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Awesome! How much does your rifle weigh? I had a custom savage from their custom shop in 7mm RM. The scope was a vortex PST. Whole rig weigh
What a great hunt! Is it much more affordable basically paying a trespass fee like you did?After a very long drive we finally made it home from our hunt/Christmas trip. We started planning this hunt over a year ago. We decided to book a complete DIY hunt through Mike McKinney(West Texas Hunt Orginization). It was an adventure to say the least. The property we were to hunt is about 35 miles southwest of Van Horn TX. This place is in the complete middle of nowhere, and I am from Wyoming, that is saying a lot. We arrived at the property(40,000acres) the morning before our hunt was to start. After getting camp set up, which didnt go as expected due to the extremely rough roads. We werent able to get the camper any where close to the spot Mike had thought would work for camp. We ended up just setting up at a wide spot on the main road just outside the main gate. We took a little drive that afternoon just to poke around a little. We ended up seeing a ram right off the road and snuck in for a close look and it ended up being 3 very nice rams. This encounter actually lured us into thinking this was going to be easy. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Day 1:
We returned to where we saw the rams the previous day well before day light. We had a great high spot picked out to glass from. We spent the entire morning on this spot with no sheep spotted. In fact we hiked the entire day to various glassing spots and did not see a single sheep all day.
Day 2:
We had a different plan on this day. We knew the wind was going to be out of the west so we planned our hike and glassing this day so we could concentrate on the spots protected from the wind. This proved to be a valuable lesson in hunting these sheep. They stay out of the wind, and just out of the sun. Although we went an entire day with out any sheep spotted we did learn a few things. The country is horribly rough and every piece of vegetation will try to kill you.
This is the country we were glassing on day 2.
Day 3:
More of the same in a different location. we chose to go as high as we could. A very, very steep hike in very cliffed out rocky country. We found a lot of month old sheep sign but nothing fresh and certainly no sheep. Frustration was starting to set in, we knew they were here, somehwere. Back to the maps tonite.
Day 4:
This day we planned a hunt for the opposite side of the ranch. We were only about a mile as the crow flies from Mexico. It proved to be a wise move. We hike to the top of a ridge in the dark to glass a very large protected basin. It didnt take long and we turned up a group of about 45 sheep with multiple rams. 2 of them were worthy of a bullet in my opinion. The tough part was closing the distance from a mile away. Nothing seperated us but a bare ridge visible to them, they sure know how to position themselves. We used the rising sun to our advantage and eventually we found ourselves about 350 yards from the group. We had the wind in our favor and could see about 30 of the sheep from where we were positioned. I thought we had all day to wait them out. I was wrong! The wind did a complete 180 and all the sheep hit their feet looking for the danger. I felt like I didnt have a ton of time to sort through them. I grabbed my rifle, found a rock and got ready for the shot. I found the ram I wanted, eased the safety off but just could not get very steady. I decided to move about 10ft to my right to a different rock. While trying to get layed down i was nice enough to fire a warning shot! A complete rookie move, I wanted to punch myself in the mouth. This sent the sheep straight up the mountain to the next ridge. They made the fatal mistake of stopping at 586yds to check out the situation. I dialed one click over 575 on my Huskemaw, found my ram and sent the 130gr ABLR. It hit the ram perfectly in the top of the shoulder an created a sheep stampede. We had no idea what transpired at the time. After the dust settled, we started glassing the ridge for any sign of a hit ram, with no luck. While gathering our gear we kept hearing rocks rolling across the basin, we just could not see what was causing it. I grabbed my rifle and sprinted to the rim of the cliff below to us thinking the ram had made his way to the bottom. I got to the bottom and could see everything, just no ram! My wife was making her way to me with our packs when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. It was my rams left horn thrashing around behind a large rock. I had hit him high in the shoulder dropping him in his tracks, I have no idea how he stayed alive for the 20 or so minutes it took us to see him.
Here is my ram. Just a hair over 28in.
We made our way up to my ram and were just staring at him, taking it all in. After 3 days of adversity I was on cloud nine. By this time it was about 40 minutes after I had shot and my wife could hear rocks rolling on the back of the ridge we were on. We snuck to the top and peaked over, there were 2 huge rams sneaking up the draw behind us. She quickly got set up for the shot. I told her the first ram to present a shot, hammer him. The lead ram stopped broadside just under 300 yards. She let one fly from her little 6.5 creed and the ram colapsed in his tracks. a minute or so later my wife stood up and so did her ram. She dropped back down and put 2 more shots in him. He managed to make it another 100 yards before piling up for good. These big rams are TOUGH! She was shooting 127gr Barnes LRX at about 2900fps. I couldnt believe it, he took all 3 like a champ and walked off.
Here is her ram. Just shy of 30in and very heavy
WOW, what a turn of events. 3 days with no sheep and all of the sudden we have 2 nice rams down. It was a grind for sure. I cant wait to go back.
A few suggestions to those that are thinking of doing a hunt like this.
1 - Take good leather gloves. This is very important.
2 - Be patient and glass, glass, glass.
3 - You have to hike, be in great shape and take the best boots you can afford.
4 - Be prepared for flat tires. We had 9 flat tires on our side by side in 4 days. 12v compressor, plug kit, and or spare tires. The rocks and cactus are brutal, i dont care how tough you think your tires are.
5 - Take something to protect your lower legs from the deadly vegetation! The new 4 way stretch camo fabrics suck in this environment. I suggest carhart pants or very tough gaiters.
6 - Dont underestimate these sheep. They have great noses, even better eyesight and are tough as nails.
7 - Take your elk rifle, they can take some lead.
Our gear:
6.5x284 shooting 130ABLR right at 3000fps
6.5 creed shooting 127 Barnes LRX. Would not take this rifle again.
Both rifles topped with Huskemaw 5-20
Polaris General, this proved to be invaluable. A truck simply would not have worked. 4 wheelers may have been better.
I cant wait to go back!!
