December 2025
Bighorn Sheep Hunting | Nevada
Story By: Michael Polish
“Two years in a row?” I said to myself as I opened my tag results for the 2024 Nevada season. If you read my story in the September 2024 edition of the Huntin’ Fool magazine, you will notice at the end I stated, “…maybe a Rocky Mountain bighorn or a California bighorn. You never know.” Well, I hit the jackpot for this season and drew a California bighorn tag here in my home state of Nevada. The state gave out 35 resident tags this year, and I was the lucky recipient of one of them. Shortly after finding this out, I called everyone and reassembled the A-team because we were going sheep hunting again this September.
September 1st could not come soon enough, but in the weeks preceding (15 weeks 2 days to be exact), I was back on my A game to study my unit and learn everything I possibly could to make sure this hunt turned out successful. I talked to the biologist, guides, and friends who live in the area and who are familiar with the unit. Everyone I talked to explained to me that this was going to be a very difficult hunt, not only because it is nine and a half hours from home, but because it was hot, there was a ton of wilderness area (so roads were closed), and the population of sheep was a very low number. This pulled me back a little, but I was determined to find a ram that was going to come home with me. I already had mounts picked out for both my rams, so I was really dedicated to the idea of not being unsuccessful for this hunt. However, I knew I was going to have to work my tail off.
Fast forward to August 31st, I was on the road driving to my unit to start my second dream hunt. We drove for what seemed like days and finally made it to the town of Gerlach, Nevada. We made sure to get all fuel and ice in Fernley, Nevada as Burning Man was taking place outside of Gerlach, which took up all their ice and fuel. It was an experience just to see the “Burners” and the way they live up in that lakebed for nine days, but that was short lived because as soon as I saw my unit mountain ranges, I knew it was about to start and I was more than pumped.
On this hunt, it only included my brothers, Tony and Dominick, and my dad, Louie. We parked in our picked-out campsite, loaded everything into the trucks, and went to the first location I wanted to check for the evening of pre-scouting. We did not spot a sheep that night, but I was okay with that because we had plenty of time.
Opening day came, and we were back in a similar location to the night before. Tony and I stayed up high and hiked two miles across a face to glass a north-facing bowl while Dom and my dad stayed lower and glassed the southern face. Ten minutes into the morning, my dad and Dom told us they got sheep, more specifically two rams, and they wanted us to come check them out. Tony and I jammed over there, and after a seven and a half-mile loop, we never turned them up again. We were a little discouraged, but our spirits were still at a high as day two was coming around soon.
On day two, we went back to find those rams, and sure as it could be, we found them bedded on a hillside, so we hoofed it to get a closer look. Upon arriving within a mile of them, I looked through my Swarovski BTX and decided they were not what I was looking for, so we passed them. We spent the next day checking other areas to see what we could turn up, but we were left with nothing but wild horses, antelope, and deer.
That evening, I pulled out my onX and told my brothers and dad where I wanted to be in the morning. It was a little further of a drive, so we had to be up earlier. The alarms went off, and we loaded up and drove to my picked-out location. When we arrived, we all got out and started scanning the mountain with our BTXs. Dom called out that he had found 2 sheep, which then turned into 7, then finally into 10. We all locked onto them three miles away and discovered they were all rams. We knew we had to get up there to get a better look, so we loaded up our packs (with tons of water as it was going to be 94 degrees that day) and started our three and a half-mile, 2,500-foot elevation climb to the sheep.
Three hours later, we got to the rocky point we had picked out to peek over to find the rams. Not even 20 seconds after looking, Dom had them again at 800 yards. We very meticulously picked through the rams and discovered there were now 12 of them. I locked onto one down below the main herd and noticed he had a GPS collar on his neck. I knew that was the ram I wanted. In the weeks leading up to this hunt, I told myself I wanted a giant ram, and I was determined to find him. However, after seeing a respectable ram with a GPS collar on, I thought this once-in-a-lifetime hunt just became even rarer.
I crept up the hill to 420 yards and peeked over to see the ram feeding on the hillside. I benched in on a large boulder, spun my dial on the scope, clicked off the safety, and sent that same type of bullet that killed my Desert bighorn in December at 468 yards downrange. I nailed him right in the shoulder. He spun and went about 20 yards and then fell over dead. I stood up and could not believe it. Not only did I just accomplish another dream, but I was now 50% done with my slam. Both tags came from draws in my home state of Nevada in back-to-back years.
After hugging and congratulating me, we all made our way over to my ram. He was a great ram, and I was over the moon with him. I was also ecstatic to be there with my brothers and my dad again for such a great memory. The pack out was intense, but we made it down the mountain and back to the truck in pretty good time.
I could not have done this hunt without my brothers, my dad, and my girlfriend, Cassidy, as she had to deal with my obsessiveness about this hunt. I am one sheep away from the Nevada Slam, so who knows, maybe I will draw that one next year. Until then, I now have two of my most favorite hunts to always sit back and re