nmtaxi
Active member
Since Bryce and Oscar won't post their oryx pics, guess I'll post some of my sheep hunt from this last weekend...
My buddy Nate has access to some good areas (cough... private land...cough)
, and for some taxidermy trading, he was able to get me on.
Thursday night we headed down to southern New Mexico. Having never been in the area before, and driving in the dark, I was anxious to see what the terrain was going to be like. We got the the ranch house around 7:30 pm, and settled into the bunkhouse. The accomodations were much nicer than I was used to on a hunt.
After a restless night of sleep, it was finally time to get up and hit the hills. As the sun came up, I got my first real look at the country. The hills were steep and rocky, but not very high. All in all, pretty easy sheep country.
We headed out before the sun came up, and immediately started seeing mule deer. I never would have thought that country would hold as many deer as it did. And judging by some of the sheds in the bunkhouse, they grew some really nice bucks.
After about an hour, we started seeing some sheep. Mostly bands of ewes. About 7:40am, we spotted our first big ram. He was bedded down in a canyon about a half mile away with 4 other smaller rams.
We went a canyon over, and started making out way up the hill, hoping to come over top of them in range. When we got there, the sheep were gone. We started glassing the entire canyon, then moved on to the next canyon hoping to find them.
After looking for about half an hour, we finally spotted them again. We watched as the group made there way along a ridge, and finally bedded about 800 yards away. The biggest ram was stayed up and feeding, while the others sat tight in the cholla cactus out of the wind.
Sliding down the side of the canyon on our butts, we were able to get out of the rams eyesight. We figured we could stay out of sight until we closed the distance to around 200 yards. With the wind in our favor, everything went perfect.
We topped over a ridge within 250 yards of the sheep. The hill was in the way, so we crawled within 200 yards using a yucca as cover. Just as we got in range, the big ram bedded down out of sight, and the waiting game was on.
We sat and watched the rams for around an hour and a half. The smaller rams would get up and feed, and move around, but he big ram stayed put.
Finally he got up and offered a shot. Using the yucca with my back pack on it as a rest, I settled in on his shoulder and squeezed off shot.
The ram jumped, spun around, and hit the ground. He struggled on the ground for a minute, then I thought he died. Another ram hung around, and kept trying to get the ram to stand up. The ram raised his head, and tried to get up again. After watching this for a few minutes, and no way to put a finishing shot on the ram from where we were at, we thought we should move closer.
As we moved in the, the ram got up and ran. I really couldn't believe it. I knew he was hit really hard. I took a running shot at him and missed as he disappeared over a ridge. I had heard how tough these animals were, but I didn't know they were that tough.
We came over the ridge to find he had not gone very far. We were within 15 yards of him, and I put a final shot.
Here's Nate with my ram
Then it was time for the packout. It was probably about a mile back, but we were able to follow the bottom of the canyon out to the road, so it was pretty easy walking. Especially since Nate took the heavy load.
My buddy Nate has access to some good areas (cough... private land...cough)
, and for some taxidermy trading, he was able to get me on.Thursday night we headed down to southern New Mexico. Having never been in the area before, and driving in the dark, I was anxious to see what the terrain was going to be like. We got the the ranch house around 7:30 pm, and settled into the bunkhouse. The accomodations were much nicer than I was used to on a hunt.
After a restless night of sleep, it was finally time to get up and hit the hills. As the sun came up, I got my first real look at the country. The hills were steep and rocky, but not very high. All in all, pretty easy sheep country.
We headed out before the sun came up, and immediately started seeing mule deer. I never would have thought that country would hold as many deer as it did. And judging by some of the sheds in the bunkhouse, they grew some really nice bucks.
After about an hour, we started seeing some sheep. Mostly bands of ewes. About 7:40am, we spotted our first big ram. He was bedded down in a canyon about a half mile away with 4 other smaller rams.
We went a canyon over, and started making out way up the hill, hoping to come over top of them in range. When we got there, the sheep were gone. We started glassing the entire canyon, then moved on to the next canyon hoping to find them.
After looking for about half an hour, we finally spotted them again. We watched as the group made there way along a ridge, and finally bedded about 800 yards away. The biggest ram was stayed up and feeding, while the others sat tight in the cholla cactus out of the wind.
Sliding down the side of the canyon on our butts, we were able to get out of the rams eyesight. We figured we could stay out of sight until we closed the distance to around 200 yards. With the wind in our favor, everything went perfect.
We topped over a ridge within 250 yards of the sheep. The hill was in the way, so we crawled within 200 yards using a yucca as cover. Just as we got in range, the big ram bedded down out of sight, and the waiting game was on.
We sat and watched the rams for around an hour and a half. The smaller rams would get up and feed, and move around, but he big ram stayed put.
Finally he got up and offered a shot. Using the yucca with my back pack on it as a rest, I settled in on his shoulder and squeezed off shot.
The ram jumped, spun around, and hit the ground. He struggled on the ground for a minute, then I thought he died. Another ram hung around, and kept trying to get the ram to stand up. The ram raised his head, and tried to get up again. After watching this for a few minutes, and no way to put a finishing shot on the ram from where we were at, we thought we should move closer.
As we moved in the, the ram got up and ran. I really couldn't believe it. I knew he was hit really hard. I took a running shot at him and missed as he disappeared over a ridge. I had heard how tough these animals were, but I didn't know they were that tough.
We came over the ridge to find he had not gone very far. We were within 15 yards of him, and I put a final shot.
Here's Nate with my ram
Then it was time for the packout. It was probably about a mile back, but we were able to follow the bottom of the canyon out to the road, so it was pretty easy walking. Especially since Nate took the heavy load
.
