Was super lucky to draw a Desert Bighorn Sheep tag in New Mexico before we moved to Alaska this spring. The tag was in unit 26, in the Hatchet mountains, which is located in the very southwest corner of New Mexico, just a few miles from the Mexican border. This is a good unit, and we looked at a lot of Sheep over the 2 days I hunted.

1st day, we were only able to locate a couple groups, and only 1 mediumish sized ram. Not much hiking, but a lot of sitting behind the spotting scope at the base of the mountain.

It is interesting to note the border patrol presence in this area. We saw several border patrol trucks, had to pass through multiple checkpoints, apparently, they use drones and infrared and the whole 9 yards. We did randomly see one illegal immigrant (is this a politically correct term?). He walked within about 200 yards of us while we were sitting around the trucks. It was 85 degrees in the middle of the desert with no shade, middle of the day, and he was wearing all black including gloves and a hood and face shield. Just as he passed by, a border patrol truck came cruising past. We figured he was on the trail, but seems like the illegal immigrant must have layed down between bushes and maybe started crawling. I don't think the truck ever stopped or saw him.

Anyway, back to the good stuff. Within 10 minutes on the 2nd day we (myself and good friend wayne who's also a BYU fan!) glassed up about 30 Sheep from about 2 1/2 miles away. 1 ram looked like a potential shooter. We knew we needed a closer look. While hiking over to the ram, we saw several groups of Sheep, and we got within range of several rams, but I just wasn't ready to end the hunt yet. We ended up hiking about 8 miles round trip, but were never able to locate the original ram. We had one really close encounter that was a cool experience. We were glassing a few ewes from maybe a half mile away for about 5 minutes when I see movement about 60 yards in front of us. Turns out there were 10 Sheep including 3 smaller rams right there the whole time. They ended up walking right towards us, and gor within 14 yards before busting out as we stood in the middle of the wide open.

Got back to the truck about noon, tried to cool down with some cold water and shade for a little while. Had some more help (another guy, kyle, I met through a Facebook hunting group who had knowledge of the Sheep and area along with his 2 teenage sons) show up. By now the wind and afternoon heat waves were making glassing really difficult just as they had the day before. Kyle's son, Cody ends up miraculously spotting a bedded Sheep from a couple miles away. Took the rest of us like 10 minutes to finally get eyes on him through the wind and heat waves. We could tell he was a ram, but needed to get closer to see how big.

We closed the distance to a mile, could tell he seemed like a mature ram, but hard to tell if I wanted to take him from that distance. Got within 700 yards to get a really good look at him. From the side he didn't look super big because his curl wasn't as tight as some other, but when I finally got to see him turn his head and saw how much his horns flared out, I knew I was gonna try to make it happen. At 417 yards he was starting to move and looking down the hill towards us. It was do or die time, so we set up for the shot. 1 shot dropped him in his tracks, and I believe he was dead before he hit the ground.

I was shooting a Fierce Firearms 6.5 prc topped with a sig sierra6 5-30x50 scope using the BDX ranging system for those familiar with it. (If you're not familiar with it, and you're a hunter, you should look into it).

Lots of pictures and a walk out in the dark under a 100 pound plus pack and we were back to the trucks by about 9 pm. Luckily I had help to carry the meat out.

Spent the day yesterday caring for the meat, talking to the taxidermist, and having the horns checked and plugged by New Mexico game and fish. Anyway, for the part you really want to see! The photos.