When I drew my tag, I posted on this site asking questions about the unit and Kirk Kelso had told me his wife had drawn a few years previous and they killed a great ram. He hired guide Matt Dominy of Kofa Outfitters. So Kirk gave me his contact info and after talking with him, I decided to hire him as well. I asked him what size of ram he thought we could get and he told me low to mid 170's. There were a couple of reasons why I hired a guide #1 once in a lifetime tag, #2 I dont know how to judge sheep and #3 I did not have a lot of time to scout.Anyway onto the hunt.The 1st and 2nd days of the hunt we glassed up 2 ewes and 0 rams. The third day our luck changed for the better and we spotted 4 ewes and 3 rams, none big enough 150 class rams. Day four we found 2 rams and 12 ewes. One of the rams was spotted the previous day. Day 5 we glassed up 1 ram, had good mass but broomed too far back. Day 6 no sheep. We decided to take a 2 day break as the unit is close to home. Day 7 we glassed a few more ewes, no rams. Day 8 we went back to an area where we had seen a lot of ewes, but no rams thinking the rams had to be there somewhere. No rams, but we spotted 22 ewes. Day 9 we hiked about three miles into where we had seen all the ewes the day before once again thinking the rams had to be there somewhere. We glassed 8 ewes right away, but again no rams. Then our luck changed around 10:30 am, Matt had spotted a ram and like all the times before I asked how big is it? and he replied not big. After watching this ram for sometime another ram appeared. Same thing not big. A little more time passes by and another ram comes out, guess what not what we were looking for. Matt kept his scope on the rams as I was glassing a different area. Then I hear there is another ram weve got to go. Thats what I had been waiting to hear. The sheep were about a mile and a half away and we had some rough country between us and them. Before we left, I prayed asking that this would be the ram and that I would make a good shot.We covered the ground in a hurry; took us about 45 mins to get to a cliff over looking where the sheep should be. Matt looked over and spotted the sheep and confirmed it was the ram we had been looking for. They were about 600 yards bedded, and I had forgotten my range finder, So we played the waiting game and they eventually got up and were feeding toward us, I couldnt believe it. I was not going to tell the rest of this, but I will. We estimated the ram was about 300-400 yards away, I took my time shot and missed, shot under the ram. He ran about 50 yards, I shot again and missed, hit under the ram again. They all ran over the hill, I was sick I couldnt believe I had blown it. I rested my head on the ground thinking all these hard days of hunting and the ram I wanted was gone. We were on a cliff with no possible way of following them. We layed there in silence for about 5 minutes and when I looked up, I saw the sheep coming back to us, I couldnt believe my eyes; they all came back and even closer. The ram I wanted was behind some ewes, so I waited and he started feeding broadside at around 250 yards. I took my time and that was it, he was down. I was still mad at myself for missing the other shots, but Matt said dont worry about it hes down and thats when it hit me, all the hard work had paid off. I believe it was more than luck that made those sheep come back over the hill to me. Sorry for this post being so long.
Thanks,
Mike
