On October 2, 2023, while getting lunch with my brothers, Tony and Dominick, I received a text message from my credit card company of a charge to Kalkomey NDOW, meaning that I had received a tag through the alternate system. I saw the amount charged and knew it was not a deer tag. I am on the waiting period for elk and antelope, so I knew it had to be a sheep tag. After a brief freak out in the drive-through line, I logged on to my Kalkomey account to see that I had been awarded a Desert bighorn any ram tag for unit 280 (the test site unit). I called my girlfriend, Cassidy, right away, as she had already drawn a Desert bighorn and California bighorn tag in our home state of Nevada, to let her know she wasn’t the only one with a sheep now. My next phone call was to my dad to let him know because the dates December of 16-31 were now blocked out as I was going sheep hunting.
I received email confirmation from NDOW and awaited the call to find out how to get onto the test site to hunt those dates. NDOW sent a packet to fill out all the information on all our optics, equipment, vehicles, and my rifle. The second packet was a background check for everyone in my hunt party. It was filled out in one day as I wanted to waste no time. My hunt party could consist of 10 individuals, including myself, but I was only allowed to have four with me on the range at any given time. From the day I learned I drew the tag, I wasted no time as I had all my paperwork turned in within two weeks. Then came the waiting game as I first had my briefing class on December 15th where all individuals on my hunt had to attend to get clearance to hunt with me.
On the morning of December 16th, it was game time. The first group of four I called the A-team was my brothers, Tony and Dominck, my dad, Louie, and good family friend and sheep guru Shane Rogers. We met up early that morning and drove to Point Bravo to get access to the range. In the weeks leading up to the hunt, I studied every piece of information I could, from the previous years of checkout summaries on the NDOW website to maps of elevation, including guzzlers, to even calling the biologist to see what counts were in the unit. I had maps and a binder full of information I read and carried religiously until the hunt.
That first morning, I went exactly where I wanted to go without interruption as only four other tag holders were in the unit. Within 20 minutes of being in the spot, I glassed up a herd of nine ewes on the face. Following the ewes, we glassed up a great ram, but it was not what I was looking for. We spent the whole day on that face, glassing up many sheep, and even found one ram in that kill category. I decided to make a play on him, but it did not work out the way we wanted. I chased him with my brothers back and forth over the spine of that mountain three times. We totaled eight and a half miles of walking that first day, and I was already ready for day two.
On the morning of December 17th, we met up the same way with the same group of people, and we went to where we had found the ram the previous day. For about two hours, we looked and never turned him or the other two rams he was with up. I decided to go to my second spot with Tony and Dominick while my dad and Shane went further south to see if they could locate him there. We were in the second spot for no more than five minutes when Dom spotted another ram with 19 ewes about 1,300 yards away. We got my dad and Shane on the phone and had them check him out. After staring at him through my BTX for about 30 minutes, I couldn’t get him to the number I was looking for.
While my dad, brothers, and I were looking north for more sheep, Shane calmly said, “I got a ram, boys.” He put my BTX on him and his eyes got large, so I knew he had found something big. I looked at this ram for half a second before saying, “I’m killing that ram.”
My brothers and I loaded up our packs and started the hike. The ram was initially 1,000 yards away and crested over a mountain, so we knew we had to get up there to have a chance. We walked across a flat in speed walk fashion, got to the mountain’s base, and climbed up a very steep face for what seemed like hours when it was only 45 minutes. We walked up the spine to where he went over, expecting him to be at the top, but to our surprise, he was not there. We glassed all over the other side, which was a huge canyon/basin. Tony noticed a group of beds below us, about 80 yards, that were very fresh and even had some urine in the dirt, so we knew he was close. After being up there for 20 minutes, Dom found him. He was 880 yards away, bedded with nine ewes around him. He had gone up and down the other side in some nasty, steep terrain.
Tony, Dom, and I made a game plan, and we started the very slow and steep walk down the mountain. I knew there was a ledge I could shoot from that would get us within 500 yards if we could get to it, so we crept/climbed down to it. When we got to within 50 yards of that ledge, we prepped ourselves and got mentally to where we needed to be to make this happen. Tony was on range duty, and Dom was on location duty. We crawled on our hands and knees to the top of this ledge and peeked down the canyon to find him. He was spotted in seconds, and Tony called out 468 yards. I spun my dial on my scope, benched in on a rock outcropping, and sent a shot downrange at the ram in his bed. Right after the shot, Dom said, “You were high.” I realized the steepness of the shot was not accounted for in the range. I quickly turned my dial down a smidge and relocated the ram as he jumped up from his bed and looked around, trying to figure out what had happened. I squeezed off my second shot, and the ram crumpled right where he stood. My dream had come true. I had killed my own Desert bighorn sheep.
Following our screams of excitement, we flew down the mountain and across the wash to finally get our hands on him. I was 20 yards ahead of my brothers when I got to him and lifted his head. Our jaws hit the floor, and we were speechless. He grew when we walked up on him. He was perfect, even further a dream ram. My dad and Shane got there an hour and 45 minutes later, and pictures were taken. He was skinned out (life-sized), the meat was all packed up, and we packed him out of there. I could have hiked with a full pack for days. My adrenaline high was to the moon.
It was the best hunt I have ever had, and I could not have done it without the help of my brothers, dad, and Shane. I also had the support of my girlfriend, Cassidy, as she had to deal with my obsessiveness over this hunt for over two months. It came together perfectly, and I will cherish that hunt for the rest of my life. Now I’m on to the next one, maybe a Rocky Mountain bighorn or a California bighorn. You never know. Always check the box to be an alternate.
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