Just got back from 4 days helping my brother fill his desert bighorn sheep tag in Nevada. It's his second sheep, the first being a Rocky Mountain in South Dakota, so he's halfway to his sheep Slam.
The hunt began last summer when he got notification that he drew a deer and sheep tag. When it comes to sheep draws, he has had very good luck, having accumulated a grand total of 4 (I think) preference points in Nevada and only 2 or 3 in South Dakota. Anyway, after a busy summer of work and training, he started go out to the unit to scout, luckily only a 2 hour drive from home. The first thing was finding the guzzlers, which are the main source of water there. The second, was finding sheep, which was easy as they hang around the guzzlers and there are good numbers in the unit. He was seeing lots of rams, including some really nice ones. The opener came quickly and he headed out a few days early to look around and see if the sheep were still in their usual haunts. I joined him the day before the opening, ready for anything, or so I thought!
We were expecting cool, dry, and windy weather, hoping it would look like this for the duration.
That night, the weather took a turn for the worst, starting to rain and sleet, with snow up high. We woke up to this. Definitely not what we expected.
Oh well, the hunt must go on! So, we got up, made coffee, ate breakfast and headed up the hill. Was a bit steep.
Glassing for our quarry. Fortunately, as the morning went on, it cleared off some, but the wind was constant.
We spotted a couple smallish rams going down a ridge above one of the guzzlers, so we headed that direction to see if there were more and to get a better look at them. We found them, but both were not what he was wanting. Unfortunately, what we didn't see was the other 8 rams behind the pine tree on the right, including one really good ram. The wind was very swirly and eventually brought our scent to the whole group and they took off.
Look close, there's 2 rams in the middle.
Ctd.
The hunt began last summer when he got notification that he drew a deer and sheep tag. When it comes to sheep draws, he has had very good luck, having accumulated a grand total of 4 (I think) preference points in Nevada and only 2 or 3 in South Dakota. Anyway, after a busy summer of work and training, he started go out to the unit to scout, luckily only a 2 hour drive from home. The first thing was finding the guzzlers, which are the main source of water there. The second, was finding sheep, which was easy as they hang around the guzzlers and there are good numbers in the unit. He was seeing lots of rams, including some really nice ones. The opener came quickly and he headed out a few days early to look around and see if the sheep were still in their usual haunts. I joined him the day before the opening, ready for anything, or so I thought!
We were expecting cool, dry, and windy weather, hoping it would look like this for the duration.
That night, the weather took a turn for the worst, starting to rain and sleet, with snow up high. We woke up to this. Definitely not what we expected.
Oh well, the hunt must go on! So, we got up, made coffee, ate breakfast and headed up the hill. Was a bit steep.
Glassing for our quarry. Fortunately, as the morning went on, it cleared off some, but the wind was constant.
We spotted a couple smallish rams going down a ridge above one of the guzzlers, so we headed that direction to see if there were more and to get a better look at them. We found them, but both were not what he was wanting. Unfortunately, what we didn't see was the other 8 rams behind the pine tree on the right, including one really good ram. The wind was very swirly and eventually brought our scent to the whole group and they took off.
Look close, there's 2 rams in the middle.
Ctd.
