My 2022 Desert Sheep Hunt

The preparation for this hunt started out in the year 2000; it was then that I started the application process as a Utah resident for Desert Sheep. In Utah, a resident has the choice to select one once in a life time animal to apply for (Desert Sheep, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Mountain Goat, Moose, or Bison). For some reason I decided at the time to choose Desert Sheep. I have no idea why I chose this as there has never been anyone in my family that has ever hunted sheep. My dad always wanted to hunt them so perhaps that is reason.

A few years back as I built “bonus points” through the application process, I started to realize that I was close to being able to draw. I was now forced with a dilemma; do I wait more years to draw or choose a tougher unit (physically) now. At 51, I decided now was the time to go and I would roll the dice on one of the tougher units.

Being as this was a once in a lifetime hunt, I told myself beforehand that when I drew I would go guided. Although I have been on guided hunts in the past, this would be my first guided hunt in my home state. I wanted to give myself every opportunity for success and besides that, I did not know Southern Utah area (I live in Northern Utah). Therefore, I started to research guides and before too long I found Randy Johnson at High Desert Sheep Guides.

I gave Randy a call 2 years back and discussed the possibilities with him, along with the units to apply for. I mentioned to him that I was interested in applying for the Escalante unit and he then asked if I had ever done a back pack hunt. Although I have hunted my whole life, I had never packed in to a remote area for a week and carried my camp with me. I know that he was skeptical but I assured him that I would do everything he asked in order to prepare for the hunt. I also told him that I would be bringing my 20 and 25-year-old sons with me.

Last winter I was positive that I had an above average chance to draw and therefore really started to get serious about preparing for the hunt. Part of Randy’s request was to make sure that we had the necessary gear to do the hunt. Therefore, I decided to start acquiring my gear in advance. Admittedly, I did not need some of the gear I bought (new gun) but it was a good time to upgrade/replace some of my new gear. I will list some of the gear I bought and used for the hunt (some of it I already had):

Rifle: Browning Mountain Rifle .300 Win Mag

Ammunition: Factory Federal Fusion 180 Grain (I tried other premium brands but these seemed to shoot the best).

Optics: Leica Spotting Scope, 15X Range Finding Leica Binoculars, 10X42 Range finding binoculars (only used on the first part of the hunt).

Slik Tripod setup

Clothing and Gear: Most of the gear I used was Kuiu and I will say I really liked it. I saved myself several pounds by using it. I did not really like their socks that much and decided to go with Darn Tough socks which I really thought were good. I also went with a Big Agnes tent which was very light (1.9 pounds I believe).

Boots: Crispi GTX. I really liked these boots but they take considerable time to break in (in my opinion). After I trained for more than 50 miles of hiking, they finally broke in. These boots were great the entire trip and I did not get any blisters.

Training: Randy had told me that I needed to get in sheep shape. My training started last June when I went with my son and family on his Utah bear hunt. We packed in bait (about a mile) to his bait station. I believe our packs were about 50 lbs. When I returned home, I continued with the packing (probably 3-4 times a week). Fortunately, I live in the mountains and was able to have some good areas to hike and train. By the end of my training I was doing some 5-7-mile hike with a full pack. This really helped me out on the hunt but it still was not enough training.

I had been in constant communication with Randy in preparation for the hunt. It was decided that we would hunt opening day. This sounds logical but in reality, as the opener is in September, it is very hot. I do not like hunting in heat but was ready to get started. I found out a week before the hunt that the area we were going to was going to be hunted by a large party of hunters. Without going into a lot of detail, it was a friend of a friend who found out about the area and decided to hunt it. My guide did not want to be hunting around another large group so we decided to hunt a more rugged part of the unit.

This new area needed to be accessed by boat. From our drought here in Utah, there were very few points where we could go in order to start out hunt. Fortunately, Randy had been hunting the area for more than 30 years and knew where to go.

The day finally came to leave and we had decided to hike into the area before the opener and scout it. I picked up my sons and we started the 4-5 hours to meet our guide. Randy told me that he would be bringing another guide along as well (Jared). We made it to the meeting point, exchanged greetings and made our way to the lake. We loaded up our gear and made it to our base camp for the night. We camped on the beach that night and it was a good opportunity to get better acquainted and get some rest for the next day. Early the next morning we did a short 3 ½ mile hike to see if there had been any sheep in the area. We saw old sign and that was about it. We returned to camp loaded our gear into the boat and continued on.

After traveling by boat for several miles, we finally made it to a cove and unloaded. There was another group parked there on a boat (fishing) that were nice enough to let us dock by them. I looked at the mountain we were going to go up and thought to myself, well, here we go. Yes, it was really steep. By now it was very hot and we started up the trail (if that’s what you would call it). Randy told us it was an old mule/horse trail that was built over 100 years back.

We started up the trail und after about 30 minutes I was sick and I mean really sick! I was dry heaving and in bad shape. I was really embarrassed! I laid down for a bit a recovered a bit. I drank a lot of water and electrolytes and felt better? Did I say I was embarrassed? All the training and preparation and the hunt starts out like this? I got back to my feet and started again. We had another 3-4 miles to go until we reached our first base camp. We finally made and although I felt a lot better, I still was not well. The next day was going to be a scouting day and Randy insisted I stay back at camp to recover for the day. I objected but finally decided to listen to his advice and stay. I spent the day bored, hiking a bit to get more water and otherwise sitting. It was not fun! Randy told me later that he was worried about me making it after that first episode and wondered if I would make. He was probably wondering if I really had trained! Looking back, I am sure it was a combination of nerves, excitement, maybe a lack of water (who knows)?

The next day, I was ready to go and fully recovered. My spent the day on a grueling hike over many miles of sand stone hills and soft sandy ground. We did stop to glass a few times but it was mostly just hiking. I believe we hiked over 8 miles that day to make it to our next base camp. The hunt was now open and we still had not seen any sheep. We set up our new camp and got ready for the next day. We were up early and off to our glassing points. After a few miles we arrived to our glassing points and started glassing. Rand picked up our first sheep and told me there might be a shooter ram in the group. However, it was miles away and due to the steep cliffs and mountains, it would be next to impossible to get to. We kept glassing until my son Tanner said he could see a ram in his spotting scope. It was actually only a few hundred yards away. It looked like a 4-5-year-old ram and unfortunately too small. My other son Austin saw another smaller ram as well.

We spent the rest of this first leg of the hunt not seeing any other rams. Randy had warned us that it would be tough and the unit was very large with not a lot of sheep. We decided to pull camp and hike back to the boat. This was the toughest part of the hunt at this point. We started before daybreak and hiked more than 10 miles through several steep canyons and passes. The country we saw was incredible- no cattle, livestock and no people. It was very remote and arguably one of the most remote (from roads) of any place in Utah. When we finally reached the boat, we were all about dead. We loaded up the boat and headed off to another base camp. We decided to hunt again in the morning from a different area; another 5 miles in and 5 miles back to camp. With over 20 miles hiked in the past 1 ½ days, we were all ready for some rest. We were all dead tired- again.

So far, I had learned that our most valuable resource was water. We were constantly filtering water from the small puddles we would find in the sandstone. Having a guide that knew where to find these small pockets of water was absolutely necessary. By the end of this leg of the hunt, I was really tired of drinking warm water. We soon realized that the freeze dried food and water was not to be enjoyed but was there to get us through the hunt.

When we finally made it to town we had a great meal of double bacon cheeseburgers. I cannot even describe how good they tasted after a week of Mountain House meals! We all said our goodbyes and Randy said he would call me when he could take us back in. I was disappointed that our younger guide Jared could not join us on our next leg of the hunt. He was finishing up school and could not break away. He was a great young man who absolutely loves hunting and is tough! Him and my sons were tough to keep up to.

Randy called me a few days later and said we would go back in, in about 2 weeks. We were going to hunt a new area and I was really looking forward to it. I had to work the day we were leaving and finally made it out of work around 3:00. After picking up a few items, picking up Austin and Tanner, I finally made to our meeting point. It was now 10:00 PM. We followed Randy for another 4 hours that were primarily rough dirt roads. We finally parked the trucks and put out cots to sleep on. It was now 2:00 AM.

We were up before daybreak and although we only had a few hours of sleep, we were ready to go. We hiked about 3.5 miles, set up camp and were then off to hunt. We did a lot of hiking, glassing, and more hiking and glassing. My son picked up the first group of sheep but they were many miles away. After another 2 or so hours Randy had more sheep that were closer, with what looked like potential shooters in the group.

After confirming there were nice rams in the group we worked towards them. Now to be honest, I do not want to get into a lot of detail but suffice it say I missed out on the sheep (yes I missed). I was not happy and could not believe I had missed. All the practicing and preparation came down to this. I had nobody to blame but myself. We spent the next few hours looking for sheep. We stopped and sat down and Randy started eating some lunch and I just sat there wondering what we were going to do next. I did not feel like eating. Just then my son said “there’s a ram”. Normally, I would not have believed him but after our morning hunt, I knew he would not joke about it. I looked up to my left and there was a ram that had just come over the mountain and was standing there staring at us. Randy said it was a nice mature ram. I laid the gun over my pack and since the ram was directly above us, I could not get it into my scope. Austin put his pack on top of mine and it was a perfect rest. I had Randy confirm the range at 200 yards and fired. It looked like a good hit. The ram staggered a bit and I shot again for insurance.

It's amazing how things can quickly turn around. If you hunt long enough, crazy things like this happen I guess. We soon made it over to the ram and to say we were all happy is an understatement. We caped it, cut up the meat, and loaded up our packs. It was now getting dark as we headed back to camp. When we made it to camp, we had hiked about 10.5 miles that day. We were all very tired but happy. We all slept well that night.

We woke up the next morning and made our way back to our trucks. It was a quick 3.5-mile hike. My sons packed the meat and cape and I packed the horns. We were very happy to make it back and the red bulls tasted very good!

We drove back to Randy’s house and he showed us his trophy room. It was amazing to say the least. It included a 64” kudu that he took in Botswana (his only Africa hunt!). He also had 5 (I believe) sets of antlers from the Buck of Justice. He was the one who originally found the sheds and hunted the buck. Look it up, in my opinion it is one of the best bucks of all time.

Conclusion: Hunting sheep in my home state was certainly a privilege. I cannot say enough good about Randy Johnson and his guide service. He was great to hunt with and lives and breathes sheep hunting. With that said, spending the time with my sons is as good as it gets. I love hunting with my friends but there is nothing like hunting with your family. Although the loved to hunt beforehand, they are now addicted to hunting and cannot wait to get back on another hunt.

Thanks for reading this long winded post and I appreciate the tips I received from members on this forum!

Loved the story and congrats on killing a great ram!!

Wow bruh, that's an awesome hunt and I loved the details that you shared!!! (good and bad)

Huge congrats on a hard-earned trophy ram. Congrats also on having your boys along for the journey too. That's nothing short of special.

This is what Utah desert sheep hunting is all about.

I've been blessed to spend time with Randy as a "packer-spotter" and I've never seen anyone work harder, ever. He's one of a kind and a good friend. Unbelievable what that guy can physically do and he has the sheep-sense to match.

Zeke

Thanks guys.
Zeke: Randy is as good of a guy as there is and of course a great guide! He can sure spot sheep! He is as tough as they come. We all really enjoyed hunting with him.
I never really realized what all the fuss was over sheep hunting. I do now! I will say that on the first or second day, I thought that an elk hunt would be a lot better ha ha.....

Way to go--earned your ram.

Congrats! IMO Randy is the best of the best!

Way to go! Congrats!

A dream hunt come true. Congrats!

Good for you

Great ram! I was fortunate to have that same tag in 2019. Beautiful and very rugged country. Congrats.

What a great experience and write up Woodruffhunter! Congrats to you guys! I’ve been there myself on the Escalante with Randy as my guide, I believe we made 3 trip in before we finally harvested. That was way back in 2001, I can’t believe he’s still guiding.

Great ram! Congratulations

Awesome ram! Thanks for the story!

How old was you’re ram ?

Thanks guys

Brad: It between 7.5-8 years old

Congratulations woodruffH!
Hunting Desert Sheep in that country is as tough as it gets, but you chose well. Randy is indeed a hard core guide and an outstanding individual. I'm sure you are happy that you had him by your side on such a rare hunting experience.
Every hunter, including myself, periodically wiffs! Getting a second chance makes connecting that much sweeter.
Kudos to you on your success, especially with your boys in tow. You have the memory of a great adventure together. Something you will reminisce about and bond around forever.
I also sense you may have been infected with Ovisitus. It is contagious and very expensive!
Well done!

Way to get it done.
Great ram and story.
Besides making memories I bet you were happy to have 2 young packers with you.

Great story and nice ram! Well done!

Hell yeah Woody!!


Good for y'all



Robb

"Besides making memories I bet you were happy to have 2 young packers with you"

You have no idea LIKE2HUNT ha ha.........

Great ram and good job on the hunt and write up

Outstanding! Looks like you got all you wanted, and more. Incredible hunt, and great job on the story.

Awesome ram and great story. Congratulations!!!!

Great Ram! That's the stuff dreams are made of!

Congrats!

Awesome country and awesome ram! Congrats.

Beautiful ram, congrats, and thanks for sharing your dream come true!

BEAUTIFUL RAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks guys.

Don: I’ve been following your thread (your sheep Hunt). I sure hope you shoot a giant ram!

Thanks for taking us on your journey. Congrats on a great hunt and sheep. Great memories!

Very Nice. I really enjoyed the story and your honesty!

Much congrats on a beautiful ram, and thanks for taking the time to share all those details. I very much enjoyed reading that.

Congrats!

Congratulations! That sounds like a dream hunt

Great write up, thanks for sharing and congrats on the ram!

Nice Job!! Can't wait for my turn.

You earned it from when the hunt started in year 2000! What a cool experience to share with your son. Congrats you put in the work and deserved it!

Awesome story and ram congrats!

Not sure how I missed your story. Glad it surfaced again. Congratulations! Great story and ram!

I hate I didn’t see this earlier. Congrats on an awesome Ram!