Thanks for the comments guys. Jdickey, in regards to 34, they just dump a ton of tags in that unit.
Got a minute to tell the story.
We had a basketball game Sat morning so we left from there for the 3 hour drive to meet Jeremy at the Ranch. Stopped in Roswell first and hit the Chinese buffet. Very bad idea. We got to the Ranch at about 3:30pm and met up with Jeremy. He jumped in our truck so that he could show us around the ranch. 20 minutes into driving around Jeremy spots a Ram, ewe and juvenile.
It is really rare to see a sheep from the comfort of a vehicle and unheard of to actually have a tag in your pocket when it happens. Caught off guard, Zach piled out and set up just as the sheep were cresting the hill. We were about 5 seconds to late, but, Zach took a shot he regretted any how. The bullet hit the dirt on the top of the hill, but, the sheep was not hit. We took off up the hill and though we saw them 2 more times going over hills we never caught up with them.
We hurried to see a little more of the ranch before dark. Saw some deer and some real nice country.
We got to stay in the old well kept up ranch house that night and stayed up and visited awhile.
Next morning the plan was to be on the road home by 11:00am because we all had Super bowl plans. We hit the highest spot on the ranch and did some glassing seeing some deer. Then we ran over to where we had seen the sheep the night before and Jeremy dropped us off and the plan was to hike a couple miles and get picked up after we covered some good canyons that were roadless. That would get us to about 11:00.
We headed off, saw some more deer but no sheep. Bout, the time we were at our rendezvous point, Jeremy radioed us and told us that glassing from his spot he saw some sheep heading towards us.
We finally got our coordinates figured out and headed North to the area he saw them headed. We saw them crest a ridge and we got ready and came around from the high side. Once on the same ridge we crept in and sure enough spotted a ram looking right at us. Got the bog pod in standing position and Zach laid the 300 rum on it and dropped him in his tracks. Bullet entered lower neck and was recovered half way through the back strap. Zach has now killed a ibex, bull elk and a barbary with the new gun and I have killed nothing.
We worked our way over there and saw the other 2 rams a ridge over and Zach's ram on the ground about the same time. Kim put the 300 win mag on the bog pod and Zach and I decided that the 2nd ram was larger. We tried to stop him with whistles 2 different times before Kim got him in her sights at 300 yards. At this point I thought she was also using the 300 rum and not the 300 win mag so I told her to hold straight on. She shot , I heard the thump, and I saw his front leg go sloppy. They crested the hill and when I heard she used the win mag I was afraid she had hit him real low or just hit his leg.
We got Jeremy on the radio and told him what was up and Kim and I went to go look for blood. After searching for a good while found the blood (lots of it) and then found him.
Kim's was 24" and Zach's 23" on their long side. I learned from Jeremy that there is always a short side that they use to dig up plants and roots. I had always thought the rooting was javelina since they share the same type of country. But, we saw lots of rooting on the ranch and there are no javelina there.
Now we had made everyone late for their superbowl plans. We quartered out the sheep with skin on, got backstraps and neck meat, rushed some pics, and packed it all out, and I think we all made it by kickoff.
This is about as good as any hunt could go let alone a barbary sheep hunt which normally entails days behind glass just to see one. Thanks again Jeremy.
