npaden
Well-known member
So out of all the tags I drew this fall, by far the one that I am most excited about is the bighorn sheep tag that I got when the very nice lady at Colorado Parks and Wildlife called on June 26th and told me that someone had returned the tag and that I was the next up on the list!
Here’s the link to that thread when I found out the news. https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/how-can-this-be-possible-colorado-unit-17-bighorn-sheep-tag.329545/
Needless to say I was very excited! About the only negative was that I already had drawn more tags than I really thought that I could do justice and adding a once in a lifetime type tag into the mix was not going to make things easier for sure. Here's a link to the main post for this years hunts that I'm linking back and forth. https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/season-of-a-lifetime-summer-fall-2025.329642/
Okay, I think that gets all the introductions out of the way and we can just concentrate on this particular hunt in this thread.
Thankfully I had already been working on losing weight and getting in better shape so although I do still have some more work to do on that, I’m not starting at ground zero. After the initial shock of getting the tag, and with the other tags I already had I felt like the best option would be to get some professional help for what will most likely be the only bighorn sheep tag I will ever have in my life.
Speaking of the tag, this is by no means going to be a slam dunk easy hunt. The last 2 years they have given out 6 tags each year and each year only 1 hunter has filled their tag. The odds are closer to 50% if you go back prior to that but this is not one of those deals where you are going to expect to pick and choose from dozens of different rams. There should be a few good rams (for Colorado) in the unit, but it is going to be hard for me to pass up any mature ram.
The first outfitter I called was booked up but did some checking with some other guides but turned up empty. Same thing with the next outfitter. It took almost 2 weeks of calling around to sort through my options and finding the outfitter that I ended up booking with. Full transparency, this outfitter does not seem like they are big time sheep outfitters. In fact, there is exactly one picture of a dead bighorn sheep on their website and that is the one that the guide that I've been assigned to guided last year. Before I booked, the outfitter gave my contact information to this guide and we ended up chatting for about 15 minutes on the phone and what he might lack in terms of experience in guiding sheep hunters, he seems to make up for in enthusiasm. Before I even got my deposit in he was already out scouting in the unit I drew. Another thing going for him is that his name is Nathan. It might get a little confusing hunting with someone who has the same name as me but he can't be all that bad with such a good name right?
Okay, I'm rambling on here but getting down to the good stuff I think. I've been doing some jogging to get in shape and the last couple weeks was our annual trip to Montana for our family camp at Yellowstone Bible Camp that we go to every year. What better way to get in shape than doing some hiking in the mountains. After that I had a work conference in Whitefish so we got to go to Glacier and get some hiking in there as well. I had planned on doing an off trail climb in Glacier (Reynolds Peak) but I ended up wearing my 18 year old son out and he begged off getting up at 6 am to go climbing after we had logged around 40 miles of hiking the previous 4 days and didn't get checked into the hotel until close to 11 pm the night before.
Anyway the hike that we did in Glacier was super amazing. Upper Grinnell Glacier (Lake). It was a pain with the construction going on over there but it was amazing. We saw 20+ bighorn rams on the hike and I would have been happy with about 15 of them if they had been in my unit in Colorado. They were very used to people!
Here's some pictures from the trip.
Here’s the link to that thread when I found out the news. https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/how-can-this-be-possible-colorado-unit-17-bighorn-sheep-tag.329545/
Needless to say I was very excited! About the only negative was that I already had drawn more tags than I really thought that I could do justice and adding a once in a lifetime type tag into the mix was not going to make things easier for sure. Here's a link to the main post for this years hunts that I'm linking back and forth. https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/season-of-a-lifetime-summer-fall-2025.329642/
Okay, I think that gets all the introductions out of the way and we can just concentrate on this particular hunt in this thread.
Thankfully I had already been working on losing weight and getting in better shape so although I do still have some more work to do on that, I’m not starting at ground zero. After the initial shock of getting the tag, and with the other tags I already had I felt like the best option would be to get some professional help for what will most likely be the only bighorn sheep tag I will ever have in my life.
Speaking of the tag, this is by no means going to be a slam dunk easy hunt. The last 2 years they have given out 6 tags each year and each year only 1 hunter has filled their tag. The odds are closer to 50% if you go back prior to that but this is not one of those deals where you are going to expect to pick and choose from dozens of different rams. There should be a few good rams (for Colorado) in the unit, but it is going to be hard for me to pass up any mature ram.
The first outfitter I called was booked up but did some checking with some other guides but turned up empty. Same thing with the next outfitter. It took almost 2 weeks of calling around to sort through my options and finding the outfitter that I ended up booking with. Full transparency, this outfitter does not seem like they are big time sheep outfitters. In fact, there is exactly one picture of a dead bighorn sheep on their website and that is the one that the guide that I've been assigned to guided last year. Before I booked, the outfitter gave my contact information to this guide and we ended up chatting for about 15 minutes on the phone and what he might lack in terms of experience in guiding sheep hunters, he seems to make up for in enthusiasm. Before I even got my deposit in he was already out scouting in the unit I drew. Another thing going for him is that his name is Nathan. It might get a little confusing hunting with someone who has the same name as me but he can't be all that bad with such a good name right?
Okay, I'm rambling on here but getting down to the good stuff I think. I've been doing some jogging to get in shape and the last couple weeks was our annual trip to Montana for our family camp at Yellowstone Bible Camp that we go to every year. What better way to get in shape than doing some hiking in the mountains. After that I had a work conference in Whitefish so we got to go to Glacier and get some hiking in there as well. I had planned on doing an off trail climb in Glacier (Reynolds Peak) but I ended up wearing my 18 year old son out and he begged off getting up at 6 am to go climbing after we had logged around 40 miles of hiking the previous 4 days and didn't get checked into the hotel until close to 11 pm the night before.
Anyway the hike that we did in Glacier was super amazing. Upper Grinnell Glacier (Lake). It was a pain with the construction going on over there but it was amazing. We saw 20+ bighorn rams on the hike and I would have been happy with about 15 of them if they had been in my unit in Colorado. They were very used to people!
Here's some pictures from the trip.
Last edited:
