It was just like any other day. I was heading home from baseball practice, and when I got home, my dad told me the draw results were out. I remembered that my older brother, Jared, and I had put in for a
Rocky Mountain Idaho bighorn sheep tag in the Frank Church Wilderness. My brother and I were working on checking the results when my brother clicked my name and then the controlled hunt applications and rewards. There was my sheep tag application, and next to it, it said “Selected” in green. I was in! I ran out to where my parents were and shouted, “I drew a sheep tag!” I was so excited to be able to have the experience of hunting a
Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. My dad, Luke Cranney, has guided sheep in Idaho for 15 years and for 6 years in Alaska for Dall sheep. I couldn’t believe that I was going to go after a sheep at 13 years old!Next thing I knew, we were in the truck and heading for the mountains. It was my dad, my brother, our close friend, Tyrell, and me. We left five days before the opener to get in and get them found. The plan was that we wanted to cover as much ground as we could. We decided that Dad and I would go to one mountain range and Jared and Tyrell would go to another range north of us. It was in the same basin but several miles apart. We were hoping to turn up as many rams as possible in order to find the one.The first day, we had to drive in with the truck partway and then the four-wheeler. After that, we hiked in on a trail for four miles. It started to get dark, so we called it a day and set up camp. We saw rain coming and lightning flashing from afar. While we were in our tent, there were huge thunder booms and lightning.The next day as we were packing up camp, we got an InReach text from Jared and Tyrell. They had seen three nice rams, and one of them could have been 170”. Dad and I continued up the trail and made it to our final destination where we would be hunting and glassing from. The next morning, we found about six rams but nothing worth going after. We decided to hike down on a ridge in the main basin to start glassing again. That afternoon as we were glassing, my dad spotted rams. He urgently whispered, “Sheep butts!” Our excitement grew as we started counting. We pulled out the scope, and the first ram my dad saw was a big, blockey ram. There were 16 rams total in the bunch. The ram my dad initially laid eyes on was a big, thick, and heavy ram. As I looked through the scope at the big ram, I started to get excited and wondered could that be the one? We finished glassing the sheep and went back to camp.The next day, we spent most of it glassing and taking pictures of the nice ram from a point. As I looked through the scope, I really started to like this ram. We texted Jared and Tyrell on the InReach about the great ram we had found. We wanted them to come over from across the basin so we could make a move on him the next day, which was opening day. They texted us back about a nice ram they had found that could go 170"+ as well. They said that the ram could possibly surprise us on how big he was. We ended up telling them to come on over across the basin. That way, we could compare both rams.Opening day was finally here! Jared and Tyrell had made it over. We were comparing both rams to see which to hunt. The ram Jared and Tyrell found was a very old, heavy ram that was the same caliber as our ram. It was a nice one, but on the other hand, the ram Dad and I had found had big bases and carried his mass all the way out to the tips. He had no weak spots and was very symmetrical. He also had a really gorgeous cape and was just a very pretty ram in general. I really liked both rams and would be happy with either one. However, I had been watching this ram for the past two days and really liked him, so I made one of the hardest decisions of my life to hunt the ram on my side that my dad and I had found.We waited until that evening to make a stalk on the ram. We decided to let Tyrell stay on the point to keep eyes on him for us. My dad, Jared, and I would make the stalk. We started down into the draws, and the big ram was with the same group. We peeked up over the ridge, and there they were! We got the scope on them. I got on the gun and was ready. The rams finally got up, and the target ram was out in front feeding. The shot was 590 yards away, and my dad was on the scope telling me when it was good to shoot, but the wind was hard to judge. My heart was racing as I looked at my big ram through the scope. The ram moved further over the ridge and out of sight. We didn’t want to risk going after them and blowing them out, so we hiked back up to camp for the night.The next day, we made a different plan. Tyrell was going to go up to the same point he did the day before, and we were going to circle back around the opposite way and go down on a ridge so that we’d be shooting in the opposite direction. That morning, Tyrell and Dad ran out to the glassing point and found them. Dad came back for Jared and me to go make the stalk. We were all very excited and felt like today was the day. As we were heading down the ridge, we were looking to get into a good position to shoot the ram. We crawled out on a rock point and got set up. It was 200 yards down to where they were. As I was sitting there, eager to make something happen, we were waiting for them to get up. One would get up and I would get ready, and then they would just bed back down.After five hours of baking in the sun, it was late in the afternoon when they started getting up one by one. The ram didn’t give us a shot where we expected. They went left and were out of sight. Tyrell told us they went down into the draw. Dad said, “We gotta move!” We had to get up and run down the backside of the ridge to get another rest. They went up into the middle of the ridge. We got on a different rock point and used coats to get the gun stable. They were at 340 yards. As I got on my scope, all I saw was white. The sun was setting right in line with the scope. My dad had to stand up with a raincoat like a scarecrow in a garden exposed to the sheep to block the sun.Jared was on the scope telling me that mine was the middle ram. I got on my sheep, and my heart was pumping looking at his massive horns. My rest was perfect, and I put the crosshairs right behind the shoulder, took a breath, and squeezed. Click! My dad racked out a live bullet and said “Good squeeze, buddy. Do it again.” I did the same thing again and squeezed. Boom! Whack! I knew by the sound that I had hit him. Jared said, “Blood behind the shoulder!” My dad said, “Shoot him again!” I put another one on him. Whack! I looked up from the scope, and he was down and rolling. We hugged and celebrated as it brought a tear to our eyes.As I approached my ram, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It felt so good to finally lay my hands on my once-in-a-lifetime sheep. He looked so big and gorgeous up close. After we took a lot of pictures, we caped him for a lifesize and got him boned out. We noticed that the shots were half an inch apart. We were loaded to the gills with our prize and headed for camp.The next day, I thought about how grateful I am for the people who were there for me on this hunt. While giving thanks to our Creator, Lord, and Savior, I felt like I was the happiest and luckiest kid in the world. It was the greatest hunt and week of our lives!