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November 2022
Story by Taylor Raats
State: British Columbia
Species: Sheep - Stone

There is no word that can describe sheep hunting. Very few people will ever get the opportunity to hunt these beautiful, majestic animals. Sheep sickness is a real thing. There is no halfway. After your first exposure, a man is either a sheep hunter or he isn’t. He either falls under the spell of sheep hunting and sheep country or he won’t be caught dead on another sheep mountain.

In September of 2021, I boarded a plane with my dad, Hank, to head to British Columbia. We were both going to hunt Stone sheep! This was the first opportunity for both of us to hunt them. As we arrived in British Columbia, we were given some bad news that all the guides and spotters had just quit the outfitter. The new outfitter had just taken the outfit over this year from the original owners of 30+ years. We were then told a new guide was to arrive in camp the same day we arrived and that the hunt was going to be a three-on-one for 10 days instead of the original contract of one-on-one for 15 days. This is something you never want to hear as you arrive in camp on any hunt. I was beyond upset. At this point, I was ready to jump back on the plane and head home.

On day one of the hunt, we headed to a spike camp that took almost two days to get to. This camp was only supposed to take five hours. Once we arrived, I noticed how thick the area was and thought it was going to be very tough to find a ram.

On day two as I was hiking off a mountain, it was starting to get dark and I slipped. I went headfirst into a branch and gouged my eye. I was completely blind in my right eye for two and a half days.

As it turned out, the first seven days of the hunt we found six rams but none that were legal. At this same time, one of the hunters with me was hunting mountain goats. The main guide and I spent an entire day hunting goats so this hunter would be tagged out and taken back to the main camp.

Day eight was here, and I was panicking about if I was going to get a chance to kill a ram. I quickly texted my buddy who had guided a handful of years for this outfitter and he replied with where we should relocate. We did what my buddy said, and as soon as we got near that area, we stopped on a vantage point. As I sat there, I noticed a ladybug crawling on me. I reached down, picked it up, and made a wish. It wasn’t more than two minutes later that I was looking through my binoculars and found my ram over three miles away. I knew he was something special. He had the most perfect look. We came up with a game plan, ditched the horses, and started the four-hour hike to get to where he was. All I could think of was my hope that the ram would still be there as I got to where we saw him last.

We finally got into position and found a few smaller rams but not my ram. We decided to hold tight for a bit, and as luck would have it, here came two beautiful dark-caped rams down the side of a mountain. My ram was the back one following a younger ram. I quickly lay down prone and got ready for a shot. My rangefinder spit out 454 yards, and I adjusted my turret on the scope. Waiting and waiting, my ram finally stopped. Boom! One well-placed shot and my ram tipped over dead in his tracks. I started high fiving with my dad, realizing I just got my 50% ram.

This is something I’ll never forget. I was flooded with emotions and started tearing up immediately, crying like a baby. It was a feeling I cannot explain. After all the highs and lows on this hunt, to finally get a beautiful ram was bittersweet. As we made it over to my ram, I was speechless. He was by far the most beautiful animal I had ever seen in my life. I’m now 50% Slam completed, and the feeling is amazing! Hunt sheep while you can because you never know what tomorrow will bring.