November 2025
Texas Desert Bighorn Sheep | The 24-02 Ram
The morning of October 25, 2024, I looked at my phone and saw I had missed a call from Austin, Texas. I thought for a moment who could be calling me from there and several friends and family came to mind, so I pushed the button to return the call. At the other end, Kelly Edmiston picked up the phone and asked me if I remembered applying for any Texas Big Time Hunts. I told him I remembered. He then said, “Well, you are the 2024 winner of the Texas Grand Slam. You have a hunt for whitetail, mule deer, Desert bighorn and antelope.” I about fell out of my chair. My heart started racing, and I began to feel as excited as a young boy on Christmas morning. We went over the administrative details on the package, who I was to call to arrange the hunts, and what was included in the hunt package. After hanging up the phone, the reality of what I was about to undertake hit me like a ton of lead. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would hunt the premier species of Texas, most notably the Desert bighorn, the focus of this hunting story.
I contacted Mark Garrett, the Trans Pecos regional manager for Texas Parks and Wildlife, and we started discussing options on the hunt as well as letting me know the location where the hunt was to take place, which was Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area, a 23,000-acre low fence area that was donated to TPWD to help with Desert bighorn restoration in Texas. After our conversation, I started looking at maps and searching for any information I could find on this hunting area. I also immediately knew that my guest for this hunt would be my son. When I told him what happened and asked if he wanted to go, I believe he was just as excited as I was to experience a sheep hunt. We both made arrangements for time off work and settled in on our plans to be at Elephant Mountain the morning of March 29, 2025.
We arrived at the WMA headquarters at 10:30 a.m. as instructed and were met by Josh and Cody who would be our main guides for the hunt. They gave us an in-briefing, a history of Elephant Mountain WMA, and then we went into what we were looking for on this hunt, how to judge sheep, what characteristics mature rams have, and how we would tackle this challenge together. Next, we went to the range to ensure my .270 Weatherby had held its zero through the travel; two quick shots verified it had. We quickly put our gear away, changed into hunting clothes, and began our quest of looking for a ram. We hadn’t gone far when we stopped to glass and found ewes, lambs, and one small ram. The way they blended into their territory was amazing. We continued our scouting, stopping and glassing occasionally, looking for sheep. It seemed that everywhere we stopped we saw sheep but not many rams. Still, it was amazing to observe how they interacted.
We made it around to the north side of the mountain and stopped one last time. We were about to give up when Jesse, my son, saw movement and a mature ram. We all quickly started looking in that area and came up with five other rams that we watched until we headed back to our quarters. That evening, we met the rest of the crew that had come up to help with the hunt. These were some seasoned sheep hunters, and the quality of the team involved stood out. Hands down, you couldn’t find better people anywhere.
The fajitas that night were fantastic, but it was a restless night. I tried counting sheep, and it must have worked because I shuddered awake as the alarm sounded. We had a hearty breakfast and discussed where and what we would do. We packed our lunches, put them in our packs, and headed to the field. As we were almost at the top, we stopped to look over some promising cover. It was not long before we all saw sheep, seven magnificent rams. One of them looked good, but it was too young, so we packed up and continued up the mountain.
We parked the truck and walked out to an area where we could see a lot of territory. It was not long until we spotted a band of 19 rams feeding and laying down and another band of 4 off to the side of them. However, at that distance, we could not tell what they were. We made our way over to an area where we could get closer to them without spooking them. Cody spotted a ram that fit the bill for our search. We were above them, but because of the curvature of the mountain when Cody got his eyes on them, they were 10 yards from us. They quickly bounded down the mountain and into cover. We backed out, circled around to a canyon over, and dropped into it, maintaining height. We started moving toward where the sheep were last located. Do not kid yourself, Texas mountains are rough and tumble. We skirted from rock to rock, trying not to lose our footing, get poked by cactus, or get a leg caught between boulders.
Slowly but surely, we made it over to the canyon where we thought the sheep were holed up and began to pick it apart bush by bush. Finally, we found one, so we assumed the others were nearby. We were hopeful that once they awoke they would continue their path towards us and then we would have a great opportunity around 400-425 yards. However, Mother Nature is very fickle. The wind had been calm until we got set up, and then it started gusting to the point it would almost take your hat off. I did not feel comfortable taking a shot that far with the wind the way it was. We looked at the terrain and thought we could shave some yards off, but we would have to drop lower, making it more difficult to maintain their location and making our viewing them more difficult.
We closed the distance as quietly as one can when in loose rock and steep slopes, but we followed the terrain and a thin line vegetation to an area where we could set up for a shot. We ended up 285 yards above the rams, and we could see all five. We got set up and waited for the rams to rise from their beds. When they rose, they didn't offer much opportunity. They all milled closely around our target ram. Nerves or something somewhere startled them, and they started walking swiftly. By the time they got to about 320 yards, they lined out and I finally had a shot. I held in the middle of his body and squeezed the trigger. I have a lot of confidence in my .270 Weatherby, so when I heard Cody and my son say, “Ram down!” I was elated. However, that was short lived as they said he was up again. Now I was nervous, second guessing my shot, breathing hard, all sorts of things running through my mind. I missed my follow-up shots as the ram slowly picked his way between cover which increased my panic. We lost sight of the ram, so we worked down to where we last saw him. We jumped him, and he moved to the next rim. I was able to put him down for good at about 100 yards.
When we got to where he was in the brush, I sat and admired him. Cody was urging me to put my hands on this magnificent creature, but before I could touch his horns, I looked at his body and wondered about his life. The emotions of this experience got to me. I was so thankful to have my son there to experience this and so very grateful that I even had this opportunity. In the past two days, we had seen 37 rams, and this ram, the one I was honoring, was ancient. He had the Roman nose from fighting, horns well broomed with mass throughout, his body was in poor shape, his ribs were showing, his backbone could be seen and felt along the length of his body, and his hips were bulging out. Cody (the biologist) aged him at 10+ years. He was the perfect ram to take out of the herd. We started this stalk at around 9:00 a.m. and ended up putting our hands on him at around 3:00 p.m. We celebrated and saluted the ram’s life that evening when the TPWD plug 24-02 was installed. I don't think I could have scripted this hunt any better.