Western Arizona Desert Sheep Adventure...

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
I guess I'll start with some of the terrain features, types of cactus, and rocks typical of the desert. The temperatures in the desert were a little warm for this time of year. Down to 45 at night and up to 75 during the day. Just enough heat and tough climbing to get you smelling right after 7 days of hiking without a shower. Thank goodness for baby wipes.
Chollas Cactus... I swear this stuff jumps off on you as you walk by. It eventually turns brown and falls off, and finds it's way into your hands, knees, or butt when you sit down.
coW2E2i.jpg

Rocks... Millions of them. Like walking on marbles. Every single step is contested. A real challenge. It seems as if the rocks are trying to throw you into the chollas for kicks.
u7BaMCb.jpg

My tent, and a saguaro cactus in the back ground. Saguaro cactus are the tall skinny ones in the background behind the tent. A readily available food source for sheep.
uk13YqR.jpg

The Plomosa Mountains. A little bit of everything. Some rolling hills and some steep jagged nasty stuff. They are majestically beautiful and seemingly barren at the same time. A tough place for a critter to carve out a living, but the sheep are thriving.
r5SaFeA.jpg
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
We saw a bunch of sheep every day. I got there 2 days before the season started to get in some scouting and to try and acclimate myself to be able to spot and judge a few Rams before opening day. I had no idea we would see so many Rams. As the days went by, we located more Rams each day. I had a couple guides helping me that I had met 15-16 years ago while doing some OTC desert mule deer archery hunts in the area.
xlXAWWU.jpg

WmpE6gU.jpg

Really cool looking natural water source way up on the mountain in a pass near the peak. This was looking down on it from a cliff above.
qmsRVxR.jpg

This one zoomed in to see how difficult it is to drink, and how vulnerable they are to water there from lions. Luckily there are other man made water areas that are safer to drink. Anyone see the benchmark?
JL1IjHC.jpg
 
Last edited:

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
A few of the more picturesque Rams we spotted and pictured through the phone skope or camera. Some of them are a little hazy if we were looking back into the sun. They even looked this way through BTX glass. The crystal clear ones are with perfect lighting at our backs. The really green trees are Palo Verde. Another food source for sheep.
TOYt6py.jpg

Fq6ExIK.jpg

This young Ram was most impressive.... I really loved his look and shape. (hint, hint) He had decent length, but not enough age or mass.
dIUI32e.png

This one was tempting... Mass was good, but broomed off badly on one side... Dude has a set doesn't he? :oops:
k3TCRzg.jpg
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
And more....
Pretty good length, but not much mass. Young guy. Check the Roman nose. He's done some fighting...
Jr0tmoo.jpg

Pretty solid Ram. Just busted up a bit...
WL12lQB.jpg

Young guy, but what a gorgeous photo op.... Couldn't stand it. Spent an hour just taking pictures of the 3 we spotted with perfect lighting...
35ZuCJ5.jpg

bMR81A2.jpg
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
There is a Ewe bedded on this hanging bench. She was about 2 miles away, bedded by herself. How she got there is incredible. Cliffs all around her. She obviously needed some time alone. She was way up there. Just to the right of what's left of that dead ocotillo.
Z8jcaJh.jpg

There is a Ram just to the right from the saguaro cactus. He was a long ways off. You can barely see the white rump with 10x binoculars. 15X does better. You can tell the difference between the Rams and Ewes. It takes a spotting scope to see if you need a closer look. We did this many times. Mostly ended up thinking we found the one, but usually there was something missing.
XgH50rG.jpg

I got video of this Ram smashing the saguaro cactus with his horns and eating it. I saw several Rams doing this. Good source of food and water for them.
nTDlDYL.jpg


This is what a Rams hoof looks like up close. :giggle:
5ay6JIn.jpg
 
Last edited:

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
After being there for 3 days(2 scouting, 1 hunting), I came to the conclusion that I was definitely going home with a Ram that would make me very happy. The pressure was off. I decided that the best option was to be patient and picky. The guys helping me wanted the exact same thing. The season was in for the entire month of December and there was only 3 sheep tags in the entire unit that seemed to be half the size of the county I live in. Those guys live for sheep season and normally take the entire month of December off to help on sheep hunts or archery deer hunt.

There was another tag holder hunting the unit to the south of us that tagged out opening morning on a beautiful Ram. I got to see him and instantly knew that it was much bigger than anything I'd seen. He was a 7 year old long and massive Ram that scored 179 2/8. Based on my research, I knew the south unit was better for Ram quality than the one I was hunting, but this particular Ram was much bigger than average. This is his Ram, and a stud for sure.
tfec4nI.jpg

BD0nodd.jpg


Day 2 of the hunt went well with Brooks and I spotting 13 Rams but nothing like we wanted. The other 2 guys from the south unit hunt joined us for the afternoon. Their hunter was a resident, and took his Ram to mandatory check in, so they volunteered to help me. So cool. We didn't turn up a shooter on day 2, but we all saw solid Rams. We did learn that one of the other hunters in my unit had shot a big Ram. I didn't get to see it, but one of the guys from camp rode over to see it and said it was a great Ram, but not an exceptional Ram. Said it would have been hard to walk away from, but was probably top 4 of the Rams they knew about from previous scouting trips. So we sorta caught a break there. At least according to them. :cautious:

Day 3 of the hunt (5th on the mountain) and Brooks and I had already looked over 20 Rams by 2:30. We were relocating to another area to glass another shaded canyon, when Everett radioed in that he had found a stud Ram. I could tell in his voice that he was excited and knew right away that it might be about to happen. Pretty soon, all of the guys helping out met up with us and we all hiked up to where Everett was watching this Ram.
NZJVAyO.jpg

QmBmnZy.jpg
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
We all topped out in the pass and crawled out to the ledge where Everett was freaking out. :D All those guys took a few seconds to glass the Ram that was with 2 other younger Rams. When I was looking down the hill at him, I was thinking, mass looks great, length looks great, and I'm shooting if they give me the option. I figured it was the best one I'd seen. I determined all of that in about 10 seconds. Back story for a second... These guys had been swapping pictures/video and critiquing all the Rams we saw nightly at dinner time. They carefully scrutinized everything, length, mass, age, etc. for several minutes over each Ram if they were close. After about 15 seconds, they all said you need to shoot him. He was only 140 yards, so I crawled into position and laid prone with bipod out front and lite fill rear bag in the back. Tombstone still crosshairs. Perfect. So I waited for a broadside shot and squeezed it off after he cleared the last ocotillo and it was over just like that. He did a 50 yard death run with a 215 Berger Hybrid Target right behind the shoulder from my .300 Win Mag.

When I walked up to him, I was in awe. I couldn't believe how nice he actually was. Every step I took, he got bigger. Every angle I looked, he got better. Once I got my hands on him, I was in disbelief. I took a quick glance at the guys that were helping me and the look on their faces told me that what I was feeling was correct. He was a true Giant... I basically hit the lottery twice. Once for the tag, and once for the Ram. The guys say this Ram may very well knock off the top Ram ever killed in the unit,(they were in on him too) but would definitely be comfortably second. This hunt was a dream come true in every way, before I even pulled the trigger. Especially when you consider I drew 1 of 12 tags available to non residents on my 20th try. But a 181" Ram was beyond my imagination. I certainly couldn't have done it without the help of these local boys. Their knowledge and expertise was unreal and greatly appreciated. I hope they can draw a tag one day and ask me to help. I'll be there.
hk1fyAS.jpg

FWetX9m.jpg

VU1AVhG.jpg


My favorite picture..... Damn good crew right here, that are hard to beat on their home turf. Bunch of stud sheep hunters.
KZz1vpn.jpg
 
Last edited:

appmtnhntr

Twelve Pointer
We all topped out in the pass and crawled out to the ledge where Everett was freaking out. :D All those guys took a few seconds to glass the Ram that was with 2 other younger Rams. When I was looking down the hill at him, I was thinking, mass looks great, length looks great, and I'm shooting if they give me the option. I figured it was the best one I'd seen. I determined all of that in about 10 seconds. Back story for a second... These guys had been swapping pictures/video and critiquing all the Rams we saw nightly at dinner time. They carefully scrutinized everything, length, mass, age, etc. for several minutes over each Ram if they were close. After about 15 seconds, they all said you need to shoot him. He was only 140 yards, so I crawled into position and laid prone with bipod out front and lite fill rear bag in the back. Tombstone still crosshairs. Perfect. So I waited for a broadside shot and squeezed it off after he cleared the last ocotillo and it was over just like that. He did a 50 yard death run with a 215 Berger Hybrid Target right behind the shoulder from my .300 Win Mag.

When I walked up to him, I was in awe. I couldn't believe how nice he actually was. Every step I took, he got bigger. Every angle I looked, he got better. Once I got my hands on him, I was in disbelief. I took a quick glance at the guys that were helping me and the look on their faces told me that what I was feeling was correct. He was a true Giant... I basically hit the lottery twice. Once for the tag, and once for the Ram. The guys say this Ram may very well knock off the top Ram ever killed in the unit,(they were in on him too) but would definitely be comfortably second. This hunt was a dream come true in every way, before I even pulled the trigger. Especially when you consider I drew 1 of 12 tags available to non residents on my 20th try. But a 181" Ram was beyond my imagination. I certainly couldn't have done it without the help of these local boys. Their knowledge and expertise was unreal and greatly appreciated. I hope they can draw a tag one day and ask me to help. I'll be there.
hk1fyAS.jpg

FWetX9m.jpg

VU1AVhG.jpg


My favorite picture..... Damn good crew right here, that are hard to beat on their home turf. Bunch of stud sheep hunters.
KZz1vpn.jpg
Proud of you.
fantastic hunt and beautiful ram.
Sounds like a truly exceptional experience
 

Rescue44

Old Mossy Horns
Excellent narrative!! Excellent!! Glad you were successful in your desert adventure!! Opps...excellent photos!! I'm all !!! points. lol
Edit: Bet ya'll smelled worse than the billy goat. 😂
 

Fatkid

Eight Pointer
Awesome! That’s an incredible ram! I packed out a class 4 desert bighorn skeleton that had died of old age when I was in college in New Mexico for my advisor. The weight of the skull on those guys is incredible! It’s amazing they can hold those horns up!
 

TrkyJedi

Eight Pointer
Congratulations Bux. Great pictures and storytelling. It was as if we were there. You need your own TV show. Awesome job man, I don't know you but feel you deserve all the good things that come your way. As you say, your record speaks for itself.
 
Top