Hey sliders! I just got back from filming a Desert Sheep hunt in Baja Mexico. We were with Bonfil Outfitters hunting in the Biosphere. Hunting was my pal Jared Wire... in 2016 his name was drawn in Reno at the Wild Sheep Foundations <1 Club banquet. There were 3 hunts up for grabs and since he was the first drawn he got to choose which he went on. Desert in Mexico, or Dall in Alaska.. he jumped on the Desert pretty quickly!
I live in Cody, WY so I flew from there to Salt Lake City, then a 3 hour flight into Cabo San Lucas, Mexico where I met Jared and our interpreter. From there we took a 12-13 hour drive north to the main ranch house outside of Santa Rosalia. There we met the guides, loaded up the packs for 3-4 days and made a 6 hour vehicle ride back into the desert mountains. The plan was to backpack in for 3-4 days, then if we were unable to turn up a good ram, we would pack out and completely move areas for the remaining 3-4 days.
When we pulled into the area where the vehicles would stay it was about 3pm. We lightened packs up with the intention of short scouting trip that would hopefully result in a sheep killing plan the next day. Our short scouting trip turned into 3.5 hours later climbing up the head of the drainage we had started at the bottom of. A few of the guides climbed to the top and were glassing into a canyon on the backside of where we started, while Jared, myself and the interpreter glassed back into where we had come from. The other guides radio'd over that they had a couple of sheep in the scope but were way far away and wanted to sit longer and watch them. They told us to drop down and head back to camp.
After hitting the bottom of canyon we started back to camp at a pretty good pace. About a mile later, Jared was walking next to me and we were talking when I looked over at him and caught a glimpse of a sheep body about 100 yards away from us. I said holy **** there's a sheep right there... I threw up my binos and sure enough there was a ram quartering away from us. First thing I saw was bases for days, then as the sheep turned his head toward me I saw he was broom'd on one side a little, and I said that's a good freaking sheep, and we all hit the deck and scrambled to get packs off to get set up. The sheep and his two ladies had seen us already and started making their way up the canyon into some cliffs.
I got my spotter set up (brought for digiscoping) and got the ram found. He was standing on a cliff head on looking right at us. The interpreter, which I imagined would know what a good sheep looked like, looks in and says no it's a young ram. I'm not an expert sheep hunter by any stretch, but I was fairly certain this wasn't a young/little sheep, although he didn't look as impressive at the angle he was at compared to how I'd seen up closer through my binoculars. After a couple of minutes the guides come around the corner and we gave them the ram curl sign and point up the hill.. they quickly crouch over and all run to us. The first guide looks in the scope, looks at us with big eyes and says "shoot him!" (one of the very very few english words he knew, haha).
Jared threw a round in the chamber, I called the range 312, he dialed it in, I said I'm rolling on the camera whenever your ready, and boom. From my perspective it almost looked like he shot high, but the sheep lunged forward and started the high step, then tipped over and rolled down the hill a ways (With the angle, he made a perfect heart shot that punched right through the sheep and hit the dirt just above it's back.) Just like that the hunt was over. We were anticipating a long haul with hot days and heavy packs, but instead within the first 4 hours of boots on the ground we were done. One of the reasons I love hunting so much... you never know when you may look over and go "oh right there!". After taking some pictures and video, we headed back to camp with a sheep on board! We're now safely back in America. Can't wait to get this video edited up and shared with all of you. For now here's a bunch of photos!
Here is a gear list with some of the things we used:
Proof Research Tac II 300 win mag
Huskemaw 5-20x50 scope
Swarovski EL range binos
Swarovski 20-60x80 spotter w/ TinesUp scope cam adapter on an iPhone 7
Slik 634 carbon tripod w/ Benro s2 fluid head
Canon XA30 video camera
Sony A7 sii video/photo camera
Dark Energy chargers
Kifaru Reckoning with guide lid, 3 belt pockets, water bottle pocket
First Lite women's guide pant
First Lite aerowool shirt
World's okayest hunter shirt!
La Sportiva Trango Cube boots
Hilleberg Soulo tent
BA Qcore pad
BA lost ranger down bag
I live in Cody, WY so I flew from there to Salt Lake City, then a 3 hour flight into Cabo San Lucas, Mexico where I met Jared and our interpreter. From there we took a 12-13 hour drive north to the main ranch house outside of Santa Rosalia. There we met the guides, loaded up the packs for 3-4 days and made a 6 hour vehicle ride back into the desert mountains. The plan was to backpack in for 3-4 days, then if we were unable to turn up a good ram, we would pack out and completely move areas for the remaining 3-4 days.
When we pulled into the area where the vehicles would stay it was about 3pm. We lightened packs up with the intention of short scouting trip that would hopefully result in a sheep killing plan the next day. Our short scouting trip turned into 3.5 hours later climbing up the head of the drainage we had started at the bottom of. A few of the guides climbed to the top and were glassing into a canyon on the backside of where we started, while Jared, myself and the interpreter glassed back into where we had come from. The other guides radio'd over that they had a couple of sheep in the scope but were way far away and wanted to sit longer and watch them. They told us to drop down and head back to camp.
After hitting the bottom of canyon we started back to camp at a pretty good pace. About a mile later, Jared was walking next to me and we were talking when I looked over at him and caught a glimpse of a sheep body about 100 yards away from us. I said holy **** there's a sheep right there... I threw up my binos and sure enough there was a ram quartering away from us. First thing I saw was bases for days, then as the sheep turned his head toward me I saw he was broom'd on one side a little, and I said that's a good freaking sheep, and we all hit the deck and scrambled to get packs off to get set up. The sheep and his two ladies had seen us already and started making their way up the canyon into some cliffs.
I got my spotter set up (brought for digiscoping) and got the ram found. He was standing on a cliff head on looking right at us. The interpreter, which I imagined would know what a good sheep looked like, looks in and says no it's a young ram. I'm not an expert sheep hunter by any stretch, but I was fairly certain this wasn't a young/little sheep, although he didn't look as impressive at the angle he was at compared to how I'd seen up closer through my binoculars. After a couple of minutes the guides come around the corner and we gave them the ram curl sign and point up the hill.. they quickly crouch over and all run to us. The first guide looks in the scope, looks at us with big eyes and says "shoot him!" (one of the very very few english words he knew, haha).
Jared threw a round in the chamber, I called the range 312, he dialed it in, I said I'm rolling on the camera whenever your ready, and boom. From my perspective it almost looked like he shot high, but the sheep lunged forward and started the high step, then tipped over and rolled down the hill a ways (With the angle, he made a perfect heart shot that punched right through the sheep and hit the dirt just above it's back.) Just like that the hunt was over. We were anticipating a long haul with hot days and heavy packs, but instead within the first 4 hours of boots on the ground we were done. One of the reasons I love hunting so much... you never know when you may look over and go "oh right there!". After taking some pictures and video, we headed back to camp with a sheep on board! We're now safely back in America. Can't wait to get this video edited up and shared with all of you. For now here's a bunch of photos!
Here is a gear list with some of the things we used:
Proof Research Tac II 300 win mag
Huskemaw 5-20x50 scope
Swarovski EL range binos
Swarovski 20-60x80 spotter w/ TinesUp scope cam adapter on an iPhone 7
Slik 634 carbon tripod w/ Benro s2 fluid head
Canon XA30 video camera
Sony A7 sii video/photo camera
Dark Energy chargers
Kifaru Reckoning with guide lid, 3 belt pockets, water bottle pocket
First Lite women's guide pant
First Lite aerowool shirt
World's okayest hunter shirt!
La Sportiva Trango Cube boots
Hilleberg Soulo tent
BA Qcore pad
BA lost ranger down bag
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