(cont).
Got to the top and the weather sort of socked in, clouds would roll in and roll out. But we finally located the 3 rams bedded at what we thought was about 600 yards. We had no range finders, mystery ranch packs or sitka gear.
With no way to get closer, all we could do is wait for them to move. Spent several hours in this spot with the rams bedded in the saddle on a little rocky knob:
Gave me plenty of time to look the best 2 rams over and one was just a bit better than the other...but hardly a thin dimes worth of difference between the two.
Finally, about 2 hours before dark, they got up to feed. We quickly hustled down the spine toward the saddle and found them at about 250 yards, feeding. I picked the ram I had looked at for several hours and shot him behind the shoulder with my 338 and a 200 grain Nosler BT. He slowly swung his body forward, I cycled the bolt, hit him again dropped him on the edge of the saddle. The other two rams stayed right there.
Ed and I grabbed up our stuff and started working our way to the ram. When we were about 40 yards away, Ed wanted to take a picture with my ram, and the other 2 rams just standing there. He took the picture right quick and started working my way to the ram. I was about 10 yards from him, when his body relaxed slowly rolled over and began to roll down toward a cirque lake. I lost sight of it as it bounced over rocks, sometimes 20-30 feet in the air. Eventually I could no longer see it, but could hear it still bouncing down the slope.
So, we started following the turned up rocks, hair, and whatnot until we found him.
Was banged up fairly good, but nothing major on the cape or horns:
With no way to get out that night, we took our time, cleaned him up the best we could and took some pictures:
Heavy 11 year old ram: