Back From NM Rocky Mnt Bighorn Hunt

[Brush Buster]

Well, we made it back from the hunt a couple days ago.

 

What an adventure it was.

 

A couple freinds and I left on Monday Aug 18th. (5 days before the opening day)

 

Day 1 Aug.

Left the house at 4:30 am with all the gear and 5 head of livestock (2 saddle horses and 3 pack mules). We made the 7 1/2 hour drive from southwest NM to the trailhead at the Pecos Wilderness in north central NM.

 

At the trailhead we met up with another friend that had 3 head of addition livestock (1 horse and 2 mules). We packed 5 mule loads of gear, food, and grain and travled about 12 miles into the wilderness. On the way in we saw two small rams. We then set up a base camp near the top of the divide. Went to bed pretty tired around 11:30 pm aftert the camp was complete.

 

 

 

 

Day 2

One friend and I saddled up a couple mules and rode the high counrty, glassing for rams. My other buddy stayed at the base camp at tended to the other livestock and camp chores. We searched all day and ended up seeing about 5 or 6 rams. None were shooters, they were in the 150-160 class range. We returned to base camp and ate some dinner then went to bed. We were a slight bit discuraged becuase the big rams we had scouted prior to the hunt were not found. From my research we kind of half expected this to happen so we did have a couple back up areas. We still had a lot of country to look over so we remained confedent we would find them in the days ahead.

 

Day 3

Saddled up early and travled to the far side of the unit in the roughest most remote country in the area. We could not ride in this area so we tide up the mules and started hoofing the 13,000 ft + peaks. We glassed many nice looking basins but only found ewes and lambs and a few very small rams. We made the long ride back to base camp and did find one ram in the low 160's near our base camp. We went to bed after some dinner.

 

Day 4

Saddled early and went to double check the area we had scouted the big rams a few weeks ealeir. The wind was cold and blowing pretty good and we suffered from pretty bad wind burn on our faces and eyes. It felt a about like a bad sun burn. We were able to glass up two rams that day, we estimated one to be around 159-162 and the other to be around 160-163 class rams, other than them we had not seen any new rams. We decided that we needed to travle to a totally new area since we had not been finding any good rams anywhere. We packed up some food, and a small spike tent and left that eveing to some new country. We rode till dark and set up a spike camp on a remote ridge. We ate some dinner and then went to bed.

 

Day 5

We hiked a tall peak near our spike camp and started glassing. Soon we finally found our first big rams 1-1.5 miles away accross several large canyons. There were three full curl rams and a 3/4 curl ram. We could tell they were good rams but were too far to judge super well. We watched them until they dissapeared into the thick timber down in the bottom of the canyons. We were finally excited that our luck had turned and we were able to locate a few decent rams. At the same time we realized they may be hard to find in bottom of the canyon in the thick trees. We then headed back to spike camp and decided to get some much needed rest. Since the next day was opening morning we needed to conserve our energey to make the trip down to where the big rams were.

 

 

 

That evening we found the rams again along with several other full curl rams. We were able to get a pretty good look at the rams this time due to good sunlight shining on them. We were getting pumped for the next morning which was the opener. We decided to move our spike camp in a little better area for glassing and then went to bed after some more Mountain House Dinner.

 

Day 6 (opening day of the hunt)

I woke up a about 1:30 am and could not go back to sleep. I tried and treid but finally gave up about 3:30 am. I deceided to start getting ready for the hunt. I hobbled the mules and let them loose to graze in the moonlight and I started rechecking my day pack and cleaning all my gear just to keep busy and kill some time. My buddy was sound asleep and I tried to be quiet but I finally woke him up too. It seamed like it took forever for the sun to come up enough to see.

As soon as it did we were searching the thick trees for the big rams. It was not long before we spotted them. They were quite a bit further down and in the thicker trees again. We decided that we better get a move on if we were going to get to them before they left again. We decided to travle horseback around on the main trail and then do a stalk from the main trail. We rode for what seamed like a couple hours and then were just about to the location we wanted to tie up when we spotted three rams feeing in a small clearing about 150 yards away or so. One ram was in the low 160's and I knew he was not what I wanted. The other ram was a decent ram and we thought he would be in the lower 170's. He got me thinking a little bit but I wanted somthing a little better if at all possible. Then we looked at the third ram which looked very heavy at the base and seamed to carry his mass real well. We disscussed the ram for several minutes and we thought he was the heaviest ram we had seen all summer. We estimated him to be in the mid to higher 170's. Since the rams had been hard to find and seamed to be in the timber I thought I better try to kill him. My buddy turned on the video camera and I got ready to shoot. The ram was about 150 yards and was quarteing away heading to the thick timber. I leaned over a log, got a bead on him and shot, he droped right away. I was shooting a 180 grain bullet in my 300 RUM. My buddy and I high fived and talked about the events that led us to this point. After a minute or two we gathered the mules and went over to the ram. I was very happy with him. We put a tag on him and took some pictures and more video, then packed quarted him up and headed for base camp. On the way to base camp we got soaked with a thunder/hail storm. The wind came up and it got pretty chilly. Later that afternoon, I caped the ram out and we put a tight tape on him. He grossed 177 6/8. That night we ate some sheep backstrap and slept the best we had during the whole trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 7 (Packing Out)

We slept in a little bit later as we were a little tired still, we ate some nice warm oatmeal then broke camp. We packed the mules with the our gear, leftover grain, food, meat, trash, sheep cape and skull. Then we headed down the mountain made the 12 mile ride out in a few hours and once again got soaked with a thunderstorm while we unloaded at the trucks. We then made the drive back to southwest NM and arrived at the ranch around midnight.

 

 

I had an awesome Once in a Lifetime experince and would like to thank eveyone who helped me.

[stanley]

VERY, VERY, VERY cool!!!!! Thanks so much for sharing a great story Bursh Buster!!!!

 

Congratulations on a true hunt of a lifetime!

 

S.

 

[CouesWhitetail]

Wow, what a great hunt!! Neat looking light colored face on that ram too!! Great trophy! Bet that dinner of sheep backstrap out in that remote country was a fantastic meal!!!!

 

Congratulations!

 

Amanda

 

[Kevin]

Congratulations, that's the stuff dreams are made of!

 

Kevin

[nmhunt4food]

Nice ram, and great pictures and story. Congratulations Again.

[cramerhunts]

Awesome ram! Congrats and thanks for sharing your story with us!

 

Phil

[Browning'sCustomMeat]

Beautiful ram! Thanks for sharing the great pics and wonderful story. Congratulations!!

 

 

-Jeremy-

[coues7]

Thanks for the story and pics. Those pack trips are the BEST. Congrats on a great ram.

[Red Rabbit]

Seems like I just read your scouting trip story and now your hunt is over and a success. Enjoyed reading them both and looking at the photos. Congrats to you and your friends on the successful sheep hunt.

[AZ402]

One of the best stories of the year so far!! Great job and congrats...

[parothead]

Great story and photo's. That is a great ram...my, my, my. Congratulations!

 

PH

[nmtaxi]

Congrats Wayne. Way to make the most of it!!!

[Coues Sniper]

Congrats and thanks for sharing! The mass on that ram really makes him impressive.

[GameHauler]

VERY NICE Ram,Pics and story.

Nothing like a Sheep hunt to commit to

(and drain a pocket )

 

A Full Curl Congratulations to you.

[KGAINES]

Thanks for the story and pictures, congratulations on a great trophy.