Desert Bighorn Sheep Articles

Arizona New Mexico Outfitters and Guides

“IN PURSUIT OF LEFTY”

By Gabriel Lopez and Pat Feldt

This article has appeared in "The Ram's Horn" magazine, "FNAWS Conservation Connection" and "Eastmans' Hunting Journal"

My pursuit of the Arizona desert bighorn starts a little different from other people. As usual, I applied for numerous big game hunts in June 2004 and waited for the normal denial letters. Yet, this year was different. I was not surprised that I had been denied for an Arizona desert bighorn tag because I had only applied for two years. But, after five years of applying for elk, I was finally successful in receiving a late season bull tag. November 2004 could not come soon enough and after a lot of scouting and research for the bull elk, I knew that a 340-350 inch bull was attainable.

Finally November arrived. I was at home getting ready to leave for the elk hunt when I received a letter from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. A sick feeling came over me because I thought the letter might say that I had made a mistake on my application and was no longer eligible to go on the elk hunt. In fact, I didn’t want to open it until after my elk hunt. The temptation was too much, so I opened the letter. I was in disbelief when I kept reading that there had been an error in the draw and I had been awarded a coveted desert bighorn sheep tag! The only catch was that I would have to accept the tag for the following year in December 2005. That was fine with me!

I proceeded to go on my first bull elk hunt for myself with my dad and two friends, Derek Hill and Danny Sanchez. On the third day of the bull elk hunt I successfully took a 6 x 6 at a distance of 510 yards with my 300 Ultra Mag. The bull scored 363 inches; his main beams were 59 inches, his width was 50 inches and his royals were 21 inches.

I now had a year to do research and start learning how to hunt for desert bighorn sheep. Arizona has two subspecies of desert bighorn, the Nelsoni and the Mexicana. The major difference between the two is the way the ram’s horns look. The Nelson variety has thinner horns that flare away from its head, while the Mexicana variety seems to be heavier horned and has a tighter curl. The unit I drew holds the Nelson subspecies. I started reading books, watching videos, and speaking with other hunters who had been lucky enough to hunt these animals. I spoke to members of the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society and of course spoke with Arizona Game and Fish Managers for the unit. Clint Adams from the AZGFD was very helpful in giving me areas that I should start my scouting. Mr. Adams told me that this unit usually produces rams in the 145-155 size, so my goal of taking a 160 plus ram would be a difficult task. It was not impossible though, since one of the hunters from 2004 had shot a ram that scored around 175 inches.

My hunting partner Derek Hill and I started scouting in August 2005. On our first trip the temperatures reached 115 degrees. Needless to say, we saw no sheep and very little sign. With the amount of time and effort we put in, I was a little discouraged after seeing no sheep and felt overwhelmed at the sheer size of the unit. Mr. Adams had told me that my unit could be very difficult to hunt because there was not a high sheep population. To complicate things more, there were five mountain ranges that held those low numbers of sheep. Furthermore, miles and miles of flat desert separated these mountain ranges.

I then was lucky and met with Robert Gamez, a hunter who had successfully taken a ram from the unit in 2004. I met with Robert regularly and he was more than willing to help me with information such as road access, where water encatchements were located, and more importantly, where he had seen sheep the year before. Robert told me about a remarkable ram he had found on a scouting trip that he thought would go above the 170-inch mark. He said the ram’s left horn flared up over the bridge of his nose. Robert hunted for this ram for nearly two weeks with no avail. Not only did he not see this ram on the hunt, he did not even see a sheep in the area. Discouraged with no sightings in the area, he ended up in a totally different mountain range taking a respectable ram on the 18^th day of the hunt. Robert felt the big ram was still out there and knew that the other successful hunter had not taken him. I quickly became excited knowing about this animal and the fact that I would only be competing with one other hunter in this unit.

I knew this hunt would take a considerable amount of scouting. One problem I faced was that my work schedule would not allow me to go on as many scouting trips as I would have liked. The fact that the unit was a six and a half hour drive one way also made it difficult for scouting. I started thinking that I might have “bit off more than I could handle” and may need to hire an experienced bighorn sheep guide.

I then had a stroke of luck. Clint Adams from AZGFD called me and told me that they were going to fly over my unit in October and he would share where they found some rams. The problem was that whatever he shared with me, he would be sharing with the other hunter in the unit. I already knew there was an exceptional ram in one of the mountain ranges. Now I would just have to be lucky enough to find him. Clint quickly informed me that on the fly-over of the unit that they had seen a magnificent ram that would measure in the mid 170’s to 180. He also told me that the left horn flared out and he was near a certain water development. From that info, I immediately knew this was the same ram that Robert had told me about.

As I was still contemplating on hiring a sheep guide, a friend referred me to Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society member Pat Feldt, the owner of Arizona Guided Hunts. I liked Pat right away since he was not pushy and arrogant as many of the other guides I had spoken with. He had helped other hunters take large desert rams in the past and was very experienced at locating, hunting and judging rams. After the meeting with Pat and viewing his website (www.arizonahunting.net), I knew that going with him would significantly increase my chances at harvesting the record book Nelsoni desert bighorn. The next day Pat and I had scheduled to go on a scouting trip for late October. I was amazed at the time and research that Pat put into the trip. He had every topo map of the unit and had marked numerous areas in which to glass from. He had spoken with numerous friends and had gathered more information on the unit in two weeks than I had in 9 months.

Late October found Pat, Derek, Robert and I scouting for the big ram. As luck would have it, we found the remarkable ram by 8:00 a.m.! We glassed him from a little over a mile away with our Swarovski 15 X 56 optics. This gave us an opportunity to get some good video footage. We videoed about 25 minutes of the 175-inch ram and a smaller 150-inch ram. Pat informed me that I had to be one of the luckiest people he knew; not only had I drawn a tag in my third year of applying, but my first ram I had EVER SEEN was a huge ram that would score in the mid 170’s and would easily make the Boone and Crocket Record Book. He also explained this was an exceptional sheep for the area.

After scouting the entire mountain range and learning access points and roads, Pat, Derek, Robert and I decided to scout other areas to give us more options. We found another good ram that would score in the low 160’s in the next mountain range. Pat explained he too was a nice ram for the Nelson variety and that we should put him on the back burner as a secondary ram. I was so excited I could not wait for the hunt in December. My fear now was that the big ram would not be in the same area for the hunt or that he would vanish into thin air like he had the year before when Robert had hunted for him.

The hunt was now here and I would have my Dad, my friends Derek Hill, Robert Gomez and Pat Feldt in my camp to assist on the hunt. My dad and I arrived two days before the hunt in hopes of finding “Lefty”. We glassed all afternoon and were unsuccessful at finding the big one, or any sheep for that matter. The next day we were confident that we would find some sheep because Pat had arrived. We now had experience on our side. Within 30 minutes of glassing, Pat spotted “Lefty” near the same mountaintop that we had found him in October. He was only a mile further north and still with the smaller 150” ram; only he now had two ewes with him. We immediately closed the distance between us from the mile and half away to within 900 yards. We proceeded to stay with him for the next 9 hours. We took some great video footage of the ram as he sparred with an ocotillo and played with the ewes.

Day One of the hunt found Pat and I across the canyon at a distance of 450 yards from where we put Lefty to bed. Pat believed the ram would present a shot for me first thing in the morning. At 7:30 a.m. the two ewes appeared exactly where we were expecting them to be. The problem was that the big ram was nowhere to be found. For some reason the big old ram had decided to leave his ewes and smaller companion. Fear set in and I started thinking that maybe we spooked him or he had fallen from a cliff or been taken by a mountain lion. Even though we had not seen the other hunter, I was also getting nervous because I figured that he would be hunting this ram as well.

Day Two found all of us glassing in the same area for the big ram. It was noontime and none of us had even seen a sheep. I started thinking that this ram had vanished again into thin air like he did to Robert Gamez last year. Pat kept me motivated and reminded me that he would be there to help me find this animal for the next seven days. I also had to remind myself that I had 29 more days left in the season. At 12:30 Pat made a plan that he and I would take our ATV’s and go about two miles to the north end of the mountain range. Pat was confident that the ram was on the mountain and had no reason to leave. Around 1:15, after about 10 minutes of glassing, Pat had found “Lefty.” He was by himself and was traveling in the direction that we had just come from. We met up with Derek and he had also seen “Lefty” going back to where we had found him the day before the hunt. Robert was on the south end of the mountain glassing the backside and we had no way to contact him to let him know that we had found the big ram. My dad was also at a different mountain range at this time. The ram was constantly moving and would not bed or stay in any location for any length of time, which made a stalk impossible. We would lose sight of him for 10-15 minutes at a time. At 3:45 I turned to Pat and said that we needed to make a decision to go to the right side of the mountain or go to the left, which would require us to climb straight up a mountain. I depended on Pat’s past experiences and he said we should go to the left and take the hard route. It was 4:25 p.m. and the sun sets at 5:20 p.m. We realized we would soon be running out of daylight. When we finally approached the top of the ridge, Pat peaked over to find the ram standing broadside at 529 yards! We knew it was now or never. Because of the steep cliffs and limited amount of time, we could not get any closer. I was confident shooting at this distance since I was using Pat’s 300 Ultra Mag topped with a 6.5-20X50 Leopold target scope and shooting a 180-grain Nosler Accubond bullet.

The scope turrets were clicked to the distance of 529 yards and the gun was set on the bipod as Pat got the video camera rolling. I could hear every breath I took as I tried to calm down. I heard Pat tell me to take my time and put it on his shoulder. I slowly squeezed the trigger and immediately heard Pat tell me that I had hit the ram well and that he was “very sick”. I was instantly back on the ram, which had run about 20 yards to his left. He was still standing broadside and I was about to shoot again when I saw the ram start tumbling down the mountain. I cannot explain all the emotions that I felt. I actually started shaking and I felt like I did when I shot my very first deer at the age of twelve. I said a prayer and gave thanks to God for allowing me the opportunity to take such a magnificent animal and for letting me share this once in a lifetime experience with my dad and friends. As Pat and I were walking towards Lefty, we saw my friend Robert approaching the ram. It ended up that Robert had been about 400 yards from the ram and had seen the whole thing expire. After we approached the ram, Pat had estimated he would score around 173-175 inches and thought the left horn was over 36 inches long. Pat was right on; the ram has been green scored at 175 4/8 inches. His bases are 15 inches, his left horn is 37 ½ inches and his right horn is 34 inches in length. If the ram’s right side had not been broken, he would gross near 180 inches. This is one large Nelson ram! At the time of this writing this is the largest Nelson desert bighorn taken in Arizona for 2005.

In closing, I want to thank everyone that helped me with this hunt. It certainly would not have been possible without my two best friends, Derek Hill and Robert Gomez. I also want to thank their families for understanding our passion for hunting. To Pat Feldt, owner of Arizona Guided Hunts, I am ever indebted. Thank you for all your time, hard work and dedication to make this dream possible. To my family thank you all for putting up with my passion, and finally to my Dad, thank you for teaching me to respect the animals that we are lucky enough to hunt and for always taking the time to take me out hunting.

Video of the hunt

Next article written in 2010

Finishing My Big 10!

By Dan Rorbach

Dan with his desert bighorn sheep I’m a native Arizonian and have been hunting in Arizona with my family ever since I was old enough to hold a rifle. In my family hunting was a way of life and the yearly trips to the J-Six Ranch, Chiricahuas or Graham Mountains was a special time that everyone looked forward to. In those early years, deer and javelina were the main species that I hunted but as I grew older the weekend trips grew into one week to 10 day vacations with everyone taking off work and school. We traveled further to the White Mountains or Flagstaff after elk, or to the Kaibab for deer. As I recall, it was sometime in my late teens or early 20’s that I started dreaming about obtaining my Arizona Big Ten. After all I thought, how hard could it really be? I’d already bagged 5, whitetail and mule deer, javelina, elk and turkey. That is half, so naively I figured I would just go after the other 5. Well last year I turned 60 and Desert Bighorn Sheep still kept me from accomplishing my goal. I had no idea way back then how hard it is to get drawn in Arizona.

The spring of 2009 was no different than every other year when I sat down to fill out my application. Every year I would read about the areas and because I was unfamiliar with so many of the areas I would put in for the favorites 31-32 Aravaipa or 37A Silver Bells. After so many rejections I decided to change areas. My brother, David, enjoys, for some strange reason, to hike around in the low deserts. I called him for some insight into areas I’d never been. He told me he had seen sheep during a recent hike in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and suggested I put in for the northwest portion, 45A. There was only 1 tag available, what the heck, and figured I can’t do any worse than I’d done for the past 30+ years.

I remember driving home from my cabin in Pinetop on a hot Sunday afternoon in mid July when I had this really strong urge to check the AGFD website for the draw results. That evening I got on line and SUCCESSFUL was next to Bighorn Sheep. Little did I realize that after all the dancing and screaming that evening, Bighorn Sheep were going to consume every waking hour of my life for the next 6 months. I was very excited and couldn’t wait to go scouting and see the Kofa’s but it was summer and the temperature along the Yuma/Quartzsite Highway 95 was 110+. In the meantime I read, watched videos, went to sporting goods stores and tried to absorb everything I could about an animal that I had never ever seen, in a land that I had never been to or stepped foot in.

Finally, I could stand it no longer and in late August (still ridiculously hot) my brother and I went for the weekend to the Kofa’s. I was expecting low rolling desert type hills. I thought glassing would be easy from the flats in my truck with the air on and the sheep would just be grazing on the slopes. Wow!!!! Did I get a rude awakening! The hills were giant mountains with deep canyons and spires that towered high like something out of “Lord of the Rings”. There were rocks and boulders everywhere. Where are the sheep? High? Low? In between? I was in complete awe, confused and most of all worried. Scared would be a better word. I was scared that I was going to blow my one chance to accomplish my dream. Noticing me turning pale, my brother asked what was my problem and I responded that I was in a lot deeper than I ever expected. He asked what I was going to do and I said, “Go home and hire a guide.”

I’d received a lot of mail from guides around the State and I immediately began calling. I narrowed my search down to 3 skilled sheep guides and personally interviewed each. All were very good and had great résumé’s, lots of referrals and had hunted 45A in recent years. I felt it was very important to meet and talk to the guide and get that comfortable feeling. That is what I felt when I met with Pat Feldt, Arizona Guided Hunts. It just clicked, we liked each other and as an added bonus Pat lived only a couple miles from me in Vail, Arizona. Pat took me along while he scouted and I saw my first Desert Bighorn Sheep in the wild. He helped me set up my Ruger 25-06 with a 6.5-20X Leupold for long shots and we went to the shooting range together twice to sight-in and practice.

In late August I received a flier from the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society for a clinic that they put on in late September. My brothers and I went and the seminars that they offered were very informative. Last years trophy mounts were on display and I met with representatives from Kofa National Wildlife Reserve, BLM, and AGFD. They had maps, area rules and game statistics. Additionally, there were vendors showing binoculars, tripods, etc. At the ADBSS table I met last year’s president, Dave Mattausch. ADBSS had a raffle going on and Dave signed me up for a membership in the society. I got posters and pamphlets about Desert Bighorn Sheep and drove home that evening more excited than ever with a wealth of new knowledge in my head.

After what seemed like an eternity, the wait was over. It was December and the season had finally arrived. I was ready, my gun was sighted-in, I was fit and trim after months of exercise and walking and all my equipment, new and old, was packed. I was excited beyond belief as Pat picked me up and we drove off to the Kofa’s. Pat’s friend Eliot and my brothers met us at the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge to set up camp along the main entrance road. On our last scouting trip, the month before, we had seen a nice Class III ram and we were hoping to find him again. We were told by AGFD after their annual November survey that there were no class IV rams and only 3 class III rams in 45A. We felt fortunate that we found a class III and I content that was the best we were going to do but the season was young and there was more time to look. On the second day we found the class III ram we had seen previously. We called him Flare because the tip of his right horn flared out. Flare was way up high and watched as he went over the top of the ridge. The next day we went around to the other side and early in the morning found what we thought was Flare, but some how this ram looked different and seemed bigger. His horns brightly shined in the early morning sun. We named him CT for “Car Tire” because he looked like he had perfect circles, similar to white wall tires hanging from his ears. CT was about 1.5 miles away, across the valley, half way up the slope with 1 small ram, 4 ewes and a lamb. While glassing CT we found Flare on the same slope and side of the valley as CT, only one ravine over to the west. CT was definitely bigger and could even be a class IV. After watching him for what seemed like forever, we began our stalk. 1 ½ hrs later, Pat and I were in the base of the valley, 800-900 yards away from CT. CT was lying down on a small rock outcropping, the other sheep were lying down also except for one that was grazing. Slowly we advanced from a high bank, to a tree and then to a bush. We had come to a point where there was no cover left, except for that bush. We had made it to 600 yards and were busted. CT jumped up, stared in our direction, and Wow! He ran fast, straight up and over the highest ridge. I was sick, totally deflated, he was gone.

For the next couple of days we scouted and saw some sheep but smaller rams. We found Flare again but CT was on our mind. We stayed out of the valley where we saw CT in hopes that he would return but no luck in our distant spot checks. We decided after 2 days to go back into the valley early the next morning. It was the 6^th day, the 6^th of December and we hiked in the dark, about 3 miles, to the middle of the valley. As the sun was getting ready to rise, Pat and I split up to look at different slopes. Pat started up a small mound in the middle of the valley and 2 ewes ran down the mound right past him. I was watching from my perch on another mound and followed the sheep as they ran across the valley to the northern slopes. There on the slope was Flare again. Pat and I signaled that we both saw Flare and we began glassing the slopes to the west. Unbelievably, the sun peeked over the east slope and both of us at the same time saw CT’s big horns glowing. Halleluiah, my heart was trying to jump out of my chest. CT was just west of where we had seen him before, the same slope that Flare was on 3 days before. We watched CT for a long time and decided to cross the valley way to the east and then skirt the north slopes using them as cover. After over two hours we came to the last slope and drainage from CT. Quietly, we climbed the slope and saw CT grazing across a major drainage, 400 yds away. There was just no way to get any closer, so I crawled to the top of the slope and lay down behind a bush. I was now 375 yds away. I calmed down, took my time and shot. Oh my God!!! My shot went high. CT darted to the left and stopped next to a Palo Verde tree staring in our direction, obviously confused as to what just happened. I shot again and unbelievably missed again grazing the tip of his inside ear. This time he turned and ran over to a rock outcropping and again stopped and stared. I waited for another shot, calmed down, aimed and squeezed off my third shot. It hit him perfectly in the chest and he dropped. “CT is down,” I exclaimed. Pat and I crossed the drainage to CT and I could not believe the size of the horns up close. We took pictures and processed him. My brothers had watched the whole thing from 2.5 miles away through the spotting scopes. They immediately came running to help pack him out 4 miles to the road. We were all very tired that evening as we ate tenderloin from the ram but I felt completely satisfied. It was the end of years of putting in applications and 6 months of getting prepared for the hunt of a lifetime. Finally, I had my Arizona Big Ten!

The next day in Tucson, at the AGFD offices, we checked in CT. He measured 163 and they estimated he was a 9-10 year old, Class IV ram.

guide Pat Feldt and Dan with the desert ram

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