My dad, father in law and myself, along with 5 dogs left my house before noon on Tuesday the 7th. We arrived in camp around 6 that evening and had everything set up by about 10 or so. This left us a full day of scouting the next day prior to the opener on the 9th.
It was quite pleasant all day. My dad and I left camp before sunrise to scout for a bit. We found 3 sheep right off, then 4 ewes and a 5 year old ram prior to returning to camp for breakfast. We went out later and ended the day with a total of 35 sheep spotted with one ram I guessed to be 7 years old or so. My friend from Reno arrived around 11 that night.
That night it started raining, which turned to snow and wind, and more snow. Opening day was miserable with no sheep spotted.
That night got into the low teens. We started the next morning in the valley floor and worked our way up. Well into the snow, we came across a lion track, which I thought was very fresh, but turns out had to have been made shortly after the wind quit the night before. All 4 of us had lion tags, so I turned the dogs loose. The track bailed out of the mountains and right down to the valley floor, likely headed to the next moutain range.
After a couple hours, we had recovered 3 of my 5 dogs. Two were still unaccounted for. My dad and father in law were in the same truck, and my dad had enough with the cold. He doesnt do well due to his blood thinners due to strokes he's had. (Read "A deer hanging in camp" from October). He decided to head to camp and then go home. My father in law went with him to help him out.
Andy and I then continued on to look for the other two dogs, which now had pinged 4 miles west. We also found two sets of dog tracks headed that direction. The problem there was 4 miles line of sight was more like 12 or 14 on the road. At about 1230 we got into the area and got a ping again, which was quickly lost, so I knew they were still moving.
So we decided to just sit and glass for a moment when Andy spotted a band of 4 rams. We set up the spotter and identified 2 young rams, a slightly older ram, and a much mature,, heavier ram than the other 3.
It took a moment, but Andy concinved me I was going to kill that ram. We had to move down the road some, and make about a mile and a quarter stalk to get into range. The stalk would be blind, with no one else to spot.
Prior to leaving the truck, Andy gets my gun out and notices the bell had fog in it. I confirmed, and it was cloudy, but I could still see. The only other spare I had in the truck was my 30-30. I was not worried about the cross hairs, and we had good light, so we went for it.
At about 215, we arroved about 300 yards from the prominent rockpile which was our anchor point. We had not seen the sheep for over an hour. There was one rock that I wanted to get to which would put me within about 200 yards of where we last saw them bedded.
Andy and I talked on the way up and figured things were going to go one of two ways. It was going to be a fast and furious goat rope, or we were going to be laying up in the snow and wind until sunset waiting on them to move.
We made it to the rock with no problems, but could not see the bedding spot yet. As I crept a little farther out on the rock pile, I had sheep now 20 yards below me. They had gotten up to feed, and when I showed myself, they went right back to the chute they were bedded near. I had a matter of 2 or 3 seconds to make a decision and a shot. The lead ram happened to be the one I wanted, and even in my fogged scope, he was clear. I had a split second where he paused befoe topping out to put a bullet in the right spot with a very steep (10 degrees at best?) quartering away shot. As soon as the crosshairs touched just to the left of his spine abou mid body, I touched one off.
All the rams made it over the top before I could take in what happened. There was no reaction. There was no thump. The ram didn't drop, he just disappeared over the ridge with his friends.
Andy scrambled up the rock pile we were on as I reloaded. When I got to the top, Andy was about 30 yards ahead of me looking forward, and then made a very distcinct motion to get my ass there rfn.
When i got to where Andy was, I was looking at 3 sheep. 2 young rams and a slightly older ram, all pale. Andy was very loudly telling me not to shoot. I kept counting. 1, 2, 3… 1, 2, 3. Yup I am good enough at math to know 3 does not equal four even in the common core era.
The three finally got tired of us and trotted off after a few seconds. We started walking their direction and Andy put his binos up. There he is! There were so many rocks it was hard to see what i thought was the nose of a sheep sticking up!
We made it to my ram, and it was quite a feeling picking that up. He was an old battle scarred warrrior, which i guesed to be 8 plus years old, which is old for this unit. He had a big roman nose, was heavily broomed and had a thick chocolate coat. His body condition was pretty poor, skinny, no fat.
Upon inspection, we found the entrance hole just in front of the hip on the left side, certainly not far from where my crosshairs were for the 120 yard shot.
After punching the tag, and taking a few pictures, we caped, skinned and quartered him out. We never recovered the shank or petals from the 152 grain Hammer Hunter, but did find some blood shot in the left shoulder area, which I suspect was from a petal. I imagine the shank and other two petals made it deep into his chest, as he only went 20 yards from the shot, so it had to have penetrated 18 plus inches to make quick work of it.
We made it to the truck about 5 pm. Camp by 6. My father in law and I then fou¹nd the last two dogs. My dad also got news from my mom after he left camp via my spot message and went back to camp and left a note congratulating me.
My father in law and I went into Tonopah the next day and checked in the ram. They aged him at 8 and 140 for the score.
The gun I used was bought by my grand pa in the late 60's. A Sears model 53 30-06. I have since removed the Nikon Buckmasters II scope, and will likely replace it with a Leupold of some flavor in the near future.
For those who are banking points, for sheep, all I can say is apply and hope you can get it done while you can. I am fairly young, but have had some pretty major health issues and fought a bad case of covid this year. I was in an "easy" to draw unit and an "easy" unit to hunt and am glad I got it done now. It was quite an experience.
