wyflyguy
Well-known member
I recently got my 2019 NM Rocky Mountain Bighorn ram back from the taxidermist. I haven't posted much here, but thought I would share my hunt and some pics with you to contribute some to the forum. Plus, some may be either preparing for or just wrapping up sheep hunts of their own. Hopefully this serves to stoke the fire for you.
When I saw that I had drawn a bighorn sheep tag I was absolutely dumbfounded. I was floating on cloud 9. I have been on several sheep hunts before, all desert bighorn ram hunts (1 for me - drew a NV tag when I was 17 and a couple with my father who has been lucky enough to draw NV desert ram tags 3 times), so sheep hunting isn't new, but hunting the rocky mountain sheep definitely was. I spent countless hours scouring maps, harvest data, internet forums, etc. for every piece of information I could find. I drew the Pecos Wilderness unit in New Mexico and it quickly became apparent that I was either backpacking in or I was going to have to find a guide or drop camp service to go in on horseback. Without a lot of extra money, I decided I was going to do this hunt DIY. I recruited the help of my neighbor and a brother who were thankfully willing to go along for the adventure. After pouring over maps and satellite imagery I decided on an entry point and made plans to take a couple of scouting trips. The first of those was planned for mid-June 2019. From where I parked, it would be about a 4 mile hike to where I planned to camp right at the tree line and then another 1/2 mile or so up to the top of the ridge. Unfortunately, I was only able to make it about half way there on this trip due to snow that was thigh deep that hadn't melted yet. Scouting was going to have to wait until July.
After some family vacation I was finally able to get back into the area in late July, just a few weeks before my August hunt. The snow was mostly gone by now and the hike went slightly better than I was expecting. The first evening up there I found about 100 elk and 12-15 sheep, including 3-4 young rams. It felt great to finally put eyes on some sheep! I had a lot of fun watching the ewes and lambs through the spotter.
The next morning I climbed back up on top of the world in search of something bigger. I saw several better rams during the morning, which just got me more excited. About mid-morning I looked to the saddle that was about a mile in front of me and saw several sheep feeding and bedded in the grass. I carefully crept closer until I was about 0.5 mile out, then found a spot to sit and watch them. There were several rams in the group, which was great. As I scanned through the herd I almost fell over when I settled on this bruiser (grainy phone skope pic from 1/2 mile away)!
I watched him for a long time and quickly decided this was the ram I'd be after during my hunt.
I saw a few more sheep, some more deer and lots of elk through the rest of the weekend, but nothing that came even close to that ram. So I headed home, super excited by what I had found and equally worried about that ram being spotted/discovered by someone else. The next couple of weeks were pretty painful worrying about that.
When I saw that I had drawn a bighorn sheep tag I was absolutely dumbfounded. I was floating on cloud 9. I have been on several sheep hunts before, all desert bighorn ram hunts (1 for me - drew a NV tag when I was 17 and a couple with my father who has been lucky enough to draw NV desert ram tags 3 times), so sheep hunting isn't new, but hunting the rocky mountain sheep definitely was. I spent countless hours scouring maps, harvest data, internet forums, etc. for every piece of information I could find. I drew the Pecos Wilderness unit in New Mexico and it quickly became apparent that I was either backpacking in or I was going to have to find a guide or drop camp service to go in on horseback. Without a lot of extra money, I decided I was going to do this hunt DIY. I recruited the help of my neighbor and a brother who were thankfully willing to go along for the adventure. After pouring over maps and satellite imagery I decided on an entry point and made plans to take a couple of scouting trips. The first of those was planned for mid-June 2019. From where I parked, it would be about a 4 mile hike to where I planned to camp right at the tree line and then another 1/2 mile or so up to the top of the ridge. Unfortunately, I was only able to make it about half way there on this trip due to snow that was thigh deep that hadn't melted yet. Scouting was going to have to wait until July.
After some family vacation I was finally able to get back into the area in late July, just a few weeks before my August hunt. The snow was mostly gone by now and the hike went slightly better than I was expecting. The first evening up there I found about 100 elk and 12-15 sheep, including 3-4 young rams. It felt great to finally put eyes on some sheep! I had a lot of fun watching the ewes and lambs through the spotter.
The next morning I climbed back up on top of the world in search of something bigger. I saw several better rams during the morning, which just got me more excited. About mid-morning I looked to the saddle that was about a mile in front of me and saw several sheep feeding and bedded in the grass. I carefully crept closer until I was about 0.5 mile out, then found a spot to sit and watch them. There were several rams in the group, which was great. As I scanned through the herd I almost fell over when I settled on this bruiser (grainy phone skope pic from 1/2 mile away)!
I watched him for a long time and quickly decided this was the ram I'd be after during my hunt.
I saw a few more sheep, some more deer and lots of elk through the rest of the weekend, but nothing that came even close to that ram. So I headed home, super excited by what I had found and equally worried about that ram being spotted/discovered by someone else. The next couple of weeks were pretty painful worrying about that.
Looking forward to more.
