A bittersweet ending to one of the greatest sheep units in the world – Lookout Mountain, Oregon. At the time we killed legendary ram “Super Chip,” we had no idea the end was near. Soon after, the unit started to show signs of pneumonia, which historically devastates a herd. It can take years, and in most cases decades, for Mother Nature to run its course to full recovery.
February 21, 2019 was the first time in two years we had laid eyes on Super Chip. As we worked our way back to camp from a typical morning scouting session, we came to an instant stop as we looked up the mountain and spotted what appeared to be a giant ram sitting on a rim rock overlooking the deep river canyon known as Hells Canyon. We instantly knew this was a special ram as you can’t mistake giant bases, mass, loops, and length.
Two years prior while guiding a youth hunter, Mason Miles, we passed a ram with great mass, big loops, and length. We named him Super Chip. The ram was young, lamb tipped, and not in his prime at only 7.5 years old. Believing he was already a book ram, we knew if he could survive other hunters and the gauntlet of predators we could have a true giant in the near future. It is not easy to walk away from a book ram, but we always contend that if your goal is to harvest mature animals in their prime, you must take the chance and let them live. In most cases, the odds are stacked against you.
Throughout the summer months, we tracked Super Chip on a weekly basis. We spent days upon days watching, filming, and marveling over his growth. He was always the dominant ram and had a tendency to stay secluded as the younger rams annoyed him. Prior to our first hunt in the unit, Super Chip disappeared as he had done the previous two years. It was a sheep hunter’s worst nightmare!
Our Lookout Mountain season progressed, and our success was great with three book rams. We came down to the last valid tag holder of the year, Tom Manning of Boise, Idaho. He had been the lucky hunter fortunate enough to draw at 1 in 800 odds the solitary Oregon non-resident Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep tag. He had spent time hunting Chukar across the Snake River on the Idaho side of Brownlee Reservoir. Tom had decided it was finally time to get himself a general Oregon hunting license to chase Chukar in the hills of Eastern Oregon. He’d put in for the big game draw hunts as well, including the once-in-a- lifetime sheep and mountain goat tags.
Tom and his two sons, Owen and Henry, came on multiple scouting trips with us throughout the summer. They were fortunate enough to lay eyes on three or four of our target rams. On one occasion, late in the day, we had been glassing from some rocks and had heard some noise below us. We watched Chip and three other rams feed out from underneath the rock outcropping. For about 30 minutes, we watched the rams feed toward a bull elk that was also enjoying the grass in the cooler, higher part of the unit.
Several days into Tom’s hunt, we decided to return to an area where during the previous hunt with Whitney Stahl and her father, Jeff, we had glassed up what we suspected to be Super Chip. As we approached the area and started glassing, a group of nine rams fed out of the heavy timber. They were a good mile away. The glassing conditions were difficult as the sun quickly descended to the west. Guide Scott Coe kept repeating, “Guys, that is a giant ram.” With fading light and not enough time to climb the steep, rocky canyon, we made the difficult decision to wait until morning. Our dinner table discussions were exciting and filled with anticipation as guide Dan Blankenship studied maps and developed our game plan for the follow morning.
The next morning as the sun slowly peaked over the canyon rims to our east, spotters Denny and Buck Blankenship located the band of rams. At this point, we knew there were two particular rams in the group we wanted to get a closer look at. The rams had themselves tucked deep into a steep timber canyon, making it very difficult to get an angle without jeopardizing blowing them out. We waited for the sun to start warming up the canyon and for an updraft to develop. Being on the same side of the mountain as the rams, we couldn’t find an angle allowing us to see all nine of them.
After six hours of failed stalk attempts and waiting out multiple passing thunderstorms, we decided our best approach was to back out and remain patient. Resituating ourselves across the canyon from the rams, we hoped they would feed our direction towards evening. Picking apart the heavy vegetation and timber, every now and then we would catch a glimpse of the rams mingling. This gave us hope we might catch a break. Out of nowhere, one ram appeared in a small opening in the trees straight across from us and he locked on to our presence. Tom quickly adjusted his gun setup as we all stared at the giant ram. The first thing we noticed was his mass. With the pressure of drawing a once-in-a-lifetime tag, we as outfitters have the responsibility of helping hunters make good decisions on which ram meets their goal. In this particular instance, we were experiencing controlled chaos. On the inside, we were wound tight and amped up at the sheer size of the ram, while on the outside, we appeared calm and under control. After a unanimous group decision, which didn’t take long, the ram was worthy of Tom’s tag and we gave him the green light to shoot. Tom is an experienced sheep hunter, killing a Dall sheep in the Brooks Range and a Rocky in his home state of Idaho. As a result, he kept his emotions in check and zipped a bullet into the ram, making a picture-perfect shot. The ram disappeared out of sight, tumbling down the mountain. At this point, we had no idea it was Super Chip, but we did know it was a giant ram for Tom.
After many hugs and high fives, we gathered up our gear and worked towards the ram. The entire walk was filled with anxiety trying to determine what ram we had just shot. When we laid our eyes on the ram and stretched our hands around his bases, we instantly knew it was Super Chip. “17 inch bases, are you kidding me?” Dan yelled over and over. In awe of the magnificent animal, we continued to yell with joy, high fived, and absorbed the once-in-a-lifetime moment. Not trusting our personal measuring tactic of stretching our fingers around the bases, we pulled out the tape to confirm our disbelief. With every measurement, Super Chip grew. He was 42 3/8" long and had 17 2/8" bases, 16 4/8" 2nds, 14 3/8" 3rds, and 9 1/8" 4ths. Super Chip gross scored 196 2/8" and officially netted 194 7/8", making him the #5 all-time biggest ram in the state of Oregon. In addition, Super Chip is the biggest ram ever harvested in Lookout Mountain, surpassing the previous mark of 193" held by Shelby and Calvin Halladay of Sheep Mountain Outfitters.
In 2020, ODFW closed the unit to all sheep hunting due to a pneumonia outbreak. Sometimes the sheep gods have the final word as this final and largest ram ever harvested in the unit could be the last.
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