted for the entire month long season with my recurve and came so close to killing the ram I hunted almost exclusively. Great experience but no Rocky. Last December I was able to help a buddy in AZ take a very hard earned Nelsoni DIY. When I put my hand’s on the horns of Bryan’s ram, I knew full well that may be as close as I would ever get to my own Desert. It is so incredibly rare to draw one of these tags one can only dream. Especially one who lives in the Midwest.

 

[Steve O]

I get the impression many think AZ desert sheep are pushovers because of a couple units that are around the big lakes. They think the sheep are like the ranch hunts in Mexico. I can tell you that the two units I was involved with in AZ were the toughest and wildest country I’ve ever hunted. A supreme challenge.

I’ll share a few pics of my buddy’s DIY hunt from last year:

















Those last two pictures tell my part of the story. Last October, I was scheduled to spend the last two weeks in Unit 90 of Wyoming on my max points mule deer tag and also hunting antelope. Instead I contracted Covid and spent it in the ICU. I was in bad shape. Massive saddle embolism and blood clots all the way into the lower lobes of both lungs. I responded to treatment well and “recovered” but I’m telling you I felt like I got hit by a truck for about two months. Well, I promised my buddy I was going to help and I am not one to break my promise. Much to the chagrin of my wife I hopped on a plane to Phoenix the day after Thanksgiving. I could barely climb a flight of stairs so the boys had me using the Rhino and my pretty decent glassing ability. Well, I ended up spotting the ram and my buddy and his brother got the job done. I could not be more proud of them and was very happy to be a part of it. That was a very tough 10 days.

 

[Liv2HntBigBullz]

I'm subscribed, been dreaming of deserts and that Nelsoni is what dreams are made of!!!

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Steve O]

Over the years I’ve been blessed to spend a lot of time in AZ. I’ve had three elk tags, two really good mule deer tags, countless OTC deer tags, a Merriams Turkey tag, and this year finally after 30 bonus points I drew a Gould’s Turkey tag for this May.








They are amazing birds and I was able to take my tom in the unit that has always had Gould’s and is used to transplant to other units. It has dna more pure than most of Mexico’s Gould’s. That is the Mexico border fence in the photo. I was trespassing for my trophy photo.

That was a long wait but I’m not a guy who can just jet down to Mexico for a Turkey hunt. Or a Desert sheep hunt. So I play the draw game everywhere.


I mentioned elk. I’ve hunted elk in a few states. Nothing compares to AZ. After my first AZ bull I decided that I would not really be able to top it so I’m not one of those guys that must hunt elk every year. I’ll wait and hunt ever so often in AZ and put in for primo units in other states. I’ve got 22 Utah elk points that I keep trying to figure out what to do with them.

 

[Steve O]

Now we will start getting to the miracles. At this point in May, I did not realize what was happening but looking back it is crystal clear.

Other than providing for my family and trying to make the whole marriage and family commitment work positively, every spare moment I have is spent hunting and scouting, trying to learn something new about hunting, the best way to spend my points, or spend my little bit hunting money I set aside each paycheck wisely.

I’ve been putting in for Arizona species for a long time. I had 22 points for sheep this year. Basically, that is worth absolutely nothing the way AZ awards non resident tags. So typically my application is done right away and I move on to the rejection phase. I always put in for the Kaibab units for sheep as I love the look of the Nelsoni subspecies and if I could ever draw a desert tag, I wanted it to be a Nelsoni. I’ve also watched rams in there while hunting deer and I know I could do that unit DIY. Well this year I procrastinated. In late May I was doing some yard work and listening to the Jay Scott podcast on the AZ Nelsoni units with Craig Steele.





Craig talked about all the units and I continued on my yard work. I hopped on my mower, got my Aipods going, and was going to move on to another podcast. For some reason I decided I was going to listen again. So there I am mowing and listening. Craig talked about Unit 15D South and I stopped in my tracks and rewound and listened again. I did this a dozen times. I said, “That sounds like exactly the experience I want to have.” This is extremely odd for me. I’m an engineer and I don’t do things on a whim. Especially something as important to me as a once in 10,000 lifetimes desert bighorn sheep tag. Well, I listened to that voice inside me and filled out my application that night and moved on to some new hunting podcasts…

 

[Blockcaver]

Steve, Excellent start to your writeup! Waiting for the entire story!

 

[Steve O]

I’ve got a very patient wife. We’ve been married 25 years and she knew what she was getting into. She also knows my love of hunting makes me who I am. I definitely have to pay attention and make sure I keep some balance in my life and it makes me happy to make her happy. So in July we took a road trip to the east coast. First we spent some time with our daughter who had an internship at a very prestigious accounting firm in Manhattan (definitely not what I want for her but that’s her dream so I just pray for her safety and good decisions on her part) right in Rockefeller Center. She did a great and has a job waiting for her after graduation this coming spring

We head up the coast and are sightseeing at Plymouth Rock. We go into a restaurant to get some lobster rolls for lunch. Mind you, the Arizona draw had happened probably two weeks prior and my credit card had seen no activity. I checked each day for the first week or so for a hit and gave up. Well, I had received an email that the portals were updated so I went to check that my bonus points were all updated properly while we waited for our food to be ready.

As I dug into my portal, next to Bighorn Sheep it said “successful”. Well yes I thought; I was successful for a bonus point. Then I hit it for more detail and it said “Drawn 6014”. My mind raced. I quickly went and checked my points. ZERO species points for Bighorn sheep. I started crying and my wife had no idea what was going on. She kept asking “what’s wrong?” And I could not speak. I finally had the presence to show her my phone and she started to put things together while I got calmed down.

Then she showed me that she had opened up her Instagram while we were waiting for lunch and what was on her phone screen when I started crying:






That BLEW MY MIND! At that moment I remembered changing my first choice in late May; and that is what I drew, the new unit.

Some people say I was lucky to draw that tag. I quickly let them know luck had nothing to do with it. There is a reason I was supposed to draw that tag. Hopefully this story is part of that reason and someone reading it now or in the future will come to know Jesus because of it. And there is definitely more. But for now, let’s just look at the odds:

This year there were 58680 first and second choices for desert bighorns. My unit had TWO tags available. So nobody picked my unit in the bonus pass. Then I had another 58500 or so first and second choices to beat out in the random draw before the up to 10% non resident cap was met. Statistics were not my best class in college so I can’t calculate the odds I just know they are are Powerball level! And I was going sheep hunting. Thank you Jesus.

 

[Steve O]

I use a lot of tools to plan my hunts and one I’ve relied on more and more is Epic Outdoors. The magazine is great, the information in the tables they provide for each hunt are very helpful, and being able to contact Jason Carter and Eric Bronson directly to get their input when trying to make your final application decision is priceless. Being able to talk with previous tag holders after you draw is a huge benefit as well.

I knew I needed to book Craig immediately, but being what I am, I sent a note to Jason and let him know I had drawn and did he have any recommendations. He told me he was out checking cameras but to get ahold of Lee Murphy at Exclusive Pursuit Outfitters. A soothing feeling washed over me. Lee was Craig’s partner in the outfitting business. I let them know to save me a spot and we would get the details worked out after my wife got the rest of her vacation.

 

[DCT1983]

Great write up so far.

 

[Steve O]

Discussing everything with Craig, I was very confident of my decision. I rarely go on guided hunts and I get a ton of satisfaction out of hunting on my own. When I do go on a guided hunt I want to be more than the trigger puller and that was especially true on this hunt; odds are very good I won’t ever have another Desert sheep tag anywhere. The more plans were made the more I knew this was the absolute right decision. I’d never looked at a map of the area, and Craig had taken his own ram, at the age of 12(!) in my unit, and had spent the next few decades exploring every square foot of the giant unit. He sent me some photos of rams they had left last season. There were some awesome rams in those photos. Craig would be scouting up to the hunt and I would be working on my legs and lungs; I climbed a lot of bleachers, but it is never enough. I would drive out the day before Thanksgiving and help with scouting right before the hunt. Driving would give me the most flexibility and all that windshield time would let me savor every minute and that was my plan.

Savor every minute.

 

[Steve O]

Here’s my favorite live (and untouched in any way) photo of Lefty.

He was magnificent in the wild.

I have a pile of digiscope video I need to go through still and figure out how to add in here.

 

[Cynoscion]

Badass photo man!!!! Really enjoying your recap. Keep them coming

 

[wildwilderness]

View attachment 356383


Here’s my favorite live (and untouched in any way) photo of Lefty.

He was magnificent in the wild.

I have a pile of digiscope video I need to go through still and figure out how to add in here.

The easiest way I have used for video is to upload on YouTube then paste the link here

 

[NE Herd Bull]

Badass photo man!!!! Really enjoying your recap. Keep them coming

I second that!

Wow

 

[Steve O]

More preparation. I grew up on Winchester Model 70s. My first sheep hunt in the Yukon I hauled a laminated stainless M70 in .270 close to 70 miles through the sheep mountains. It was a heavy sob. Immediately upon return I built a 7lb 4oz M70 in .300 WSM. Then I really became obsessed and ended up with a custom M700 Ti in .270 with a 3.5-10 Leupold that weighs 5lb 12oz ready to rock. Since then I’ve realized I’m not an “extreme” guy. Both rifles are extremely accurate but they take a lot of proper technique and I don’t always have that in the field so I’ve settled in the 8-9# range rifle.

A few years ago I wanted a 26 Nosler. Somehow that turned into me buying a Blaser R8. I’m traveling 90% of the time to hunt and being able to break the rifle down with no change of zero is awesome. I have tested it shooting 5 shot groups completely disassembling the rifle including removing the scope between each shot. No change of zero and sub inch groups. It is an amazing piece of engineering.






The Blaser has the ability to interchange barrels. The package I picked up was a walnut stocked Jaeger with a 300 Win and a 243 Win. That obviously would work for anything in North America. BUT, I really wanted a hot 26 and I found a custom barrel maker. Lots of research later I decided the good old 264 Winchester twisted properly would do almost everything the 26 Nosler or 6.5-300 would with a lot less powder. A friend of mine builds carbon fiber stocks for the Blasers and I had my perfect sheep and everything else rifle.

Well, there was no way I was going to hunt desert sheep in JOC’s backyard with anything but a proper wood stocked rifle. Trouble is, my 264 barrel is a larger diameter than the Jaeger stock accepts and the factory finish was shiny and I really did not like it. I’m fairly handy but that’s a pretty expensive project to screw up.

I’m not sure what gave me the confidence to start hacking away, but I took my time and opened up the barrel channel and stripped off the factory finish, put a proper oil finish on her and everything turned out great.







Load development is always pretty easy with this rifle no matter the caliber. I decided on 142g Nosler Accubond LR and a max load of IMR-7828. My home range is only 200 yards so I zeroed in there and loaded up my steel gong to check the hash marks in the VX-5 out on some BLM land out in Arizona.

Turns out Arizona has some awesome 1000 yard ranges at their state run shooting facilities and there was one about 20 minutes from camp. So I enjoyed their excellent facilities before season mid day during scouting and my hash marks were dead on out to 500 yards. That gave me a ton of confidence.

264 Win 500 yard check

 

[wildwilderness]

Nice shot!

 

[mparks270]

Great stuff!

 

[Steve O]

Sheep season opened December 1st. Craig said early was better than late so I made plans to be there the first two weeks of the season. I knew I would be able to go back after Christmas if it came to that. I would drive for the first part. That would allow me to be as flexible as possible. I started to AZ right after work Wednesday before Thanksgiving and met Craig at a gas station near where we would be hunting Friday at noon.

He had been scouting all summer and fall and things were not sounding all that promising. But as he rolled down the window, he had a devious grin on his face and told me he found a ram.

Then he showed me this:





And then he asked what I thought. I really was speechless. Finally I said, “He is perfect” and knew that was the ram I was destined to bring home with me.

Lefty was in a great spot and had three ewes to keep him company. Little did I know what a problem those three would be. We kept track of him for the next 5 days until the opener all the while looking for other rams to hunt all over the unit. We found a couple possibilities but both of us knew it was Lefty we had to concentrate on.