Back in April of this year, I drew a Unit 17 Type 1 (Any Ram) Tag in Wyoming. I drew my tag on the random draw. I had no preference points and had only been a resident of Wyoming for almost 2 years. Some of you may recall a thread on this very forum in the beginning of the summer looking for advice and information on the area. On opening day of the season, September 1, at approximately 12:00 PM, I killed my ram.
My Dad, Friend and longtime Gillette resident Brad, Mom, Sister, and Myself made numerous scouting trips throughout the summer that yielded little in the way of what we deemed to be "Shooter" rams. I was not after a monster, but rather just a really respectable ram. We saw quite a few ewes, and even a few *very* small rams. We were frustrated, but by no means discouraged. We knew we'd have two months to hunt, and the success rate on my tag in that area has been 100% for several years running.
Things didn't really start to look good until the afternoon before the season opener. My friend Jake and I saw a few rams Saturday afternoon thanks to the tip from another party of hunters who were after a monster. Then, Saturday night, when Dad got into camp, we decided to head out to glass and, on the way, out across the prairie we sat a ram on the skyline. Before we could get a good look, he stepped down over the other side of the ridge. Dad and I went down the ridge about a mile, parked his pickup, and walked to the top. We posted up a few hundred yards apart looking at opposite drainages. We both saw sheep, and Dad got pictures of a band with a decent ram we found out later from a band of other hunters they had nicknamed him "Hollywood" for his tendency to be a showoff. The rams I saw never gave me a good look. At camp that night, we decided we should go back to where Dad had posted up.
The next morning, we sat and glassed until about 9:30. It was well above 80 degrees, and we had decided to move to a different spot to try and get out of the sun a little bit. Hollywood and his entourage never showed up. As I was packing up my spotting scope, Dad whispered "Holy shxt! There's sheep!" Sure enough, to my left, out of a timbered ravine that I had looked at at least a dozen times came a band of 4 rams. With a quick look, two of them appeared to be at least worth considering. One of them was absolutely full curl. They bedded up in the shade of a rock about 450 yards out across a canyon. Wanting to get a better look, Dad went for a better angle. When he returned, confident that it was a good ram, I followed him to get a look for myself. After establishing that he was in fact a ram that I'd be beyond ecstatic to fill my tag on, we began the 2-hour, painstaking stalk to close the distance to 400 yards, which I felt a lot more comfortable with. At 373 yards, we ran out of cover and were nearly level across the canyon with the rams. My ram had stood up from his bed to stretch. A single shot from Dad's Model 70 7mm Remington Mag sealed the deal. My ram took 3 steps, bleeding heavily, and folded.
Two of my good friends were back at camp approximately two miles away and heard the shot. They had been looking for sheep but had returned to camp when they received my text a couple hours previously that we were onto some rams. With enough cell service to squeeze out a call and realizing that we were down to one bottle of water, we told Brad and Jake to stuff their packs with as much water as possible and head our way. An hour later, they arrived to us, and we took pictures and got to work caping and quartering the ram. Fortunately, the canyon we had to cross to get to my ram ran into a sage brush/prairie flat, and after the first several hundred yards, the pack out was a fairly level 1-mile hike.
I am truly blessed to have drawn this tag, and even more blessed to have gotten the opportunity to fill it on a really great ram with my dad by my side, and two of my best friends close by. I would like to sincerely thank those who reached out in response to my original post on here several months ago. Any information that was provided, or offers to help scout, or even to keep an eye out for sheep while in pursuit of other critters, is and was incredibly appreciated. A huge shoutout also goes to the hunters I mentioned in the story, who helped steer us in the right direction. My hunting party and I were beyond ecstatic to hear that your friend killed a beautiful ram the following afternoon. If anyone else in the future sees this thread, please don't hesitate to reach out. I would be happy to help. While my knowledge of this area, and sheep hunting in general is somewhat limited, I will gladly offer anything that I can that might be of use to those in the future blessed with this tag as I was.
This it the ram that the other hunters had dubbed "Hollywood".
My Dad, Friend and longtime Gillette resident Brad, Mom, Sister, and Myself made numerous scouting trips throughout the summer that yielded little in the way of what we deemed to be "Shooter" rams. I was not after a monster, but rather just a really respectable ram. We saw quite a few ewes, and even a few *very* small rams. We were frustrated, but by no means discouraged. We knew we'd have two months to hunt, and the success rate on my tag in that area has been 100% for several years running.
Things didn't really start to look good until the afternoon before the season opener. My friend Jake and I saw a few rams Saturday afternoon thanks to the tip from another party of hunters who were after a monster. Then, Saturday night, when Dad got into camp, we decided to head out to glass and, on the way, out across the prairie we sat a ram on the skyline. Before we could get a good look, he stepped down over the other side of the ridge. Dad and I went down the ridge about a mile, parked his pickup, and walked to the top. We posted up a few hundred yards apart looking at opposite drainages. We both saw sheep, and Dad got pictures of a band with a decent ram we found out later from a band of other hunters they had nicknamed him "Hollywood" for his tendency to be a showoff. The rams I saw never gave me a good look. At camp that night, we decided we should go back to where Dad had posted up.
The next morning, we sat and glassed until about 9:30. It was well above 80 degrees, and we had decided to move to a different spot to try and get out of the sun a little bit. Hollywood and his entourage never showed up. As I was packing up my spotting scope, Dad whispered "Holy shxt! There's sheep!" Sure enough, to my left, out of a timbered ravine that I had looked at at least a dozen times came a band of 4 rams. With a quick look, two of them appeared to be at least worth considering. One of them was absolutely full curl. They bedded up in the shade of a rock about 450 yards out across a canyon. Wanting to get a better look, Dad went for a better angle. When he returned, confident that it was a good ram, I followed him to get a look for myself. After establishing that he was in fact a ram that I'd be beyond ecstatic to fill my tag on, we began the 2-hour, painstaking stalk to close the distance to 400 yards, which I felt a lot more comfortable with. At 373 yards, we ran out of cover and were nearly level across the canyon with the rams. My ram had stood up from his bed to stretch. A single shot from Dad's Model 70 7mm Remington Mag sealed the deal. My ram took 3 steps, bleeding heavily, and folded.
Two of my good friends were back at camp approximately two miles away and heard the shot. They had been looking for sheep but had returned to camp when they received my text a couple hours previously that we were onto some rams. With enough cell service to squeeze out a call and realizing that we were down to one bottle of water, we told Brad and Jake to stuff their packs with as much water as possible and head our way. An hour later, they arrived to us, and we took pictures and got to work caping and quartering the ram. Fortunately, the canyon we had to cross to get to my ram ran into a sage brush/prairie flat, and after the first several hundred yards, the pack out was a fairly level 1-mile hike.
I am truly blessed to have drawn this tag, and even more blessed to have gotten the opportunity to fill it on a really great ram with my dad by my side, and two of my best friends close by. I would like to sincerely thank those who reached out in response to my original post on here several months ago. Any information that was provided, or offers to help scout, or even to keep an eye out for sheep while in pursuit of other critters, is and was incredibly appreciated. A huge shoutout also goes to the hunters I mentioned in the story, who helped steer us in the right direction. My hunting party and I were beyond ecstatic to hear that your friend killed a beautiful ram the following afternoon. If anyone else in the future sees this thread, please don't hesitate to reach out. I would be happy to help. While my knowledge of this area, and sheep hunting in general is somewhat limited, I will gladly offer anything that I can that might be of use to those in the future blessed with this tag as I was.
This it the ram that the other hunters had dubbed "Hollywood".
