Three months of wall to wall preparation from draw date to hunt date. I seriously considered an outfitter just due to the once in lifetime opportunity, but ultimately settled on three friends, my brother, and my diehard hunting wife. Hunt took place in the Latir Peak Wilderness. My brother, wife, and I made a 3-day bomber run to test gear and see how we'd handle the elevation difference (live at 4000 feet camped and hunted at 12000). We backpacked into the area 3 days before the season opened with enough food and gear to stay the duration of the 10-day hunt. We spent the 3 days prior to the opener looking over as many rams as possible. In total we looked over 25 or 26 different rams of all age classes and located the sheep I ended up taking plus 2 rams that were mid 170s solid sheep. The ram I harvested is the first ram we located and sat on him until the evening before when he moved totally across the range. We had to stay mobile to have the chance at harvesting that particular ram. The first 2 full days of the season we were socked in with fog, rain, and lighting. We futilely searched daylight til dark but those sheep were timbered up. Morning of the third day we relocated that ram with 4 other younger rams. By early afternoon we were laid out in the scree when the opportunity presented itself at 450 yards. I'd shot my 30-378 all summer and was comfortable at distance. Took a split second to realize that the only other hunter has harvested a beautiful ram opening morning so we just took it in until the sheep fed into 300 yards. We wrapped up field photos and reflection and were greeted by a downpour for caping and quartering. We bivy right on the spot over night and made the 10 hour packout the next day. Truely unbelieveable to do it with friends and family out of a backpack. You Kimbersig are in for one hell of an adventure!
