Cathy and I went to the range a few times, and she didn't miss a beat. The Remington 280, shooting 150 grains, with the Vortex scope was dialed in. She felt solid at 100 yards, but iffy further than 200.
Finally, it was time to leave for the hunt. We had skipped the 1st 2 days of the hunt, and opted for later in the week. We would be hunting Thur, Fri, and Sat if needed.
Going on the trip, were my friends Tracy, Mike, Rex, Ryan, Clint and his boy AJ. Also joining was Garth a sheep hunting fool. My friend Kade and his wife were coming out for the day. We met at my house at 7:00 am, and were on our way at 7:30. At 10:30 we were setting up camp. Two wall tents would be our home for the next 3 days. My first experience with them and it was awesome.
Once camp was set up we hit the road to start glassing for sheep. They were spread out in groups of one to three. It was after 1:00 before Ryan and Kade spotted a good ram after a long hike up a canyon.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1655/Utah-cali-ram
Tracy and I stopped to glass an area and I spotted this ram bedded. He's at the left base of the tree.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1656/Utah-cali-ram
After a while he got up to feed. Not A shooter, so we move on.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1657/utah-cali-ram
Kade headed back to his truck, while Ryan went over the top and gives a visual of the country.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1658/sheep-country
In the mean time, Clint spotted 3 rams bedded on a low ridge. We could tell one was a good ram, collared and tagged. We couldn't tell how good while bedded, so we waited for everyone to gather and decide what to do. Kade went to get Cathy and Garth, who had gone up a near canyon. This ram with yellow T?s on his red ear tags, which I had filmed 5 days earlier on the other side of the mountain, was bedded on the hill.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1659/Utah-cali-ram
Hind sight is wonderful, and if we could do it over, we would have sent Cathy after this ram asap, but we waited. Unfortuneatly, we didn't, and while we were watching, the big flared ram we were looking for, came barreling down the ridge with another ram, chasing a ewe. They ran right into the bedded rams and chaos ensued. All the rams started chasing her up the mountain through boulders and junipers. They went into a side canyon, and we sent Cathy and a few guys up the canyon to try for either of these rams.
They had one shot at this flared ram that Tracy got the camera on, but Cathy hadn't got up the ridge yet before the ram spooked over the ridge.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1660/Utah-cali-ram
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1661/Utah-cali-ram
Two mistakes cost us chances at two very good rams. And that ended day one of the hunt.
Day Two
After breakfast, Garth spotted a ram up the road from camp and we went to check him out. He was on the move up the mountain, and only stopped to bed when he reached the top. Not a shooter, so we moved on.
Ryan was first up the canyon from the previous night and found the yellow T ram down low and the big sheep high on the mountain.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1662/Utah-cali-rams
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1663/utah-cali-ram
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1664/utah-cali-ram
With the flared ram, and several other shooters up there, it was decided to go after them. Cathy, Ryan, Clint, ands Garth left the trucks at 1:10, while the rest of us stayed down to spot. It was a long wait. We watched the sheep bed, and after a few hours they were up feeding, but we saw no sign of the two bigger rams. With the boulders big, we could never see the hunters or know went it would go down, but at 4:21, a lone shot rang out, and a ram was down.
Heres a few clips from the stalk. The mountain is step.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1665/utah-cali-ram-hunt
This ram kept following them.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1669/utah-cali-ram
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1670/utah-cali-ram
The ram, heading to his last bed.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1671/utah-cali-ram
They first set up at 210 yards, but Cathy didn't feel comfortable, especially with the wind howling, so they moved closer and she took the shot at 142 yards.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1672/Utah-cali-ram
A few photos.
I didn't get a picture of the guys packing him off the mountain, but a big thanks goes to Mike, Rex, Ryan, and Clint, as well as to Garth for bring Chathy back down safe.
What a great time we had. A big thanks to my friends for helping us out. I'm so proud of you Cathy for hanging tough and getting it done.
Yelum