Capt. Don Martin Report post Posted December 30, 2015 While some of the Arizona Wildlife Outfitters team was hunting with Jerry Weiers in the Garden of Eden in 15D North, another of our guides Tad Levandowski, was with Colorado resident Jerry Uzyn who had drawn tag 1 in Unit 15B West, which is like the Sahara Desert of northwest Arizona. Uzyn had drawn the tag with just 7 bonus points. With sheep numbers way down in this unit, it became obvious that just finding a decent ram here was going to be tough. In the G&F aerial survey of the unit they spotted just ONE ram that they felt would score over 150! For the last two years our hunters have taken rams that scored between 154 and 158 and that was what we were looking for. But as former sheep guide Larry Heathington stated, "You can't kill what isn't there!" We learned that on Day two one of the other tags holders spotted a group of rams coming across one of the sheep overpasses on Highway 93. When the rams were safely in Unit 15B West he took the oldest ram in that group that scored 150! Then a couple of days later, the other tag holder took a 6 year old ram that scored 135! By now some of the AWO team were done in Unit 15D North, so we all packed up and headed over to help Tad and Jerry. There were a few rams found, but nothing that we were interested in. We hunted for a full 11 days, and looked and looked and looked some more. We just could not find any older rams, and actually saw very few sheep at all! Then on Day 11, Ryan Chan once more spotted a group of about 16 sheep, including 5 rams about 3 miles up on the mountain This was the largest ram we had seen in the unit and we made the decision to make a stalk. With rain, snow and hail coming down, Jerry anchored the 6 year old ram at 226 yards! This was without a doubt, the toughest sheep hunt that we've been on in many years! My advice to hunters who may apply for a tag here in 2016? DON'T! sheep numbers are dropping and quality rams are few and far between, 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Browns Report post Posted December 30, 2015 Congratulations on a tough hunt! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Report post Posted December 30, 2015 Congrats on the ram! The survey was so bad, why are they allowing any tags. This is sad. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coues poacher Report post Posted December 30, 2015 Great write up and pics. Congrats to the hunter on a once in a lifetime hunt and congrats to the guide service. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
208muley Report post Posted December 30, 2015 Azgfd put too many tags in many sheep units this year. Hopefully they see their mistake and drop tags for next year. Congrats on a tough hunt. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SirRoyal Report post Posted December 31, 2015 Great Ram! Congratulations to the hunter and the guides! Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society has a post about the declining sheep population in the 15's. Read At adbss.org Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
naturebob Report post Posted December 31, 2015 Without reading the article ,I can't believe there are any Sheep left in this state with the amount of predators. Nice Sheep by the way Don.................BOB! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brian390 Report post Posted January 2, 2016 Congrats on a great ram in a tough unit. Thanks for posting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tomharveyb Report post Posted March 22, 2016 Regarding 15b west, I hunted there in 2010, using Don as my guide/outfitter. I got a ram on day 15 which would disappoint many hard core trophy hunters who can't handle life if they don't shoo an animal with a certain score. My ram is on my office wall and represents 15 days spent looking at over 200 sheep and 56 rams. It represents memories which will never go away. About Don- totally ethical and hard working. Will put in whatever time it takes to get you the best hunt possible. Just my 2cents worth. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris Report post Posted March 27, 2016 Here it is, but it's not looking good. The hunt recommendations have not been decided... https://adbss.org/facts-info Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
