My wife drew her desert bighorn tag here in AZ after 22 years of applying. Actually still lucky to have drawn it even with all her points. We lived in the unit for many years and have been around the sheep out there pretty often. Her hunt started on Dec 8 and we were in position to glass at sunrise. 20 minutes of glassing had us looking at 14 different rams. It didn’t take long to identify our #1 & #2 rams. Our 4 kids and 4 of our friends were with us but we had 7 more friends coming down that night for the hunt also. With that in mind we sat and watched sheep all day and never uncased her rifle. Next morning the excitement was high as we set out for the glassing point with 11 adults and 10 kids under the age of 10. Finding rams didn’t take long again. Within minutes we were looking at her #2 and since he was in a perfect position for a stalk she decided to give him a try. Since I have a tendency to get “excited” while “helping” her I stayed back to spot and had a couple of our friends go with her. Within 20 minutes she was under 400 yards and setting up for a shot. He fed down the ridge for half an hour getting as close as 350 yards without presenting a shot she was happy with. After he fed into the next drainage they moved up only to be pinned down by 2 young rams for the better part of an hour. Once those rams fed out of sight they moved up to the saddle in front of them only to see the ram top over into the next drainage. By this time we had relocated him from the spotter position. At this point he knew something was up and didn’t stick around long before topping over. They hustled across the drainage and up to the saddle he had crossed and slowly glassed their way up and over. The ram was standing in a bunch of cholla cactus at the bottom of a rock slide and they saw him about the time he saw them. With a good position in the saddle the decision was made to set up for a shot from there. At this point everyone at the glassing spot was about to have a heart attack watching and waiting. As he made his way steadily up the ridge it was obvious he had it in mind to change his zip code this time and was jumping from rock to rock headed for a saddle that would put him over the mountain completely. My buddy Matt was calling out ranges to Tara and she was dialing her scope as he climbed. Right before he would be out of sight he stopped quartering away for a quick look back. In that 2 seconds she settled the crosshairs and squeezed. From our position the impact was obvious and he went over the top in 2 jumps. From our position we could still see him and watched as he covered his last 20 yards and dropped. After rolling 5’ he got tangled in an ocotillo before going off a ledge. Just like that her once in a lifetime desert bighorn tag was punched. Game and Fish aged her ram at 9 years and as a unofficial green score he’s 172 0/8 gross 169 7/8 net. We were truly fortunate to be surrounded by our friends and family on this hunt and it couldn’t have been any better. Now if someone smarter than myself would like to post a couple pics I’d be happy to email them. Just had damn photobucket figured out about the time they decided to charge us. Shoot me an email at ihuntaz@hotmail.com and I’ll send them to you. Thanks!

Congratulations to your wife!

That is FANTASTIC, Congratulations to your spouse.

There aren't very many big game hunts that you can take that number of people along to enjoy the show! Congrats to your wife and I hope someone can post up some pictures for you because this site sucks without a picture browsing setup and I don't know how to put them up without that type of an arrangement.

I agree Topgun. I can’t seem to get IMGUR to work for me. Might be because I use my phone to post since I don’t have internet available where we live. Can’t even get satellite internet according to the satellite companies. Not sure how the hell thats possible! Anyway I’ve got some great pics if anyone wants to help.

Congratulations and thanks for the great write-up!

I sent you and email and I would be happy to post the photos.

Congratulations! 11 adults and 10 kids is quite a family hunt!

Thanks for the help Jason. We got quite a few before the shot pics of him that morning. Great group of guys right there! After seeing her shot I need to remember not to piss her off. 1 shot at 630 yards with her 6.5 Creedmore. Built that rifle for her sheep hunt and that was it’s first shot on game. 143 grain Hornady ELD-X Precision Hunter ammo worked great.

Nice!

Excellent!!!!!!!!!!

Your Lady has a Million Dollar smile!!!

WOW! that's completely awesome!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Southwesthunter:
Thanks for the help Jason. We got quite a few before the shot pics of him that morning. Great group of guys right there! After seeing her shot I need to remember not to piss her off. 1 shot at 630 yards with her 6.5 Creedmore. Built that rifle for her sheep hunt and that was it’s first shot on game. 143 grain Hornady ELD-X Precision Hunter ammo worked great.

Congrats on the sheep and well done by your wife.

I see Cody V in the group shot. I know him well, he works for my father.

Xtra fine
Merry Christmas !

Small world FishN4eyes. Cody is a good friend of ours and stays with us when he’s in northern AZ. AZ has been pretty good to him. He drew back to back rifle bull tags and killed a giant 5 and a real nice 6. This last weekend he added a coatimundi and a damn nice coues buck to that. Then he came out and sheep hunted with us. Great guy!

Tremendous Ram I love the bases. Great job by your wife tell her congratulations!
Thanks for sharing your hunt and the pictures, job well done...

What a lovely lady with a great smile and a damn nice sheep! She sure doesn't look old enough to have accrued that many points that it took to draw the tag!

Very nice.

Congratulations to your wife! She did a fantastic job and that is a gorgeous ram. Desert sheep hunts are a special opportunity, so it's nice that you both shared it with good friends. Great way to wrap up the year.

Now that is a hunt to remember. Waiting for the rest of the friends and family makes for an great time together. Beautiful ram and excellent shooting. Congrats
Bruce

Truly fortunate to have the family and friends go along. The line between family and friends is pretty blurry at this point! Having a tag in such an accessible area was great. My hunt 2 years ago couldn’t have been any different. Thankful to have had the chance to experience both hunts. Looking forward to the day we can pay them back when they finally draw.

Beautiful old warrior.
Great shooting!
A belated congrats to your wife and you Lance.
Best regards and Happy New Year.

Great ram congrats!

What a wonderful experience and memory. I am happy for both of you.

Congratulations! Great hunt, great pics!

Congratulations!!

Great story and super photos - thanks for sharing.

Congratulations to you both. Thank you for sharing the adventure with your extended family,just fantastic.jc