Ram down!!!!!

nfh

Long Time Member
Messages
7,961
Well i wasnt going to post but because of some the memebers on this website are good guys i am doing for you guys.

Where do i start other than scouting every weekend and putting 175-200 miles on the horses. Lets start on Saturday. Well saturday i ended up in the ER room. Had a horrible pain in my gut. I laid on the ER floor in tears till they could see me. Finally saw the doc and after some scans they found a huge stone in my gallbladder. The dr suggested i dont hunt due to if i have an episode then my life will suck. Lucikly my dr has hunted sheep. He said a total non fat diet, some emergency medicine incase things go south.

Fast forward to Tuesday. It was super smokey and couldnt see 200 yards. Camp was set and couldnt do anything. It was nice to have some chilly weather. Then at 11pm a warm breeze came in.

So opening day woke up and took off on foot. 20 min from our camp I was walking a ridge. Sheep crap and tracks everywhere. Started glassing and right off to my side I saw 2 banana rams. I literally just walked by these rams. Still shocked how i wasnt seen. While looking them over i saw 3 more rams. 2 were 3/4 curl,super thick and the 3rd was a full curl. I personally like lamb tips. So I decided to pick him. But i hesitated and triple checked. At this point is about score or what i like. Sooo at 107 yards i blasted the full curl ram. He ran towards me and stopped. I decided to inject another round and dropped him.

Ok this is where my heart kinda a sank. 13 other rams jumped up and left the area. All I saw was rams running. Cant confirm how big they were other than some good rams.

So major rookie mistake. I should of held out and seen what else was hidden in the draw but i had no idea they were there.

Went down and tagged my ram. Walked 20 min back to camp and my dad was already waiting cause he heard the shots at 7:10am. We grabbed a pack animal and skinned the ram and got the meat back to camp.

We stayed the night and woke at 5am and packed camp and was heading out at 7am. Pretty sure my dad is more excited than i am. This hunt put the old man through some tough situations this summer like steep climbing, nasty horse wrecks and so much more and he basically went every single weekend to support me.

When we got back to the trail head we were greated by a game warden. He checked my tag and meat. He even helped us unpack the animals. He said a solid 5.5 year old ram. When I went checked him at the cody office they concluded he was 5.5 years old and watched them put my plug in. The 6th ram thats been checked in as of noon today.
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Congrats!! Very cool and thanks for keeping me in the know the whole Season been fun!! ?? Makes a guy wished he could do it more often !!
 
Congratulations. Best of both worlds, one side nicely broomed, the other with a nice long tip. Your efforts were well rewarded. If you haven’t stopped drinking soda I would start as they hell on causing stones.
 
That's just way cool!!!!
Huge congrats on a very successful sheep hunt.
Way to "git 'er dun" Mr. nfh.

Zeke
 
Nice ram. How much harder would it have been to kill with a bow? Where you were at could a bowhunter have a reasonable chance at success?
 
Nice ram. How much harder would it have been to kill with a bow? Where you were at could a bowhunter have a reasonable chance at success?

I think a guy would have a good chance. Just depending how you set and which way they would move. But then again thats a lot of eyes to catch ya. Of the 6 rams checked in as of yesterday 3 of them were with bow
 
Congrats Micheal! That’s a great ram and adventure spent with your dad! Memories made for life.
Are you having it mounted?
 
Very nice, congratulations on your ram, great that your Dad was there too.

I think with the way things are going, you'll be glad you burned your sheep points.
 
I sure hope he isn't boiling to get the horn sheaths off the horn cores. It cooks the oil from the skull into the horns and changes the color. Sheep need to be rotted off and disinfected. Then you can beetle, macerate or boil after that. Just my $.02.
Sounds like a great adventure, congrats on a fine ram
 
Congratulations Michael on a great ram. You earned it through your hard work scouting. Super that your Dad was along for the adventure. mh
 
Some more pictures to share

1. Black bear when scouting for some rams. The bear was right where we wanted to set camp. Sounded like she was charging us but she climbed the tree and her cub as 40-50 feet up the tree

2. Long ways away but 12 rams we watched all day. Wanted to keep my distance so decided to watch them 1.5 miles away

3. A griz that had 2 cubs rolling rocks over for a snack

4. Pack of wolves came into our lower camp over the 4th of july

5. One of the pups

6. Another wolf

7. The big male. Had a bad limp

8. Some rams over the 4th of july. This band had 4 beast and 1 banana ram. One ram was a full curl with lamb tips and mass clear out to the end.

9. Spent several weekends cleaning trails

10..my trusty mare

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1. Called this the hell trail. Massive trail cleaning. Almost lost a horse. The horse was going up the steep trail. Horse rolled over backwards with a cliff on one side.

2. Where the horse could of fallen to

3. Final destination of hell trail. After a month of exploring and going through every test we only turned up 2 rams in this country so we put as a back burner area if it came to a late season hunt
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Cool pics, how many days scouting??

Every weekend since the first weekend in June. Plus a 5 day trip over the 4th. We skipped only one weekend in august. Also couple trips we skipped a Saturday and only went on a sunday. Those trips were to explore trails incase i had to hunt late season in october where the sheep go when it snows. I wanted to prep in every way
 
nfh:

Congrats on a nice ram and great story.

You indicated in your first post you shot at 107 yards and the ram then ran towards you and you shot again.
1. Do you think you would have had to shoot the second time?
2. What cartridge/rifle combination were you shooting?
3. What bullet type/make and weight were you shooting?

Thanks,

ClearCreek
 
1. I dont think he would of needed a second shot but since there was some steep areas he could of went down into some holes. I was shooting a 300 mag with a ballistic silvertip 180 grain
 
Some more pictures to share

1. Black bear when scouting for some rams. The bear was right where we wanted to set camp. Sounded like she was charging us but she climbed the tree and her cub as 40-50 feet up the tree

2. Long ways away but 12 rams we watched all day. Wanted to keep my distance so decided to watch them 1.5 miles away

3. A griz that had 2 cubs rolling rocks over for a snack

4. Pack of wolves came into our lower camp over the 4th of july

5. One of the pups

6. Another wolf

7. The big male. Had a bad limp

8. Some rams over the 4th of july. This band had 4 beast and 1 banana ram. One ram was a full curl with lamb tips and mass clear out to the end.

9. Spent several weekends cleaning trails

10..my trusty mare

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I don't believe all of those wolves would have made it out of my camp without limping one last time
nice pics bet you had a blast
 
Congrats on a great hunt and time spent scouting. I'd sure like to know where I'm wrong but based on the euro skull I see your ram at 6.5 years old. The first indentation straight across from the eye socket (2:30 on the clock) should be 3.5 years. Then the very pronounced double ring at 12 o'clock should be 4.5 years (first year of rutting). At 10 o'clock should be 5.5 years and then the base at 9 o'clock should be 6.5 years.

Those of you out there that know more than I do am I wrong on the 3.5 year at 2:30 o'clock?
 
Congrats on a great hunt and time spent scouting. I'd sure like to know where I'm wrong but based on the euro skull I see your ram at 6.5 years old. The first indentation straight across from the eye socket (2:30 on the clock) should be 3.5 years. Then the very pronounced double ring at 12 o'clock should be 4.5 years (first year of rutting). At 10 o'clock should be 5.5 years and then the base at 9 o'clock should be 6.5 years.

Those of you out there that know more than I do am I wrong on the 3.5 year at 2:30 o'clock?

So the game warden in the feild and the office came up with 5.5. On his right side its very clear to count. On his left side you can almost count an extra ring. I feel confident they aged him correctly. I went to my neighbors who had a 8 year old ram. The difference between my ram and his wasnt much. Mass was equal, his was very well broomed. But his horns kicked out more with a wider spread. His ram was scored at 159 is what he told me.
 
Thanks for sharing a great story. It is great your dad was there with you every time. Big congrats on everything.
 
I always wondered how you stay in shape. I see weights in with the pic. Now I know! Next year I’m getting in sheep shape!
 
I always wondered how you stay in shape. I see weights in with the pic. Now I know! Next year I’m getting in sheep shape!

Not my weights. Kid dug them out for his first year of tackle football. He lifted weights one whole night. ?‍♂️
 
Love the mount!! I have a sheep newbie question... the horns in the pix of the horns up against the wall and on the carpet look much darker than the field pix or the mount pix? I got my 1st ram last year (not back yet from the taxi) and its horns seemed darker after a month than the field photos too.. did you "clean" the horns or is that just the lighting? Again, congrats and great mount!!
 
Love the mount!! I have a sheep newbie question... the horns in the pix of the horns up against the wall and on the carpet look much darker than the field pix or the mount pix? I got my 1st ram last year (not back yet from the taxi) and its horns seemed darker after a month than the field photos too.. did you "clean" the horns or is that just the lighting? Again, congrats and great mount!!


I noticed noticed that to. Looking back at feild photos the horns are light but in another photo the horns are dark. Gonna go with light as an answer
 
Just read the story again. Can’t wait to be chasing sheep this fall!
You and I both unfortunately unlike you I won’t be the one behind the rifle, unless the draws are good to me doubtful though.
 

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