Intense Pursuit Yields Epic Desert Bighorn Harvest
I was sitting at my desk working when I received a phone call from Huntin’ Fool. This was not necessarily atypical as I have been applying for tags through them for many years and each year typically receive a few calls from them. This call would be much different than all the rest as I heard them congratulate me on drawing an Arizona Desert bighorn sheep tag. It was a bit surreal. A call you hope to receive some day but never really expect to happen.
Huntin’ Fool had put in for the 45A KOFA hunt, which stands for King of Arizona. The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is in the southwest part of Arizona and was created for the preservation of Desert bighorn sheep. It sounded like a great place for a hunt!
Huntin’ Fool provided referrals for outfitters, and after the third guide asked the same question, “How did you decide to put in for the Kofa unit? It has very limited road access, and I hope you like to walk a lot,” I quickly got the impression that I had better start getting in shape! Ultimately, I ended up hiring Eric Hunt with Arizona Desert Outfitters, which turned out to be a great decision. Arizona Desert Outfitters has a great group that guides, and I was lined up with Andrew Dykes. Over the course of the summer, I communicated regularly with Eric and Andrew about the hunt, gear, and expectations. Andrew spent time throughout the summer scouting, checking out waterholes and sending me pictures of rams. I spent time getting gear, shooting, and getting prepared for the hunt. Eric and Andrew had told me to be ready to walk at least three miles a day on very uneven ground. What he really should have said was six to seven miles.
I had initially planned on flying to Arizona as it is a 2,000-mile one-way trip from Northern Minnesota. I kept looking at all my gear, optics, and guns and finally decided to drive, which also would allow me flexibility in leaving once the hunt was over.
As I was driving out, I had a few different calls with Andrew as he was just getting off a hunt and was giving me the rundown on where the camp would be and how things would work. The day before I arrived, Andrew called and said he was in the hospital and wouldn’t be able to make it out! Eric quickly called an audible, bringing in Joe Dietrich for the hunt. Joe is an experienced sheep hunter, and I could tell I was in good hands.
In the morning, we headed out to glass some mountains, and Tony and Riley were in a back bowl looking for some rams. They found quite a few, so Joe and I headed back to join them. We found a group of four rams. All of the rams looked pretty big to me, which is why it’s necessary to have experienced guides. Through Andrew’s summer scouting, he felt pretty confident we could kill a 170"+ ram if we were patient and worked at it.
As we were observing the rams, the largest one started feeding and walking towards us. It came within 90 yards of us and stood broadside. Joe had not had the opportunity to scout in the area, so he was apprehensive to take the ram on the first day. We got great pictures and videos of the ram as it was so close. Watching him walk off was difficult, but I trusted the guides knew what we were looking for and the type of ram we would ultimately take.
As we got back to camp that evening, we circulated some of the pictures and videos of the ram to some of the other guides. Some thought it was a good pass, while others thought we were crazy for not taking the ram even on day one.
We talked about the ram at dinner and again in the morning and decided maybe it was a ram we should have taken, so we set out to the same back bowl to see if we could find the day one ram. We found a group of rams that was quite a ways off and hiked down and up a mountain to get in position for a shot. We got within 350 yards, and I was set up on the ram. I was thinking to myself that I couldn’t believe we passed on the ram at 90 yards and now we were going to have to take him at a much longer shot. Ultimately, we determined it was a smaller ram, so we pulled off.
On the third day, Joe and I set out to a different area and put in about seven miles. We didn’t see any sheep until the very end of the day at the top of the mountain. As you might imagine, the thoughts of the day one ram and the 90-yard shot crossed my mind frequently as I hiked through the mountains.
Joe had to go back to work at the end of day three, but Andrew would be making it up to camp the next morning for the remainder of the hunt. As we sat at dinner, Andrew had called and decided we would go to the other side of the zone and I should be ready by 4:30 the next morning.
Andrew arrived the next morning, and before we set out, he asked me to show him some pictures of the rams we had been seeing. I showed him the rams from the day prior, the ram we passed on on day two, and then we got to the day one ram. I remember him saying, “Huh, I’m surprised Joe had you pass on that one.” At this point, I had about 20 miles on over the past three days and was starting to think we had missed our best opportunity.
We set out to the back of the zone and worked our way in from the back side. Finally, we got back as far as we were going and stopped for lunch. We were close to six miles in and hadn’t seen any sheep, and I was thinking every step we took in we needed to walk out.
As we sat on a rocky knob, I spotted a few rams a few ridges, over so we decided we needed to go check them out. When we got there, we saw three rams. Unfortunately, none of them were what we were looking for. We then looked up a draw and saw three more rams. One was clearly bigger than the other two. It was a shooter!
We got to the best shooting point we could, and the ram was feeding across the valley on the opposite mountainside. At this point, there were six rams in the area and we wanted to make sure we shot the right one. Andrew got me dialed in with distance, and down went the ram. As we got up to him, I had a huge sigh of relief, joy, and accomplishment.
Tony and Riley were making their way back to help pack, and Andrew went to go meet them. I was sitting with the ram and looking at pictures of the rams we had passed on to see how he compared. When I got to the day one ram, the lightbulb came on and I realized it was the day one ram! At that moment, I could hardly believe I ultimately got the opportunity to get him. As soon as Tony and Riley got up to the ram, it didn’t take them but 15 seconds to say, “That’s the day one ram!”
We were now at the tail end of the daylight, so we grabbed pictures, caped the ram out, and started off the mountain in the dark. We walked out a different way as it was shorter to Tony’s truck. When we arrived at the truck, I was drenched from head to toe and never so glad to be off my feet. We arrived back to camp around 10 p.m. with our prized day one ram. We had dinner and a bit of celebrating.
The next day, I headed to the Fish and Game to register the ram. They scored him at 174.75" gross and 173" net. Truly a great ram!
With two days of driving to reflect upon the hunt, I am grateful for the opportunity to have drawn this tag with the assistance of Huntin’ Fool. The team at Arizona Desert Outfitters did an outstanding job and was first class all the way. Grinding it out in the KOFA and finding the day one ram was a trip of a lifetime. Thank you again to everyone who made the hunt a success!