Unit 15D desert bighorn sheep hunt

DonMartin

DonMartin

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LAST EDITED ON Dec-14-09 AT 08:36PM (MST)[p]OK guys now is the time to sharpen up your pencils and tell me what YOU think this ram would score.

Been hunting sheep in Unit 15D with a great guy from Tucson and we've looked at a heck of a lot of rams.

We've seen 96 ewes and lambs, and 50 rams. We've seen 30 class I & II rams, 14 class III rams and six class 4 rams.

Here are a couple of photos of the ram that I took on Sunday morning just after a nasty rain and wind storm was ending.

What do you think?

Sorry for the fuzzy photos, they were taken just over a half mile away through my Swarovski spotting scope using a hand held Canon point and shoot camera.

Even though both photos are of the ram's right side, I can tell you that his left side is pretty close to his right. Mass is basically the same too.

So what do you think?

Length of his horn?

Mass at his bases????

If he is almost equal on his left and right, then what do you think he might score???

Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters

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Oh, we've nicknamed this ram "Mr. Perfect" for obvious reasons.

Here is another view of him..

Think we ought to take him?

There is just one other hunter in the unit and he is hunting with a long bow, so we are in no hurry to finish.

Do you think he is a ram worth waiting 32 years for?

Don Martin
AWO

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How old you think this warrior is? Again sorry for the grainy photos, shooting through a spotting scope with a hand held camera isn't that easy!
 
Don,

You can't just give us the back view and expect us to give you a score. I bet you have him between 155-170. You know as well as anyone that we need a side view and front view to get a quality score.

Looks long but a little thin to me...

Goodluck!
 
Sorry guys but the darn ram just wouldn't give us the others views we all wanted to see, though I think the video footage we got may have some better look on it.

I know its hard to judge with only side views...

Don
 
I agree with the others on long but does not hold his mass. With out knowing 15D I am not sure if he is a shooter, does this area produce B&C rams? 34 years I think I would take him. I think mid 150's

John
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-15-09 AT 09:03AM (MST)[p]Here is a little background on what we were looking for.

My hunter, who is from Tucson said he liked the wide flared look that a number of Nelsoni rams have.

He says if he wanted a tight curl look, he would have applied in the units down south.

He also isn't hung up on score; it is a "look" he is after after other than he'd like an older Class III or Class IV ram, which is something we all want.

On opening day we passed on a pair of rams that most I think would have taken. One of the rams was shot a few days later by a hunter from Phoenix and the guide told us he scored 163 B&C.

We knew this ram was heavy, and had big bases, but he didn't have that "look" so it really wasn't a big deal to us.

We've looked at a lot of rams that the hunter has wanted to shoot, but I have told him in each case that we could do better in finding a ram that he has waited a long time for.

I always remember that since this is a once-in-a-lifetime situation, that you got to make sure that there will never be any regrets when the hunter squeezes the trigger.

Anyway, I can tell you that my hunter really likes this long horned ram and wants to go up and look at this ram at a closer distance.

My friends Jay Chan, Mike Cobb and I are thinking this ram is 33-34 inches long and has 14 inch bases..Best I can figure he is 6 1/2 years old.

And so the story continues...

We'll see what happens.

Don Martin
AWO
 
Like the others have said it is hard to give a score off those photos. From my experience in that unit he looks pretty good.

Make sure to put up the kill photos for us.

Good luck
 
I have to hand it to your hunter choosing what he like and sticking with it. I hope to be in his position someday. Please keep us updated.
 
don i would say for 15d he would be a shooter if he was older.but one thing to remember he dosent drop below his jaw line so you could be off on the length of his horn and he dosent carry the mass at all to me you need to look for a 8 year old plus ram even if it means he is a little smaller due to brooming off his tips. he looks like a young ram that needs to be left to breed more. as others have said it is hard to put a true score on him with out the better pictures and angles. there is still 16 days left in the season and the rams are not going any were so take the time and pick the right ram out for your client. but trophy wise i just think he picked the wrong unit for a true b&c ram. just my two cents worth.
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-15-09 AT 08:17PM (MST)[p]Well another day is in the books.

And before I go on with what has happened I thought I'd kinda give you some background on what has happened along the way.

I've got some photos that I took that I'll share with all the MM faithful. They might be of interest to some of you who maybe are thinking about applying for this unit in the future.

Understanding that he hunter has applied for a sheep tag since he was 17-years-old and way before the current Bonus Point system was started, the stakes were high.

He has taken a Dall sheep in Alaska, but his real passion is Coues whitetails, and he has done very well with them in the past.

And he is a competition type shooter, who has done well in the past with his shooting exploits. His firearm of choice was I believe a Remington Model 700 Police Sniper rifle in 308 caliber.

My marching orders from him from the start were really quite simple, "I don't care about score, I want an older ram that flares out".

That sounded not only doable, but reasonable as well and so the team was assembled and come Dec. 1 the game would start. We would hunt the entire month if necessary to ensure he got the ram of his dreams.

Since I was going to be on a number of other hunts in November, including a late Kaibab deer hunt, a couple of friends who have helped on sheep hunts in the past offered to do some pre-season scouting in the unit, since it is close to our Kingman homes.

Jay and Ryan Chan went out and looked over our favorite ram haunts, and got a few photos of rams that they thought we might be interested in.

The Chan's also located a number of other rams, about 15 or so.

Things were looking good when I got back home and went out to set up camp.
 
Here is one of the more interesting photos that the Chan's showed me.

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The bottom ram is the one they thought was the best of these two.
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-15-09 AT 08:35PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Dec-15-09 AT 08:34?PM (MST)

The day before the hunt my friend Marc Swartzkopf who lives in Phoenix and each year takes a weeks vacation just to go on these hunts, and I were glassing a mountain near camp.

In the morning, we had watched a group of 10 ewes and lambs plus two really nice Class III rams work their way over onto a mesa and out of sight.

It was about 11 a.m. when Marc said, "Don you'd better take a look, there is a ram walking up the canyon where the other sheep had been."

I go the Swarovski STM-80 on him just in time as it was obvious he too was heading out of the canyon and onto the mesa where the others had gone.

It was a ram we decided we need to find opening day...

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Opening day was clear and cold and strangely, no wind was blowing. If you hunt in the Black Mountains the wind will seem like an every day occurrence.

We headed out at daylight up a long ridge in search of the ram that Marc had seen the day before.

That ram was long, heavy and carried the mass all the way to the end of his yellow horns. And, it looked like he had a nice flare at the end.

If we find him, I tell the hunter, this hunt will be over quickly.

On the way up the mountain we see a number of other sheep, including rams. But the rams the Chan's had photographed nor the big old yellow horn is not seen.

Another hunter who happened to have a sheep tag and his friends were in the same general area. This group's main guy was Dan Reed, who also guides for me occasionally and knows sheep in the Black's.

Dan had showed me a photo of a ram that he said his friend wanted to take. Since it looked like it had a tight curl we agreed this was not be on our radar screen.

About mid morning one of their spotters found the group of 10 ewes and lambs and two rams. One of them looked to be the ram that Dan's friend wanted.

We were farther up the hill and told Dan we'd try and locate the sheep take a closer look for them.

We did and that's when the fun started.

We advised Reed we had the rams bedded down but then his hunter wasn't sure he could make it up and back before dark.

I asked jokingly if that meant we had the green light to take one of the rams. Reed replied we did.

Remember when I said my guy wants a long flaring ram...

My guy was pleading to let him shoot this ram, but I advised that he shouldn't. I told him I was sure we could better, and besides it was opening day!
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-15-09 AT 09:01PM (MST)[p]http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/User_files/4b285a4b551daf08.jpg

These are the two rams, bedded peaceably just to the north of us.

Even though we've got a green light to take one of these rams, we pass.

Opening day, remember? Lots more days to hunt and besides, we're still looking for the ram that Marc had seen just the day before.

Something to remember, though we told Dan that the the ram they had photographed wasn't on our radar screen, and it is the ram looking to the right in this photo, before the hunt would end others with a sheep tag in their pocket would find this ram very desirable.
 
Great story so far, Thanks for taking us along for the ride. One of these days I hope to get a sheep tag. I can't wait to hear how this one ends..

John
 
This is very enjoyable to read Don. Thank you for posting this for us. Excited to hear the rest of the story..... Good luck and have fun!
Anthony Matthews
 
I'm familiar with ram horn size classification of 150" class, 160" class, 170 class, etc. I've harvested a 170 class bighorn and rafted class IV whitewater. What is the minimum size of the six rams you say are class 4?
 
Sir, desert bighorn sheep rams are classified by age, not by score or horn configuration in Arizona by the Arizona Game & Fish Department. That is the system we use when we classify rams in the field.

Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
 
I'm going to kinda fast forward through the days to try and get you all up to date on the hunt.

We saw rams every day, whether rain or shine.. Some days we saw 2 to 4 "new" rams, and on our best day, which I'll cover later, we saw 21 different rams of all ages.

Fast forward to day four, which was Friday, December 4th.

Early in the morning the team which was comprised of the hunter, his videographer, Marc and I headed out at daylight, up a long finger to look for the ever elusive rams.

I saw sheep almost immediately on a far away mountain, but closer inspection revealed just lambs and ewes.

Then I glassed a sunny side of a mountain and saw seven sheep. There were three rams and four ewes. One of the rams was the one we had seen on Day 1, the ram we called the Sullivan ram, as it was the sheep that Kingman resident Jerry Sullivan and his friend Dan Reed had indicated was the one they wanted.

As we were watching these sheep in the spotting scope, a guide from Phoenix, his hunter and one of his helpers came walking behind us.

I stood and told these guys we were looking at a group of sheep, including three rams.

The guide asked me if we were hunting the rams. I said we were looking at them. He said, "We have a sheep tag too" and off they went up the ridge in the direction of the sheep.

We didn't know it at the time, but they were after the Sullivan ram, and later on our group heard three shots.

The Sullivan ram became the Johnson ram. We later got to see the ram as the other guide and his team brought the neat ram to the spot where we were all parked.

We had judged him pretty good. He had great mass, but his horns were in the 32 inch range. We figured he would score in the high 150's, but they thought he had 15 3/8 inch bases and would score about 163. Later on in Phoenix, the G&F folks there scored him at just under 161, a fine ram indeed.

Sullivan had left to take his daughter on a cow elk hunt, and wasn't in the field the day the ram was taken. I called Dan and told him the ram had been taken, but assured him that even though we could have taken him that morning, we had not, but one of the other hunters had.

He was kind of bummed out, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Here is a photo that I shot through the scope (sorry it is so blurry!)of two of the rams just before Mr. Johnson took him. He is the bottom ram, the one looking to the right.

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Again I apologize for the blurry photos associated with this story, but remember most of them are taken at long ranges with only a point and shoot camera.
 
Every day we were out and looking for sheep. We looked at areas in the north, south, east and west side of this unit, which is fairly large.

This unit has by far the most sheep of any unit in Region III.

But this area has been in a drought for 10+ years, so as the old saying goes, "These rams were born in the drought and they'll die in the drought."

It also means that they have less than ideal conditions for growing big sets of horns, and most of the mature rams in this unit will score from 150-158 B&C. These rams do broom alot, and as such finding a class III or Class IV rams with horns over 32 inches long is not an easy task.

Find a ram over scoring over 160 B&C in this unit and most hunters will not pass on them.

Anyway, the thing I really like about hunting sheep here is that you see sheep almost every day, unless the weather is really bad.

I've heard about the hunts down south where guys hunt for two and three weeks and see less than five rams.

That's not for me! I love to glass, but looking over empty desert landscape for days on end is just not my cup of tea.

Anyway, we are seeing rams of all ages on the first week of the hunt, and I'll put in some photos of rams of different ages that I photographed during the first week of the hunt.

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Obviously this is a young ram, but he is in great condition and some day will make a hunter a fine trophy. Notice he is already starting to put on some overlay at the base of his horns.
 
Anxiously awaiting the next chapter of this hunt... Thanks for keeping us updated Don, I find it fascinating to follow along and living the hunt vicariously through you. My only hope is that some day I will be fortunate enough to draw this tag!
Ilene
 
Terry,
No way. I too am waiting to read the updates and see the outcome of this hunt. Guess that Don is not one of those hunters who post from a mountain top on their Blackberry.

Doug

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LAST EDITED ON Dec-21-09 AT 10:09PM (MST)[p]Well now you've got to see just a few of the many rams we have looked at while hunting hard on this sheep hunt.

We've seen high winds, lots of rains, low clouds and lots of quail hunters and 4 X 4ers during the hunt.

As the days go by, we are blessed to see fewer and fewer people and after the last storm moved through, the rams seem to have finally congregated and we've seen a bunch.

Had some close calls, and serious discussions with my hunter over whether to pass on some of the rams we're seeing.

I've been in the business a while (since 1987) and I hope I've learned a thing or two about these rams in the Black Mountains.

I hear hunters say what they are looking for in a ram and that's what I try and find for them.

Its nice when a hunter says he's looking for the once-in-a-lifetime experience that sheep hunting is all about, and my hunter this year has a great attitude about the hunt and his expectations are doable.

Thankfully he and I both have the time we need to make this thing happen.

Another huge factor is the volunteers who contribute so much that makes these hunts end year after year on a successful note.

Most of the guys that go out with us have been on our sheep hunts in the Black Mountains for many, many years. They do it because they love to be in the field and be part of the sheep hunt.

Without them on the hunts, my job would be a lot tougher, and I thank them all.

Well back to the story at hand.

We've been at it now for almost two weeks and one of the guys (Chris Dow) sees a ram right at dark on day 11 that has possibilities.

We plan on being in the area where we put him to bed on Day 12, and my brother Gary will act as our "eyes in the sky" when we go out on the stalk.

Unfortunately when we get closer to the ram, we see that while he has the length we seek, the mass just isn't there.

Tough call, but in the end we decide to pass, because..

My hunter, who has a great glassing skills due to his hunting Coues whitetail down south, has spotted some rams in a far away canyon.

Closer inspection with the spotting scope reveals this canyon has a LOT of rams. Before the end of day 12, we will see 21 different rams, with what looks like a couple of shooters. We call this canyon "The Land of the Giants" or simply "The Bachelor Pad."

More tomorrow...

Don Martin
 
Well we're having another much needed rain storm today in Kingman, so I thought it would be a good time add some more of our sheep story.

Before I go on, I remembered I hadn't put in a couple of photos of neat rams we had seen on Day 11.

Here is one that kinda caught our eye:

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Looks really neat from the back, but they all do, but after a 20 minute discussion decided to pass on him.

I did call and leave a message for the archer from Missouri who was and still is hunting in this unit, telling him this was definitely a ram he might want to look at.

In the end, no one took him as far as we know.

He's there for some lucky hunter next year!
 
Here is a neat photo of a ram who unfortunately has some very serious health issues.

He is no doubt infected with sinusitus, a fatal disease that is found in sheep in our area (and others) that is caused when the Bott Fly goes up in a sheep's nose and then lays eggs in the honey comb core of the horn.

The eggs hatch and larvae literally eat away the horn core including burrowing through the skull and into the sheep's brain.

They often go blind and slip and fall to their death, but for the real unfortunate ones, they break legs and die a slow agonizing death, or get eaten alive by predators.

Here is the ram. I aged him at 6 1/2 years old, and if he's lucky maybe some hunter next year will take him, providing he doesn't break off one of his horns in the next year.

Breaking off an infected horn is also a relatively common event with these rams.

Anyway, here he is!

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The photo doesn't show it real well, but you'll see the dark ring at the bases of his horns. A good indication that he has the "bug". Also note a flat spot on the top of his left horn and a big chunk out of his right horn about four inches from the base.

More on the hunt later..
 
Come on Martin! I know that you're just sittin around the house eating cheese puffs. I just talked to you an hour ago. I figured the rest of the story would be up here and I could come home and read it. Get on with it brother!!
 
VALLEY OF THE GIANTS!

It is now Day 12 of our hunt and as we were stalking a potential shooter ram (didn't pan out--good length, not enough mass or flare)my hunter Paul glassed up a single ram way back up on the side of a canyon over two miles away. Paul is a whitetail hunter and uses Swarovski 15 X 56's. He has the knack for seeing those white butts and yellow horns. Its great to hunt with a sportsman who has these skills.

Further inspection with the spotting scope reveals not one but two rams are on the side of this vertical walled canyon, and one of them while short in length, appears to have some tremendous mass.

Then, on the other side of the canyon I see a ram band that ends up having five rams in it.

Two are youngsters, but two of them are no doubt class III rams. The leader of the band however, really catches our eye. Even over two miles away this guy looks like he has it all.

He is just a little longer than the other two, but has a lot of mass!

We decide that any of the three are shooters, but the leader--ah--he is our target, we just got to get over to where they are at.

We do a rather quick march down a canyon and set up on an isolated chunk of yellow ryolite rock. Rylolite is actually the ash of these ancient volcanos, and the Black Mountains are the result of this activity that happened eons ago.

Anyway with my brother serving as our "eyes-in-the-sky" a few miles away, we make our way over to a spot and quickly set up the big glass in a protected saddle on the mountain.

Then we hear it--the first of what will be a series of shots coming from the valley floor below us.

"What the heck?" is heard from members of our team, which this day includes Mike Cobb and Chris Dow, plus the hunter and myself.

Then we a covey of quail flush up the mountain near us and sure enough, several shots are fired.

Unknowingly, a Olympic class quail hunter is below us and is chasing quail.

He obviously doesn't know of the rams above him, who are now slowly walking up the mountain, away from all the shooting.

Hey, its public land and multiple use is something I always expouse, so we'll just have to deal with it.

Now we are less than a mile from the ram band, and after video taping the group, I don't think there is one in the group that doesn't feel the leader of this group isn't a worthy ram. He is long, and has some flare, and I'm confident that he'll make the Arizona record book.

As we wait for the rams to stop their trek up the mountain, we decide that more glassing and try and figure out what our plan of attack will be.

Suddenly our hunter, Paul, says, "I've got a huge ram, really I do, and he's close!"

I have one of our group keep an eye on our ram band, while the rest of us try and locate the ram that Paul has seen.

It takes a while, but I finally find him in the scope, and Paul is right on the money, wow what a ram!

Everyone looks at him and gives the thumbs up.

This guy is very old, with supper heavy bases, and though not over 33 inches long, carries his mass all the way the end! This ram, I think might just have all the requirements to make not only the Arizona record book, but the the "Big Book" of Boone & Crockett as well. He is no doubt the largest ram we have seen to this point that is huntable (Not over two miles away!)

I range him through the Leica 15X56 Geovids and he is feeding peaceably on the side of a brush covered almost vertical wall at exactly 1,032 yards!

The "Valley of The Giants" is living up to its name..

Now we just have to figure out how to get Paul to within a reasonable shooting distance of this magnificent and majestic old ram.....
 
Don the story is very nicely done, hope to see the rest soon.


"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
 
Sorry about the delay, I had to "re-register" to get back into this forum..

Anyway, with our target ram in sight, we start planning our stalk.

First thing we did was to get my brother Gary up to us on the mountain so he can sit behind the big scope and be our eyes in the sky.

Mike is going to be in charge of the video camera and would try and capture the event with a super neat high definition camera that Paul has brought along.

I know we have to cut the distance down a lot as we start moving towards the unsuspecting ram. I have seen Paul shoot accurately out to 700 yards, but I want to be much closer.

This is a ram of a lifetime, I'm sure of that.

Finally, after a half hour, we come out on top a bench that is 350 yards almost directly below the ram.

He now senses something is amiss, and he quits feeding and goes into the "what the heck is going on below me?" mode.

I range him at 349 yards, but the shot will be at an extremely sharp uphill angle.

Paul gets into the prone shooting position, and the rear stock of his rifle is touching the ground. Mike has trouble finding the ram in the view finder initially, but finally it all comes together, and not a minute too soon.

Paul is on the ram, Mike is filming and I tell Paul to take the shot.

The canyon's silence is broken by the crack of the Remington Sniper rifle in 308 caliber.

I see a huge puff of white dust as the bullet just barely clears the ram's back and slams into a wall of million year-old rock behind him.

The ram, startled by the noise, starts to run towards-- not away from us- along a rock ledge.

Paul can't believe he has missed, and momentarily has trouble finding the ram in his scope as it moves along the ledge.

Mike is still filming the ram and in a few seconds Paul is back on target.

The ram is now stopped, and according to my laser rangefinder in my Leica's, is 288 yards away. The ram is broadside looking at us.

A second shot rings out, breaking the silence of the mountains, and something appears to come off the ram's back. "You got him" Mike says as he looks at the camera's screen, but I insist he has missed.

The ram quickly moves off, around a pinnacle and up a steep canyon and onto the top of the mountain as my brother watches from far below, giving us a blow by blow of the ram's escape from harms way.

The next hour wasn't the best I've ever spent on the mountain. Questions on what went wrong were being discussed by Paul and I.

Chris Dow and myself climb up and actually followed the ram's tracks in the mud. I was looking for blood, and secretly hoping not to find any--a strange request I know-- but I didn't want to have to try and go into that rocky complex where that ram had disappeared into. No blood was ever found.

Mike said a review of the video revealed a clean miss on the first shot and the second shot had taken a tuff of hair off the ram's back. Just a half inch lower and the king of the mountain would have been ours. Man what a lucky ram!

But all was not lost. In short order Chris found another group of five rams, including one we called "Pretty Boy". That group was soon joined by another two rams, but no shooters were in that group. We did get some great video and still photos of this group

Gary found a group of seven rams way up the canyon from us, and he said that there was a huge ram in the group.

Remember that first group of five ram I had found? Well all of the activity in the area (quail hunter and us shooting) had caused them to disappear, something that Black Mountains rams are very adapt at doing.

We were a long ways from the truck and a cold, wet storm was blowing in. Occasional rain drops reminded us that unless we wanted to get wet we needed to head back.

Everyone on the team--including Paul- was wore out, physically and mentally at this point.

Day 12 had produced a lot of action, but no ram was to be had this day.

Oh well, 18 more days to go in the hunt.

The storm was suppose to last throughout the night, but then quickly blow out.

Who knew what tomorrow, Day 13 would bring?

All I knew was it was time to go back in to town, where the warmth of the Martin house, complete with a hot dinner and a hot shower, and a comfortable bed awaited us.

I guess I should add here that the starter on the generator in the trailer was acting up, so I took the fifth wheel to a repair shop in Kingman and since my house is just 18 miles from the unit, our "camp" at this time was at my home....
 
Boy, this could take weeks!
Too bad a guy that picky can't finish the deal when you finally find that 1 in mil ram!
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-25-09 AT 12:51PM (MST)[p]First of all Merry Christmas to everyone!

I'm getting ready to load up and head out for a 5-day juniors muzzleloader deer hunt in Unit 16A, so before I do, thought I'd add some more about the sheep hunt.

Here we go.

We almost didn't go out on Day 13.

It was raining hard, and the wind was blowing when we woke up. Two of the guys on the AWO team, Jay Chan and Mike Cobb, thought I was crazy for wanting to go out, given the weather situation.

However, I checked the National Weather Service site (Las Vegas) on the computer and it showed the storm was moving fast and that the Black Mountains was right on the edge of it, so I figured we might get lucky and maybe later in the morning, it might clear up.

As we ate a great breakfast, we watched the video again and again of the previous day. I was amazed that with a High Definition TV you could not only see the vapor trail of the bullets, but on the first shot, in slow motion you can actually see the shadow of the bullet as it approaches the ram! That is some kind of video camera that Paul had, and after watching that video, I knew I had to get one.

Anyway, as we left the house that day, it was dark and wet, and as we got to Golden Valley, the Black's were still covered with low hanging, dark clouds. Plus the wind was howling.

Not looking like a good sheep hunting day for sure.

I told the guys that we would stay out until 10:30 and if it hadn't cleared up by then, we would call it a day and go back to Kingman and watch the football games (Those Arizona Cardinals--who knows which team will show up?)

Anyway, as I parked on a knob where we hoped we would be able to see the Valley of The Giants later on, the wind, rain and even sleet continued.

I told the boys the only thing you could do in weather like this was to take a power nap.

They all laughed as I pulled my hat over my eyes and drifted off to the sound of rain drops beating into the top of the truck....

A short time later I heard the rain stop. I woke up and asked the boys if they had seen any sheep yet. They laughed as they started to roll down the windows.

I put down my window half way and set up the big scope on the window mount.

(I have found that a one-ton Ford truck makes a much more solid mount than any tri-pod does when the wind is blowing.)

Anyway, I glassed a far off mountain that about 7 years ago that Paul Lyells had taken his ram on. And that happened on December 30, with just one day left in the season!

I had glassed this particular mountain several times already during this hunt and had not seen even one sheep on it, though I did see a few burros.

Well it was less than two minutes after I had set up the spotting scope when I announced that I had found sheep.

There were two that I could see, and even in the low light, I could tell they were rams.

"Time to move I told the boys." I wanted to get a better look as we were just under two miles from the unsuspecting sheep.

We were able to drive on a road that got us to within 1,200 yards of the sheep, who were feeding in a bowl.

Chan spotted another sheep, a ram and as I peered through the scope I noticed that one of them was long and had a great flare.

While it was long, I didn't think it had enough mass to make the Arizona book at 162 B&C points, so I declared we would pass.

Paul said to hold on, that he really, really liked this ram, and didn't care one iota what he scored. "I want this ram, Don" he pleaded.

Well I had everyone take a good look at the ram through the spotting scope and we all agreed he wasn't a book sheep.

We took a lot of video and still photos of the sheep while I mulled over our options.

Sheep as you know are a once-in-a-lifetime animal, unless you got a lot of money to buy a auction tag or you're darn lucky to win the sheep raffle tag, you're never going to hunt them again.

I knew that in the end, it would be my decision to pass or pursue, and I sure didn't want Paul to take a ram that he wouldn't be happy with for the rest of his life.

Besides, just yesterday we had shot at a huge ram, and that ram was still out there, a tad sore, but alive and well none-the-less.

Talk about pressure!

I watched and watched as the ram fed up the mountain. He gave me a lot of great looks so I felt I could accurately score this guy.

Then I heard Paul say, "He's perfect Don, he really is!"

It was at that point I dubbed the ram with the nick name of "Mr. Perfect" and made my decision. "OK,let's go get him!"
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-25-09 AT 01:10PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Dec-25-09 AT 01:08?PM (MST)

Here is the last photo I took, before I made the decision to go after "Mr. Perfect."

Note the square, boxy look of the ram's horns, and his obviously busted up nose. That is what you look for in a mature ram. If a ram has a distinct trapisoid look, he is probably not what you are looking for..

4b351a28316aa714.jpg


With the thoughts of yesterday's misses still in Paul and my minds, this is hopefully a stalk we won't make any mistakes on as we try and get within shooting distance of this great ram!

OK past and future sheep hunters now is your chance. Now you've seen him a from a number of different angles.

We think he is at least 33 inches long on both sides and has 14 inch bases. With that info and the looks you have seen, what do you think we told Paul this ram would score before we even headed up the mountain?
 
Don,
You reference a quail hunter or two, but did'nt that unit issue a few BHS tags? No sign of any of them?
 
Nice lookin ram, hunt must be over and he's at the taxidermy shop since you are going deer hunting. Congrats if you got him.
Tough to judge even from good pics but I'd say around 166.
 
these are not good pictures to get a real good look to score him but i am going to shoot from the hip on this one and say 152-155.
 
Tough to judge from this pic but I will say 14 1/2" bases, 159-160 ram.
Great story Don, thanks for posting!
 
Sorry guys, will update this on Friday. Tomorrow is the last day of the juniors muzzleloader hunt in Unit 16A and I got to be there!

Don
 
LAST EDITED ON Jan-03-10 AT 07:05PM (MST)[p]The Saga of Mr. Perfect continues!

Well I finally got a few minutes to write some more about the sheep hunt before we head to Unit 10 to look for deer and pigs.

On my last post, my hunter had pleaded with me to go after the ram I had dubbed as Mr. Perfect.

And so, on a terribly windy morning in the Black Mountains, I set out with Paul and Mike Cobb (our video guy) to make a stalk, while Jay Chan sat in the truck about a mile away watching the sheep.

We climbed a small mountain to reach a canyon that would keep us out of the sight of three rams. The decision now was to go up high or stay low. There would be a hefty cross wind that would be blowing up the canyon, and while there was a way to go up higher on the mountain, it would end with us being be at the same level as the rams.

Jay told us that all of the rams had apparently laid down and all he could see was one of the smaller rams who was beside a huge brown rock high near the top of the mountain. So with that information, I opted to go low and very slow.

As we peeked around a large boulder at the bottom of the canyon, I ranged the spot where the small ram was on watch. He was about 300 yards away, and his job no doubt was to watch the canyon below for danger. We could not see the other two rams.

After some discussion, we decided to move up the canyon, keeping in the shade, to a spot where Paul would have a better view of the ram, when he stood up.

It took us 30 minutes to go 40 yards, but we slid into the perfect set up.

Paul would have a solid rest for his rifle, Cobb had a flat spot to set up the camera on the tripod and I could see the top of the mountain where the rams were perfectly.

We could also see the second ram who was bedded behind a rock, out of the raging wind, but we could not see Mr. Perfect.

I sensed some uneasiness from the guys at not being able to see the largest ram, but I was sure Mr. Perfect was there behind a huge brown rock, out of the cold wind. And sooner or later, he would stand up, take a leak, or decide to start feeding again.

The only question that Paul had was, "What is he goes over the top of the mountain when he gets up?" I replied, "We will wait and then follow him over the top." There would be no reason to press the issue at this point and take an "iffy" shot at such a magnificent ram.

They didn't know we were there, and we had all day.

Then as things often do on sheep hunts, the situation abruptly changed.

The smallest ram, who was on guard duty, stood up and looked straight down at us.

You could tell that he saw something amiss, but wasn't sure what it was. I was sure he couldn't hear us, or smell us, but he had a birds eye view of the canyon below. He watched us intently for five minutes, then turned and tried to get the others up.

Not believing their sentry, the other two rams stayed in their warm beds, out of the wind, refusing to get up at the youngster's prodding.

The young ram was nervous and at one point walked back out from behind the rock and looked at us again.

"Don't move," I hissed..

Finally, he settled down.

For over an hour we watched, and waited, just periodically checking the range while I made sure that when the moment of truth arrived all the equipment, and people including the cameraman and the shooter, would be ready.

Then it happened, the little ram got back up and walked behind the rock. As he came back into our view, I could see the other smaller ram was also up. "They're up," I whispered to Paul and Mike.

Then Mr. Perfect stepped out into the afternoon sun,in plain view, and started to feed.

"Start filming" I told Mike. "Camera is on," Cobb replied.

"You ready?" I said to Paul.

"Yep" he said and snuggled in behind the gun. The range was 268 yards..He had waited 32 years for this moment.
 
Damn Don,
You're killin me here,LOL, Hunt is over, please tell us he got his Ram. Show us the pictures,

Tagline
 
don at this rate i will be home from iraq and scouting for my own sheep hunt before you put the pictures up of his ram. lol
 
Here goes guys! More on the sheep hunt..

Well with the camera rolling and all eyes focused on Mr. Perfect I held my breath until the the loud boom of the 308 rifle broke the silence in the rugged desert canyon.

Even before the echo of the gun shot had abated, I watched in amazement as the legs of the big ram folded up underneath him and his chin hit the ground.

"You got him, you got him," I yelled at no one in particular as the ram seemed to dead in his tracks.

The two smaller rams, jumped and ran a short distance and looked back.

It was then that the grand old ram decided he wasn't done in for, and tried to stand up, only to fall over and slide 30 yards down the boulder strewn mountain, coming to rest upside down, with his magnificent horns pointed skyward..

However he wasn't getting up, the shot had been true and in seconds the shooting part of the hunt was over.

I headed up the mountain first, while Paul, Mike and Jay gathered equipment.

I took photos as I moved up to the ram, whose days as the King of the Mountain were now over.

His two companions, as all rams do, stood by less than 100 yards away from their fallen leader. Paying homage to him, they refused to leave the area.

As I reached the ram, I could see he was gone, and I placed our traditional last bite into his mouth. It is an act of respect that I learned many years ago when I was fortunate enough to hunt in Germany while a member of the U.S. Army.

I also said a silent prayer for a good friend who had recently passed away. George Welsh was known locally as the Father of Bighorn Sheep in Mohave County. George worked for the AZ G&F Dept. for many years and was responsible for a lot of the work on sheep in the Black Mountains.

For this and every ram that is/has taken in these rugged mountains since the 1970's, it is my opinion that special
thanks was/is due to George for all his work.

Anyway, when the rest of the team made their way to the spot where Mr. Perfect lay, there were a lot of handshakes and back slapping. We took over a hundred photos, plus a lot of video footage. We waited for Ryan Chan, who had spent a lot of time before the hunt scouting for us, to join us. Though he wasn't there that day when the trigger had been squeezed, he had surely earned a spot in the "grip 'n grin" portion of the hunt.

Then came the real work. Paul wanted a life size mount so we went to work making sure that the ram was properly taken care of. I'm sure that Mr. Perfect will come back to life after local wildlife artist Henry Aguilar gets through with him.

In the end, it was Mike and Ryan who had the honors of carrying the ram off the mountain for the last time.

Though the hunt was over, there was to be more to this story than I wanted.

At my Kingman home while everyone was watching the video of the last moments of the hunt, my lady friend helped as we quickly put a tape on the ram. It wasn't going to be an official score, as I'm not an official scorer. But I have put a tape on a number of rams since 1987 and wanted to know just how close I had come to judging the ram before Paul had pulled the trigger.

We were all ecstatic over the ram, and the score would be just a number..a reference point if you will- or so I thought.

At least it was until the next day when we took him in to the Region III office to be aged and scored by G&F.

Here is a photograph of the Mr. Perfect...With (L-R)Jay Chan-Paul Taylor-Ryan Chan.

4b4257cb4e901e37.jpg
 
Here is another photo of Mr. Perfect and our AWO team.

L-R Don Martin, Jay Chan, Paul Taylor, Ryan Chan, Mike Cobb

4b425d9c75d0b277.jpg


Little better photo to help see what he looked like. His left horn is only (in my opinion) about 1/2 inch shorter.
 
Good job Don and way to drag out out a story over as many days as the hunt actually took ;-)

I was hoping to draw that tag with my new Hunter Ed point but am glad to see a real veteran tag applicant finally drew! I'm at 17 for sheep now.

Sent you a PM about antelope hunting.

Great ram for a very deserving hunter! Congrats to all!
 
A beautiful ram Don. A hunt well done by all, congrats. You need to finish the story with the interesting scoring procedures.
 
Don,
Thanks for sharing the great story and pictures, A well deserved congratulations to all involved, Very nice ram.
Tagline
 
"At my Kingman home while everyone was watching the video of the last moments of the hunt, my lady friend helped as we quickly put a tape on the ram. It wasn't going to be an official score, as I'm not an official scorer. But I have put a tape on a number of rams since 1987 and wanted to know just how close I had come to judging the ram before Paul had pulled the trigger.

We were all ecstatic over the ram, and the score would be just a number..a reference point if you will- or so I thought.

At least it was until the next day when we took him in to the Region III office to be aged and scored by G&F."

How long are you going to leave us hanging with this teaser??... Terry
 
Let me say again that the score of this ram doesn't matter to my hunter, and to a great extent, me.

I think the ram scored just about what I thought it would before Paul ever pulled the trigger.

When we took the ram to the Region III Office to be checked out, one of the things they do is score and age the ram (7 years old). They also check for disease (Sinusitus & Scabbies)and put an aluminum plug into the horn.

I have to admit I was kind of surprised when the nice lady walked out and handed a copy of the check out paperwork to Paul and congratulated him on taking the largest ram in the region!

Paul asked her what it scored and she said, "171 3/8 gross and 170 1/8 net."

Paul didn't question the score and I didn't think it was my place to say anything either. This was the first time I had met this lady and I sure didn't want to offend or embarrass anyone. One of the G&F guys walked out into the bay and asked me what I thought the ram scored. I didn't and still don't want to offend or embarrass this lady who was honestly trying to do her job so I told him I didn't know.

He looked at the ram briefly and I could tell from his facial expression and voice he too was questioning the score.

At this point the ram and paperwork was picked up by Paul and out we went.

Once back in the truck I immediately told Paul I thought they had made a mistake and we ought to go back and get it straightened out, that in my opinion the score was about 10 points to HIGH!

Within an hour after dropping off the ram at the taxidermist I personally called G&F and have since spoken to no less than two officials asking them to re-score the ram.

They are not going to do it, saying that the score isn't important, the age of the ram is, and that they are not official scorers...

At this point I would never, ever try to say that ram scores that high or that it is the largest ram taken in Region III in 2009!

I'm not going to make a big deal out of this, what is done is done, as the ram is what it is. No more, no less and I just wanted to see the right info on the paperwork.

I'm sure those who see the ram later on this year at the ADBSS banquet in Phoenix can make their own judgement on what it scores.

But for me that's the end of it.

It was a great hunting experience full of highs and lows and I am thankful that Paul gave me and the others the opportunity to share in a hunting experience that is truly once-in-a-lifetime.

And to quote Larry the cable guy, "I don't care who you are, it is a neat ram!"

4b4526e33ac33c68.jpg
 
Don, congrats to you and the hunter on a great Ram. Do you have any field photos of the Ram head on?
 
Well done Don. Hey, your hunter has a beautiful mature trophy and memories that will last forever...regardless the score.
 
Thank you for sharing the story, and congrats to all involved on a beautiful trophy.
 
Congrats to the hunter Paul Taylor, and to you Don and the rest of your group, your persistence, patience and dedication are remarkable!

I have a question about the ram, (probably a dumb question). In the profile pic I noticed the large bump on his nose, then on the head-on shot I see the gash. Is that from sinusitis or was he a 'fighter'?

He's beautiful, I can't wait to some day draw a tag myself! Thanks for all the pictures and the write up, it was fun following along!

Ilene
 
Someone asked about a head on field shot. This was the one pose that unfortunately we didn't get much of. It was starting to get late, and we didn't want to have to walk off the mountain in the dark.

Here is the best one I have field head on), and I'll put in another one that was taken at the Region III office to give you another view.

4b4581394c75b3b9.jpg


This guy was obviously a fighter as evidenced by his busted up nose. This is fairly typical of older age rams, though as you can see, his horns are remarkably in tact.

Also note at the base of his horns, there is a dark brown ring. This guy had the "bug," sinusitus, but it hadn't messed him up too bad.
 
Here is a head on photo that I took at the Region III office. If there is anything apparent to you when looking at these photos that I've said are of Mr. Perfect, note how at different camera angles it sometimes look like a completely different sheep, though I assure you they are all of the same ram.

4b45837556200cba.jpg


I'll post one of the left side just to show you his age rings and to demonstrate how the camera angle changes things.
 
Here is a view of his left horn. Doesn't look like it is 34 inches long does it?

4b4587a564a59a78.jpg


Plus the head on photos I think make him look "small" as far as the mass is concerned. When we were looking at him through the scope, I said he had 14 inch bases. He ended up (in my opinion) with 14 4/8 and 14 2/8 respectively. G&F had him at 14 4/8 and 14 7/8.

I think that sheep and antelope are the two toughest critters to score in the field.

This ram, as I have told everyone about Mr. Perfect, "He was born in the drought and he died in the drought." In years past rams having bases of 16 inches (or better) were routinely found in the Black Mountains. Not anymore. Anything with bases over 15 inches are indeed rare in the Black's.

I always figure that it is best to be on the conservative side and unless you get some great close up looks you just figure an average of 14 inches on bases, and you'll probably not go wrong. That being said I have seen rams with 12 and 13 inch bases taken in the Black's in the past. You still have to be careful!

Having the other experienced sheep guys like Jay Chan and Mike Cobb right there with us to give their opinion sure helped too. One of us might miss it (score), but it would be very rare for THREE experienced guys to all miss the suggested score by a lot.

I think that Paul will be the first to agree that judging these rams, especially at long distances, even with great glass, isn't easy.
 
Hello everyone who has been reading this story as it has been going along. I am Paul (The Hunter ) who took this wonderful Ram. I want to thank all who read about my 32 year dream application dream coming true. I just wanted to address one comment from (Perodox)Eddie
his post was:
Too bad a guy that picky can't finish the deal when you finally find that 1 in mil ram!

WOW..Well Ed..I think you may want to think about what the ballistics of a 168 grn BTHP Match A-Max bullet will do at
( 66 degree angle ) ripping along at 2755 fps. I sat on that mountain for over an hour looking at the tape again and again trying to comprehend what I did wrong with my MOA adjustments that I dialed in at the time of each shot. I had not thought to or even considered memorizing the ballistic chart for anything ABOVE a 30 degree angle shot. All my memorized data for both those shots were useless. I can hit a ten ring in competition out to 800 yrds with up to a 22 MPH full value wind read all day long, and do it all the time. I just did'nt prepare for it and I simply and admittedly blew two incredibly easy shots had I thought to account for that sinerio. Believe me when I tell you that first off I was very concerened that I might have crippled an incredible and breath taking animal when I heard them say that I did't drop him with the first or second shot. Thank God I did'nt. I want to tell you also that no one was more upset them me.
 
BWAUNA1 - Paul
As I told Don, your persistence, absolutely amazing patience, and incredible dedication is truly an inspiration. Congratulations on a beautiful animal and a hunt that was full of lifetime memories!
Ilene
 
Congratulations to you Paul on a very nice ram.

"I can hit a ten ring in competition out to 800 yrds with up to a 22 MPH full value wind read all day long, and do it all the time."

Yep, Ram fever!!
We've all been there.
Ed
 
I conducted a AZ NR Supplemental class this weekend in Kingman, and we talked about missed shots.

I told the class there are two kinds of folks who say they NEVER have missed a shot while hunting.

1) They have NEVER been hunting or
2) They are liars!

The class unanimously agreed.

In this case when you see the video of those two shots, you can plainly see the first shot goes right over the back of the ram, while the second knocks off a tuff of hair right over the ram's shoulder.

You see the ram and then walk up the mountain as he makes his escape and at not time is there blood seen. Chris Dow and myself walked up and actually trailed the ram as the ground was very wet. The ram walked between several small turbinella oak bushes and not one drop of blood was found, nor was any blood found on the bushes.

Trust me when I tell you that had any blood been found, we'd still have been on that mountain!

Bottom line is we all miss shots, and that unfortunately comes with the territory.
 

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