11-17-07
Once again I gotta start with a big THANK YOU to Leo, Silas Ivory, and Gary Rupe for all their help in my sheep hunting adventures!
We’ll start on Sunday the 11th I got away just after lunch for the 3 ½ hour drive back to the Pryor Mountains. After running into Gary on the way out last trip I had a whole new perspective this trip. I could look at the previous three weeks as experience and learning the Mountains. I was sure things were going to be different this week, boy was that an understatement. Upon entering the Big Horn Canyon Recreation Area sheep started showing up everywhere. In the twenty mile drive to the camp ground I saw five legal rams and a bunch of ewes. One ram was a dandy and sure required more scrutiny the next morning.
He was one of this little bunch
Monday morning after finding and glassing the group again we had a little conference and decided the biggest was a shooter. I headed up the mountain thru the juniper brush and rocks with the wind trying to blow my hat off. I finally was able to get ahead and slip in below the ram as he fed by at twenty yards almost straight above me. It was so steep that I was actually shooting at the bottom of his chest cavity. A black spot made an excellent aiming point and the stone tipped shaft was on it’s way. Unfortunately the 30mph wind gust picked that moment, (at least that’s what I’d like to blame
) to hammer my shaft and it impacted on the rocks just under the rams chest cavity. As the ram bolted up the mountain I climbed up to collect my shaft and disintegrated stone point. I tried following hoping for another chance but the rams never slowed their gradual climb. Two hours later we watched them head over the ridge a mile away and a couple thousand feet above us. You have to marvel at a critter that can go like that.