DonMartin
Very Active Member
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Well finally got rested up from our recent 10-day desert sheep hunt in Unit 15D, in northwest Mohave County.
As in all sheep hunts, this one was full of all kinds of twists and turns.
And as one who can never tell a story in one session, I'll try and make this one happen in three parts.
First a little back ground on the hunt and hunter.
In northwest Arizona our desert rams are the NELSONI subspecies. These can be generally characterized as having wide flaring horns.
They are different from the MEXICANA subspecies, which tends to have horns much more blocker and are often times tight curled.
Don't know why, but the MEXICANA rams often seem to be heavier in the body size than our rams up north, despite the fact the areas they live seem to have even less feed than the rams up north do.
Anyway, this year I had the opportunity to hunt with Glenn Adamson, who is 69-years old, and lives in Maricopa, AZ. Glenn had applied for 17-years before he drew this tag. He had tag number five out of the seven issued.
In my opinion, Unit 15D is currently the best sheep unit in Region III.
Glenn's friend, Dale, would also be along for the hunt. As it turned out both were great guys.
Glenn had told me that he really liked the way that the NELSONI rams flared out, and that was the look he was after.
One of the members of the AWO sheep team Ryan Chan, did some extensive pre-season scouting in the unit and had found a really good ram. We named this ram "The Chan Ram".
Ryan knows a good ram when he sees one. Last year Ryan found the ram that our NR hunter Don Oostinink from Iowa would take on opening day while hunting with AWO guide Mike Cobb. That ram scored just over 170 inches.
Ryan knew that the ram he found this year wasn't a big as the Oostinink ram, but he was none-the-less a great sheep in his own right.
When the opening day of the hunt came, we were greeted with high winds, cold and rainy conditions. In the higher elevations there was even SNOW!
Even though we were using those super solid Manfrotto tripods, our glass bounced around like a hula dancer at a luau!
We did find sheep and found some good rams. We hoped that we might see The Chan Ram so Glenn could see him in person.
Ryan, who joined us on the second day of the hunt did find this ram early on but we didn't get to watch him for long. He quickly left the area and we didn't see him again...The decision not to take him still haunts me..
But there were some other nice rams that we did see that piqued our interest....
Here are photos that Ryan took of "The Chan Ram"
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/4084the_chan_ram_2_unit_15d_2011.jpg
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/568the_chan_ram_unit_15d_2011.jpg
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/5354the_chan_ram_3_unit_15d_2011.jpg
More of this sheep story tomorrow!
Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
As in all sheep hunts, this one was full of all kinds of twists and turns.
And as one who can never tell a story in one session, I'll try and make this one happen in three parts.
First a little back ground on the hunt and hunter.
In northwest Arizona our desert rams are the NELSONI subspecies. These can be generally characterized as having wide flaring horns.
They are different from the MEXICANA subspecies, which tends to have horns much more blocker and are often times tight curled.
Don't know why, but the MEXICANA rams often seem to be heavier in the body size than our rams up north, despite the fact the areas they live seem to have even less feed than the rams up north do.
Anyway, this year I had the opportunity to hunt with Glenn Adamson, who is 69-years old, and lives in Maricopa, AZ. Glenn had applied for 17-years before he drew this tag. He had tag number five out of the seven issued.
In my opinion, Unit 15D is currently the best sheep unit in Region III.
Glenn's friend, Dale, would also be along for the hunt. As it turned out both were great guys.
Glenn had told me that he really liked the way that the NELSONI rams flared out, and that was the look he was after.
One of the members of the AWO sheep team Ryan Chan, did some extensive pre-season scouting in the unit and had found a really good ram. We named this ram "The Chan Ram".
Ryan knows a good ram when he sees one. Last year Ryan found the ram that our NR hunter Don Oostinink from Iowa would take on opening day while hunting with AWO guide Mike Cobb. That ram scored just over 170 inches.
Ryan knew that the ram he found this year wasn't a big as the Oostinink ram, but he was none-the-less a great sheep in his own right.
When the opening day of the hunt came, we were greeted with high winds, cold and rainy conditions. In the higher elevations there was even SNOW!
Even though we were using those super solid Manfrotto tripods, our glass bounced around like a hula dancer at a luau!
We did find sheep and found some good rams. We hoped that we might see The Chan Ram so Glenn could see him in person.
Ryan, who joined us on the second day of the hunt did find this ram early on but we didn't get to watch him for long. He quickly left the area and we didn't see him again...The decision not to take him still haunts me..
But there were some other nice rams that we did see that piqued our interest....
Here are photos that Ryan took of "The Chan Ram"
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/4084the_chan_ram_2_unit_15d_2011.jpg
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/568the_chan_ram_unit_15d_2011.jpg
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos/5354the_chan_ram_3_unit_15d_2011.jpg
More of this sheep story tomorrow!
Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters