Ok, as the late Paul Harvey said, "now, the rest of the story". I first met Dan and his wife at the Sheep Show in Reno 5 or 6 years ago when we were at the same table for one of the events. Since I'm from Wyoming, he wondered if I knew any outfitters who I'd recommend for a sheep hunt since he was getting close in preference points to being able to draw. I mentioned a friend of mine out of Cody and he made contact.
Fast forward, Dan got to Cody the middle of last week to get ready for the ride into camp on Friday the 9th. The ride in is a somewhat adventurous, gnarly trail. It's a 24 mile, 7 hour horseback ride across the infamous Deer Creek Pass. The last half mile of trail especially gives a 'pucker' factor since it's slightly wider than a horse with close to a straight drop off on one side. There are more than one mule/horse at the bottom that became grizzly feed! He said it was foggy going in so he didn't get the 'full pucker' factor until he came out. Anyway, got to camp with no issues. The next day after a couple hours of searching, they found 3 rams, including the one he tagged. The stalk was at about 10,500 ft. altitude, but they were able to take horses a decent way up. He was using a Weatherby Backcountry ti in 6.5 RPM with 140 Nosler Partition handloads. I didn't ask him for the load specifics. He used a Leupold w/ CDS geared for the cartridge. The ram was 275 yds., so he dialed in and made a one shot kill. Unfortunately, before the ram dropped, it went to the edge of a rock cliff and toppled over. Given it's location and safety concerns, Dan stayed behind and let the guides retrieve the ram.
He spent the next couple days relaxing and getting the ram taken care of. The trip out was uneventful. He says it is in at least the top 5, if not the number 1, hunting experience he's had in his lifetime. Other than being a bit stiff, he made it through without any problems. Game and Fish aged the ram at 10 years and a green score was 164 and change! He's on his way back to Missouri to get geared up for the Nevada mule deer hunt!!
