My first sheep!

[sdcowboy]

Story to come soon. Thanks for all the compliments.

 

[docdb]

Wow, what a ram, congratulations
Don

 

[Alaskan89]

14" bases? You don't see that every day!! Congrats on a beautiful ram!!

 

[Matt W.]

Nice ram. Look forward to hearing the story. Congrats!

 

[Falcon]

Great ram and some beautiful country.

Bring on the story !!!!

 

[ScottH]

Congrats on a nice ram. Waiting on the story too.

 

[sdcowboy]

Sorry it has taken so long to get my story started.
Day 1 started with watching 4 rams, but none of them were legal. The best of them being a three quarter curl.
There is nothing like being a horseback through some of the most beautiful country on earth. Later in the day we found 13 more sheep. The was one that was borderline legal but my guide said we could to better.
Day 2 began with watching a caribou above camp . I never dreamed that they would be up so high. Next on the agenda was watching a huge sow grizzly and her 2 cubs. The sow looked like a small car cruising around the tundra. The 2 cubs fought and played with a caribou horn. How they didn't stick themselves with it is beyond me. Luckily they stayed away from camp. Later that day a lone 3/4 curl ram was spotted about 5 miles away.
Day 3 started with moving to a new area. Spotted a few sheep, but there was absolutely no way to get to them. They were defiantly on the defense. The nice thing about horses is that you can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. We seen a lot of caribou and one that would've made the book. But before I could get a pic over the hill he went. Down side of horses (especially mares) is that sometimes they have there own agenda. The old mare in front decided that she didn't like my horse and decided to try to kick him and caught the side of my rifle. Time to rezero. When we got to the cabin we unloaded the horses and rode to the airstrip to pick up supplies. Man can those pilots land short.
Day 4 started with shooting my rifle and in no time was back on target. We packed up and headed out. The first sheep were a bunch of ewes and lambs. A little farther up was a cow moose and calf. We got to the end of the drainage and started looking for sheep. All we found was a couple of grizzly walking across the base of the mountains. Back to the horses and over the hill to the next drainage. A few miles later we spotted 5 rams. Two of the rams were legal but in a spot where there was no way to get to them before dark.
So we set up camp and watched them until it was to dark to see.
Day 5 started with watching them feed and waiting for them to feed over the top. About 10 am they finally fed over the top of the ridge. So we started to scramble to get everything ready. All of a sudden we heard two big explosions. The airforce was doing some live fire and even though we were miles away we could feel the ground shake around us. About 5 minutes later the rams came running back over the top. Back to waiting for a little bit. They finally moved up onto a bowl and settled down. Off we go climbing as fast as we can. We get almost to the top and here comes one of the smaller rams. For the next six hours we were pinned down on a 30 degree slope. Nothing like dozing off and jumping and clawing the hillside because you feel like you are sliding down the hill. That made Brent laugh. Finally they got up and started to feed around the corner and it was off to the races. Closed the gap to 420 yards and settled down for the shot. My first shot made him pick his head up and look around. Brent and I looked at each other not sure where I hit. He finally turned and I could see blood coming from his nose. A few seconds later down he went. But not for long, he stood back up and tried to walk away. He turned broadside and I have him another one. Same as before no flinch, no reaction at all. But this time I seen the bullet hit him right behind the front shoulder. A couple seconds and he was down for good. I can't explain the relief or the happiness I felt.
Well after a short wait for the other rams to off I finally got to put by hands on my first sheep.
After a bunch of pictures and a short prayer, the actual work started. Come to find out both bullets hit him in the front shoulder a half inch apart. He was one tough ram. When we got down to his neck area we found where someone else had taken a shot at him. The bullet went through a fold in the hide on the bottom of his neck. We loaded our packs and started the pack back to camp.

 

[sdcowboy]

By the time we got back to camp it was almost dark(11:45). . Thanks to Walker (packer and now good friend) for the help packing him out and the for the beer back at camp.
The next morning we loaded up and headed back to base camp. we seen a herd of 15 rams on the way back. I can't thank Brent and Walker from Castle Rock Ourfitters enough for everything it was truly a hunt of a life time.

 

[sdcowboy]

A few more pics me and Walker. me and Brent the sunset as we came down the hill. the airstrip getting ready to leave.

 

[Matt W.]

I really like the look of that ram. Congrats again on a fine trophy.

 

[crzy_cntryby]

Gorgeous ram!

 

[Retterath]

awesome ram, congrats. Where in sd u from.

 

[Muledeernv]

Awesome ram congrats

 

[Elkfitness]

Great story, congrats!!

 

[arffdog875]

Thanks for sharing great photos and story! Congrats on an awesome ram!

 

[yama49]

congrats on a awesome ram....

 

[Pittstate23]

thats awesome and some amazing country!