Desert Sheep A Dream Come True

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1 Desert Sheep A Dream Come True By Claude Sanchez Jr. When I was 10 years old, my uncle took me along for the first time to hunt Mule Deer in Central New Mexico. As we were climbing the rugged mountains, we spotted a group of Bighorn Sheep on the cliffs above. I stopped and watched in amazement as these majestic animals walked above us. It was then, that I knew one day I would pursue and hunt for these beautiful animals. Little did I know it would be some 45 years later, after filling out countless applications in all the states that have Bighorn Sheep populations. Never being fortunate enough to draw a sheep tag, I booked a hunt in the fall of 2006 in the Wrangle Mountains of Alaska, where I was able to harvest a great full curl Dall Sheep Ram that scored 158 3/8. Now I had my first of the elusive Grand Slam. My desire to hunt Bighorn Sheep grew even stronger. For the last three years, not only did I apply for tags, I also began purchasing raffle tickets in all the states and Wild Sheep organizations that offered the opportunity to win a Bighorn Sheep tag in order to increase my odds. Knowing that the raffle drawing had taken place in Oregon on May 19 th, 2009, I looked online for the results and to my amazement, I had been drawn as the first alternate for the California Bighorn tag. In other words, I was the first loser. I didn t let this discourage me because somehow I knew I would draw or win a Bighorn Sheep tag that year. My wife and I headed for Montana in early June with our RV to spend the summer flyfishing. On the morning of July 20 th I was checking my and saw that I had a message in my junk box. I didn t recognize the address and almost deleted it, but something told me to

2 open it. It read Dear Claude, your ticket was drawn as the winner of the Desert Bighorn Sheep tag at Saturday s Super Raffle Drawing. I must have read it a hundred times before I almost jumped through the ceiling of our RV, shouting I WON, I WON! My wife thought I was crazy, and everyone in West Yellowstone must have heard me and thought the same thing. Shortly after calming down, I called Charlie Kelly, president of the Arizona Big Game Super Raffle. He confirmed that I had indeed won the coveted Desert Bighorn Sheep tag. The rest of the summer I couldn t believe I had really won and that I was finally going to get the chance to fulfill my dream to hunt Desert Bighorn. I knew I would not be able to begin hunting until February 2010 because of a very busy fall hunting season. I had several other hunting trips in New Mexico for archery elk and deer. I also had booked a Yukon Moose and Caribou hunt for late September, which turned out to be a disaster. More importantly, my daughter, Sheila, was getting married in mid-october and I was also expecting my first grandchild in late January. I knew I would still have plenty of time left on my tag since I had a full year to hunt. After returning home I began to contact several outfitters in Arizona to guide me on my Desert Sheep hunt. Knowing that I would not be able to hunt for the remainder of the year gave me plenty of time to find a quality outfitter. One who would spend the time pre-scouting, but more importantly, someone I would be able to get along with personally. I spoke with Pat Feldt of Arizona Guided Hunts and immediately knew he was the guy I wanted to guide me on my dream hunt. He was very professional and knowledgeable, but mostly he was sincere. I could tell he would work his tail off to help me fulfill my lifelong dream. We both agreed he

3 would be my guide. Now it was just a matter of being patient and waiting for my first grandchild to be born. On January 26 th at 2:50 am, Loni Sophia was born. I can t tell you how proud I was to hold my new hunting partner in my arms and to be a grandfather for the first time. The next day I called Pat to let him know I was now able to begin my hunt and that I would be arriving in Kingman on February 9 th. Even though I wasn t going to be hunting for at least 5 months, I kept up my rigorous workout routine to stay in good physical condition; knowing I would be hunting in very steep, rocky terrain. In addition, I would go to the shooting range at least once a week to shoot my rifle at long distances so I would be prepared to make a clean shot at any distance. On the morning of February 8 th, 2010, I left my home for Kingman, AZ. I was filled with anticipation, but confident that I had prepared myself both physically and mentally for a once in a lifetime hunt for Desert Bighorn Sheep. The day after my arrival I called Pat to let him know I was in Kingman, thinking we wouldn t be meeting until the morning of the 10 th, but to my surprise he was only minutes from Kingman. Pat came over and after meeting each other for the first time in person, he suggested that we just go ahead and set up camp to begin the hunt. After setting up camp and having a bite to eat, we grabbed our gear to see if we could spot some sheep that afternoon. We walked to a high point and began to glass the area. It wasn t very long after we began that Pat had spotted some ewes and lambs. This was actually my first opportunity to see Desert Bighorn Sheep in the wild. I thought to myself how lucky I were to be sitting here at this very moment in these rugged, yet beautiful high desert mountains. I was looking at my surroundings with the sheer cliffs, cactus and no visible signs of

4 water. I wondered how these sheep could possibly survive in such harsh yet breath-taking country. Even though we didn t spot a Ram that first evening, I was confident that we would eventually spot a shooter. Besides, both Pat and I knew we were in prime sheep country. The next morning Pat and I got up at 4:30 am and had some breakfast. We got in the truck just before sunrise to head out. We soon hiked to a high position and began to glass for sheep. We hadn t been glassing long when Pat spotted several small bands of ewes and lambs. No rams were seen after glassing several areas, so we headed back to camp to have some lunch. Pat suggested we drive the truck to a new location for the afternoon hunt. We parked the truck at the end of a road and began to walk the trail, which led into a wilderness area. We had only walked for ¾ of a mile when I told Pat to hold up so I could glass the area above us. I had barely raised my binoculars to my eyes when I spotted a young ram as he was moving slowly through an opening in the rocky cliffs. Shortly, a second ram appeared into the opening. My heart jumped. He was a good-looking ram. Pat saw him too and agreed. The rams moved quickly through and were out of sight. Pat immediately said the second ram was definitely worth getting a better look at, so we began to move quickly towards their location. We hadn t moved 100 yards when I looked up and the smaller of the two rams popped up above us. We got down quickly and our hope was that possibly the bigger ram would walk up to where the smaller ram was standing. The smaller ram looked in our direction, but didn t seem alarmed as he went back out of sight. Pat said we needed to get higher to see if we can spot the bigger ram. We stayed put for a few more minutes to make sure they wouldn t decide to come back in our direction. We began to back out and climb higher to see if we could spot them. When we got to a higher position, we began to glass the area, but we couldn t locate the rams. After

5 thoroughly searching the area, Pat and I decided there was only one direction they could have gone without us seeing them. So, we went back down and around to where we thought they may have moved to. As we began to approach the top of another ridge, Pat peeked over, only to spot them some 800 to 1000 yards away. They had joined up with another young ram and were slowly feeding along the base of the cliffs. Pat said we needed to take a good look at the mature ram with an orange tag in his right ear. So, we began to work our way slowly in their direction. We finally got within 200 yards and I set up while Pat evaluated the bigger ram. He was a beautiful ram with a lot of mass and he definitely was an older ram, but when he turned to his left side he was a little shorter than we were looking for. I was in position to take the ram, but after watching him for over an hour, both Pat and I decided to pass on him. Most hunters would have been proud to take such an animal. Besides, it was only the second day of my hunt. We also knew where he was and could always try to locate him again if we weren t able to locate a bigger ram. The orange tag in his ear would make him pretty easy to identify. As we headed out, I began to question if I should have really passed on that ram. On the third morning we were back out early checking new locations to see if we could spot a larger ram than we had seen the previous evening. We covered a lot of ground and weren t able to even spot a single sheep that morning. As we headed back for lunch, I knew we were both thinking about the ram from the day before. After lunch, Pat got out his maps of the area and showed me a spot that he thought we should checkout that afternoon. It was a huge bowl that had a spring in it and he thought it should hold some sheep. So, off we went, stopping on occasion to glass. We walked about 1½ miles through a dry wash. When we arrived at the base of the huge bowl, we climbed a bit so we would have a good view of the entire area. Pat began

6 to set up his spotting scope and I looked for a comfortable spot to sit, figuring we would be here for the rest of the afternoon. Not more that 10 minutes of glassing, I heard Pat say to me, There they are! He had spotted a group of rams moving above us, probably about 1½ to 2 miles away. He could see there were at least 8 rams together and that 2 of them looked decent enough to have a closer look. I have to admit, when I looked up to see where we had to go, I began to wonder if I was really in that good of physical condition to get there quickly enough to just evaluate the rams. We had to close within a minimum of 1000 yards and it was around 3:00 pm. To further complicate things, the rams were moving up and away from us. This didn t leave much time to get there before sunset. I looked at the rams one more time through the scope and said to Pat, Let s do it! As we began to ascend towards the rams, we would stop on occasion to glass. This allowed us to keep track of their location and reassured us that we were pursuing two quality rams. As we moved on, I began to think of all the days, months, and countless hours I spent preparing for this moment, also wondering if my shot would be true. When we got close enough to evaluate the rams, about 900 yards away, we crept up and put the spotting scope on them. YES, they were both excellent rams! One of the rams was a bit longer with a green tag in his ear, but the other ram had much more mass and was definitely the old man of the group. It was decided that I would take him if we could get within 600 yards. One problem was that we had to expose ourselves to make our final move. The two older rams, along with three younger rams, had moved out of sight, but two of the youngest rams had stayed behind. As we stood up to make our final move, the two youngest ones spotted and locked their eyes on us. Pat and I froze in our tracks hoping they would not spook and alert the others to move down behind the rocks where they were standing. What seemed

7 like an eternity, we stood motionless for at least 10 minutes with both of them looking directly at us. Finally, they lost interest and moved out of sight towards the other rams. We had to move very quickly down the ridge we were on and up the other side, estimating we would be within 500 yards of where we last saw them. About 25 yards from the top, Pat and I stopped to catch our breath and to get ready for our final approach. Pat went first to see where the rams were. As he crept to the top, Pat motioned that the rams indeed were there and they were feeding towards our left. He told me to crawl to the top and set up my rifle. Pat set up his tripod a few feet to my left and told me that the bigger ram was in the back. He had ranged them at 405 yards, but said because of the incline, to hold for 365 yards. At the same time that I was finding the ram in my scope, Pat gave me the yardage, identified which ram I should shoot, and was videotaping the whole thing. I thought to myself, wow! All I have to do is shoot. As the rams were moving to our left, I had to wait to make sure the bigger ram was clear and standing broadside. He finally stopped and I asked Pat one more time if he was sure I should take him and Pat said, He s a really good ram. I settled my crosshairs on him and squeezed off the shot. It felt great and I was sure I had made a great shot. The ram jumped three or four steps forward, but then stood looking in our direction. Pat said, I think you missed to the left. I said, No way! So I chambered another round and then I heard Pat say, Hold on! He s hit! You got him! We both watched as the ram faltered and then rolled over lying motionless a few feet below where I originally shot him. He landed in a bush preventing him from rolling at least 1000 feet straight down. I stayed in my shooting position for a moment, my heart pounding and thinking to myself how lucky I am to be here at this very moment and thanking God for this amazing opportunity. Then Pat and I began the customary

8 high fives and shouting, thanking each other for everything! Not too long after we settled down, we began the walk up to my Desert Bighorn sheep. It took us at least 30 minutes to get to him, as it was very steep terrain. As we approached the downed ram, we both realized what an exceptional ram he really was. What a ram! Pat shouted. Look at the mass, he s an old guy! All I could say was Wow! What a hunt and what a ram! After taking pictures and video taping the experience, we now had to get to work because it was getting dark and we had a lot of work ahead of us. We had at least 4½ to 5 miles back to the truck, in the dark, with no moon and down some really steep mountains with my sheep. I loaded up all Pat s gear with mine in my pack, while Pat took the entire sheep on his pack. We eventually made it back to the truck at 2:30 am and back to camp at 3:30 am. That morning Pat and I woke up pretty sore and tired. We hardly ate breakfast and talked about what a truly memorable hunt it had been for the two of us and what a remarkable ram we were so fortunate to harvest. That afternoon we arrived at the Kingman Game Office to check-in my ram. They aged him at 9 years and measured him to be 166 2/8 gross, 165 net. A great Nelson Desert Sheep. I would like to give thanks to my family, especially my loving wife, Millie, who has been with me and supported me for 36 years. I also want to thank Mare Sheppard of ALREIUS Gunsmithing in West Yellowstone Mountain for building my custom 300 RCM Sheep Rifle. Also, thanks to Paul Lucero from Albuquerque, NM for developing a custom load for me. I want to thank the Arizona Big Game Super Raffle for letting a dream come true. To Pat Feldt: I just want to say again how thrilled I am about the Desert Ram you put me on. It has to rank as my most

9 memorable hunt ever. I still can t believe it. You are the most professional and knowledgeable guide I have ever had the privilege to hunt with. Your camp and gear were both top notch, but more importantly, your knowledge of the sheep and the country they live in was unsurpassed. I really enjoyed your company and would certainly hunt with you for any species, any time and anywhere. I consider you a life long friend that shared a dream of a lifetime, to hunt for Desert Bighorn Sheep.

By Joel Bender

By Joel Bender thought I was pretty lucky in 2008, drawing an Alaska 14C I Dall sheep tag. It was a lucky draw and an incredible hunt capped off with a beautiful ram and an adventure with my guide and