Spectacular!

Congratulations on your desert bighorn! That is a beautiful ram. I am curious what unit you were drawn for? I was fortunate to meet Larry, Stephanie, and Bo when they were guiding a client down in my neck of the woods back in 2006 or 2007 or so. Great folks! The Good Lord blessed me with a tag in 2010. I'm from Yuma and hunted in 43B.

Great Job on your very impressive ram!

awesome!

Awesome Ram, congrats.

Congrats Mr. Prairie. Dream trophy.

Yes I was in 43B also. Great ram!

Congrats NP! That will make a fine mount.

Thank you. I'm not familiar with them, but have thought about going through a service like what they offer. Seems like every year each state changes their rules and if you make a mistake one year, you're screwed.

Do you know if they will be at DSC?

Eddie

Thanks so much guys!
Whew-finally back in Texas. In Van Horn now. Will post a few more pics.



Breaking him down. Larry was a master taxidermist for 20 years so it was fun to watch him cape him for a life-size mount.

AZ Game and Fish "mugshot" at check-in.

Harry (asst. guide) glassing for sheep. The drop in that notch behind him is about 2 football fields. Don't slip!

Great ram and great trophy Nog. Congrats!

I would be surprised if they are at DSC. He is prompt about returning phone calls though.
He will more than likely be at texas bighorn society in June here in Texas. He is a good guy.

What did your sheep end up scoring? Beautiful sheep.
North of van horn is the heart of desert bighorn in texas.

That's an awesome experience.....God Bless

Rough scores by Larry and biologist were low 160s. Since he was not a book candidate I honestly didn't care about score. I am simply not a score man. But that should give some idea of size. 15 1/2 inch bases. 32 x 32 1/2. He is broomed back on both sides-which hurts him a lot score-wise but which I happen to like.

Larry and Stephanie do not go to DSC. They are usually at both sheep shows (Reno and Vegas) but are thinking about just doing the Vegas (GSC/O) show this year. Just google Hunter Application Service for their website which has lots of info about their service and their contact info. The toll-free # rings Larry's cell phone-but he is not reachable (at least by day) when guiding and he is getting ready to guide a TX Desert bighorn hunt as we speak. After the first of the year he will be easily reachable. He always is and answers himself.

+1. An old broomed warrior of a ram is the most attractive trophy a hunter can put on his wall, at least in this man's opinion. A dall or stone looks great with lamb tips intact, but give me a desert or Rocky that is broomed and I'm a happy camper. And a mature wild sheep is such a hard-earned trophy that its score is irrelevant.

In Van Horn? Hope you ate at Chuy's last night. They make a killer breakfast too. At least John Madden thinks so.

Amen brother NP, book would only serve the ego and couldn't replace the experience. Looks like a hell of a trophy to me, love the broom'ed look and the chocolate stain on the curl. I'm not a "score guy" either, maybe we are wired weird LOL

Going to be a heck of a mount

Awesome ram Nog. Great pic. Congrats on a beautiful animal.

The horn coloring intrigued everyone. There is actually a liquid drip stain down one horn. Larry thinks he was butting saguaro or barrel cacti and feeding on the inside. The biologist even thought it may be blood.

Larry said he would hunt me down and kill me if I cleaned the horns. No chance of that.

Yes, a chipped and battered old ram.

And, yes Dave, I ate at Chuy's.

Lamb tips on bighorn rams are almost non-existent once they reach 5 or 6 years old. They break them off when they start battling for the ewes. When I did my research on the unit I averaged the score of all the rams taken since 1984 and the average was 155 or so. There have only been a few rams over 170 taken in that unit in the last 30 years or so. Most of the rams are between 155 and 165 these days. Some guys get a little too excited and shoot some smaller rams which brings the average down.

As a comparison, my ram was around 34 inches in length and had 13 1/4 inch bases and scored 158. He was 9 years old. Do you recall how old they estimated your ram? There was another ram killed in the unit this year that was estimated to be 14 years old and he scored right around 160 as well.

Nonetheless you did excellent on your hunt of a lifetime! Congrats again!

If anyone would like some free advice about applying for or hunting sheep in Arizona I would be happy to help. This is the least I can do to help pay it forward.

Beautiful ram- and nice shooting!

I see the hunt matched the excitement of the draw.