BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[jraper]

Sorry for the repost, but needed to brag a little. So a new topic.

First the preface:

Steen Mountains
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The Steen Mountains are home to an estimated 135 California Big horn sheep. 61 of which are rams. The Steens rise above the Alvord desert to a peak of 9700 feet.
Oregon allows 2 first season California Big Horn hunters during the first season, 3 during the second. 844 people applied for the first season hunt. I drew one of the tags.
You can see photos of the terrain by clicking the Steens folder from my site.

The Hunt:
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I packed up the motor home and drove my family to the Steens. We camped on a popular lake called fish lake. The kids (Grace 4, Ava 2, Griffin 6months) fished, hiked and enjoyed the scenery. My hunting partner brought his family along too. I also recruited my brother-in-law and another hunting buddy. We brought a long a family friend, Barry H to be camp cook and take care of the families while we hunted. We started each morning with an alarm buzzing at 4:00am. We would make the 6 mile drive to the top of the Steens and begin our moon light walk to glassing areas. We walked long and hard opening day, and found a few rams and ewes but no shooters. We arrived back at camp at dark physically and mentally drained. We decided to take a 2-3 mile walk for the second day of the hunt. This was a lot shorter of a walk, but still did its toll on our feet and bodies. At dusk on Sunday night, my hunting buddy, Sean spotted a couple of rams on some insanely steep rock cliffs. It was getting dark fast and no chance to get a good look or put on a stalk. We decided to head there in the morning. My brother in law spotted the Ram around 8 the next morning. There were 6, one heavy horned and heavy broomed ram. I decided to go after him. The stock would take place on a location I thought might not be possible for me to get to them. We planed out the stock to come in about 30 yards above them on a sheer cliff. This was our only chance, they would see me any other way. I started the 2 ½ hour stock, which included pulling off my boots and walking in my socks to help avoid rocks falling down and spooking them off. At last I was there, but I could only see the young rams from the top of the cliff. I was about 20-30 yards straight above them. I could not see the one I wanted though, and when I leaned over I was casting a shadow that they could see. I decided to belly crawl out to the edge and try to attempt a crazy shot. I could not put the gun in a good shooting position so I had to risk it and lean a little further out. I had him now, in my scope. Just then I noticed the other rams saw me. It was now our never. I remember my bow hunting rules and aimed low on the bedded down ram because of the extreme angle. I was lucky there, but I hit him high but perfect. He never even got up from bed. My buddies were screaming “nice shot”. From 500 yards on the other side of the canyon. It was over, wow what an experience. We packed the thing out up the extremely steep terrain and enjoyed the families meeting us with food and praises when we showed up at camp. We snapped a few photos, and my girls gave the ram a few kisses.

We checked him in at ODFW and he scored almost 156. Good enough for Oregon Big Game Record Books for the California rams. He was 5 ½ years old and measured 15 ¼ at the base with only a ½ inch of deductions.

His full measurements were:

Base 15 ¼ and 15 1/8
First quarter 14 and 14 1/8
Second quarter 12 and 12 ¼
Third quarter 8 3/8 and 8 3/8

Length of horns were 29” and 26”

You can find pictures out on www.theraperfamily.com

I have video of the stock and the passing of the sheep if anyone would like, just let me know and give me a few days to scale it down to a manageable size.

[nevadahntr]

NICE SHEEP!What score do you need to make B&C?

[147 Grain]

Congratulations!

Nothin' like grabbin' a (Dodge) Ram by the horns! :laugh: :thumbsup1:

[jraper]

B&C does not distinguish between rocky mt big horn and california big horn. So the req to make B&C is 175.

[nevadahntr]

What about the Safari Club book?I would check it out if you havnt,they have many sub-species in thier record books. :thumbsup1:

[jraper]

The SCI req is 140, so looks like I make it. Cool. Thanks for the info.

[nevadahntr]

No Problem,Safari Club issues a nice plaque and certificate with thier book entrys.I got a silver award for my Yukon moose,that year it was the second largest moose taken. :thumbsup1:

[Serious Hunter]

I am absolutely fascinated by the terrain. And am even more fascinated by the snow. Was the snow fresh, or leftover from winter / spring? Idaho had very little snow this year - while UT, CO had blockbuster snow years. Just curious. Again congrats!!!

[jraper]

The snow is left over from last winter. The terrain is impressive. The road up there was closed until July 4th from snow on the road. The biologest said that is was the easies access. But hardest to hunt because of the stepness of the terrain.

We did not have the best snow year but that is just such high elevation. It is melting fast. Temp were in the 70s durring the day, 40s at night.

[Serious Hunter]

Amazing (to see snow hanging in there so late). I am so intrigued by the terrain. I must explore that some day. Also, yeah, I'd like to see your stalk video.

[jraper]

Check out my web site. www.theraperfamily.com, then click LiveRamsBeforeHarvest on the left side. Look through there. We got a ton of pics through the spotting scope before the kill, a few of the small rams fighting and the one I got walking around.

Also, to give you some perpective, if you click on "the Stock" it has two circles one with me (the smallest circle is me) the biggest circle you can almost make out the ram bedded down.

Pretty need stuff.

[jraper]

ok, to check out the video go to ...

www.theraperfamily.com/video

The video is from my hunting buddies on the other side of the canyon. They missed the shot, because I did not return hand signs because of the shawdow it was casting down below. They got me crawling out to the cliff but my last hand sign told them I could not see the sheep. so they were thinking of a new plan to get me in view of the sheep.

There are a few rams with more curl there, but I was after the thickest, the guy I got was by far the thickest. There was also a small red tagged ewe with 10" horns hanging out with these rams.

[Serious Hunter]

Very nice (video). I would suspect most sheep hunters don't get as close as you did. (Alas, few hunters take sheep with archery equipment.) It is fascinating how the rams found that shady enclave.

[bnow0707]

Nice ram the video just makes it all that better!! Beautiful country, made for a tough hunt though, huh??

[jraper]

Ya by the 3rd day, my feet were raw, the hunt was very rewarding though.