I was hunting with Alcampo Hunting Adventures...
Jorge Artee was the lead guide with Eduardo and Kato assisting. I had the utmost confidence in my team. Their experience and knowledge of the country was obvious. Locating sheep in the mountains of Sonora was easy; locating a trophy caliber ram was proving to be a bit more difficult. Rainy weather was moving in to this desert region on the last day of my hunt. Every sheep on the mountain was on the move. We spotted a huge ram with a band of ewes at about 9 a.m. With the weather moving in, we had to cover country in a hurry! The ram was on a mountain about 3 1/2 miles distant. About halfway into our stalk, we climbed a ridge to try to relocate the big ram.
We glassed the distant hillsides but couldn’t locate the ram or any of the ewes. Fog was beginning to shroud the hilltops and we were running out of time. Eduardo heard something on the saddle just across from our vantage point. A ram of about 155” caliber was feeding across the saddle. A minute later another ram appeared behind the younger ram. The old warrior had massive headgear and was broomed hard. His mass extended all the way to his broomed tips. His gait showed his age. We needed to get off this ridge without being spotted. Cover was sparse, so when the sheep fed, we moved. We needed to drop down to the creek bed below us then climb to the saddle these rams were on. We were almost out of sight when the younger ram detected us. He turned 180° and did a fast walk straight out of country. The tired old warrior climbed the ridge about 100 yards and to our delight he bedded. We dropped into the ravine and climbed the far hill to the saddle. He was bedded at about 200 yards looking away. Perfect! One well placed shot ended my search for a desert monarch. The ram had no teeth. We guessed him at 14 years old. He has 15 1/4” bases and green scored 173”. I still feel fortunate to have taken a ram of this caliber.
Joseph Mirro (#1355, PA)