We (My uncles and I) scouted on and off all summer and fall for and with this guy. We saw alot of sheep. For some reason alot of the sheep are dark in this area (the 39, 40 and 41 units in Arizona), from slate gray to black. A week before the hunt started I found a real bruiser that was almost pure black and we video'd him with the intent to try to kill him opening day. We could not relocate him with 6 guys all with big glasses covering all sides of the mountain a few days before the hunt and the first day of the hunt. The mountain does have some internal canyons that can only be seen by pushing up through the middle but we didn't want to run him off if he was up there. Maybe one of the other tag holders got him opening day, he could have moved completley off the mountain we saw him on in a weeks time and we did hear some shooting that day. Anyways, we started looking at a few other areas we had scouted and saw quite a few good rams, but none that we thought would be honest 170's, and that was kind of what we knew the unit could produce and what Chuck wanted. Chuck had to go back to work for a few days and get things straightened out there and most of the help in camp (myself included) had to leave throughout the week as well. Finally, it got down to just 2 of my uncles left in camp Ben and Dave and they found 5 rams on the same ridge, this one and 4 other smaller ones. They watched him for a day till the hunter could come back and decided this was definately a ram he should try for. Once the hunter came back they tried to kill the ram by stalking it from below and it busted them and slipped away without giving them any clear shot. It is pretty dificult sometimes to sneak up to a hill from across the flats and then climb it while sheep can look down on you part of the time. They pulled out so as not to run it completely off the mountain and bedded it down that night. The next morning they went in and got set up in the dark just over the top from the ram, and they sent another guy around the back to push up the canyon the ram was bedded in and the ram got out of his bed, topped the ridge and came down the hill to the shooter and 2 168 grain Matchkings later it was a done deal. Anyways, we are happy and Chuck is happy. I think he is going to have a lifesize mount of the ram done which should turn out pretty cool considering how dark it is...
Bret M.
