Montana Bighorn Sheep: A Promise Kept

It was just another day at work when I saw an alert pop up on my phone that I had received an email from Montana FWP. I clicked on it with the expectation that it was going to say “Unsuccessful” yet again. I stopped and my heart jumped when I read the subject line stating, “Successful 2024 bighorn sheep drawing. Congratulations!” I could not believe that with only 5 preference points going into the draw, I was going to have a chance to finish my slam in one of the best units in North America for harvesting a 180"+ ram!
 
As soon as I got home, I called up a best friend who was my traditional hunting companion, Kevin Cheng, to let him know I was drawn and see if he would join me on this hunt. He happily agreed to join. Next it was on to what I thought would be a bigger challenge, conveying the news to my fiancé who was pregnant with our first son. I knew her due date was in early November, which was unfortunately also the best time to hunt that unit. To my surprise, she was highly supportive and excited for the opportunity. She just asked that I wait until the baby was born and then I would be free to go after my dream ram.
 
Next, I reached out to a few knowledgeable folks in the hunting industry as well as Huntin’ Fool to try to get paired up with an outfitter or guide. They all came back with the same name, Hank Flatow. I was elated to hear this as I had met and befriended Hank previously at the Sheep Show in Reno. I called Hank up and asked about seeing if he would join me for the hunt. He was excited to hear that I had drawn the tag and offered to take me.
 
My son was born on October 21st, and then the week before Thanksgiving, I got the call from Hank saying, “It’s time. Come on up as soon as possible.” My buddy, Kevin, and I flew out to Montana later that week and met Hank at his house. From there, we drove his truck with horse trailer in tow to the Bob Marshall Wilderness. When we got to camp, we met Hank’s friend from Alaska, Todd Walton, who was there hunting elk. I went to sleep highly excited that night, just contemplating what was in store for the next few days.


 
At around 3 a.m., I awoke to the sound of a large “boom” followed by the sound of banging metal. Hank had his propane heater leak gas inside the compartment he was sleeping in, which ignited a flash explosion. His body was steaming, and I noticed remnants of his jacket hanging off of this body. He stated that he was burned pretty bad. I knew we had to move quickly. After a brief discussion, we figured our best bet was to try to drive out of there and make it to Augusta, Montana where we might be able to meet paramedics.
 
After a little over an hour, arrangements were made to meet up with an ambulance at an intersection just outside of Augusta. There, the paramedics transferred Hank into the ambulance and started heading to the nearest hospital in Great Falls, Montana. We followed the ambulance to Great Falls. Throughout our drive, we maintained contact with Hank’s mother, Kim Flatow, and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Jacobson, who were both headed up from Helena.
 
After we had gotten Hank to the hospital and met up with his family, the decision was made to have Hank flown to a burn unit in Salt Lake City, Utah where he could be better cared for. Then, Kevin, Todd, and I started to contemplate our next steps. We had been in contact with one of Hank’s friends, Carl Christianson, who offered to help Hank with getting his affairs in order back at camp. We all decided to go meet up with Carl back in Augusta to come up with a plan.


 
With the snows starting to really set in and season rapidly coming to an end, it was determined we would spend that night back in the base camp and Todd and Carl would break down Hank’s camp while Kevin and I set out to try to fill the coveted sheep tag. Fortunately, Hank had sent me a video of a very large ram that had been seen just a night or two prior to the incident with a verbal account of a general area of the unit where it was taken. Using Google Earth on my phone, I was able to locate the landmarks I had seen in the video to have an idea of where to go, hoping that sheep would still be in the area.
 
On our first full day of hunting, we spotted some sheep just after sunrise in a bowl just below the summit of a mountain. Upon glassing them for a bit, we noticed there was a very large ram in the bunch that was undoubtedly a shooter. We decided to ascend the mountain to the south of where the sheep were and traverse across a band of cliffs just below the ridgeline to get to where the ram was.
 
We got to the bowl by late afternoon. We ended up seeing three young rams show up in this bowl that came within 150 yards of me, but we ultimately decided to pass on them. The big ram had left. We headed back down for the day and got back to the truck at about 11 p.m.
 
Kevin and I set out Monday morning on the route we had mapped out to get to where the video of the giant ram had been taken. We hiked back in a few hours to get to the slope and rocky outcroppings where the sheep were. Once we got through the lower hills and valleys of the approach, we decided to separate. Kevin would stay back on the edge of a meadow we came across as it was a great vantage point for everything on the slope of the mountain. I would make a final approach to one of the drainages on the mountain slope while maintaining line of sight contact with Kevin.
 
As I worked my way up the final approach, I came across an elk hunter who told me he had just seen the biggest ram of his life an hour or two before. He pointed over a ridge to the general location the ram was headed. I told him that I thought it to be the ram we saw the day before. I thanked him and headed off in that direction. As I crested another small ridge, I came to where the ram was last seen at the base of a large cliff on the final slope of the mountain leading to the summit. I was disheartened to only find a small ram still in that location.
 
At around 3 p.m., I recognized that I was getting signals from Kevin that he was watching a “good” ram in the adjacent drainage to the north of the drainage I was in. I waited for about an hour to see if the sheep would move south into the drainage I was in. When there was only around 45 minutes of sunlight left, I decided to make an approach.
 
I packed up quickly and hiked up the slope while traversing over to the ridge separating me from the adjacent drainage where the sheep were reported to be. As I crossed over the ridge within a thicket of trees, I stopped and sat down to quickly glass the area. As I looked down, I realized I had been spotted! The ewe was bedded down no further than 25 yards from me. I slowly moved backwards and dropped back across the ridge. Once out of sight, I moved up the ridgeline to get higher up the slope while staying concealed. Further up the slope, the three sheep were staring at me. Thankfully, they were not alarmed. I used my riflescope to quickly judge the sheep. I immediately knew that it was not the giant ram we were after, but this was no doubt a very nice 180"+ ram. I watched him for just a couple of minutes while deciding what to do. It was either risk going after the bigger ram who could be miles away at this point and likely not fulfill my promise to be home for Thanksgiving or take home a quality 180"+ ram and be back on time. I took my gun off of safety and squeezed off the shot. The sheep stiffened up briefly and then fell over. As he was trying to get back up, I put a second round into him and sealed the deal for my slam.
 
I couldn’t believe it! What I thought would take me 25 years to complete the slam was now complete just 7 years after starting the quest.
 
I was back in Austin just before midnight on Wednesday evening and was able to make the three-hour drive to see Kayla’s family for Thanksgiving the next morning. I kept my word that I would be home in time for our son’s first Thanksgiving with the family. To make Thanksgiving even better, I got a call from both Hank and his mother, Kim, stating that Hank had made it through the operations to treat his burns and was on the way to recovery. Hank later went on to guide a sheep hunt down in Mexico just a little over a month after the incident, which is truly a remarkable feat and a testament to his perseverance and true passion for hunting. I am truly thankful to all those who helped make this dream become a reality.