As we made the all too familiar climb, I continued to replay the events of the previous evening.  My sub conscious told me that my hunt was over, but my conscious mind kept dredging up past experiences in which things did not work out.  As we reached the summit and set up our tripods, I was relieved to see the entire herd still feeding on the same bench.  We all thought we could see the ram lying there dead but the poor light of the overcast dawn made us all second-guess our eyes.  After a few minutes even our doubts could not override the obvious.  He was down and my hunt was over.  I was sitting no more than 10 feet from where I was sitting the first time I had ever seen this ram.  I had come full circle. 

The hike to the ram seemed to take forever, but we finally picked our way down a couple of tricky spots and on to the bench where he died.  I was almost speechless as I approached him.  He was laying on the edge of a bluff overlooking the enormity of Fish Creek.  With George acting as director and producer, I had the most enjoyable photo shoot ever, we laughed throughout the process, and all the way back to the truck. 

Though his mass measurements where not what I had expected, his length and width were right on.  Depending on where the tape measure falls in those big chips he scores right about 162" gross.  In 16 days I had looked at 27 different rams and ended up shooting the first one I saw! 

When it comes to sheep hunting there is no such thing as "do it yourself."  Though I spent the majority of the hunt by myself, there is no way I could have even enjoyed my hunt let alone take a nice ram without the support of my team.  By "my team" I mean all of the people who gave me advice on my hunt unit, and equipment as well as those who were actually in the field with me.  Some of the most important contributions to my success were made by those dedicated sportsmen and professionals who worked so hard to bring desert sheep back from the brink of extinction.