Sheep crew

[cmille308]

This year I again get the priviledge to go as a helper on two different sheep hunts up here in Oregon. Both of the hunts are in big river canyons, the Deschutes and the John Day. Here is the story of the first one.....

Got this ram opening morning. There was a group of three rams that were hanging out right by the river that had two good rams. They were the best rams we had seen through multiple scouting trips. We decided to make a move on them opening morning, so I was sitting on them an hour before daylight. When it got light we got them located and made a game plan to get in range. Trevor and Hunter (tag holder) kayaked across the river and started climbing a ridge. My son Tate and I stayed on the access road where we had a good view of the rams and watched them bed down. Trevor had lost where they were and thought he and Hunter were a lot closer to the rams then they actually were. Thinking the rams were only 2-3 hundred yards down the hill, Trevor started looking over the rock outcrop they were standing on. The rams, being about 5 hundred yards, immediately spotted him skylined looking over the rocks. Up they got and away they went! Tate and I jumped in our vehicle and followed them around the hillside. They were on the end of a big ridge so all Hunter and Trevor needed to do was hop over ridge and they were able to keep track of them for a little while but lost them when they dropped into small side canyon. Tate and I had them all the way and climbed up the opposite side of the main canyon to get enough elevation to keep track of them as they came out of that side canyon and went up another, finally stopping and began feeding again about a 1/2 mile further up into a bowl. I radioed to Trevor and told him I had them located and they had finally stopped. He replied back and said “ yeah, we’re right on top of them waiting for the big one to stand up.”. I was completely confused, how could they have gotten that far down the main ridge to get above the bowl that fast? Then it hit me... they were on the wrong sheep! I jumped back on the radio and said “Trevor, I think your looking at the wrong rams!”. This time he was confused, he asked “are you sure? I saw those rams go right here and I think the big one is lying right below us!”. I told him I was sure, but if they were sitting on a big ram to really look him over because now we had options! After close to an hour of sitting and changing positions trying to get a better vantage point, I finally saw the ram they were looking at stand up. They were right, he was a good ram that carried his mass really well! While I was looking him over, I saw him jump then heard the crack of the rifle! The ram didn’t look hit but he ran about 50 yards sidehilling down and away from them then stopped and looked back. This time I saw the ram bow his head and short stepped straight downhill before loosing his feet and tumbling to the bottom of the draw at the report on the rifle. 1st ram down, and it has gotten me excited for next months hunt! ning morning. There was a group of three rams that were hanging out right by the river that had two good rams. They were the best rams we had seen through multiple scouting trips. We decided to make a move on them opening morning, so I was sitting on them an hour before daylight. When it got light we got them located and made a game plan to get in range. Trevor and Hunter (tag holder) kayaked across the river and started climbing a ridge. My son Tate and I stayed on the access road where we had a good view of the rams and watched them bed down. Trevor had lost where they were and thought he and Hunter were a lot closer to the rams then they actually were. Thinking the rams were only 2-3 hundred yards down the hill, Trevor started looking over the rock outcrop they were standing on. The rams, being about 5 hundred yards, immediately spotted him skylined looking over the rocks. Up they got and away they went! Tate and I jumped in our vehicle and followed them around the hillside. They were on the end of a big ridge so all Hunter and Trevor needed to do was hop over ridge and they were able to keep track of them for a little while but lost them when they dropped into small side canyon. Tate and I had them all the way and climbed up the opposite side of the main canyon to get enough elevation to keep track of them as they came out of that side canyon and went up another, finally stopping and began feeding again about a 1/2 mile away up into a bowl. I radioed to Trevor and told him I had them located and they had finally stopped. He replied back and said “ yeah, we’re right on top of them waiting for the big one to stand up.”. I was completely confused, how could they have gotten that far down the main ridge to get above the bowl that fast? Then it hit me... they were on the wrong sheep! I jumped back on the radio and said “Trevor, I think your looking at the wrong rams!”. This time he was confused, he asked “are you sure? I saw those rams go right here and I think the big one is lying right below us!”. I told him I was sure, but if they were sitting on a big ram to really look him over because now we had options! After close to an hour of sitting and changing positions trying to get a better vantage point, I finally saw the ram they were looking at stand up. They were right, he was a good ram that carried his mass really well! While I was looking him over, I saw him jump then heard the crack of the rifle! The ram didn’t look hit but he ran about 50 yards sidehilling down and away from them then stopped and looked back. This time I saw the ram bow his head and short stepped straight downhill before loosing his feet and tumbling to the bottom of the draw at the report on the rifle. 1st ram down, and it has gotten me excited for next months hunt!  He ended up scoring out at 174 with 3 inches of deductions for 171 (unofficial until the 30 day drying period of course).

[eddielasvegas]

Nicely done and beautiful ram.

Why the white highlights?

 

Eddie

[CouesPursuit]

25 minutes ago, eddielasvegas said:

Why the white highlights?

Copy and pasted from another media.

Beautiful rams and country, OP. It is nice to see the story.

[cmille308]

I had sent the story as an email to someone and it ended up with the white highlights when I put it here.

[eddielasvegas]

1 hour ago, cmille308 said:

I had sent the story as an email to someone and it ended up with the white highlights when I put it here.

I've seen a few others do the same it just now hit me it was from a copy & paste.

ctrl-shift-v (versus ctrl-v which most of us know) will copy the text without the formatting. 

Only trying to pass along a tidbit I learned not that long ago.

 

Eddie

[cmille308]

Good to know! Thanks Eddie!

[PRDATR]

Nice Ram. It looks like you double posted some sentences though. Congrats.

[trphyhntr]

Very cool

[bonecollector]

Good looking ram. Congrats

[Yuma Outdoorsman]

Man that’s awesome! Thanks for the write up and photos! Looks like a great time. Congrats to the hunter. 

[cmille308]

 He is pretty new to hunting and it was his first time putting in for a sheep tag. Oregon doesn't do points for OIL tags so every year everyone is on the same playing field (be thankful for your system!).  We were absolutely relentless on him! He's a good kid and knows how fortunate he is! 

[AzRaised08]

Wow that’s a super lucky draw and I’m glad everything came together for him! Congrats on a beautiful ram and successful hunt. Thanks for sharing your story!

[AZHunter1]

Nice Ram congrats