A Trophy among Trophy's

gamedog

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
591
Location
Bull Mtns MT
Well seeing the hunting stories are slowing down a little here , I thought I'd post some photo's of my buddy Travis with his spectacular Bighorn he harvested this year in Montana.
First of all the odd's of drawing a tag in this area is less than 1% of applicants actually getting one.
After Montana FWP posted the results on the winners of the tags in August it wasn't long when the phone rang with one excited fella on the other end of the line.
So the scouting trips start 2 weeks before the season opened. After a couple of trips, he got a battle plan on how to access one of the big boy's.
He decided on two battle plans. The first was to utilize the higher ridges to scout from , then closing in to score the animal. The second was floating the river , glassing canyons for animals, then closing in for closer scoring. with the sheep , inches makes a ton of difference.
He made several trips using the old fashion method of beating the dirt. There were a lot of mature rams being seen on each trip, but not the one.
The next trip, Travis and his brother floated the Missouri for 32 miles in there 12" aluminum boat .They spent 4 days on the river , but still was too early in the season to end it.
Travis made a total of 13 trips after his ram , being in the field for a total of 34 days this season.
Well the last week of arrives on Thankgiving weekend. He took 6 day's off work for this trip and headed out solo back to the Missouri river for another 32 mile float.
Sounds fun eh? Well we got a dandy snow storm that brought 8"-12" of fresh snow along with single digit temps right in the middle of his float. He dropped his ATV off down river and drove his truck and trailer up river the 40 miles . No warm camp to look forward too any time soon.
He finished the float on day 4 and still hadn't found his shooter. Once back to his camp after a very cold 40 mile ride on the ATV he relocated to a chunk of private property that was along a migration route for some dandy rams.
Finally , after the sixth day his luck turned. He glassed a good ram in his book.
After a successful stalk, he launched a 180 gr pill from his 30-378 Accumark. Of course the bullet/rifle combo did the job! Now the fun begins
He was able to get the ATV with in 150 yards from the ram, but he slid over a cliff and ended up in a six foot hell hole in the side of the canyon.
Working on the hillside with darkness closing in, he skinned the entire ram out , deboned the meat and started the task of getting out of the canyon.
He said it took 1 1/2 hour to get the cape and horns up the hill side , six feet at a tiime. He'd throw the cape and horns up in a pile of sage, then pull himself up to the spot and repeat.
Next was getting the meat out. Having to use a frame pack on the back
eek.gif
It sounded like a lot of fun.
After getting all the hide and meat back to camp, it's time to boggie back to town. On the drive back he had a Mule deer buck jump into the side of his truck, spinning off the side and taking out the front corned of his camp trailer. On the same highway, he had another deer slam into his passenger door , crushing it in.
I'm sure he would head out today if the opportunity was there. Sorry for the long post and poor photo's, but this guy is my new hunting hero.
The ram scores 192" , but is still green. He will place well in the books here in Montana. He is having a replica of the horns to use on a life size mount body mount and is having the actual horns and skull done "In the White"
travis2.jpg
travis3.jpg
travis1.jpg

The last photo shows where the ram went over. Look at that country in the background
eek.gif
travis4.jpg

__________________
 
Hmmm, if envy is a sin, then I'll be ****'d.:D

Travis, you da man!

I only know of one other fella with that kind of dedication!

It's a very elite group to which you belong.

Very good write up.

Thanks
 
Trophy of enormous proportions based on his work to get it and get it out. Great story.
 
Way to go Travis! That ram will probably take the silver award at the National FNAWS banquet this year. There was a 194" ram shot in Utah this year but it was killed on an Indian reservation and I'm not sure if they will count it or not. In my opinion, your's should be the gold. What an aptly named thread!

All your hard work certainly paid off and it will make the hunt memories even sweeter. Congratulations.


Game dog,
Do you have any quarter measurements to share with us?
And what unit was this?
Was it killed on the big chunk of private property?

Thanks for sharing the horn porn!
 
Last edited:
Way to go Travis! That ram will probably take the silver award at the National FNAWS banquet this year. There was a 194" ram shot in Utah this year but it was killed on an Indian reservation and I'm not sure if they will count it or not. In my opinion, your's should be the gold. What an aptly named thread!

All your hard work certainly paid off and it will make the hunt memories even sweeter. Congratulations.


Game dog,
Do you have any quarter measurements to share with us?
And what unit was this?
Was it killed on the big chunk of private property?

Thanks for sharing the horn porn!
I believe the horns had a 16 3/4" base, then the next measurement is taken around 10" up the horn and that measurement was still 16 1/4". The length was 42 5/8". He was hunting the Missouri River Breaks , not sure of the area #. The prime area on the private land was only two sections of land. Horn Porn:D I like that one.
 
Wow, that is just awesome, any more info on the rifle? What was the range?
Travis shoots a Weatherby 30-378 Accumark. He was able to get with in 250 yards of the ram. Not exactly a animal you can get a good score estimate from long distance. He passed over 300 legal rams before choosing this one:D
 
That is one huge set of horns. The floating and scouting by boat sounds exciting and interesting except for the being cold part.

Thanks for taking the time to write it up.
 
It doesn't get any better than that.


Beautiful animal in a beautiful place. Yes envy/jealosy are the words.



Mike Alford
 
Incredible ram and incredible hunt!
Few people would have the intestinal fortitude to persevere that long and hard. Congratulations to your friend and thanks for sharing the story!
 
Warning! This thread is more than 17 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top