Until June of last year, I could definitively state that I had never before won any type of raffle or other sort of drawing or game requiring luck. I happened to be on a family vacation when I got a call from Austin at Huntin’ Fool, telling me that I had successfully drawn a non-resident Idaho Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep tag for a unit outside of Salmon. My jaw dropped. I had hired Huntin’ Fool to submit applications to several western states in hopes of drawing a sheep tag in the U.S. I started my Grand Slam quest in 2017 with a successful Dall sheep hunt in Alaska. This was the first time I had ever applied for a non-resident tag in a draw in the lower 48. I finally won something!
Austin connected me with Luke Cranney of Rawhide Outfitters, which is based out of Salmon, Idaho. Luke has an impressive track record for successfully guiding bighorn sheep hunters in Idaho and beyond. One of the first points in our initial conversation was that I was in a bit of a unique position for fall 2018. I already had a bighorn hunt planned for October 2018 with my good friend, Scott Carter of Carter Outfitting in Alberta, Canada, which had been planned since 2016. Luke devised a plan to accommodate my Alberta hunt dates, although he was very clear that the likelihood of finding and stalking a shooter ram would be much greater closer to the end of the Idaho sheep season, which was October 15th. My Alberta hunt began on September 27th. Luke suggested I come out for a week in mid-September and hunt for a week. If unsuccessful, I would come back to Idaho for the final three days of the season after (hopefully) finishing up in Alberta.
My Idaho hunt began on Sunday, September 9th. Luke had definitely done his homework and knew exactly where we needed to be in the unit. That first morning, we got relatively high on a neighboring mountain to glass a wide expanse where Luke suspected we might find a good ram. Luke got me situated to begin glassing and then left to glass from another area where he could cover additional ground with his spotting scope. Luke spotted six rams that were bedded in the shade of the September sun. He guided me to where he was looking, and I confirmed with my spotter. Several were shooters. Luke called his father, John, who met up with us before dropping down to begin a stalk up the mountain.
Luke and I made good time on the stalk. John was watching the rams as we ascended the mountain. Our plan was to get above them to make a downhill shot and hopefully not get busted by the sheep since we had a somewhat challenging wind direction. We jungle crawled to get in position, but it wasn’t meant to be. I’m still not sure if they winded us or if I bungled the opportunity by not getting at a sharper angle fast enough to make the abruptly downward shot. The next thing we knew, there was only dust, and a lot of it. We scrambled to try and get down the mountain for a shot as the rams headed out, but they were out of there. They didn’t appear to be spooked, but they were certainly not sticking around.
We regrouped that night at Luke’s house. John had kept a close eye on the sheep through his spotting scope as they headed into a heavier wooded area with significantly less visibility. We planned to stay in the same area in hopes that the rams would return and give us another opportunity. We glassed full days the rest of the week but did not see another sheep. The visibility was challenging with the amount of smoke in the air from western wildfires. As I departed from camp on Friday night, Luke assured me he would keep an eye on the area while I was in Canada and perhaps hire a pilot to give him an aerial view to spot another group of rams elsewhere in the unit.
On September 27th, I landed in Edmonton. I met up with Scott at base camp on September 30th. I had not seen Scott since I had hunted whitetail with him in 2015, and it was great to catch up. It was my first sheep hunt with Scott, and I knew his peration would be top-notch. We got snowed in on Monday and Tuesday of the following week and spent plenty of time nervously listening to the weather report in hopes that the snow would stop and we could get moving. Time was not on my side if I was going to be successful in Alberta and get back to Idaho before the season ended.
The bad weather passed and cleared. We headed up from base camp by horseback on Wednesday. Scott had arranged for another guide, Dylan Yetter, to come over from British Columbia and help with the last hunts of the season. We covered a lot of ground on top and saw a lot of sheep on the mountain with absolutely perfect weather to be hunting up high in the Canadian Rockies. What we needed, though, was luck. On Saturday morning, October 6th, Scott spotted two terrific rams bedded together in the timber across the mountain from where our spike camp was located. Our original plan was to get food from spike camp, descend the mountain, and ascend and stalk the rams the following morning, hoping that they would stay put to give us an opportunity. As we sat and watched the two rams, Scott all of a sudden looked at me and in his deep, gruff voice, said, “Screw it, let’s go get him.” We were off.
After stopping to get food for the night and our sleeping bags, we made a quick descent to the river bottom and then ascended up the mountain to get a downward shot on the bigger of the two rams. They hadn’t moved. We were hustling to get in position before dark, and the light was fading fast. After about five hours of hiking down and then back up, Scott and Dylan got me in a great position to make the shot at about 150 yards downhill. The ram was down. We waited to claim him in the morning. He was a beautiful, mature ram with great bases. I packed him off the mountain, and we were picked up by wagon later on Sunday afternoon. The question now was how to get out and to Idaho in time before the season closed on October 15th.
Scott was excited for me to have another bighorn opportunity in Idaho, so we didn’t waste any time getting out. Scott and I left base camp on Monday morning and were back to Scott’s place outside of Edmonton that evening. We got the ram checked and cleared by Fish and Wildlife on Tuesday, and I flew from Edmonton to Missoula on Wednesday, October 10th.
While I was in Alberta, Luke had spotted a group of rams in Idaho and was anxious to get me there as soon as possible. I did not get to Salmon until later on Wednesday afternoon, and we decided to make the stalk the following Thursday morning. We got moving early. John got in position to watch the rams and Luke and me as we made the climb up. After a very challenging three-hour climb, we snuck around to get in position. There were five rams in the group, and they were moving away from us. They were totally at ease and grazing across the mountainside. I took the largest ram in the group with a 250-yard shot. He scored 165 1/2" with 14" bases and a 32" outside length.
The ram was the leader of his group, and his followers had moved about 200 yards away where they watched us hustle over to where the ram was. Luke was ecstatic, and I was in shock that this had just happened. I had taken two bighorn rams in five days from different countries. What a blessing to have such an opportunity! I will never forget the scene on that mountain in Idaho. What a glorious morning, and what an opportunity-of-a-lifetime in two of the most beautiful places in North America. Perseverance paid off. I’m perfectly content not winning anything else after that.
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