“I hadn’t bothered to check the Arizona draw results as I was focused on my first hunt in Africa that was to start in several weeks. I had drawn one of the two tags available in a unit west of Phoenix that had a history of producing big rams. My Dad had started me hunting big game in Arizona at age ten. I had helped several friends on their desert sheep hunts and for years had hunted coues deer on a ranch we lease in Mexico which, in my opinion, is the next best thing to sheep hunting. I felt I was as ready as I was ever going to be. The unit was new to me, but one of the great things about the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society is that its members are so willing to volunteer information. It didn’t take long to get a feel for where the rams might be found in December. I was able to get two scouting and conditioning days in during August before leaving for Africa and at the time wondered if anyone before me had ever carried a .416 Rigby in to the Eagletail Wilderness Area. My trip to Zimbabwe with Bill Bedford’s Ingwe Safaris was a tremendous success with two cape buffalo and plains game taken. Tracking buffalo in the thick jess of the Zambezi Valley in the presence of elephant, lion and whatever else that was out there was probably the most intense hunting experience of my life but thoughts of my sheep hunt were never far away. I scouted fourteen days locating several good rams and couldn’t help but be optimistic about what I might find when the season opened and things got serious. What I usually enjoy about hunting is that it rarely goes the way you expect and this proved to be the case as these older rams would not be seen again after they left the ewes in late November, although we saw good numbers of sheep throughout the hunt. The days were long, but good, with hours of hiking in the dark packing full optics to get in and out of a unit with lots of roadless areas. Camp was rarely seen during the light of day. At one time or another I had twenty-two different friends in to help coming from as far away as Alaska and Wyoming. My Dad, Biff, was with me for the entire hunt. We kept each other going and as the days passed so did any sense of discouragement as I realized that this was turning in to the sheep hunt I had always dreamed of, making me want to push even harder. We left camp set up and took a break for Christmas returning for the last five days of the season. The second morning back I spotted two rams, one looked good. Todd Julian went to gather up the guys who were scattered through out the mountain range. I had a long time to sit and watch the ram and reflect back on the hunt. He was a classic and beautiful desert ram and with a certain sense of sadness came to the realization that the time had come for the hunt to end. Once Todd, Craig Dunlap, Dan Derksen and Todd Govig were set up I made a long stalk, a good shot, and we had our ram. The three and a half mile pack out in to the sunset where my Dad was waiting to pick us up was the best of my life. This ram is the fourth of the different species of North American wild sheep I have taken, my CFNAWS. While all were great hunts with some outstanding guides the two hunts that have meant the most to me were for my Wyoming and Arizona rams that I took on my own with the help of good friends and family.

Phoenix, Arizona