I got to know a great man and Arizona rancher by the name of Abe Martinez Sr. back in the early 90s. Last July, Austin Atkinson from Huntin’ Fool called me and said that Abe Martinez Jr. had drawn a unit 27 bighorn tag and wanted to hunt with us. At 75 years old, Abe knew that he would need a horseback type hunt to access many of the remote areas that sheep inhabit in the upper Blue. After talking to Abe, we knew that we were going to be in for a fun hunt.
When November rolled around, my son, Scotty, and I headed up and set up camp. We started scouting several days before the season opened. We rode into all of the best sheep hangouts and found several good rams with a few in the mid 160-170" range. Most of the biggest rams had fairly heavy brooming. On opening morning, I relocated one of the best rams we had found while scouting. Abe and Scotty rode in and took a look at him. Abe decided to pass on him, saying he wanted a ram with horns that “come around to his eye.”
The next day, we relocated the longest ram we had seen with both horns at 37"+. Abe finally got a good look at the ram just before sundown and decided to take him. He made a perfect shot. We had a blast hunting with Abe, and he is a great man, much like his father.
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