Silver State Nelson Bighorn Tag

[CHL]

Heck of a ram man!! Sign me up all freakin’ day to shoot another Desert just like him. Congrats!

 

[TheTone]

Wow. Kills a desert sheep, and is upset and disappointed about it cause it doesn't have some made up number attached to it? Complains to not care about score anymore because it's ruining the experience, then complains it doesn't score enough after killing it. This last update and closure is really disappointing to what should have been an incredible thread with a punched tag or not.

Congrats OP on your ram. No matter what you think or what anyone tells you, he's a sheep of a lifetime. Nobody that sees that ram will be able to tell you if it's a 160 or 170" ram.

I’m sure I’ll get flamed but add onto that just waiting at home while the outfitter and guides are looking for a ram to call him to fly out to kill. Odd hunt and ending to be upset about

I’ll probably never hunt sheep as a poor person with bad draw luck. If/when I ever draw a tag I’ll be happy to just have the experience

 

[Timjohnson11]

He's asked me not to mention him. It's highly competitive between the three outfitters trying to turn up the biggest ram in the state.

Curious if you can disclose the guide now that the hunt is over? Congrats by the way. I'd be pumped on a really solid ram and undoubtly a fun few months!

 

[Maddog58]

Nothing to be ashamed of with a 164” ram. Pretty tough to find 180” rams on a consistent basis

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Well guys it's done. I got A ram. Right now im feeling frustrated and like I want throw up. This isn't how the best tag in the state was supposed to end up but here we are. For reasons I'll never understand my guide suggested we pass on a couple of 170ish rams in July. I didn't know enough at the time to say hell no and it's something i have to live with. Always remember it's your tag and you make the call. Let the guide make his recommendations. I just trusted the guide. Stupid on my part.

I'll let it all settle in and share how the hunt went down but wanted to share that i killed and it's over.

If you draw a sheep tag in NV and want to go guide give me a call I'll share my full experience.

View attachment 808896

I’ve been following along with this just lurking, I’m very happy you got a ram, good for you man!!!

I understand your frustration but you got a ram, I’ve been involved with a few different hobbies/obsessions over the years and when I look back on things I don’t/can’t do anymore, I wish had more fun and just relaxed while doing them. I wish I’d appreciated things for what they were rather than what I wanted them to be. I remember finishing an Ironman triathlon in 11hr3min and being so upset I didn’t break 11 hours, it ate me up, I was pissed, I soured my (then) girlfriends experience of doing her first Ironman. Now with an injury that makes it so I can’t run anymore I wish I’d enjoyed myself more when I could rather than watching the clock and being frustrated by times.

Now days with hunting I always try to remind myself to have fun, not that I won’t hunt hard and I don’t call u successful hunts successful just because I had fun but I need to slow myself down sometimes and just be glad I’m there.

You light never get to shoot a sheep again (you might get to though), you never know. Don’t put yourself in a spot where the only sheep hunt you did was a bad experience.

 

[Steve O]

I’ve read about people winning the lottery being miserable. Cannot understand it.

Sometimes priorities should be reevaluated. Hopefully putting this story out there will help you and many others.

 

[Marine4life]

Well guys it's done. I got A ram. Right now im feeling frustrated and like I want throw up. This isn't how the best tag in the state was supposed to end up but here we are. For reasons I'll never understand my guide suggested we pass on a couple of 170ish rams in July. I didn't know enough at the time to say hell no and it's something i have to live with. Always remember it's your tag and you make the call. Let the guide make his recommendations. I just trusted the guide. Stupid on my part.

I'll let it all settle in and share how the hunt went down but wanted to share that i killed and it's over.

If you draw a sheep tag in NV and want to go guide give me a call I'll share my full experience.

View attachment 808896

Well guys it's done. I got A ram. Right now im feeling frustrated and like I want throw up. This isn't how the best tag in the state was supposed to end up but here we are. For reasons I'll never understand my guide suggested we pass on a couple of 170ish rams in July. I didn't know enough at the time to say hell no and it's something i have to live with. Always remember it's your tag and you make the call. Let the guide make his recommendations. I just trusted the guide. Stupid on my part.

I'll let it all settle in and share how the hunt went down but wanted to share that i killed and it's over.

If you draw a sheep tag in NV and want to go guide give me a call I'll share my full experience.

View attachment 808896

I appreciate your honesty and putting it all out there for the rest of us to enjoy and some to criticize. Most will never understand the pressure a tag like this has on someone who is a passionate hunter. Two years ago I drew a California bighorn tag in NV and although I was comfortable not killing a huge ram I also knew it was my only opportunity in my life to kill a huge ram. Like you I ended up killing an average ram but felt I did the hunt justice. It’s great your guide had the confidence but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. A year or so from now you will get your ram back and only have great memories of the hunt, the experience and how blessed you were to get such a tag. The only thing different in your ram and a 180inch is no more than 10%.

You contributed the conservation of desert sheep and I am sure in the near future will be very proud of your accomplishment. Congratulations on a great Ram.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[idig4au]

Beautiful sheep and congratulations. I hope you take the time and reflect about the memory and the hunt itself. The whole experience is the real gift that you should be thankful for. Don’t lose sight of that and don’t dishonor the animal you decided to take at the 11th hr because it doesn’t reach some arbitrary size number. If that is the case then you’re missing the entire point of why we hunt and this tag was wasted on you.

Your ram is a trophy and you should be damn proud of him.

 

[waspocrew]

Congrats on the ram! I don't know anything about scoring rams, but that one looks fantastic.

 

[TenRing]

Congrats on your ram! I could only imagine what the pressure feels like having this tag in your pocket. The sheep game is a tough, especially with this type of tag. Just to put some numbers out there for you, if you look at the stats the average for Desert rams in NV always hovers around 150". I bet if you averaged the Auction tags it would probably be around 173"-174"s. This Silver State tag seems to have a bit of bad juju on it and if you look at the average it would be around 165". I hear every year that people with draw tags are going to hold out for a 180" or a high 170"s ram and it makes me laugh. The reality is anything over 160" is a solid ram in Nevada, and anyone who thinks otherwise might just need to look over the published statistics to educate themselves. Congrats again!

 

[cuerro viejo]

Nothing to be ashamed of with a 164” ram. Pretty tough to find 180” rams on a consistent basis

A lot of states that might have 1… if that. State of sheep is not good unless you head south

 

[robie]

Thank you fellas. There is a lot to unpack from an emotional stand point. I know I'll never get a tag like this nor will I have $150k+ to buy a tag like this. I'll do a write up start to finish and tell you all the mistakes I made to hopefully help out the next guy.

It's all said and done and I'm extremely grateful to have had the chance to take a dessert bighorn. I hunted 8 days and learned a little about sheep.

My main frustration with the decisions I made is not learning enough about sheep scores and how little they mean to me. If a sheep is missing a chunk out of a horn and looses a few inches on mass some people will tell you to pass where I see that as character. For the guides 171" is a pass but 175" is a shooter all day. 4" across 10 measurements or about 3/8" is the difference between a trophy and a lets keep looking is laughable. Most of us will never get to look at enough sheep to really understand that until a hunt is over. Now I know that I'm a look over score guy. I would take the lamb tips ram over the Jason Carter ram on my wall all day. There is 10" of more bone on Carter's but it is not a look I like.

But that is all on me. I should have done a better job in educating myself. I know a little more now for when my buddy draws a tag!

On to the very positive note. The stalk and the shot and pack out were everything I wanted. 2500 yards away for the spot, got to about 1500 to confirm he was decent and then finally to 550 for the shot. Had to hike 1400' in elevation over the last 1500 yards. Freaking awesome. First shot smoked him and we have it on video.

 

[Bowfinatic]

Congrats on a great ram! I understand not learning enough about score. I had an amazing montana tag last year. The difference in 10" to a layman like me was undiscernable

I remember when I was above him at full draw and looking at him i said he looks ok but not monster. Ended up a boone ram

So much bigger in person than that visual
Really hard to tell for someone with limited experience

We passed a 170 ram that the guide hardly wanted to spend time on but looked really big to me
Don't beat yourself up too bad. Thanks for sharing

 

[schmalzy]

Thank you fellas. There is a lot to unpack from an emotional stand point. I know I'll never get a tag like this nor will I have $150k+ to buy a tag like this. I'll do a write up start to finish and tell you all the mistakes I made to hopefully help out the next guy.

It's all said and done and I'm extremely grateful to have had the chance to take a dessert bighorn. I hunted 8 days and learned a little about sheep.

My main frustration with the decisions I made is not learning enough about sheep scores and how little they mean. If a sheep is missing a chunk out of a horn and looses a few inches on mass some people will tell you to pass where I see that as character. For the guides 171" is a pass but 175" is a shooter all day. 4" across 10 measurements or about 3/8" is the difference between a trophy and a lets keep looking is laughable. Most of us will never get to look at enough sheep to really understand that until a hunt is over. Now I know that I'm a look over score guy. I would take the lamb tips ram over the Jason Carter ram on my wall all day. There is 10" of more bone on Carter's but it is not a look I like.

On to the positive. The stalk and the shot and pack out were everything I wanted. 2500 yards away for the spot, got to about 1500 to confirm he was decent and then finally to 550 for the shot. Had to hike 1400' in elevation over the last 1500 yards. Freaking awesome. First shot smoked him and we have it on video.

Badass Ram! I applaud your honesty in your previous posts. To echo others though, your ram is nothing to look down on. I hope the frustration subsides and the joy and thrill of the stalk and the highs and lows replaces it.

Thanks for sharing the story in real time (and real feelings) with us.

Congrats again, I am envious!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[robie]

OK this will be my wrap up. I'm sure you guys are tired of reading my posts.

I needed to clear up a couple of things. My frustrations from the experience are with myself and not with my guides. I feel like I should have studied sheep and understood more about what I wanted out of this hunt. I was more of a kid just having fun instead of an active participant. My eyes got way to big way to fast. I wanted the biggest ram in the state! lol. It is hilarious looking back how quickly I went from I'll never kill a sheep to I need a giant!

I thought the idea of a getting a buckle ram (top 3 in the state) would just be very cool. This set a very high expectation that looking historically you will need a 175ish ram to make that happen. This caused us to pass up some low 170s type rams in the process. That's all on me, and I would encourage any of you that get a ram tag to just find the look you think is cool and smoke him!

My guide worked his butt of from June through December trying to find a giant. He found some really good ones in July and we ended up passing on a ram one of the heritage tag guys killed. Everyone felt it would have been a low 170's and at that point lets hold out to see what else is out there. He then found 2 great rams that probably would have gotten me the buckle I was after! I flew in a day late and they both disappeared and we never found saw them again. We saw probably over 200 sheep across those 7 days but never something my guides felt was worth it and wanted to keep looking and have me come back in December.

I will tell you that knowing as little as I did about sheep they are all awesome. They all look unique and are just fun to watch. If I was solo I would have shot the first ram I laid eyes on and swore it was a giant.

In the end the guy did every thing they could to find a 175+ ram and the one(s) they found I just didn't get to Vegas fast enough. On the return trip I was ready to shoot just a nice ram and call it a hunt. The guides had God knows how many days and I had 7 days of hunting.

We took a ranger for our final hunt and covered a lot of country. Found two groups of ewes and finally parked the ranger in the middle of a valley with mountains on either side about 2500 yards away. I looked right and found nothing and I look left and see my guide getting out the spotter. That is always my favorite sign. He says 2 rams. I grab mine and one looks long and good to me! To be honest I've probably said looks good to me about 15 different times on these hunts. My guide videoed for about a solid 30 minutes before determining he was worth a closer look. We took the ranger down into the valley and parked it at a point where the rams couldn't see us.

We had a ridge in between us and the face they were on. We wanted to get to that point and get a final look at the ram before we did the stalk. We crested the ridge and found the ram as he had moved to the left towards a drinker. At about a 1000 yards he looked just as good as he did at 2500! We made a plan! He was up a draw above a drinker and we could sneak up the draw to his right and hopefully crest the ridge and have a 200-400 yard shot. The wind was ok but not great.

We hiked back down from the ridge we were on and made our way up our draw. My sea level acclimation did ok and my guide was nice enough to pause for me along the way! I remember looking at my watch and seeing 170 for the heart rate and just laughing. All part of the fun!

We got to a point where my guide wanted to peak to make sure the ram was still there. He dropped his pack and hiked up. I dropped mine and got my rifle ready and eased up. There was a nice rock face I could ease up to while he was checking the ram and I wanted for THE hand wave! Couple minutes behind the binos and he waved me over and whispered 550. He was getting his spotter setup and asked if I wanted to look. NOPE! He said he look good and I trusted him.

Just a back story for the gun guys. I was shooting a 6.5 PRC I had been shooting all summer out to 600 yards with a 3 shot group at the 5-6" mark. We had talked about it and I felt good out to that but would love a 200 yard shot.

I dialed for 550 and I was prone with a bipod, rear bag and suppressor. My gun was solid and I asked if he was ready. He was getting is Olin setup to record and said ready. First shot was perfect on elevation about about 1-2" right. Either I pulled it or there was a little bit of wind between me and the ram. Ram starts to walk away from us and I jacked another one and pretty sure I just whiffed on the 2nd shot. Ram is hit hard and lays down in the excitement my guide mentioned he walked further away but my brain heard him but my body didn't adjust. I ended up smoking a rock right in front of the ram which caused a large cloud of dust to engulf the ram but he didn't budge. My body made the adjustment this time and I smoked the ram and he rolled about 5 yards and stopped in his final resting place.

We took our time and enjoyed the finality of the moment. I called my wife and let her know I had gotten my ram. I took some pictures and video and then we packed up and made our way up to the ram. Really special moment to walk up to an animal and really get to study a ram for the first time. The head was just so heavy. I still hold it and amazed at how much that head weighs.

We then had a full on photoshoot followed by breaking down the animal. My guide was great and carried the meat I had my gun and the head/cape. My pack had some issues and we had to stop to fix it. At this point it was getting dark and my headlight battery was dying quickly. I let my guide lead and tried to use his light but this eventually ended with my faceplanting but managing to get my hands down first. I couldn't move, had to have my guide come take my pack off and then we readjusted and began again.

My guide casually asked if my cellphone had a light. I had to laugh at not thinking about this from the get go. With 30% battery my phone light got me off the mountain.

I remember how nice it felt to get to the river bottom. Then how nice it was to see the side by side. Here is my advice for the next guy, you don't need a spotting scope, bring your trekking poles and make sure you have a headlamp!

We had a 2 hour ride back to the truck and then a quick stop at a taxidermist buddy of my guides who was nice enough to cut the hide off of the head so I could freeze it for the flight home. Amazing to walk in a taxidermists office in NV and see all of the sheep, elk & mule deer! I'm used to exotics and whitetails.

That night I deboned and froze the meet. I put it in my Yeti soft side in the morning and made my way to the office to check my ram in. Really cool to see how excited everyone is for me and to take their data and measure him. After this I was off to walmart to get a tote, bubble wrap and gorilla tape. Got the head, hide and a deadhead in a top all wrapped up and the hide in my Yeti off to the airport.

Everything made it home and I got to see the look on my sons face when I pulled the ram out of tote that night. Priceless! Amazing opportunity and experience. Great group of guides to spend time in the mountains with. When you get lucky enough to draw a sheep tag it is very cool to share that experience with people who know a lot about sheep and can teach you a thing or two.

Thank you everyone who followed along with the journey. I hope one of you guys will be the lucky one this year!