Got my sheep taken care of.
This was the toughest but most rewarding hunt I've even had. I was very Lucky to have my friends help me out. And I want to thank all of you with your information and comments.
As you know opening day was a bust with all of the rain we had. My boat broke down before the hunt so I had to rent a pontoon boat, we named the "Sheep Wreck".
Saturday evening we glassed across from the Apache Lake Marina to Goat Mountain. In between the rain all I saw was a muley doe.
Sunday I dropped off two of my buddys Dan P. and Mark into Alder Creek (Party Cove) and they hiked in a couple of miles and stayed all day with out seeing any sheep, Dan did see a small whitetail buck.
My other friends Dan H., Wayne and I went into Ash Creek. Wayne saw
a whitetail buck also. No sheep. The wind blew all day and made it very difficult to glass.
On Monday Mark and Dan P. had to get back to town to take care of some business and come back a few days later. Wayne, Dan H. and I went back into Ash Creek because it just looked sheepy. Dan H. picked up a nice ram about 9am. We watched him for about and 1 1/2 hours. He was at the base of Goat Mountain and stayed in the shade the whole time we saw him. We were hoping he would bed down but it didn't happen. He would feed a little and walk off like he was trying to get somewhere.
The sheep started center left of the picture in the boulders and walked across the base of the cliff and up one of the pass's in the center to the first ledge and walked across into the shaded area and we lost him there. That was the only sheep we had seen that day.
We went back in on Tuesday and see anything. In the mean time I was getting updates from other friends and the unit 24 tag holder. They were seeing sheep near Saguaro lake. My plan was to hunt half a day on Wednesday and pack up in the afternoon to check out other areas.
On Wednesay it was Dan H. and myself. We decided to cover as much ground as we could so we started boating from the dam and glassing along the cliff edge's. The water was calm and just a breeze, it seem perfect. We spotted our first sheep in Alder Creek. It looked likde two small rams. We hiked in about 3/4 mile and could see that it was two samll rams and three ewes. It looked like the rut was still happening.
We went back to the Sheep Wreck and boated just past Ash Creek and Dan picked up another sheep. It was a ram bedded on a boulder at the base of Goat Mountain. He looked pretty good from the boat but we needed a closer look. We pulled into Ash Creek and hiked up a ways to get a closer look. We put the glass's on him and he looked small. He had nice mass but his horns didn't come down to his jaw line. I decided to pass on him and look for a better one.
We got back into the boat and by this time I'm thinking about staying another day. We were starting to see more sheep. We boated past the ram I had seen and cruised into Indian Spring. I decided to turn out of the cove and just before we were leaving Dan turned around and saw my ram on a ledge right next to lake in the back of the cove. Dan said "Geeze" (not really, he said something else), you could probably shoot him from the boat. I turned around and there he was as Dan said. I wheeled the Sheep Wreck around and we beached the boat just below where we had seen him. In the mean time he had walked off. I didn't get a real good look at him but he was bigger than the ram we had just left. For the first time I chambered my single shot Encore. We gathered our gear trying to stay calm. The easiest way up was right below where he was standing. The only way out for him was to go straight back from where he was or go south. We started to climb up as quietly as we could with out kicking any rocks (riiiight). As we got up half way I could see the ram looking at us about 100 yards away. I picked up bino's and could see he was a pretty good ram. Heavy, boxy and horns below his jawline. Dan got the camera rolling and I set up my tripod. The ram continued walking up the hill and would look back a few times. I wanted a broadside shot, he looked like he was out about 175-200 yards out. I knew my 25-06 was a tack shooter at 200 yards. Finally he turned boadside, I looked for a few seconds and he looked like the ram for me. I fired, the ram took five more steps and I thought I had missed. I reloaded and Dan said you got him. I looked up and saw his front legs come off the ground and roll down the hill about twenty yards. Dan said your hunt is over. Dan did a great job with the camera. He jerked a little on the shot back was back on him when he walked up and came back down. A palo verde stopped him from rolling any further. I made sure that I watched where he had stopped to make sure he stayed down. My 19 years of waiting was finally over. Dan went down to the boat to pick up the pack frames and I went see my Indian Springs ram. It took me about a twenty minutes to climb that 200 yards, steep and loose rock. When I finally got to him I couldn't beleive the size of this ram. He look huge, I finally saw the left side of the ram, he had a big chunk missing. I never saw his left side as he was walking away. I honestly don't know if I would have taken him if I had seen his left side. But you what, this ram has charater and was king of the mountain for a while. I'm very happy with the ram and can't wait to get him back.
Here is a picture of what the ram was seeing over Apach Lake.
And here are some other pic's of my ram.
I have some video of the hunt and as soon as I can figure out how to compress and upload it I will.
Thanks again to my old friends and new. My next hunt is for whitetail in Old Mexico.
