Mexico Desert Sheep - Video

[Jordan Budd]

Hey sliders!

So hopefully I'll end up moving this thread over to the live hunt section next week for our hunt, but I'm not sure if we'll have enough service yet. Here is some footage from last years excursions:

[video=youtube_share;CPgpT-GVR7s]https://youtu.be/CPgpT-GVR7s[/video]

We're headed to Sonora Mexico on Monday hoping to get a Desert Sheep, possibly 2, on the ground! We were supposed to go last month and our guide ended up getting in a car wreck on the way to the border with our gun permit so we had to post-pone. I'll be filming for the show Best of the West on this trip. Pretty pumped to be back after sheep down there!

Here are some gear items I'm taking with me:

-Crispi Briksdal GTX boots. I have a review going on these in the footwear section as a sticky. They are 200g insulation but are really supposed to breath well so we're going to test that. I'll also have my La Sportiva Trango Cubes with me.

-Outdoorsmans medium tripod legs with both the pan head and pistol grip heads to swap between. Have to have the pan head for the camera and I just got the pistol grip and couldn't leave it at home.

-Outdoorsmans bino harness. Pretty excited to use this harness a little bit.. it's pretty dang low profile and fits my EL Range's better than my muley freak harness.

-FL Alturas guide pants. They are just tried and true for me, especially in that weather/terrain. I'm also bringing the Kryptek Tora pants with me to use a bit. Haven't used them in warm weather yet to really decide if I like them or not.

-FL Catalyst soft shell. Cannot wait to use this on the hunt. I'll probably be leaving my fleece behind and only using aerowool base layers and the catalyst. Also bringing the FL vapor stormlight jacket, but no pants.

-Optics I'll have my EL Range's and probably the 15x56 Swaro's... if they get here in time. If not I'll take the Euro HD 15x56. I'd like to bring a spotter to film some things through, but I also don't want my entire optics arsenal with me in Mexico so.. that's staying home.

-Kifaru Crater. Going to really be testing the day compression of that gigantic bag on this trip!

 

[amp713]

I'd love to get down there for one of those hunts!!!! Good luck to you all and keep us in the loop!!

 

[Jordan Budd]

Officially going to have service down here so I’ll move this to a live hunt. Start hunting in the morning!


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[Fishn4eyes]

Sweet, good luck!

Headed down to the Baja on March 12th.

You are going to have me all primed up!

 

[Jordan Budd]

Good ram but not quite what we’re looking for.

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[Jordan Budd]

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[d3ntalbliss]

Beauty!!! Cant wait to hear the story and catch the show! Also interested in your gear reviews.


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[arri1942]

Looking forward to the show. Great ram!!


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[Jordan Budd]

Was kind of a quick trip but I’ll take it! Back in the US now headed home. I’ll post some more photos and give a write up on the gear when I get back.

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[Fishn4eyes]

Sweet ram!

Can't wait to hear the full story.

 

[Jordan Budd]

The story:
We flew into Tuscon AZ around noon and made the drive down to where we would be hunting.
Like a bunch of these hunts for Deserts, the area has been scouted quite a lot so the guides knew where the sheep had been hanging out. We got up super early the next morning and made the drive out to the small range of mountains we'd be hunting. We gained a little elevation right off the bat and glassed across to the opposite mountain across a flat valley. We saw one ram on the sky line headed over the top to a bowl on the other side. We made our way across the valley headed for the mountain. Along the way we came across a live mountain lion trap featuring a live rooster chicken... SMH.. only in Mexico! We made our way around the mountain glassing up along the way and spotted one ram standing on a rock looking down our direction about 800 yards away. We all hunkered down and pulled the optics out to take a closer look. It was a good ram but after some debate the guides decided we could find better. 3 more smaller rams ended up emerging and they made their way over the top taking a bunch of ewes with them.

We continued along the bottom until we got to a prominent ridge that went up the mountain. After some minor rock climbing we made our way to the top and peaked over to where we thought the rams were. We found a couple small rams but they definitely weren't a part of what we had seen earlier. After sitting on that bowl glassing for a few hours we decided they had probably hooked left on us instead of hooking right. We decided to head back the other direction following the ridge lines and glassing into little pockets along the way. With about an hour of daylight left, 4 rams emerged from underneath of us in a pocket and worked their way up and over at 300 yards. With all the brush and them continuously moving we never got a good shot. We moved to a slightly higher vantage point hoping the rams would move out into an opening and we would get a shot.

We got everything set up trying to imagine which direction they would want to go, when the guide said I have a feeling they'll come out on that little knob out there. I got the camera setup in that direction and was talking John into where it was at when I flipped my binoculars up and boom, there they were already on the knob. The bigger of the 4 was standing on the left slightly quartering away. I ranged them at 540 yards with a slight down angle corrected to 530 yards. The wind was mainly in our face but some varying right to left, left to right action a couple places across the canyon, so John decided to hold dead on. The shot arced in about perfect passing through about the last rib and exiting right behind the opposite front shoulder. The ram ran about 40 yards into some brush and went down. With dark about upon us we finished the video we needed, full body caped him, packed him up and went off the mountain to the closest four wheeler trail where we were all picked up.

We had an awesome time in the short amount of time we were down there. I do wish we could have been there a few more days but I'm very glad to be back in the USA! Nothing like coming home.

 

[Jordan Budd]

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[Jordan Budd]

Some thoughts on the gear I used:

FL Catalyst soft shell. I love this jacket. With all of the brush we were going through I needed some kind of protective layer for my arms and base layers. The temp high was in the mid 70s and in the 40s early in the morning. I wore a t-shirt with the Catalyst over it most of the day until it really started to warm up. Then I put the Sitka lightweight core hoody on and would like in that. Even though it was pretty hot, the wind had a bit of a chill factor to it so when we'd stop to glass I'd usually end up putting that catalyst on and it blocked the wind very well. Never had durability issues either in all of the brush.

FL alturas guide pant. Pretty tried and true pant for this kind of hunting. Didn't have a chance to try the Kryptek altitude pants like I planned.

Outdoorsmans bino harness. This harness has been the best option for my Swaro EL Range's as far as fit goes. They are tough to fit in any harness because of the extra depth for the rangefinder hardware, but they fit really well in this harness. I can't fit as much other stuff in it as I can my Muley Freak harness and not near as much stuff as my Alaskan Guide but it fits the essentials. I'm sure I'll end up doing a video on it in the next couple months or so.

The Kifaru Crater worked a heck of a lot better for a day pack than I expected. I got along really well with the side zip entry. I put extra layers, 15x binos, pullout with food, essentials kit, Helinox chair and zoom camera inside. A couple water bottles in the spotter pocket. Then put my tripod on using the back compression straps. Was really manageable for such a big bag, I was really impressed. I had a small belt pocket on the lid with my inreach, battery charger and steripen.

 

[Sierramadrehunt]

Great i got my Desert to! 170+ free range

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