It’s hard to explain the feeling of a credit card hit for a Desert bighorn tag. It becomes mixed emotions when draw results uncover the fact that your 18-year-old son who happened to have the fewest amount of points in the family is the lucky tag holder. Regardless, one truth remained – we were going on our first sheep hunt. My first of many calls after letting the family know was to one of my best friends and sheep nut, Ben Despain. He was in and committed from the moment he picked up. Riley is about as humble as any young man you will find. We attended the ADBSS recognition banquet for the 2018 tag holders, hoping to meet last year’s hunters, biologist, and maybe a few of the other tag holders in the unit. I never had any doubt, but as we watched hunter after hunter share their stories of the previous year’s hunt, the amount of points and years invested, as many who were well past 80 were helped on stage by family to share what they waited a lifetime for, Riley turned to me and said he was feeling guilty about being so young with a tag in hand.
Scouting was an eye-opening experience. We failed to locate any sheep on the first of several trips. As a family, we have a pretty solid skillset and the equipment to aid us in success, but we were getting spanked! Ben had also been down several times to the unit and was in the same boat. Not a single sheep. I was getting nervous knowing how important November was and the unexplainable lack of success. I didn’t glass a sheep until Veterans Day weekend. It was a single class 2 ram and then a single ewe. Finally, on Veterans Day, I glassed a ram that got me excited. After sending Ben some pics, he quickly told me that it was not even remotely what we were looking for.
Riley is part of a very talented cross-country squad, and the State Tournament was the following weekend. Some things are non-negotiable, and I went to watch him take fourth in State. Between Riley’s race weekend and opening day of sheep season, we had committed to help our nephew on his first deer hunt and my father-in-law with his first bull elk tag at 70. Between all this, I had reached out to some old and new friends. They all assured me that I was looking in good country. Preston told me how he had struggled to find sheep in the unit and that he wondered if he had forgotten how to glass. I could relate and was struggling to not get discouraged.
November 25th, I was back in the unit and it was a morning I will never forget. All by myself, I headed into a basin Krista and I had been in several times. I was sure this basin had sheep in it. After glassing only a small ram, I was thinking how quickly a 31-day hunt can go by when you can’t seem to turn up even a decent ram. As I continued to glass, I thought I heard rams butting heads, but each time I looked the area over, nothing. I was getting ready to move deeper into the basin, believing that topography was blocking the rams. I gave it one more look, and rams started to walk out onto a bench. There were seven rams total with three that I believed were exactly what we were looking for. “B2U” (Butt 2 You), named so because he always bedded this way, and “RC” and “Pretty Boy” were in this group. After filming and taking pictures of the rams for a while, I headed out to make some calls and figure out if I had found a shooter. After touching base with the family, I provided several video and picture clips to Ben, Preston, Bobby, and JC to confirm what I had found. They concurred that three of the rams were studs for the unit.
It would just be Riley, Ben, and myself for the first week. Krista and the rest of the family would be staying with her dad until he filled his tag or the season ended. Our opener found us looking for the rams I had found on the 25th. Riley spotted the first sheep. A few other sheep were discovered when we turned up a group on the very top. Riley and I started talking about how we would approach and if the ram was in a killable location. Ben let us plan and then gently reminded us there were sheep between us and the ram and the worst thing to do on the opener was to push them further into the mountain range.
Over the next few days, sheep sightings were frequent, including two or three class 3 type rams but nothing we thought would go over 160". On the evening of day three, I briefly sighted what I thought was one of our target rams. Over the next nine days, several small rams, ewes, and lambs were sighted. Two of the tag holders had filled, including a 172" monster.
On December 15th, Riley and I made our first stalk on a ram that had gone over the top of us. Most of the rams were hanging very high with young ewes that had started cycling. A couple of days off for school finals then back in the unit on December 19th. Eleven days remained in the season, except one would be Christmas and two Sundays, leaving only eight days of hunting for us. I was feeling the pressure, and we were all starting to get worn down.
On Saturday, December 21st, Riley and I went to the basin where I had glassed B2U a month earlier. We picked up some sheep about 2,500 yards away. One ram stood out. I believed it was B2U, and a call was made to Krista to come join us. She arrived, and we got everyone locked in on the ram’s location. He was bedded butt to us, just like always. We began our stalk. We were ready to pop over and get a look. In our disbelief, a young ram was looking in our direction. After a very long time of looking at an empty drainage, Krista got us to move west. We set up looking at a nice bowl but weren’t finding any sheep. I told Riley to stay put as he had a great shooting position and good view to the west. I slipped ahead, 50 then 75 yards. I just needed to see around that corner in the slope. Wham! A ram was butting an Ocotillo cactus. B2U was walking right at me, and I was in front of and without the shooter. He walked to 65 yards and bedded down.
With my back to Riley, I told him to stop. In my mind, he was figuring out how to shoot the ram, get a solid rest, and do it safely. In reality, he didn’t know where to look. I was completely blocking his view, and every time he tried to reposition, I would tell him to stop in fear of spooking the ram. Without warning, B2U stood and instead of feeding away from us, he began to feed directly at us. Without a view and the safety to do so, the ram fed behind a little spine in front of us. Sixteen days of emotions, fatigue, and perspective were being expressed. Our spotters were unaware of our current circumstances. Believing B2U was in the bottom and feeding away from us, we made our move. As we did, B2U popped up right in front of us. I hit the ground and shouted, “Kill that ram!” B2U stood staring, with me curled up in a ball with a finger in my ear. Then a rock hit me in the back and I rolled over to see Riley looking over the top of the ram. I quickly helped to bring his eyes on target, and the report of the rifle followed soon after. B2U showed signs of a solid hit, but he kept his feet and ran over the spine and out of sight. The usual questions about shot placement followed as we scrambled back across the slope. We watched a young ram trail out of the basin. Then, looking back to our left and below us, B2U took his final steps. Hugs, emotions, and shouts of success rang throughout the basin. Watching Riley walk to his ram is something I will never forget.
As a father, I could not have asked for a more significant and rewarding experience for Riley and me in his last year at home. It is an experience and cherished memory I struggle to give words to. Thank you to the friends and family who made so many personal sacrifices for us.
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