Colorado Ram

COBUK · Jan 10, 2005

My wife got this ram last month in Colorado's sheep unit S61. Not only is she smiling because she had a great hunt, but she bettered my ram. (I know, I'm setting myself up for some smarta$$ remarks from the lady members on MM)

Anyway, we spent a couple of weeks in the unit. Saw a good number of sheep. We were having a hard time finding a decent ram. Lots of younger rams. On our last weekend of the hunt we ran into a herd of about 20 head. There were 4 or 5 legal rams in the bunch. Julie liked this one. The herd was up on a canyon side feeding. They were too bunched up initially for a clear shot. It took a little while, but eventually this ram fed into the open. Julie made a good shot on him and it was over. Man, I like those kinds of endings.

I want to congratulate my wife on a great ram. I also want to pay tribute to one of the greatest Big Game Animals in North America.

Everybody have a good year,
COBUK

kilowatt · Jan 10, 2005

Congratulations to your lovely wife and her great Ram. Kind of like having her Christmas present early huh!
Thanks for posting the picture, did you get it scored?

Brian

DeerKing · Jan 10, 2005

Congrats to you and your wife on a fine ram and great accomplishment.

AntlerQuest Hunt Consulting

BUCKSPY · Jan 11, 2005

Very Nice. Congratulations to you and your wife on a fine ram.
Who's doing the taxidermy?

BruinBreath · Jan 11, 2005

Great ram Julie ! Where you guy's hunting private land down there ?

COBUK · Jan 11, 2005

Thanks guys, I forgot how tough sheep hunting can be. Not so much physically but mentally. Lots of hours spent behind glass looking. On days when you can't find them you start doubting yourself wondering what you're doing wrong. Julie had passed on some smaller rams earlier in the hunt and as the season went on I worried that it had been a mistake to pass. Turns out she made the right decision.

Didn't score this ram yet. The long horn tapes 35". He's broomed back on the other side, 16 1/2" bases.

Barry Smith (Alpine Taxidermy) is doing this ram. Jonas has a new pedestal form out with a hard left turn on it. Because of the brooming on the other side we're planning on going with that form.

BUCKSPY · Jan 11, 2005

Greg Brumfield of Clifton Colorado sculpted that form for Jonas off of the prototype he did of my ram pedastal mount back in 2001. He does fabulous sheep and you don't have to wait 2-3 years. My dentist just got his lifesize goat back after 4 years! No offense to Barry Smith. Either way you can't go wrong. Both are fine taxidermists.

COBUK · Jan 11, 2005

BUCKSPY,
Is that your pedestal ram mount that is featured in the Jonas catalog? I didn't ask Barry what his wait time is on shoulder mounts. I know he got behind on his lifesize. He kicked out a bunch of backlogged lifesize goat and bear last year. So, hopefully he's getting caught up.

BUCKSPY · Jan 11, 2005

No. Greg did mine and took it to the national taxidermy competition and won second place in the nation in game heads with it that year. He won first place in the Western regionals with it that same year. He recieved other requests for it and kept altering wall forms to pedastal to accomodate his customers. He talked to Jonas about sculpting a form for production and thats the story. I believe the one in the catalogue is a guy from the Springs' ram from 2003. Hopefully it won't take years to get your wife's sheep back. I wouldn't want to wait over a year myself. Especially for a ram.

COBUK · Jan 11, 2005

LAST EDITED ON Jan-11-05 AT 04:23PM (MST)[p]Bruin,
We hunted the Army (Pinyon Canyon Maneuver Site) and private. This ram was taken on private. We found an outfitter down there that only cared about the mule deer on his lease that let us on. Do you think anyone on here can relate to that guy?

Word of advice for hunters applying for S61 (and possibly S48). If you have money to spend on access ($6,000 minimum) then you're fine. If you don't have that kind of money then apply for the public RFW tag (or another sheep unit with lots of public access). It's frustrating to finally beat the draw odds only to find out that the better sheep hunting is on private ranches that require access fees. The sheep hunting on the Army is kind of hit-or-miss. All of the sheep that we saw from the Army were either barely on the base or already off on private. Plus hunting the Army has it's own access issues, (i.e., you're limited to what days you can get access and when you have access you're restricted to their hours)

FYI, regarding Purgatoire RFW sheep tags. They're booked for this year. There are 2 landowners that control the tags. One gets a tag to sell every other year and the other landowner gets a tag to sell every third year. The tags are running in the $30K-35K range. They're taking 170 class rams. PM me if you need contact info.

BruinBreath · Jan 11, 2005

Great job again. I have heard that access into Pinion Canyon can be pretty frustrating. Fort Carson is the same way. There is some great turkey and elk hunting there but as you said they only let you hunt certain corridors and you have to check in every day. Ridiculous how much money hunting brings nowadays. Congrat's to Julie, awesome ram !