T
TMas
Guest
Hey, I'm usually not one to post much about my hunting, but some great guys on this forum stepped up to give me advice and Yelum even took some time from his busy schedule to hunt. Rutnbuk was a great buddy to have along and hunted with me almost every day until I found the ram on the second to last day. I thought you guys would find this stuff interesting.
After the 60 day drying period I got my Ram officially scored by a master measurer from SCI. He scored 182 1/8. I don't have all the measurements right her in front of me, but if you took the unharmed (smaller) horn and double it he would still score about 174, which means that the larger (bent) horn had about 8 total inches mass/length more than than the unharmed horn. According to the SCI Online Recordbook, my ram should be the #5 all time California Bighorn!
For those who didn't see the old post, this ram had quite a life story. He was transplanted from antelope island as a 2 yr old ram in February, 2003, to the Newfoundland range. I have received some photos from a great guy who guides for sheep, and got to see some great pics of him up until 2010 as a beautiful ram, with two undamaged horns. He later showed back up with some life changing event that had kinked his left horn down against his face. I was unbelievably lucky and obtained a depredation tag for the bighorn who had apparently migrated from the newfoundlands, over to the south end of the hogups, down onto the lakesides and the Hill Training Range, and finally out to the grassy mountains. A report came in of him being sighted out on the grassies about 2-3 miles from where a flock of domestic sheep were. The dwr contacted 3 hunters from the depredation program who all declined the permit, and I jumped on and took the opportunity. By the time my hunt started the report was 9 days old and weather did everything it could to try and stop me from finding the ram. Well after 3 days of pounding the roads, ridges, and cliffs, snowdrifts and rockslides, rutnbuck and a couple of my other friends who helped came up completely empty, no sign of hide nor hair, or even a track. After taking christmas eve and day off to spend the time with my wife and young daughter, rutnbuck and I returned out there and found the ram late in the day. I had one day left to hunt and knew we had to make it count now. A solid hit and a quick follow up shot put down the coolest/strangest looking big old ram I've ever seen. Still to this day I am in shock about the whole experience, and the score of 182 1/8 doubled the amount of shock I have, I expected him to be in the mid 170 range.
After the 60 day drying period I got my Ram officially scored by a master measurer from SCI. He scored 182 1/8. I don't have all the measurements right her in front of me, but if you took the unharmed (smaller) horn and double it he would still score about 174, which means that the larger (bent) horn had about 8 total inches mass/length more than than the unharmed horn. According to the SCI Online Recordbook, my ram should be the #5 all time California Bighorn!
For those who didn't see the old post, this ram had quite a life story. He was transplanted from antelope island as a 2 yr old ram in February, 2003, to the Newfoundland range. I have received some photos from a great guy who guides for sheep, and got to see some great pics of him up until 2010 as a beautiful ram, with two undamaged horns. He later showed back up with some life changing event that had kinked his left horn down against his face. I was unbelievably lucky and obtained a depredation tag for the bighorn who had apparently migrated from the newfoundlands, over to the south end of the hogups, down onto the lakesides and the Hill Training Range, and finally out to the grassy mountains. A report came in of him being sighted out on the grassies about 2-3 miles from where a flock of domestic sheep were. The dwr contacted 3 hunters from the depredation program who all declined the permit, and I jumped on and took the opportunity. By the time my hunt started the report was 9 days old and weather did everything it could to try and stop me from finding the ram. Well after 3 days of pounding the roads, ridges, and cliffs, snowdrifts and rockslides, rutnbuck and a couple of my other friends who helped came up completely empty, no sign of hide nor hair, or even a track. After taking christmas eve and day off to spend the time with my wife and young daughter, rutnbuck and I returned out there and found the ram late in the day. I had one day left to hunt and knew we had to make it count now. A solid hit and a quick follow up shot put down the coolest/strangest looking big old ram I've ever seen. Still to this day I am in shock about the whole experience, and the score of 182 1/8 doubled the amount of shock I have, I expected him to be in the mid 170 range.
