Once-in-a-lifetime hunt is a cliche´ heard many times from hunters, but mine is legitimate. In Arizona, we sit by the computer and wait for our credit cards to get hit with hunt permit charges. I was jumping for joy on June 28th when my credit card was hit with a Desert bighorn sheep permit charge. My first call was to a well-known outfitter, Colburn and Scott. I have been following their online bighorn sheep podcasts for years. I had the maximum points (30) for this species in Arizona and had been putting in for over 40 years. Waiting the next five months for this hunt consisted of testing and coming up with a new load for my rifle (180 grain Nosler Accubond ammo) and buying a new Leupold 3x18 scope. I would be using my trusty .300 Remington Ultra Mag, which shoots 1/2" groups at 100 yards. I shouldn’t have any competition from other hunters since I received the only tag for unit 24BN.
December 1st was the opening day of the hunt. I was planning on bringing my trailer to Canyon Lake RV Park, located north of Apache Junction, the day after Thanksgiving, but fate took over and we had a big snowstorm coming into Flagstaff where I live. This caused me to leave three days earlier and miss turkey dinner with the family. That wasn’t the worst thing because my wife had to shovel two feet of snow while I basked in the sunshine by the lake. Not good. Actually, we had a tornado come down close to me while I was in my trailer during the night, which was not good either.
My two sons showed up a day before the hunt, and we scouted a possible shooter and followed it all day, always keeping it in sight. This ram was the best one we had seen during the time we had scouted. Even though we thought it was a little smaller than what I was hoping for, but very hard to judge, we opted to try for it on opening morning. I was only able to scout and hunt about half of my unit because the road to Apache Trail had a locked gate and only authorized utility vehicles were able to go through it. The road was closed because of the large wildfire during the summer in the wilderness and flooding and landslides blocked the road in many spots. This part of the unit could possibly hold the largest sheep.
Opening morning, before daylight, we headed for the last place where we saw the ram the day before. We were surprised not to find him anywhere in the area where he had been staying for the last week. We spread out and searched with no luck until our guide, Jay Scott, rounded us up and said he saw him moving quickly and heading out of the country. We managed to get in front of where he was heading but lost sight of him because he was behind a very large ridge. We set up in a cut in the mountain where we might be able to see him for just a moment if he kept heading in the same direction. Trying to get in a shooting position was difficult, but my son, Mike, gave me a push to get me up the rock to a shooting position using the side of a rock for support. We didn’t have long to wait because the sheep showed up about 170 yards up the canyon, still moving pretty quickly. I waited for a good shot and followed him in the scope until he stopped and looked our direction. I fired. He didn’t look hit and turned around and quickly ran back in the direction he had come from. I fired again as he was running away, and then he was gone. My two sons, Mike and Brian, said they thought I had missed because they didn’t hear the thump that we usually hear from a successful hit. They also said that I usually don’t miss. Our guide’s assistant was spotting from a distance and said he thought he saw some blood on the ram’s side when he turned and ran off. That had us feeling a lot better.
We gathered our backpacks and headed up the steep ridge single file. I climbed as far as these 64-year-old legs could go and realized that I could not finish climbing up one of the steepest sections. I finally went back down to where we started and climbed up the other side of the large ridge where I was finally able to reach my prize. These are some of the steepest mountains I have ever tried to climb, but it was well worth it when I put my hands on my trophy-of- a-lifetime. Both of my shots were almost in the same hole from opposite sides of the sheep.
The AZ Game & Fish employee green scored it and said it was 183 7/8" gross B&C. After the 60-day drying period, the final gross score was 183 5/8" and netted 183 0/8" for the book. Strangely, this was the third trophy that I had harvested in Arizona that was scored as the second largest taken for the year. In 2001, my 88" net antelope; in 2006, my archery net typical 370" elk; and now my 2019 Desert bighorn sheep completed the third trophy that came in second place in Arizona during the year.
This hunt was truly the hunt-of-a-lifetime, and my guide, Jay Scott, was definitely the best choice I could have made. He and his other guides were very friendly, hard working, knowledgeable, and professional. They found a way for my two sons and me to enjoy and complete a hunt which far exceeded my expectations.