2019 WY Sheep

[passinthru]

Congratulations!

Pretty special hunt right there.

 

[npaden]

Congrats. Looks like a nice old ram.

 

[MTGomer]

Been waiting to read this one. Congratulations. There are very very few hunts I’d rather do.

 

[Big Fin]

Excellent in so many ways. Congratulations.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Amazing hunt - congrats and that is one beautiful old ram

 

[deer_shooter]

Beautiful ram Buzz. Congratulations

 

[bigjohn]

Congratulations on a trophy hunt and a great ram!

 

[shoots-straight]

Wow Buzz! I'm really glad your hunt was so great!

 

[Dougfirtree]

Congrats and thanks for sharing the adventure with us!

 

[geetar]

The next day, we decided to go back to the country we had hunted on our initial trip. Things were much different with the snow. We worked our way upcountry, seeing a bunch of elk all along the way that were migrating due to the snow. It was also impossible to not notice an over-abundance of grizzly tracks in the 6 inches of snow, big bears, medium bears, sows with cubs. We also found a couple sets of wolf tracks, but never did lay eyes on one.

We rode the horses for about 5 hours or so, glassing as we went along. We saw a lot of ewes and lambs but couldn't turn up any rams. Finally, about as far as we were going to ride, we stopped and started glassing the south facing ridge. Eugene spotted 2 rams right away, both as he said, "shootable rams". I took one look and decided that either ram would be fantastic so I grabbed my rifle and off I went. It was slow going up the ridge, but the conditions were good. I snaked along a main ridge keeping the rams out of sight. I edged up when I thought I was about right and found the 2 rams bedded right where we saw them. I decided to get closer as I didn't want to risk anything on this stalk, knowing this was too good of an opportunity to squander. I got further up the ridge and peeked over the edge, rams were still bedded, 119 yards away. I chambered a round in my rifle and edged up to a dead whitebark pine and rested my rifle on the side of the tree. Now was the decision to make, one ram was heavier and clearly a couple years older. The other ram was longer horned, but not as heavy, maybe 2 years younger too. The mass, age, and color of the heavier ram won out. I placed the leupold dot tight behind the rams shoulder as he laid in the snow on the ridge. The trigger broke and I knew my hunt was over. The ram stood up, stiff legged and just stood there. I chambered another round and was just thinking about shooting again when he began to wobble and was down, about 10 feet from his bed.

I looked down and saw Eugene getting the horses and mule together and start riding up the ridge. By this time, in no surprise to me, with his top notch horses and mule and horsemanship he was up to the ram in about 20 minutes.

Moments like these are sort of hard to believe really. All the effort, all the time, finally came together in the culmination of probably the most difficult hunt I've done. Besides the physical part, there's just the mental game of staying engaged for all those days. Hiking, and glassing...and glassing and hiking. I think maybe physically, I would have preferred to not do this hunt at age 50, but mentally, I believe I'm way tougher now than I was 20 years ago.

Ram down:

Ram was checked in today at the GF office in Cody, 9.5 year old ram, great cape, and exactly what I hoped to get.

All loaded up and 4.5 hours from the truck:

Wont ever forget this hunt, got to spend 26 days in some absolute rugged country, rode some awesome horses and got to spend quality time with a couple good friends...cant really ask for more than that.

Absolute beauty of a ram! Congrats! Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[7mm08mo]

Congrats Buzz. Nobody more deserving of a great hunt.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Way to go Buzz. Beautiful ram, and it sounds like awesome country and company. IMHO, this makes the experience that much richer.

 

[Brittany Chukarman]

I've never hunted sheep and never will but if I were able to, that's the type of sheep hunt I would want. An animal that grand deserves no less. Great job Buzz.

 

[Carnage2011]

Congrats Buzz. That’s a great ram and some amazing country.

 

[sneakem]

Congrats! Way to make the most out of a once in a lifetime experience.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Great sheep! Nice that you took the time to enjoy the experience.

 

[rtraverdavis]

That’s a dream hunt. Thank you for the excellent story and accompanying pictures. Congratulations on a beautiful ram well earned.

 

[rmyoung1]

Congratulations @BuzzH. Super ram! Sounds like the experience of a lifetime. Thanks for taking us along

 

[LuketheDog]

Congrats on the ram Buzz! Your buddy Wallace hung out with us at breakfast in Gillette last Monday, great guy...

 

[brownbear932008]

Congrats Buzz I'm glad you made the best out of a hunt of a lifetime. I noticed you were gone a while here figured you were enjoying the ride. I was wondering as well if you used your dad's old rifle you reworked. Awesome story!!