I'd like to share a picture of my Desert Ram with fellow sheep hunters and all. I shot it in Nevada in early Dec. after ten days of hard hunting. Seems like every ram I've taken has come only after a great amount of effort. But sheep hunters know this. That is partly what makes sheep hunting so rewarding. This ram completes my Grand slam and it feels soooooo good. I applied for 19 consecutive years and finally nailed it. I feel very fortunate as many hunters apply and never draw. I had a great support team including my wife and owe a great amount of thanks to them as well.






Time for a new goal......................

Congratulations! That's a beautiful ram. How about some details?

Keith, Congratulations. The trophy of ten lifetimes.
A couple of questions for you. Are the draw results public, and you get inundated with guide offers, or is one left to his own devices to arrange the hunt after being drawn? Tell us about how you put your hunt together and your preparation for what you knew might be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Man o'man, that is a handsome animal.
Forrest

Congratulations, Keith!

That's a fine looking critter you've got there...and the sheep's not half-bad either!

I guess it's time for you to start working on Niki's Grand Slam of North American Sheep, but you're going to have to add on to your Trophy Room first.

Our congratulations to Niki as well for her latest African hunting article in the SCI magazine. Great stuff!

Holly and I look forward to seeing you both in Reno!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!! Nice to know someone is actually succesful in any draw!!!!


HUNTR

sheephunter

Dude, that's quite an accomplishment. KOOOL!! I just watched an episode on OUT last night where a 69 yr. guy was snagging a big Stone sheep. He tried for many moons also. If memory serves me right, it was 38 5/8. Since I don't know anything about the numbers, I guess that's a purty good trophy.

475Guy, saw the same episode on the well-aged gentlemen who took the Stone ram in B.C., one of the rare times when I was happier for him to take the sheep than I would've been if it were me

Congratulations to you Keith on your fine Desert ram

Craig Nolan

Weidmannsheil, Keith! Tough tag to draw, seems like the hunt was not a walkover either! Good on you!
- mike

OUTSTANDING!
Tough hunt for sure . . . almost as tough as drawing a tag!

CONGRATS!

JohnTheGreek

Keith--that is way cool-now that was a great day on the hill!!

It just shows that patience does pay off....

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dogz

Congratulations Keith!! That is a beautiful ram, and I am sure the anticipation has made it even that much better! I look forward to seeing your pics in GSC/Ovis.

I am still a 1/4 slammer (couple of stones), but my ultimate sheep hunting goal is a "self-guided" BC Slam (RM Bighorn, Calif Bighorn, Dall, Stone, all from BC of course). A Desert is well out of my league (monetarilly and otherwise) so I doubt I'd ever get a Grand Slam. A BC slam and a couple of Cape Buffalo hunts and I'll die a very happy hunter.

I guess you will just have to work on your OVIS World Slam next, eh?

Cheers,
Canuck

"Milestone" doesn't seem to cut it, these days. You must be enormously proud and I'll bet Dad is too.

Congratulations! ... Nick

Fantastic trophy! Congratulations.

Thanks to all for your kind words. Sorry for the delay in responding. This time of year is very busy in this business.



Mark, Niki's goal is to shoot many cape buffalo so I guess the sheep hunting is up to me and my son. See you guys soon in Reno.



Forrest B. The following should help answer your query.



Nebraska,



Here is a brief rundown on this Sheep hunt. I've been applying for a Desert tag in AZ. and Nevada for 19 years. I started buying bonus points about 10 years ago at around $100 a pop for Non- res. It used to be that when you apply you have to send in an app. filled out by hand and submit with a rather large amount of $ (approx. 750 - $1100 ) depending on the year it was. Meet the deadline and a month or two later you recieve the results......always a refund and an unsuccessful notification. The last year or two most of these states have it so you can apply online. I did so and on the 20th of June I was notified by e-mail of my success in drawing.



Almost immediately I started getting solicitation from many Nevada outfitters. Mostly brochures and some calls. Lots of well qualified folks. Originally I had no intention of hiring an outfitter because I felt qualified and a desire to do this on my own. I've guided many sheep hunters and have hunted many sheep. But the reality of my own guiding scedule here in Mt. finally woke me up. Who was I kidding. I hired an outfitter by the name of Tony Diebold, a long-time outfitter from Nevada. He had hunted here several times in the past. Tony is a great guy and hunter and we can all only hope to get around like Tony at age 60.



We were joined by two good friends of mine from Pinetop, Az.

Richard Owens, a great taxidermist and superb hunting guide and Rick Mac Donald who also excels at hunting and is extremely patient in the world of glassing vast terrain with quality optics. Tony gave Rick a nickname....Poncho Villa and it meant something later.



We spread out over a large pre-decided area walking no less than 6-8 miles per day and on a couple days went double that distance and that is air miles on a map. We found sheep in the vicinity of guzzlers (man-made water holes)as well as miles from water. Desert Sheep are highly adapted and can go days without water. Passed up a couple smallish rams but on day 5 Richard found a very large ram which at first was over 2 miles away and walking/running to us. It was to good to be true. Everything was going perfect but as he came within rifle distance, the wind switched and he smelled us. He didn't get big for being dumb. Very dissapointing to say the least. Tony and I tracked him across the desert floor and into another range the rest of the day and the whole next day no less than 12 miles. He left the boundries of the area never to be seen again.



Passed on a marginal ram the next day and at that point it was time to go home to run my own camp in Mt. and fulfill my own guiding obligations with clients.



I returned with my wife on Thanksgiving with the intention of killing a good ram or hunting until the bitter end on Dec.7th. It was with great respect and honor that I welcomed back both Tony Diebold and Richard Owens for round two, and as my wife Niki dubbed it for, "The Last Stand at Alamo". That will be the title of my story when I write it.

Rick MacDonald intended to come back but his no.1 employee was killed in a car wreck on Thanksgiving day. A father of 7 children. It appeared that Rick would not return.



We hunted the same region at first and then expanded our search in this huge area. More big hikes, decent numbers of sheep and a few darn good rams but we just couldn't seem to get a break. Niki found several sheep while we were out chasing our tails. Everytime I'd make a stalk, something would happen (such is hunting) and I'd strike out. On day four we made an enormous hike into a distant area where we had seen several rams the prior day from a distance and getting to them meant walking for 2 hours before daylight and 3000 verticle feet to come out on top of them. We made good time and when we topped out the view was one of spectacular beauty and inspiration. One of the main reasons I hunt Sheep and Goats. However, the rams were no where to be found and we searched all day. Finally we knew we had to descend and felt the only place those rams could be is down below us in the vast canyons and crevices we could not see. So instead of backtracking we bailed off into this hellhole of a canyon that flowed out to the valley floors thousands of feet below, not really sure that we could make it out but not willing to take the chance that the sheep were not there....somewhere. It was pretty marginal to be in the terrain we descended in but mountain hunting can be like this and we just slowly picked our way down. It took 3 hours and lots of sweat and a bit of blood but we finally reached the mouth of the canyon. I could see Niki's truck, still three miles out on the desert floor. Our guard was down. The light was fading fast and almost dark when we heard some animals spooked and running up to our left at a close distance. We walked right into them. We couldn't make them out until they skylined. 3 Rams, all shootable and one in particular was another dream ram. They paused for a brief 3-5 seconds and disappeared over the steep ridge above us. Few words can describe that moment. But Richard, being a fairly devote mormon, suprised me with the right slang. As we walked toward to pickup light I was really beginning to wonder if I was going to get a ram but the desire for water was more important and we marched.



This went on until the night of around the 5th day of hunting when Rick Mac Donald called my cell and asked,"did you kill a sheep yet"? I said "no". He said "do you need some help"? I said "Rick, after everything you have been thru I wouldn't dream of expecting you to drive all the way over here". He said, "To bad Keith, I'm already half way there"! He drove 8 hours to reach us..................I was very heartened by his commitment to say the least. Tony and Richard were also joyous to Rick. Tony, being the real charactor that he is insisted that Poncho's return meant a change in our luck which I also beleived. The original team was now all back together to ride out the season.



With all the hiking we had been doing, we decided to drive around the next day and glass long distances and rest a bit.

Not long after we reached the hunting area we split up and started glassing. About fours hours into day light, we all met for lunch. We were there for perhaps 5 minutes when Tony spoted some sheep about a half mile away from our trucks! A good ram was in the group and within 15 minutes with the whole A Team present, our Ram was down. "Poncho" did bring good luck. I couldn't have been happier to have everyone there to share such a great moment in my hunting career. I don't remember feeling such joy since my kids were born.



That night we were back in Vegas eating some serious steaks and talking about the A Team returning again someday to hunt Desert Sheep. You can bet that those guys will be applying and if they draw I will be there.

Congratulations on a great hunt and a well deserved sheep.

Thanks for sharing the story.

Great story. Thanks!