I drew this tag in May of 2018 and the hunting season began on November 20th, so you can imagine the intensity over the months leading up to the hunt. We saw two rams we liked in July and knew we wanted one of them. My brother, Travis Jessop, and I drove down to the hunting area on November 16th to relocate those two rams. My good friends, Tommy Caviglia and Trevor Ricci, met us down there. Travis and Trevor went to another area to look as Tommy and I went to where we believed they would winter. Sure enough, Tommy and I saw our two rams standing together 400 yards away from us. This meant Travis and I were now on babysitting duty until opening day as Tommy and Trevor had to go back to work.
Travis and I sat and watched for one and a half days to make sure we didn’t lose the rams. The night before the season opened, we watched as our #1 ram decided to take a stroll all by himself. I started to panic and wonder where he was headed. We watched him until dark and figured we would find him in the spot where we lost him that night.
The next morning, we could finally hunt the ram. Travis and I arrived at the trailhead at 3 a.m., so we knew we would be the first ones in. Tommy and Trevor showed up at 5 a.m. and the hunt began. We sent Travis and Trevor to a high point to look over as much country as they could, and Tommy and I stayed low. Our #1 ram was nowhere to be found. Tommy and I decided to hike to the area we knew they liked to winter in, and as we crested the mountain, there was our #2 ram standing 250 yards away. After a lengthy conversation between Tommy and me, we decided to pull the trigger on this guy. My ram officially scored 168 3/8".
I couldn’t be happier with the ram I harvested and wanted to share the story as this is usually a once-in-a-lifetime tag in Nevada. I want to thank Travis Jessop, Tommy Caviglia, and Trevor Ricci for their tremendous help in this great ram harvest. I also want to thank Deadeye Outfitters Apparel and Huntin’ Fool for what they do and stand for.
After I shot my ram down by Las Vegas, Travis and I weren’t ready to come home. I knew my coworker, Howard Hadlock’s, father had a tag in Alamo, Nevada, so we loaded up and headed to Alamo to help out. Leonard Hadlock, age 79, was the tag holder. Travis and I arrived in Alamo on a Wednesday night and started scouting the next morning. We went out all day looking for rams, not knowing where Howard and Leonard were at, so we were pretty much sightseeing at this point.
Friday morning came around, and we figured we would hike to a guzzler we had been talking about for the last year. On our way to the base of the mountain where the guzzler was, we drove up on Howard and Leonard sitting in the road, glassing for rams. As we pulled up to them, Howard and I could see the relief in each other’s eyes, me knowing we could hunt with them and Howard knowing there was help to find rams. Travis and I finally got to meet Leonard, the guy we had heard so much about.
I told Howard we were going to hike up to the guzzler, and he pulled me aside and said his dad could hardly walk that well. I told him it was no problem and to let us look at this guzzler while they kept going up the road and glassing. I asked what distance Leonard was good to shoot, and Howard said 300 yards. I knew Leonard needed something off the road to shoot due to his hiking ability and shooting distance. Travis and I filled our curiosity by going to the guzzler and looking around.
We headed back to the truck and decided we needed to find a ram that Leonard could shoot. I told Travis we needed to go around the mountain to another guzzler we knew about and look there. We got to where we could see well and started glassing. Instantly, we found a couple rams on a rock. I knew there was a shooter there since this area isn’t known for monster rams and only three tags are awarded in the unit. I started calling Howard, and after 5 texts and 12 phone calls, he finally answered. I told him they needed to come to where we were ASAP as we had a couple rams.
About 30 minutes later, Howard and Leonard?arrived to take a look. Leonard started to grab?his gun, but I said to leave the gun in the truck and?take a look at the rams to see if he liked them. Leonard took a look in the spotting scope and said one of the rams was beautiful and perfect. Travis and I looked at each other, knowing they were 925 yards away and Leonard could only shoot 300 yards and couldn’t walk to them. We watched the rams for a while, and as the shade started to move over the rams, they got up off the rock and started to move closer. They walked around a rock cliff and started walking uphill to us. When the rams reached the sun again, the bigger of the two rams got on another rock and lay down as the smaller ram kept feeding below the other bigger ram. I told Travis to watch the rams and I would take Leonard up the road and peek over the rock cliff to see how close we could get.
When we got up the road, Howard said they would still be too far to shoot. The day before, Leonard fell a couple times and Howard felt the scope was hit on the ground. I told him I had my gun in the truck if he would like to use it, and Howard replied, “If you don’t mind.” I grabbed my gun, and we walked about 100 yards to look over the rock cliff to find the rams again. I spotted the rams and called Travis to come to where we were. Travis got the ram back in the spotting scope as I got Leonard set up on a rock to shoot off of. Leonard asked how far the ram was, and I told him 684 yards. Leonard asked if the gun would shoot that far, and I stated that yes, it would be no problem. The rock Leonard was on was sloping downhill, so I told Travis to watch the rams and I would watch the gun so it didn’t fall. I wanted to confirm the distance again, so I asked Travis and he said 684 yards but to shoot for 620. Leonard had the ram in the scope, so I dialed the scope in and said to stay down on the gun and give a nice, easy squeeze of the trigger when he was comfortable. Leonard pulled the trigger, and I heard Travis say, “Ram down!”
Leonard looked at me and said, “I got him?”
I said, “That’s what he’s telling me.”
Instantly, Leonard’s and my eyes filled up with tears and we hugged. What a relief! At 79 years old, Leonard had filled his once-in-a-lifetime tag. I wasn’t aware that Howard was recording this all on his phone through his spotting scope. We walked back to the vehicles, and I told Travis we needed to get this ram down whole so Leonard could get pictures with his Desert sheep. Howard, Leonard, and I drove around the mountain to the other side while Travis went to the ram. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, I hiked back to the top to help Travis grab the ram. I put the ram on my shoulders and walked off the mountain so Leonard could see his trophy.
I can’t thank Howard and Leonard Hadlock enough for letting Travis and me be a part of such an amazing opportunity and story. This is definitely one of the most rewarding hunts I have ever been on, and I will remember it forever.
Nevada Bighorn Sheep
Login