NMPaul
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We were very lucky this year to hunt a friends ranch.
This ranch is in the rolling mountains West of Roswell and with an awesome view of the East side of rugged Capitan Mountain. We got to stay in the Rock ranch house his great grandparents built when they first came there. This area has tons of ranch heritage and still much the way it has been for thousands of years.
The first weekend it was just me, my wife and friend. Only Zach and Kim had drawn tags. Z had basketball practice on Sat so it was about my wife getting her ram.
Sat morning we drove up towards the NW part of the ranch and immediately my buddy glassed up about 30 sheep. Unfortunately they were on the other side of the fence, but, very close to coming over. I found a few more on the property, but, there were no shooters. We made a move on them in case they came over and watched several nice rams head over the mountain.
From there we drove and hiked about another ? mile to a spot to glass a bunch of hills to the south. Again my buddy found a group of sheep. I left the spotting scope in the truck, so we decided to get a closer look.
As it turned out, my wife and I came over a rise and got within 35 yards of about 8 barbary. All ewes and 1 small ram. That was a pretty good hike and my wife normally only has 1 of those in her before she starts getting wore out. I could see the tell tell signs and knew she needed to shoot something or it would go downhill with her.
We had some lunch and went to a mesa with canyons feeding off of it.
It was mid day and we were glassing as we worked our way back. Lots of canyons. Then we bounced some deer that were in the Cholla on top of the mesa. This got 2 rams to stand up.
We watched them and got closer, but, were deciding to pass when I finally saw another ram by himself further down the ridge. The pair was at 340 yards and the single was at 420. He looked pretty good and we decided Kim was gonna try to shoot him.
We could not get any closer than the 420, so Kim got settled in for the shot. Well we waited, and waited some more. I could tell my wife was getting impatient. We had just did another good hike and her feet were hurting her and we needed to make something happen to keep our shooter engaged. She was fading fast and my buddy offered to fill his tag on one of the first 2 rams in order to get the other one to stand up.
We all got ready. I was set up on my 15x on the bog pod to watch, Kim was all set and Jeremy took his shot. I heard the big thump and heard sheep down. The other ram just laid there. All we could see was his head and neck and several times Kim said she could make that shot and I really believe she could have.
The waiting game started again. 10 minutes, 20 minutes. Now we were yelling, whistling, doing jumping jacks.
My buddy offered to shoot in the brush next to the ram. Kim was all set. Boom and the ram just sat there. He was a smart old ram and knew that getting up would get him killed. We started yelling again, and all of a sudden the ram got up and ran.
I was 10 feet above everyone else glassing and all I saw was his head running over the hill and then boom and right in the binocs I could see what looked like his head exploding and him dropping like a rock. We were real optimistic she had made an amazing shot.
We went down the canyon and over to the other side and started looking for him. Could not find him at all. I started to grid with the gps looking for blood. Nothing.
Then I found where he dropped and there was blood. Not a lot, but, blood and kicked up dirt and rocks. I circled, circled and circled and never found a single drop of blood besides where he dropped. We searched till it was getting late and never found nothing. Now our hunter was not in a good mood.
She has never lost an animal and now between being tired and sore she was now frustrated.
Next morning wifey was only in a slightly better mood.
She is nowhere near as passionate about hunting as I am and has a limited amount of patience and we were getting close to her breaking point.
In all fairness we had a lot going on at home taking care of her recently widowed father. So off we go for the morning hunt. Again we found the herd of ewes and passed.
We headed to the south end of the ranch and no sooner drove into one of the areas sheep tend to hang out.
Again, my buddy found the sheep. We watched awhile and a couple rams turned into 6 rams. Kim was ready to kill anything, but, I told her to hold out. We got back in the truck and had not gone 500 yards and ran right into a herd with a really nice ram in it. He was half way up the hill and not moving away, but, not running. She threw the gun on the hood of the truck and I told her let me put a pack under it. She said no. I then said let me range them. Before I could get my rangefinder out boom!!!! Why did she shoot??
I look down and she is laying on the ground. Upon a closer look there is blood all over her face. She got the famous scope kiss. She rushed the shot. Missed. Crouched over the scope and with the rifle on the slippery hood the rifle clocked herself in the head.
To say she was now really mad would be an understatement. I got her doctored and she finished hunting the day, but, it was not good. She was a trooper. She had lost her first animal and got a great big cut on her forehead and on the bridge of her nose.
On the way home she told me over and over she would never go hunting again. This was a hunt where no matter what we did, no matter how many animals we saw, everything went bad on us.
I am happy to say that after a few days my wife calmed down and wanted to go hunting again.
We were lucky enough to be able to take another swing at it the next weekend. With 50mph winds forcasted on Sat, we decided we had Sunday only to hunt. This time Zach did not have practice and he would have a chance to fill his tag.
We stayed at the ranch house Sat night, and got after it early Sunday morning. The first area we went to we could not find any sheep, so we headed over to where Kim had opened up her forehead.
We saw no sheep there so we dropped off the quad and went back to where she had hit and not recovered her first ram. From there to the quad was about 2.8 miles as a crow flies and it is over some virgin canyons and mountains.
Plan was for Zach and I to glass and hike back to the quad. Kim went back for a nap. If was about noon when we finally found some sheep. It was a group of 6 rams. We decided the one with the white spot between his horns was the best ram.
They went over the top of the mountain and 1 came back over towards us. A small ram. We tried to move up to get a view of the top of the mountain to see if they bedded in the Chollas & Yuccas. Next thing we knew we saw the whole group of sheep running 2 mountains over. They were headed back into the canyons close to where we started our hike. We decided to let them chill. We finished our hike to the quad and found 2 more small rams and then 3 more sheep coming out.
In the afternoon, I decided to take Kim hunting to some spots on the quad, and Zach would go after the herd of rams on his own.
About 4:30 after we had hit a bunch of spots, we headed back to where Zach was hunting.
I got him on the radio and he said he had located the ram with the white spot on his forehead and he was trying to close the deal. Not being sure where he was, we hiked back to where I thought he might be.
I could not get him on the radio until almost dark and he told me he had killed the ram he was after. We had about a mile hike back to the quad. I dropped Kim off at the truck and now it was all but dark. We have the same software on our GPSs so with a bunch of talking back and forth I thought I knew where I could meet him. I took off in the dark on the quad through rocky mountains using the topo lines on the gps to find what I was hoping to be the best way to navigate to where he was.
Let me put it this way. I failed to find him the first couple attempts. He was several miles out there, it was pitch black, and I was weaving through cholla, prickly pear, and thorny bushes.
Finally I saw his light and made my way to his mountain. I got him on the quad and we covered the mile or so to where he had marked the sheep. I had told him not to gut the sheep because we needed to leave first thing in the morning and I was on a mission to get it out that night.
By now it was about 9:00, dark, and the quad had a flat. We got some pics, gutted the ram, tied him on the quad and headed out with a completely flat tire.
If someone had told me you could go over 5 miles on a completely flat tire I would have never believed it. One of the thing I do when it is real rough I will get off the quad and drive it as I walk along side of it. Well, while doing that going up the side of a steep mountain, the quad flipped over backwards and landed upside down and flooded. We got the quad flipped over. It landed on my rifle, bent the handle bars down, messed up the steering, and broke some switches.
We finally made it the couple miles back to the truck and drove the quad back to the ranch house.
We got back about 11:00 and Zach and I were wound up.
It was not your typical hunting trip, but, it sure beats the hell out of golf.
This ranch is in the rolling mountains West of Roswell and with an awesome view of the East side of rugged Capitan Mountain. We got to stay in the Rock ranch house his great grandparents built when they first came there. This area has tons of ranch heritage and still much the way it has been for thousands of years.
The first weekend it was just me, my wife and friend. Only Zach and Kim had drawn tags. Z had basketball practice on Sat so it was about my wife getting her ram.
Sat morning we drove up towards the NW part of the ranch and immediately my buddy glassed up about 30 sheep. Unfortunately they were on the other side of the fence, but, very close to coming over. I found a few more on the property, but, there were no shooters. We made a move on them in case they came over and watched several nice rams head over the mountain.
From there we drove and hiked about another ? mile to a spot to glass a bunch of hills to the south. Again my buddy found a group of sheep. I left the spotting scope in the truck, so we decided to get a closer look.
As it turned out, my wife and I came over a rise and got within 35 yards of about 8 barbary. All ewes and 1 small ram. That was a pretty good hike and my wife normally only has 1 of those in her before she starts getting wore out. I could see the tell tell signs and knew she needed to shoot something or it would go downhill with her.
We had some lunch and went to a mesa with canyons feeding off of it.
It was mid day and we were glassing as we worked our way back. Lots of canyons. Then we bounced some deer that were in the Cholla on top of the mesa. This got 2 rams to stand up.
We watched them and got closer, but, were deciding to pass when I finally saw another ram by himself further down the ridge. The pair was at 340 yards and the single was at 420. He looked pretty good and we decided Kim was gonna try to shoot him.
We could not get any closer than the 420, so Kim got settled in for the shot. Well we waited, and waited some more. I could tell my wife was getting impatient. We had just did another good hike and her feet were hurting her and we needed to make something happen to keep our shooter engaged. She was fading fast and my buddy offered to fill his tag on one of the first 2 rams in order to get the other one to stand up.
We all got ready. I was set up on my 15x on the bog pod to watch, Kim was all set and Jeremy took his shot. I heard the big thump and heard sheep down. The other ram just laid there. All we could see was his head and neck and several times Kim said she could make that shot and I really believe she could have.
The waiting game started again. 10 minutes, 20 minutes. Now we were yelling, whistling, doing jumping jacks.
My buddy offered to shoot in the brush next to the ram. Kim was all set. Boom and the ram just sat there. He was a smart old ram and knew that getting up would get him killed. We started yelling again, and all of a sudden the ram got up and ran.
I was 10 feet above everyone else glassing and all I saw was his head running over the hill and then boom and right in the binocs I could see what looked like his head exploding and him dropping like a rock. We were real optimistic she had made an amazing shot.
We went down the canyon and over to the other side and started looking for him. Could not find him at all. I started to grid with the gps looking for blood. Nothing.
Then I found where he dropped and there was blood. Not a lot, but, blood and kicked up dirt and rocks. I circled, circled and circled and never found a single drop of blood besides where he dropped. We searched till it was getting late and never found nothing. Now our hunter was not in a good mood.
She has never lost an animal and now between being tired and sore she was now frustrated.
Next morning wifey was only in a slightly better mood.
She is nowhere near as passionate about hunting as I am and has a limited amount of patience and we were getting close to her breaking point.
In all fairness we had a lot going on at home taking care of her recently widowed father. So off we go for the morning hunt. Again we found the herd of ewes and passed.
We headed to the south end of the ranch and no sooner drove into one of the areas sheep tend to hang out.
Again, my buddy found the sheep. We watched awhile and a couple rams turned into 6 rams. Kim was ready to kill anything, but, I told her to hold out. We got back in the truck and had not gone 500 yards and ran right into a herd with a really nice ram in it. He was half way up the hill and not moving away, but, not running. She threw the gun on the hood of the truck and I told her let me put a pack under it. She said no. I then said let me range them. Before I could get my rangefinder out boom!!!! Why did she shoot??
I look down and she is laying on the ground. Upon a closer look there is blood all over her face. She got the famous scope kiss. She rushed the shot. Missed. Crouched over the scope and with the rifle on the slippery hood the rifle clocked herself in the head.
To say she was now really mad would be an understatement. I got her doctored and she finished hunting the day, but, it was not good. She was a trooper. She had lost her first animal and got a great big cut on her forehead and on the bridge of her nose.
On the way home she told me over and over she would never go hunting again. This was a hunt where no matter what we did, no matter how many animals we saw, everything went bad on us.
I am happy to say that after a few days my wife calmed down and wanted to go hunting again.
We were lucky enough to be able to take another swing at it the next weekend. With 50mph winds forcasted on Sat, we decided we had Sunday only to hunt. This time Zach did not have practice and he would have a chance to fill his tag.
We stayed at the ranch house Sat night, and got after it early Sunday morning. The first area we went to we could not find any sheep, so we headed over to where Kim had opened up her forehead.
We saw no sheep there so we dropped off the quad and went back to where she had hit and not recovered her first ram. From there to the quad was about 2.8 miles as a crow flies and it is over some virgin canyons and mountains.
Plan was for Zach and I to glass and hike back to the quad. Kim went back for a nap. If was about noon when we finally found some sheep. It was a group of 6 rams. We decided the one with the white spot between his horns was the best ram.
They went over the top of the mountain and 1 came back over towards us. A small ram. We tried to move up to get a view of the top of the mountain to see if they bedded in the Chollas & Yuccas. Next thing we knew we saw the whole group of sheep running 2 mountains over. They were headed back into the canyons close to where we started our hike. We decided to let them chill. We finished our hike to the quad and found 2 more small rams and then 3 more sheep coming out.
In the afternoon, I decided to take Kim hunting to some spots on the quad, and Zach would go after the herd of rams on his own.
About 4:30 after we had hit a bunch of spots, we headed back to where Zach was hunting.
I got him on the radio and he said he had located the ram with the white spot on his forehead and he was trying to close the deal. Not being sure where he was, we hiked back to where I thought he might be.
I could not get him on the radio until almost dark and he told me he had killed the ram he was after. We had about a mile hike back to the quad. I dropped Kim off at the truck and now it was all but dark. We have the same software on our GPSs so with a bunch of talking back and forth I thought I knew where I could meet him. I took off in the dark on the quad through rocky mountains using the topo lines on the gps to find what I was hoping to be the best way to navigate to where he was.
Let me put it this way. I failed to find him the first couple attempts. He was several miles out there, it was pitch black, and I was weaving through cholla, prickly pear, and thorny bushes.
Finally I saw his light and made my way to his mountain. I got him on the quad and we covered the mile or so to where he had marked the sheep. I had told him not to gut the sheep because we needed to leave first thing in the morning and I was on a mission to get it out that night.
By now it was about 9:00, dark, and the quad had a flat. We got some pics, gutted the ram, tied him on the quad and headed out with a completely flat tire.
If someone had told me you could go over 5 miles on a completely flat tire I would have never believed it. One of the thing I do when it is real rough I will get off the quad and drive it as I walk along side of it. Well, while doing that going up the side of a steep mountain, the quad flipped over backwards and landed upside down and flooded. We got the quad flipped over. It landed on my rifle, bent the handle bars down, messed up the steering, and broke some switches.
We finally made it the couple miles back to the truck and drove the quad back to the ranch house.
We got back about 11:00 and Zach and I were wound up.
It was not your typical hunting trip, but, it sure beats the hell out of golf.
.
