Ok onto Day 2 - The Stalk
We wake up and sure enough my boy is still bedded at 600 yards. Dustin starts to cook breakfast and asks if I want eggs, I say Eggs are for guys who kill sheep, so we had Bacon and pancakes (yeah not a bad alternative). As that is going on I look in the mountains and say there is sheep, and get the binoculars...a group of 20 ewes and lambs had climb in the basin with us and were all within 400 and 700 yards spread out feeding and playing. It was cool to sit there and watch them. We locate the rams from last night and they are in a good spot to make a stalk. We load up the horses and take off, down the valley and circle around and start to work our way up. We got about halfway up before we tied off the horses, now it was time to climb, we went up and up and up. The plan was to get up top and work our way around in the rocks to them. So 1000 to 1500 feet of elevation later we are close to the top. It wasn't too bad, I'm slow in the rocks, but we got 50 paces or so and stop. The elevation worked on me some as a guy who lives at sea level. Basically, you breath heavy while you walk and as soon as you stop within 3 breaths you were good to go. Just had to pace myself but that is the key. This climb did take a little while but once on top we ate a sandwich and grab some water from a spring. I love spring water, I don't think there is anything better.
We are slowing snaking our way through the rocks, finally we can start to see the Basin, we can see the far side and rock walls around it...no sheep. Ok that is a good sign they might be right where we last saw them. I range it, 700 yards to the far side. Ok we continue to sneak, moving slowly, looking...we had the wind in our face, and thermals moving up. We are in a good place for this stalk. Ok stop look again, can see halfway in...no sheep, 450 yards. Ok so they are within 450, hope they are still there, could they have left? Little doubts but you have to trust the process, trust the stalk, they have no reason to leave. We keep going, slowly, judging every step and keeping close to the rocks. 35o now, no sheep. They are within 350 if they are here, that is damn close to my feel good range for shooting. Ok please still be here. Keep moving, not time to take the pack off yet, 300 no sheep...oh if they are here, they are within range, my heart is starting to beat a little faster. Could this be it. Dustin drops down and slowly glasses, turns to me and mouths 2 Rams, I range it not seeing the sheep but seeing the basin floor, 245...ok stay calm.
We creep a long and get to a nice set of rocks, we can see all of the sheep, there is a good legal one and a good broomed one. Range them 197 yards. OH MY GOD! We are right on top of them 197 yards away. Take pack off, take the tape of the rifle barrel, put a round in the chamber. Sneak to a good rock for a base. Get in position. They are bedded down, 196 yards. I'm in the prone position, laying at about 25 degree angle, feet above my head. But I have a solid base, I put my head down in my left arm, my right arm wrapped around the gun. Now I wait for them to stand up. I told myself don't get excited yet, it will be a long wait. Yeah about 2 minutes later, Dustin goes he is up. It makes it easy, the big boy is the only one standing up. I get on him and he is licking his side, those heavy horns blocking the front shoulder. He almost broadside, slight angling towards me. Very slight, I knew if I hit that front shoulder he is down. My heart is beating a 100 miles a minute, I am telling myself to calm down, I then realize my position so solid that even though my heart is beating the cross hairs aren't moving, they are rock solid on the shoulder. His head turns, breath and squeeze....bam! I reload and reacquire, all I see is a the Ram dead right there. Never took a step, just dropped. 7 years of saving, dreaming and planning, 2 years of training, thousand of miles travelled and I just did what I never thought I would do. I had my Ram!
All the rams stood up, and just looked around. They didn't run and started to feed some. This was the dominate guy and they didn't want to leave their leader. We were hugging and hand shaking in the mountain, I was tearing up some. We just watched them walk away after 30 minutes...they slowly walked to the next ridge and went back to being sheep.
The view after the shot
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What we crawled through
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The most beautiful animal in the world
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One more
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