Unit 15D, Northwest AZ Desert Bighorn Sheep

DonMartin

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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"

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More of this sheep story tomorrow!

Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
 
Ok, here we go again.

Ryan saw his ram with some other sheep early on the morning of Day 2 of the hunt. Unfortunately I didn't get to see him before he left the area in a big hurry.

We moved up the mountain with Ryan and AWO guide Dave Bruns out in front, kind of our "forward observers."

Another of my friends, Mike Samer was with Glenn, Dale and I as we moved up slowly and searched the rugged mountains for sheep.

We all saw sheep and at one one point Ryan and Dave said they had spotted a group of far away sheep that had at least two big rams with them.

We moved to within 1200 yards and I looked and tried to photograph the rams. The wind was blowing at least 30 mph, and it was cold, and cloudy. Getting good looks at the sheep, even with the equipment we had, was almost impossible.

The boys thought those rams might be shooters and took off with Glenn for a closer look. But before they got there, the clouds cleared and Mike and I, along with Dale got some good looks at the two rams.

It was my decision to pull them off the stalk. I felt that neither would be what we wanted.

It was a tough decision to make for sure, as I do trust the opinions of my guys, but ultimately I have to make the call if the hunter isn't sure. If I'm going to err, it will always be on the side of caution. There are no re-do's on sheep hunts!

It was a long and grueling hike back down the mountain and before it was over Glenn, Ryan and Dave had hiked over eight miles through some of the most rugged country the Black Mountains has to offer. The rest of us had about a six mile trek.

Though we hadn't pulled the trigger on anything at this point, we were really starting to see a lot of sheep. We were averaging between eight to 15 different rams every day. We were seeing a lot of ewes too. Most days we would see from 30 to 50 sheep.

For us, being the last one done has become almost a given.

Recognizing that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for our hunters, I want to make sure my hunter gets to look at every ram we can find before they make that final decision to squeeze the trigger or release an arrow.

Glenn was determined to stay out as long as we needed, and I had some great spotters on our AWO team, including Marc and Matt Schwartzkopf, who both took a week of vacation to go on this hunt.

My friend and veteran sheep hunter, Jay Chan was also along on the hunt, and would spend many days with us on the mountain.

Jay, who isn't a guide, has been on most of my sheep hunts since the 90's, is also a trusted member of our volunteer team.

Here are a few photos of rams that we were watching and passing on day after day.

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This last photo was taken by Ryan Chan and it is one of the neatest sheep photo's I've ever seen.

Well at this point in the hunt we have seen over 70 rams and 150 ewes and lambs.

Finally, we may be getting close. For the first time I see a ram I named "Longfellow." It is about noon and we've got time for a stalk. Will we be able to close the deal?

Look for the answer tomorrow..

Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
 
One more photo that I really like.. This young ram was WAY UP on top of a mountain peak over a mile away when Glenn spotted him. I took this shot through my Swarovski spotting scope holding my digital camera against the scope. Was very early in the a.m. and the sun was just coming over the top.

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Really tough to manually "digi-scope" through a spotting scope. Sheep are just one of those critters I really enjoy taking photos of.

Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
 
Don....what a great hunt description, so far. After looking a the photos it would be hard for not to have one on the ground already.

Waiting for the rest of the story.

from the "Heartland of Wyoming"
 
Hey just to answer a question I got today on whether those three big rams in today's photos are of the same ram; the answer is NO! Those are all different rams! I didn't even count the little guy going over the mountain...

I'll give you a little teaser on Longfellow...that ram had a lot of luck of his side...

Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters

P.S. One more small group of three Black Mountain rams we looked at...
2323unit_15d_ram_band_december_2011.jpg
How old you think that top ram is? What do you think he scores? There were actually five rams in this ram band and he was the oldest and best scoring..There are a lot of rams his age and size in the Blacks.
 
Great read and I too love that sheep on the ridge picture. That 1st picture reminds me of this ram we saw during my wifes hunt. She dang near shot him.

Yelum
6910sheep352.jpg
 
Ok, its late and I got to head out to do some more deer/pig scouting in Unit 16A, but I promised Jim I'd do my best to wrap this hunt up.

It was Thursday morning when Glenn found a herd of 10 sheep, with one small ram in a basin atop a large pinnacle.

I watched the sheep for a while and was notified by Marc and Matt Schwartzkopf that two mature rams had just showed up.

I looked them over, and while one of the rams was indeed larger than the other, neither appeared to be shooters. It was Day 8 of the hunt and Marc and Matt were going to have to leave soon.

These guys had taken a week's vacation to come up and assist, even though they did not personally know Glenn. That's just the kind of guys they are. They really enjoy the excitement associated with desert sheep hunting, and know what they are doing.

As I was videotaping the larger of the now three rams that were with this ewe group, I noticed that he was looking down into a nearby canyon very intently.

He stood motionless for about 15 minutes when I saw a flash of white moving up through the rocks.

Then he stepped out and for the first time I saw a ram that I named "Longfellow."

Even at almost two miles it was easy to see this wasn't one of the many "cookie cutter" mature rams we had been seeing on a daily basis.

Nope, this guy was long on the left horn, but unfortunately broomed much shorter on the right. But he had a huge flare, and did indeed have the classic NELSONI look. He was an old ram, and as we would find out, was the dominant ram on that part of the Black Mountains.

I had Glenn check him out through the STM-80 Swarovski and he said, "I like him."

For the first time, I was excited. Yes we were a long way off, and would need to verify a lot more info than we had now, but he might just be the ram we were looking for.

Marc and Matt could also see Longfellow and then the most amazing thing happened. One young ewe was apparently going through her first estrus and now another ram had joined up with the group. Where he had came from no one knew, but now we were looking at a very large group of sheep that had no less than four mature rams, and each and every one of them was chasing this young ewe all around.

Longfellow knocked heads many times with the others in his attempt to show dominance and the crash of the horns of these titans sounded like gunshots as they echoed off of the tall peak.

One time we actually watched Longfellow knock down and roll one of the mature rams about 20 yards down the steep mountain. It was quite the show they were putting on.

It was decided that we would break up into three groups to get a closer look at Longfellow. I knew he had mass, and the left horn was no doubt long, but the short horn had me worried. We would need to get much closer.

Marc and my brother Gary took the east side of the peak, while Matt and Dale took the west. Jay Chan, Glenn and I would head up the mountain from the east and try and get a closer look at this majestic old warrior who had now moved over the top of the mountain to the west side.

It was a heck of climb and we were shedding clothes as we climbed higher and higher.

Finally, we made to the top of a ridge and I saw what appeared to be about 15 sheep walking away on a ridge that was 265 yards away.

But Longfellow wasn't with this group. There were five rams in this group and the oldest ram was just 4 1/2 years old and would score in the low 140's.

One ewe did something I had never seen before. As the others walked away she looked back and saw us. We were behind a large Palo Verde tree but she sensed something was amiss. She stood her ground, and the largest ram who was still with her, kicked and tried to get her to leave for over 20 minutes. But she knew something was wrong and she wasn't going anywhere. If not for the harassment of the young ram, I'm not sure she would have ever left.

But ultimately she did move off and we slowly moved on around towards the west side of the mountain, edging ever closer towards Longfellow and the group of over 15 sheep who were now about a half mile away.

It was getting late in the day and now time wasn't on our side. Matt and Dale had the sheep spotted but they told us the sheep weren't going to be easy to get to.

As we approached the west side of the mountain, we stopped in the shade of a large monolith to catch our breath. I looked up to see that same ewe standing on a rock pinnacle just 150 yards from us.

She knew something was wrong, and once again we were engaged in a stare down. The other sheep would walk up to the ridge, look over, but couldn't see us, so they would walk away. But that ewe held her ground and she kept us pinned down for a long time.

I checked with Matt and Dale and they said the rams, including Longfellow were still fighting and chasing that young ewe all over the place.

I checked the time and decided that trying to get close to them just wasn't going to work.

I told Glenn and Jay we were pulling out, that I didn't want us to blow the herd off the mountain. "We'll come back in the morning," I told the guys.

I had our spotters keep an eye on the herd while Glenn, Jay and I eased back around the mountain and started the long climb down.

Then things got a little more complicated. While we were resting, Jay had glassed up another group of rams on a mountain about a mile away. Jay said a ram in that group was one we needed to take a better look at.

We were running out of daylight and needed to get off that mountain before it got dark. Walking at night through those rock slides and boulders is treacherous and dangerous. We also needed to get to where we could put the big scope on the other rams which had now moved and were out of sight.

As it turned out we made it down the mountain, got the scope set up and found the group of sheep, which now numbered over 10, but the big ram Jay had seen was no where to be found.

The Marc told us that our herd with Longfellow had actually ran off of the mountain and went to another. As darkness fell, they could see a few sheep on the hillside, but Longfellow, and the group of rams and that hot young ewe, were no where to be seen.

We were a tired bunch when we rolled into camp about 8 that night.

I just hoped that tomorrow would get us close to this big ram, and that we would make a final decision on his fate.
 
When I last posted I told you that we had found the ram I called Longfellow. We had made a stalk on him but got busted twice by the sharpest eyed ewe in the unit.

Now it is the morning of Day 9.

Our plan was that two of our spotters would go to different areas around the last mountain that Longfellow and his merry band of rams and ewes had been seen at last light..

In the mean time, thinking they would be on the west side of the mountain, Glenn Jay and I decided to take another route into the area so that we could see more country. Our thinking was if he had moved the guys on the canyon bottom probably wouldn't see him.

We did in effect take the higher ground.

At first light it was cold and windy. But we found a number of sheep including an all together new ram band of 6 rams that we hadn't seen before.

The guys in the bottom reported seeing a few sheep, and one ram, but Longfellow was not seen...

That it until later in the morning when Matt and Dale spotted Longfellow with his groups of rams and that poor hot, young ewe.

We immediately started heading to the area and the GPS indicated we were about 1.2 miles from where they were at.

Off on foot at a fast pace, we headed down a large wash to where we hoped to see the sheep.

But before we got there, we got some tough news. Longfellow and the others had moved south and were no longer visible to anyone.

And we had a good climb out of the canyon to even get to where they had last been seen.

We moved to a saddle and stopped to catch our breath. We hoped the sheep would be close by.

As luck would have it, we found a large rock pile that would hide us from any prying eyes and we moved up to look in the basin to the south.

I looked around the end of the rocks, but saw no sheep.

Then Jay moved over to take a look.

"I see sheep" Jay said.

With that I moved to the north end of the rocks and peered around the corner.

To my utter amazement, there bedded just 146 yards away, was the entire herd! There were ewes and rams in every direction, all bedded down.

And right in the middle of this was Longfellow, looking east. He had no idea that danger was not far away.

I slipped back and told Glenn and Jay what I saw. "Let's do it," I said and told Glenn the ram was only 145 yards away, bedded down.

I grabbed the video camera and slipped back around the rock pile to video this great ram and the rest of the group. I got some really neat footage.

Then it was time to make our move.

Slowly, ever so slowly we got into position. Glenn could shoot from the prone position.

It all looked good and then.....

Yep, Longfellow decided it was time to stand up, stretch, take a leak, and get on the with afternoon feeding and breeding plan.

The others all followed, and the next thing we knew we've got over 15 sheep, including four mature rams, up and moving.

I thought they were going to go over the ridge, and told Glenn where the big was at, and to be careful. Sheep and the other rams were all around him!

The next few minutes were absolutely dreadful. The sheep were slowly moving up the ridge and in a moment could go out of sight.

Glenn was having a heck of a time keeping tabs on Longfellow. Another ram in the group looked almost identical to him, but he was younger.

To be honest I was scared to death Glenn would shoot the wrong ram in all the chaos going on in front of us. "Be sure you got Longfellow," I said over and over as the herd moved around.

Several times, I had to tell Glenn not to shoot as I could see another sheep behind Longfellow. With Glenn in the prone position, I knew he couldn't see the other sheep.

Last thing I wanted to hit two or more sheep, what a disaster that would be!

The sheep kept moving, I was trying to film and tell Glenn where Longfellow was at in the mass of yellow horns and white butts.

Finally, I handed the camera to Jay, while I just focused on the sheep. The rangefinder told me the distance was almost the same. It was 146 yards.

The sheep obviously didn't know we were there, as they were now walking across the basin right in front of us.

At last, mass of sheep except one, moved to the right, again towards the nearby ridge. And that one was Longfellow.

"Shoot him, shoot him," I said and told Glenn he was the ram on the extreme left side of the herd.

At the shot, I saw gray rocks explode right over the ram's back. "You missed, you shot high," I said.

Longfellow immediately ran back into the group, which now was stopped on the ridge.

There was not going to be another shot.

Finally the herd ran off and went to the top of the mountain.

Words can;t describe how we all felt. Glenn's facial expressions said it all. He even walked away around the rock pile for a few minutes to regain his composure.

"Hey, it happens," I told Glenn.

It is not as bad as it seems.

The herd ran to the top of a tall pinnacle where Marc and Gary could see them.

We were relieved to here they had bedded down.

At this point Marc and Gary were on the east side of the mountain, Matt and Dale were watching the west side of the mountain and we were in the saddle on the south side of the mountain.

We had them surrounded. There was no way they could get off that mountain and not go past us.

Now it was time to wait them out.

For the first time during the hunt, I got my 'power nap" and I could hear Jay snoring, so I knew he was out to.

With our "eyes in the shy" keeping tabs on the herd, I felt that we would get another crack at Longfellow.

Well right before dark things again started happening. Marc said the sheep had moved to the west and Matt imediatelt picked them up.

"They are headed your way," Matt told us.

WE got set up for a shot and waited, and waited and waited.

It was now sundown and the sheep were all looking down towards us.

In the failing light Longfellow, still intent on breeding that young ewe walked out in front of us at 257 yards.

"Don't shoot," I told Glenn. "We;re gonna get just one more crack at this guy and its not now. Its not a good situation. Let's wait until tomorrow."

We stayed until the moon, which was full, was way up in the sky, but we could still see the sheep walking around, acting very nervous.

"I'm not sure they are going to stay up there tonight," I told Glenn as we walked out. "But hopefully, they won't be too far and we'll find him again the morning.

As we made the long trek towards the truck I was hoping that I had made the right decision not to let Glenn shoot in the failing light with a steep up hill angle.

I know those sheep had enough of all the action that day. When they got the chance they were going to head back to the top of the Black's and we might not ever see this herd again.

Now only time would tell...Even though we were all exhausted, sleep didn't come easy.

Next, we we are going to Day 10...Now what could go wrong?

Don Martin
AWO
 
Day 10 started off with all of us looking at the solar eclipse from our camp in the desert off of the Oatman Highway in Golden Valley.

We had some new folks join us, while the Schwartzkopf family had to leave.

Joining us for this day was Kingman resident Brian Gunnoe and one of my veteran sheep guides from Mesa, AZ Lynton Leslie.

The plan was simple. We would wait till daylight to see if the sheep were still on the pinnacle and if they weren't, we'd head off up the mountain.

As the darkness gave way to the new day, it became quickly obvious that the sheep were gone off the top of the mountain.

That meant we had to start climbing as fast as we could and find those sheep.

I sent Lynton and Dale to one area to look, while Gary and Brian went to another spot.

Glenn, Jay and I headed up the mountain as fast as we could go on an old sheep trail.

When we arrived at the basin where we had seen the sheep the previous day, Chan saw a group of seven, with two rams walking at a fast pace through a saddle that would lead to higher elevations.

None of the rams were Longfellow.

We walked a couple of hundred more yards when I spotted yet another group of seven sheep. More rams and ewes, but not the Longfellow ram.

"They've split up" Jay said. He was right, the first group had two mature rams with them that had been with Longfellow and they were moving quickly up the mountain. The second group had a pair of the younger rams that had been in Longfellow's herd.

We reasoned that as soon as it got light the sheep headed off the pinnacle and for some reason split up.

But one thing was certain. Longfellow wasn't with the two groups we saw. We could only hope that he was still nearby.

We quickly climbed up through the basin and as we reached the saddle where the first group of sheep had went over. We stopped to catch our breath.

I had this feeling....

I stepped out from behind a rock and started glassing a large valley. I saw nothing.

Jay stepped around me and said, "Don there they are!"

Sure enough the rest of sheep, including the young ewe and four rams, including Longfellow, were less than 100 yards below and to the right of us.

The sheep saw us and immediately headed up the canyon.

I told Jay to take Glenn to a rock pile and get him on the sheep while I dug out the video camera out of back pack.

Things started happening quickly. The sheep were now running up the canyon and I couldn't find the camera. So I started ranging the sheep as they moved up towards yet another saddle in the mountain.

If they got over that saddle, they were gone for good.

I could hear Jay trying to get Glenn on the right ram. "He is the second ram, Glenn" Jay was saying.

I ranged the sheep at just under 200 yards, but Glenn and Jay were much closer to them than I was.

The sheep slowed down as they started picking their way up a vertical wall that was part of a seldom used ancient waterfall.

The young ram that was in the front slowed and then stopped to look back before going over the top.

Longfellow moved up to him, and used his horns to encourage him to keep moving.

That was the time needed for Glenn to find and get on target.

At 9:20 a.m. on December 10, 2011, Glenn fired a shot from his trusty 270 rifle at a range of 173 yards.

Longfellow dropped in his tracks and then fell over backwards straight down the 30 foot waterfall

The hunt was over and we had the ram we had been seeking!

We had looked at 110 different rams and 240 ewes/lambs before the hunt ended.

We were all deeply moved as we reached the fallen monarch, and he was dutifully given one of my rituals, his last bite. I said a prayer as I always do.

Taking the life of these grand old rams is nothing that sportsmen should take for granted.

He had spent 8 years on the mountain, and from what we saw, was the dominant ram in that part of the Black's.

And while he was gone, another ram would now take his place, like it has happened for eons and eons in these rugged mountains. But Longfellow was and will always be special to all of us who pursued him through some of the roughest country in the Mohave County.

When we put the tape on the ram, we found that we had pretty much got his measurements right. We figured his long horn was 33 inches, it was in fact 33.4. His right horn was broomed and we thought it was 30 inches long. It was in fact 30.4 inches long.

We slightly underestimated his bases, which was given by G&F as being 15 and 14.4.

His tip to tip width was really what really justifies his name.

He officially was measured at 28 1/4 inches wide! Though there are still some sheep hunters out there in this region, I think he probably has the widest spread of any ram taken this year in Region III.

Longfellow truly has the NELSONI look that Glenn was after.

At this point I want to thank all those that were part of our AWO team.

They are for the most part not guides; these are just sportsmen who love to be on sheep hunts, and they volunteer their time and talents year after year in our pursuit to take the best rams we can for our hunters.

Here they are in no particular order.

First of all many thanks to Glenn for letting us help him on his once-in-a-lifetime sheep experience. Despite being 69-years old this guy was up for the challenge from Day 1 through Day 10.

Then there was Ryan Chan, Jay Chan, Marc Schwartzkopf, Matt Schwartzkopf, Mike Samer, Gary Martin, Brian Gunnoe and Dale Reynolds. And to fellow AWO guides Dave Bruns and Lynton Leslie, man are these guys helpful and I sure appreciated their help.

Well that is going to do it for this year for our annual sheep hunt report. I hope you enjoyed it.

I know its long but sharing the details of the hunt is what I think makes it a story.

Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
 
Hey, you didn't think I'd not post a few photos did you?

Here they are:
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69-year-old Glenn Adamson with Longfellow


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Happy guys! L-R Dale Reynolds, Don Martin and Glenn Adamson

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Yep, this old warrior does have some flare, doesn't he?

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Carries his mass, a good NW AZ NELSONI ram!

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Our AWO team that fateful day! L-R: Glenn, Lynton, Gary, and Dale. Back row, Brian and Jay.

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We dedicate this ram to Toby Keith and Red Solo Cup! Man did we have a party!
 
That was indeed an adventure to be remembered by all. Nice!
Congratulations on finding and eventually taking the ram you wanted.
 

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