G
gripit
Guest
This isn't going to be the full story, but the basic details of one of the most incredible hunts of my lifetime so far.
My business partner, Jason Kummerfeldt, was fortunate enough to draw a Missouri Breaks ram tag in our home
State of Montana . He and I got back from Alaska after guiding Dahl sheep for a month and then we repacked and
headed up to the Breaks. We spent 6 days scouting for sheep and then on the 14th we were joined by John Soares.
On the afternoon of the 14th we were walking down a ridge and I spotted two sheep lying down about 140 yards away.
They had seen us so we just sat down and spent the next 40 minutes eye balling the larger of the two rams. We moved
about 4 times to get different angles on him since he would not move his head. Seriously, this ram did not move his head
one millimeter for the whole forty minutes; he would only move his eyes.
Finally they got up and walked away. We had not spooked them too bad. We decided to back out of the area so as not to
spook them any more. We went up to a high point about a quarter of a mile from where we had spotted the ram and Jason
sat on the area glassing until well after dark. John and I had to go meet Allen McKinney since he was coming in to camp late
that afternoon to join us on the hunt.
We started after the ram before day light and were in position to try and locate him at legal shooting light. We worked all of
the ridges in the area we thought the ram might be in by about noon.
Finally after no luck Jason went and started tracking the rams from where they had walked out of the spot we had seen them
from the afternoon before. I went down and worked one last ridge and then went back to meet him. Jason had tracked the
rams to where they had crossed through a big draw and worked over into some distant breaks country. This stuff is amazing
steep and rough and great country for these rams to easily hide in. All four of us picked up their tracks on the other side of the
draw and then we split into two groups and started working ridges again. By this time we had seen about twelve rams, but not
the one we were after. Jason and I had decided this was definitely a first day rifle ram! He had the dark color, mass, broomed
flare, and all the other characteristics Jason wanted in a ram. We both figured the ram would score between 193 and 195.
At about 5 p.m. we decided we needed to all go down one of the remaining ridges that were left to look at in the area we hoped
the ram would be in. Allen had the furthest ridge to go down and after we all left he ended up spotting the monster we were after
and so he had to sprint back to the ridge Jason was on, to catch up to him. He ran up behind Jason and couldn't breathe and was
close to puking from the run.
Jason signaled me and I signaled John and we all started to head up our respective ridges to meet up. Jason and Allen got their
first and watched the ram for another ten minutes waiting for me to arrive with the video camera. Unfortunately, the ram got
a little spooky and was preparing to leave. John and I both heard the one shot and knew the hunt was over and the huge ram
was done.
Jason and Allen waited for us to show up and we all walked the last 200 yards together. When we all walked up to the ram
we were speechless. Jason started freaking out about how big this thing was. There was no ground shrinkage, but actually
ground growth!!! We then proceeded with photos and taking care of the ram. We finally got back to camp and ate dinner
around one in the morning.
This is truly a hunt of a lifetime and there is not enough time to put all the details in this e-mail. The next morning we went to
the Game Warden and had him plug and measure the sheep. He used a metal tape instead of an official cable and there was
some missed math on the totals. Shane, the warden, was a great guy. When he measured the first base he re-taped it about
4 times to be sure. He has a 17 4/8 base and is 41 on the longer horn. This ram will have some of the largest bases of any ram
ever taken. He got a number of 199, but with a cable and such we think this ram will green score over 200 and after the 60 day
drying period plus factoring the very small deductions of five or six/eights he should officially score about 199 and some change.
This would put him in the top 25 to 30 rams ever taken in the world. Where ever he ends up is not important, but being able
to help Jason take this monster was a truly amazing feat. We hunted very hard plus we were blessed with the luck one always
needs on a hunt. An amazing time was had by all.
Scott C.
