A (0:00)

Foreign I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live. Wild podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. Now for those that don't know, Mountain Tough is an online based training app that's designed for hunters to train you both mentally and physically for the mountains. So you can go on and there's programs designed with workouts that are specifically made to get you ready for the things you're going to encounter out there in the wild. And while a lot of you probably know that their programs are designed to get you ready, they also have programs designed to keep you ready during the season. It really is a year round process to help you be the best you can be on the hunt. For me, a big part of the hunt actually comes after I get out of the field. It's that cooking process of wild game, whether back at camp or at home. And my Yeti cast iron skillet is one of my favorite ways to cook. I'm actually personally a big fan of cooking on cast iron, but it has to be high quality cast iron and there is a big difference. The Yeti cast iron skillets are actually made here in America in Wisconsin and they use that vintage casting method. So what that does is that it yields a hyper smooth finish and you get that non stick barrier. They're also a lot lighter than other cast irons, making them a lot easier to handle. Each skillet comes pre seasoned by hand so it's ready to use right out of the box. And there's four different sizes available ranging from 8 to 14 inches. I've been cooking on mine for a while and I highly recommend it to anyone. Welcome back to LiveWild podcast everyone. Now this week I'm going to be covering tactics for closing the deal on a stock and really how the right kind of patience kills. But first I want to share the story of last week's desert sheep hunt with my good friends Mike and Christy Marchese. Now Christie had finally drawn her desert sheep tag and I was fortunate enough to get to share camp with them and go along on the hunt. They put in a ton of time, preseason scouting and looking over a lot of different Rams. And now is really finally that time to put all that scouting to use and go after their target ram. With a bunch of good friends and family assembled, we had pretty much the a team of sheep hunting out there. And we headed out to what their daughter Liberty dubbed the Rama Llama Jam Camp to chase what turned out to be any seasoned sheep hunter's dream, the old ram of the mountain. When the draw results came out this year for Nevada tags and we found out our friend Christy had drawn her sheep tag, I was about as excited as when I drawn my own sheep tag, because I knew how much this tag, this is one of those tags that she's wanted for a long time. And there's probably no one out there that's been on more sheep projects and. Or other people's sheep hunts than Christie. I think that Christy pretty much grew up on Guzzler projects with her dad, Mel. Her dad's been on. You'd be hard pressed to find another person that's been on more conservation projects for wild sheep, especially in the state of Nevada. And Ben grew up going to sheep camps, you know, being on these Guzzler projects and, and being really ingrained into the conservation aspect of wild sheep in the state of Nevada, through Nevada Bighorns Unlimited and. And all the conservation efforts that they do. And so when, you know, Christie grew up hunting, it was always focused on wild sheep and talking about wild sheep and thinking about wild sheep. And now she finally had a tag of her own. And so it was awesome to be able to not only know that she got the tag, but know that we'd be able to go and join her on the hunt. And, and hopefully, you know, we were hoping that my wife got her mountain goat early enough that we wouldn't miss. Miss her sheep hunt. And so my buddy Mike, you know, came out and gave us a hand on the goat hunt to ensure that we could make it on the. The sheep hunt. And it was awesome to be able to, to. To be in sheep camp with them. Now, the, the other fun thing, there was a couple of things that I know Christie really wanted out of the sheep hunt. You know, she wanted some time to scout it. And, and Mike and her had put in a ton of time before the season. I don't know the exact, I think 13 or 15 days of scouting. And then they also, you know, Christy really wanted. One of the things that they've done, I mean, since their son Louie was born, is they. I think they've been in, you know, on a sheep hunt almost every year since he's been born, at least one to be able to have their friends and family out there with the kids and everything. And, and do, you know, a classic, a classic sheep camp. One of the things that we like to do in the state of Nevada is when one of your friends draws a sheep tag, it's a chance for everybody to go out and get on the hunt, whether it's in the glass, whether it's back at camp, whether it's on the mountain, you know, to, to be able to experience it and help out. I think that the, the cool thing about the way that we, you know, the kind of the, I guess like the Nevada hunting culture is you hope that you, by the time you draw a sheep tag, it's not the first sheep hunt you've ever been on. And because the, the opportunity is, is so rare and, you know, it's hard to draw a tag and, and this, that and the other thing, it's awesome to be able to jump in on a friends hunt and lend a hand and get some experience out in the field. And, and it's one of those things where it just kind of continues on. So you look at, you'll. You'll see pictures of people in, you know, Nevada sheep hunt. There's just a pile of people behind them. And that's what we love about it is because, you know, it kind of is a community and a group effort on a lot of these hunts. A lot of people glassing in a lot of places. But also it's just, it's a lot of fun. It's. It's getting to enjoy this once in a lifetime hunt more than once. And, and so to be able to have, have a really good sheep camp and have friends and family out there meant a lot to Christie as well. So they planned, we. They got picked an area. I'm going to set up a cheap camp. Their daughter Liberty called it the Rama Llama Jam Camp. And that was going to be our base for the hunt. Now over the course of, from the time that they drew the tag until the season, I mean, they were out there constantly checking different spots and just combing through the rams. And one of the things about, you know, putting in that time scouting is you kind of have the plan of putting in your time early and then when opening day rolls around, going after and hopefully harvesting your target ram. Now a lot of things can happen in between finding the ram that you want and harvesting that target ram, especially because there's a lot of other tag holders in the area that Might also be targeting the same ram, but they put in a lot of time, looked over a lot of sheep, had a lot of good candidates, and kind of knew, you know, I would say, I'm sure, of course, you know, there's rams in there that maybe you don't turn up or whatever, but knew a lot of the rams in that unit from essentially the weekend after tag draws came out in the summer or all the way leading up to right before the season. Now, while they were out there scouting, they ran into one of the archery hunters that was in there earlier, prior to her season, and were able to share information with the archery hunter Justin, that was in there earlier. So not only did they have their scouting, but, you know, his scouting knowledge and time in the field in that unit as well. It's utilized for the hunt. And there was a ram. Justin ended up taking a really good ram with his bow, and there was a ram that, you know, just kind of didn't really present an opportunity for a stock for him that he had a ton of footage of photos of other things that he shared with Mike and Christie, and that kind of became the ram that they decided to. To go look for. A couple of the rams that, you know, other nice rams that they'd spotted were, we're up on the big mountain, and we're gonna get some weather, which would have made the opening kind of weekend for those sheep very difficult, if not impossible, depending on what the weather was gonna turn out to be, which turned out to be a good call. And where this ram happened to be was in a place that was pretty popular for hunters. So it's gonna get a little more pressure, but also really huntable with the hunt camp and style with the kids and everybody being able to glass and access it. And even if the weather came in, still being able to hopefully, you know, turn up the sheep and. And find the ram that we're looking for. So we now had this target ram, and. And they went out prior to the season, and on, I guess it'd be Sunday, located the ram, essentially where Justin had been seeing it. And we. We kind of had our. Our target ram and ram planned, but we still. This was Sunday. The season opened Wednesday. Kind of had to keep tabs on this ram if we're gonna make it happen opening day. So the next day, I guess it was Monday. Mike and Christie had to go back home for a little bit, But a few of the guys are her dad. And see, her dad stayed out there. And then their friend Kyle and his uncle John stayed Out there glassing and looking every sheep. And that ram didn't turn up on Monday, but. Yeah, so on Monday. And then we got out there Monday night, and then Mike and Christie are back Monday night as well, and so got out to the camp, and we're ready to put in one last day of scouting prior to the season on Tuesday. So we start out, everybody kind of splits up and is looking kind of into different draws. The way this mountain lays out, there's a lot of little fingers and things, little cuts and curves in the mountain that can definitely hide some sheep. And so they were at, you know, a couple different parts of the mountain. We. They had their kids, we had our kids. And so we decided to go kind of split up a little bit and look at different. Different sections of the mountain. And the nice thing is we're all kind of in radio contact, so we could go back and forth about what people were saying here and there and wherever. And so the morning kind of started out. It was actually kind of a little bit drizzly, I guess, which is in the desert. You kind of don't expect drizzly and starting to get colder the next day. It was planned for some pretty bad rain. And at the elevations, we were at snow. So we're glassing first thing in the morning. It's kind of overcast and a little hard to see. And we'd seen some. They'd seen some rams, kind of. And some other sheep where that target ram was a couple days earlier. And then we were. I was down a little bit further and glassing and started turning up a couple of sheep, a couple rams, you know, nice rams. Like, okay, we're actually seeing some good rams. None that I thought would be the target ram. And having not seen the ram that they were after, you know, I wasn't too sure, you know, what ram like, what he might look like. But I had a good idea through the pictures and videos of the. The type of class of ram that we're looking for. So glassing and I. I kind of turned my glass to. This group up is probably like four or five miles away. And I'm like, there's a. That ram's got the shape of the ram that they're after, but it's just too far to tell and. And too poor lighting. So I call them over, and I'm like, hey, I. I got a ram that we need to look at. I think this is the ram you guys were looking for. But I'm, you know, I can't. I can't say with Certainty at this distance, whether it is or not. But I know it's got that shape. It's got that. The wide kind of, you know, frame. It carries its mass. It looks like it's a big, mature ram and looks very similar to what the video or picture that I saw briefly. So let's go take a look at this one. So they come over, and we get him in the glass, and it's like, yeah, that. It could be. It could also not be. It's just too far to tell. So Mike and I make a plan to get in there and just get a little bit closer. So we move in and we hike over there. And it's actually like, the way the hill is. You can't really see around the corner too well. They end up bedding. And so we move in. We just do not want to be bumping or pushing rams or, like, you know, moving things around too much before the opener. So we're being super cautious not to spook any sheep, which is good because we ended up not speaking any sheep, kind of staying lower on the mountain, not getting above them. Like, one thing about sheep is if you're below them, they kind of give you a little bit of. They see you, you know, but they give you a little bit more leeway, just in case. But if you get above them, it can be a good approach where you can come in unseen. But if they see you above them, they're out of the country. Like, they just. They buggy. They don't like that. So we're just being very careful to kind of stay away and keep a good distance and essentially not bump or push anything. And so we're in there, we're glassing, we're seeing. We're turning up sheep. And then the ram that we went in there to go look at, we end up getting a good vantage on. At this point, we're probably 800 yards from him. We get the scopes out. We, you know, we start picking them apart, and we're like, it's a good ram, you know, And I'm like, I don't know if it was the ram that you guys saw on Sunday, but, you know, it's a. It's a good ram. I don't. We. It's. The hard part is, you know, a lot of these sheep start to look similar. I'm like, well, this. This ram is clearly bigger than these other rams. And then. So we sat there for a while, you know, kind of going back and forth whether that was the ram that they'd seen. Or not. And got a lot of video of him. And when I was looking at him like, man, this. This ram, you know, I'm 800 yards out, and I tell Mike, I'm like, this is an old ram. Like, I can count 10 on him right here from the spotter. Because we had really good, like, light with that overcast, like, the rain kept coming in and out, but with that overcast, like, I could tell a lot of detail. I'm like, all right, he's got this. He kind of had, like, you could tell you have. I was like, he's 10. And I bet you there's a ring underneath that hairline that I can't see. I'm. I'm like, I would bet Money this ram's 10 and would be almost certain that he's probably 11. Which, for desert sheep, I mean, that's. That's as old as they get that. That ram, especially in this kind of country where it gets harsher winters and stuff like that, that's about as. That's about as. That's about what they got. So we. We started looking at them, and then, you know, a bunch of other sheep start popping out, and there's some good rams popping out, but this rams, clearly, we keep going back to him as the better rams. So we get back, we kind of go over with everyone what we saw, and at first we were like, you know, didn't really think that it was the ram, the target ram, you know, I don't know why. But then we started diving through the footage from the archery hunter, plus what they had the other day, started matching things up, and we came to the conclusion that is the ram that we're after. And so we. Mike, even text Justin, who was going to come out following day for the opener, and like, is this. Is this the ram you were looking at? And he's like, yeah, absolutely. And one of the things that was kind of a dead give that we didn't notice at the time was how his nose was, like, pretty smashed and broken. And he had this, like, almost like a. Where the hair starts to grow back weird. Almost looks like a little third horn on his nose. And so we. We lined it up, and we're like, okay, that is our target ram. So while we're sitting there going, yep, that's the target ram someone else had. Was scouting, but was up on the top of the ridge and kind of walked right through where that ram was bedded, and they spooked out. So we didn't. I wasn't watching. Like, we Weren't watching at that exact time. We were actually making sandwiches. Look back up and where the sheep was. Now a person standing there. So we go, oh, crap. Did he just drop down in the canyon where we can't see? Did he bump over the other side? It's getting toward evening time, so we're trying to figure out where that ram went. So we decided to go in there again with Christy and see if we can turn the ram up. So we start working in. In the evening, and we're hoping to just find him in there and know that he's in there and then make our play for the morning. And as we're moving in there, you know, one of the things we didn't want to do is, was push any sheep. So we get in there and can't see kind of where we think he might have gone. But we also think, well, maybe he pushed around to the face of this as well, which would be pretty logical. So we start to back out, and we see out pops a couple of the other kind of target rams that we'd had, like, what were you calling kind of backup rams? One of them was this, you know, Christie called fat boy. Just this heavy, real broomed off ram, which I really liked. I like those just short, heavy, fat rams. And. And then another really good, like, heavy based ram. And, you know, after, like, in those rams, we're like, well, the southern rams clearly bigger. He's gonna be our target ram, and we're gonna have. We're gonna make our play in the morning. We're gonna come back up here at first light in the dark and kind of wait where we can, you know, let it get light, pick out, hopefully turn up the ram in this little pocket, and then make our move. So the next morning, we get in there real early. Oh, we met. On the way in, we met Justin, who had the archery tag, and Chris is like, come up a mountain with us. That way, you know, hopefully we get this ram, and you can. You can put your hands on the. The other ram that you were chasing during the archery season. So the. The four of us go up, we park, and we start hiking up in the dark. The plan is to have everybody else glassing where they can kind of see into there, but also checking other areas just in case, because we did not put the ram to bed. You know, having him been bumped out, we just didn't know exactly where he's going to be. We kind of had an inclination he was going to be in this pocket. So we get up to our spot where we start glassing, where we can see kind of both sides. And the weather starts to move in, it just starts dumping snow. And while it's doing that, we see a group of guys coming over the mountain. And well, before we saw that kind of the direction they're coming, a group of rams is just, like, running across the mountain. Like, oh, shit, I bet someone's up there. And so we see the rams come out, but we can't tell if our target ram is actually in there or not. So we end up. We're like, well, the snow's just too bad to tell. So we decide we're going to have to move in and get closer. And we weren't too far from at that point. We were probably like 6, 700 yards, something like that. So we're just going to cut the distance around this backside, and we'll have a pretty good shot it and view of these rams. So we start working around the backside. We're about 350 yards from where the sheep were, and they're going to start coming across. Like, we get behind this hill and they're going to start coming across in front of us. And the other guys had popped down on the ridge and are kind of moving in from the skyline toward these rams, which I don't know if the. The rams had seen them or what, but they kind of spooked up the mountain a little bit, actually, our direction. And, you know, we're. I'm like, up ahead and just getting the scope on him. And then one of the guys that was in that group, the other hunter, shot at the sheep, so we could tell that it did not hit the ram. And I think just like, the snow is falling so bad. I told those guys, I was like, man, before we even got there, before we even moved in, I just took out my onyx and was like, all right, we are. Our range finders are not going to work in this. Like, if the target ram comes out. I just got to where I wanted to go and range to where I thought the sheep were. Just so I knew going in like, okay, it's going to be 300. I think it was like 315 yards to where the sheep were from where we were at, because I was like, my range finder kept giving me weird readings in the snowstorm. And so. And those guys were, you know, a little bit behind us. So they were probably like 4, 5, 480, 450, which I don't. You know, it'd been hard for the rangefinder to get through the snow. But I don't, you know, I don't know. Speaking for them, just assuming. So they shot and, you know, we could tell from where. Where I was at, I could tell that they didn't hit the ram. And the rams went, like, the group rams went up the top of the mountain. Now we're like, well, crap, what do we do? And so those guys went across, I think, to check and see if they'd hit it and look around. And so we decided, well, you know, they probably went over the backside, but they might have come down and circled around into this. This other zone. And at this point, we also aren't sure. Like, it was moving fast, and the quality of vision wasn't great. So we don't actually know if it was the ram that we were after. We just saw some of the rams that were in that group the day before. But we also did not know for certain if it was actually the ram that we were targeting. So we dropped down. They drop down in the canyon. I kind of stay high, and with Justin, I kind of stay high, start glassing all around, and we start moving up the draw. So as we're moving up the draw, we see those guys are like, right above us. I mean, they're probably only 7,500 yards above us. So, I mean, well, we just got it. Let's just get out of here and regroup. So we start working back, and as we're working back toward the truck, our buddy John radios us. Him and Jason had spotted the target ram, like, essentially on the mountain, right above, like the face of the mountain right above the truck. So whether it had circled around and gone over there or wasn't even with that group earlier, I actually don't know. But now we had the target ram, so we're moving in. And with that ram was another ram that we called the white face ram. It was a real, like, tight curled, heavy, heavy, awesome looking ram. But the target ram was definitely the one that we were going after. So we move in, we're kind of going down the mountain, and the other guys kind of pop down in the canyon below us. And I don't know if they knew that that ram was there or, or what, but we're kind of all going for the sheep. I'm like, we just don't need to be foot racing to and everybody blowing them out for each other. So we actually go down. I'm like, I'm just gonna go talk to those guys and see what's going on. And so talk to him. And they. They were cool. We. We were just like, yeah, we're. We've got a couple. We got a sheep that she's trying to get right around the corner here. And I also said, there's a. That. You know, I actually. Because we ran into some guys the day before that were looking at that white face ram, and I didn't know who was who. So I was like, there's that ram that I think you guys were looking at yesterday. You know, that we could both go in there and shoot both these rams. But they're like, no, that's not the ram we're after. So. Okay, cool. So we. We hang back, and they end up working their way out the canyon. And the ram that we were after was on this face. We were headed down. And then he doubles back and goes to the exact place that we came from. Had we not moved, he would have popped out and we would have shot right there. But also, our wind was terrible. I felt like we had to get off the mountain, get lower and get our wind right. So the ram is coming back. You know, our friend's radio is like, he's moving your direction, and we just don't see him. So we decide to work back a little bit and get a better view. And as we're doing that, our buddy Jason, who's just a cheap spot and fool, is like, the Tarkir ram is at the top of the mountain above you guys. Somehow it circled around us probably within 300, just the way that the mountain was. There was no way that we could see him. And he's got a u. I don't know if he had a hot ewe or what. And they are going over the top of the mountain. So this point, we're like, well, shoot. You know, we'd seen. There was this one pass that the sheep. We. We'd been to the top, it came back down, kind of went up the other side, came back down. And now the sheep circled around us and is over the top of the mountain. Now there's this one little, like, dip in the mountain where that ram had. Like, the sheep kind of would go from this one side and pop back out in this basin. So we decided, let's go to that basin. And then, you know, the guys, everybody glassing went around the other side of the mountain just to see if they could turn this ram back up. And so we get to that spot where the sheep would kind of pop out just in case and kind of just wait and just see what happens. Because chasing that ewe like he could be anywhere. And then we get the radio call that they'd spotted a ram that could be the target, but it was, like, a long ways away from where it was and weren't sure if it was him because of just the weather, the clouds and everything. So we start slowly making our way to the top, and by the time we get pretty much to the top, they had confirmed that they have the target ram, and now he's bedded. So we get to the top, we pop over, we get eyes on where a bunch of sheep are, which we're pretty sure he's over there. He's probably like a mile away. And we start working into that position. And so we're working into where the ram is, and I think that we're gonna pop out and have like, a cross canyon shot at like 400, and something yards, like a little farther than we'd like, but potentially within range with a good rest and everything. So we start working that direction, and then the ram gets up and starts moving and just kind of going on a walkabout, and he's like, down lower in the mountain, and he. So he starts to drop down the mountain, and I'm like, if he works or I tell Christy, I'm like, we, you know, we've been. We're up high, we have a good height, but if that ram is going around the mountain, we're gonna have to drop to the bottom and restock him. And just to let her know, like, you know, we've got a lot more miles to go. I think, like, it seemed like he was just right there. And then every time we just kind of kept being a little behind him. So the ram and end up getting up, working around the thing. I. We go. I go to check in on the radio, and they're like, yep, absolutely. You're gonna have to come back down and essentially restock. So we drop off the mountain, and the rams going, checking groups of ewes, and he's moving, and there's some rams way up on the mountain. And I'm pretty sure that this ram is now going to go back up to the top. We climbed over the top onto the backside, and now, I mean, it's like the weather also. You got it. Like, we went from blizzard to now we're a little bit lower elevation. It's raining. Like, the weather's just terrible. We're getting pretty soaked, and this ram is now kind of slowing down. And there's this group of use and then another group of use, and we've got a Couple of rams above him and he's in between. And I'm like, I don't know if this ram goes back up to the top. I think we're our plays over, like we just don't have an option. But if he stays down here, then I think we've still got a play. So we start moving in, we drop down, hit the wash in the bottom and start creeping our way in. And unfortunately, like, there's a lot of other sheep on the mountain. And then the ram moves and he beds right below this, like, rim rock. And we know that this is going to be our opportunity because the one thing we don't want to happen is for the ram to get up and then just start going straight up the mountain. I think if that happens, we're in chase mode again. This rams moved a lot throughout the course of the day, and we just are not going to catch him or get a shot at this point. We're about 650, 680 yards. About 400 yards from us, maybe 500 yards is the a big group of use. And then just past him is another group of use. And then above him is some smaller rams and maybe one U that was better. So I look at Christie and Mike and we decide. I'm like, I think that, you know, we've just been a little bit behind him every time. I think that we need to try to get within a certain range to just in case he gets up. Because if he gets up and starts moving up the mountain, we're sitting here at 650 yards. We're going to not have time to be able to make a play without spooking these other sheep. So I think that we need to drop our packs. Justin can stay back here and watch, you know, with the scope because we might lose sight of him if he gets up while we're crawling. And we need to literally crawl in past this group of ewes and just go real slow, but at least be gaining ground. If we get to the base of where the mountain is, will be about 420 yards and then we can kind of adjust from there. And so everybody decides, okay, that's, that's the play. It's a little bit risky, but also I think that just crawling in this wash, like we're going to be unseen. We're just going to have to army crawl past these, past these sheep. And so the rain's coming down and we are just crawling like three, three crawls at a time, waiting, just making sure that none of these sheep see Us. And so we start moving in. And. And I actually told him. I was like, I'm pretty sure that these. And Mike agreed. I'm like, I think that when these ewes get up, they're gonna go up and over this ridge that they're next to, and then we can. We have essentially free. Free shot at moving in on this. This ram. So we're crawling. Everybody's crawling. You know, it's hard. It's like, crawling for. You know, the plan is to crawl at least 300 yards, and we're crawling through the wash and everything. And Chrissy's doing a great job. Mike's there, and we're just moving in. And so, sure enough, we. We're going slow. We're being methodical. The ewes get up, they move, the ram starts pushing them. And I'm like, there's another nice ram in here. You want to just look at him because he's 300 yards away. So we put the scope on him. She's like, nope, we're going after the target ram. Like, good call. So those rams move up and over. And I guess, you know, earlier there was a couple other. We had that tight curl ram. I forgot to mention this earlier. That was, I mean, 300 yards away. And she goes, no, I'm going to. I'm going to pass him for that ram that went over the top. So. So, you know, we've got our. We're locked in on the target ram, and so we. We keep crawling. And then once those sheep move, you know, some of the other rams are round, and. And we can kind of continue on. We hit that point where we're about 400 yards, and. And I'm like, okay, we're within range. We could go around. And where he's bedded, from this angle, we don't have a view. We could go around and. And get a view where we could, you know, probably see that ram where he's bedded. Or we could try to move in closer, but the other where we can see the ram, we aren't going to be able to move in closer. And Mike's like, closer is going to be better. Like, absolutely agree. So we continue up the mountain. At this point, we can kind of crouch down because a lot of the sheep have filtered off. And we continue moving, go from 400 to 300. And the way the rise is, we have a perfect approach to get to about 200 yards. So we continue on. There's one like you looking down that can kind of see our approach. So we just Kind of continually position that u out of sight, get into a spot and we are now 200 and probably 220 yards from the bedded ram. The ram's out of sight, but we have the entire mountain where he could, where anywhere he would go. We can see it's sub 300 yards. He pops, the ram pops out. He's going to be around that 200, 210 yard range and we've got, you know, him out of sight and the opportunity set up. So Christie's left handed and I was making a joke like there's no left handed mountains. Every time I make an approach, I'm thinking in terms of like setting up with a right hand. And I swear every approach for left handers is like the wrong tilt of the mountain. So we get to a rock pile and I'm like, and it's just like this, this the setup's bad. So we continue to like try to get comfortable because we got time. And so there's this rock a little bit above us. And Mike's like, let's go sit on that rock. Christine, I'll get the tripod set up. He had like a tripod with, I think it was a like a clamp kind of thing for the tripod to steady the rifle, which was perfect for this scenario because it wasn't a great lay down prone, especially if you're left handed and then have a clear view of the mountain. Without that little bit of rise, we would had to climb up a little bit further. But this was a really good spot to just sit and get comfortable. So Christy gets comfortable sitting on the rock. We're sitting there waiting, waiting, waiting, and the ram stands up. You got to remember also we're just drenched at this point. The rain's coming down like we are wet dogs. And so the ram pops up, we can see his horns, but no shots. And all he has to do is move left or right. And so it just felt like forever. Ram's like looking our way. You can just see his eyes and his head. But you know, I know that we would be skyline but also we just aren't moving. And he can't really see, I think just the angle. Like we could barely see his eyes. And so he goes and he's just looking, surveying everything. And then finally he, he hops up on the rock behind him and we have a broadside shot. And you know, Chrissy's patient. We're like, just wait for that. One of the things she really wanted was to just make a good, good perfect shot. On him and like, okay, you got all the time in the world. He's there and then he turns and starts to feed and we know that we've got time. So he starts to feed, quartering hard away. And she's just patient waiting for that shot. He feeds and finally turns left and just gives her the perfect broadside look. She puts it where she is supposed to shoots and hits the ram. I mean you couldn't have placed a bullet more perfect. Rams hit and then just falls over and the target rams down. We radio back to everyone. Everyone was able to watch from the valley through the spotters and everything. It was just incredible. It was everything that, that she would have wanted. And so everybody starts coming up. We get up to the ram and it's just an incredible ram. Like heavy old, I mean an 11 year old ram, desert sheep. We look at him and like he's absolutely missing all of his bottom teeth. Just down to the bone is crazy. Like, I don't know if I've, I've never seen, I never put my hands on a desert ram that old. It was just so cool to see and just like his body was, it looked tiny compared to his arms. I'm like, how does he even hold these things up? And that ram was still chasing ewes and you know, like just freshly smashed nose, like completely broken nose. Just, just an incredible, incredible old ram. And you know, everybody came up. John and Jason caped him out and cut him up and actually my wife and dad came up with the kids. So it was actually, I was surprised that they made it that far. It's like so wet and cold. My daughter's in like this oversized jacket and rain boots, you know, like going up the mountain. So I dropped down to the steep part and threw her on my shoulders and carried her up to the top. And then, you know, we got a bunch of pictures and everything and it was just a awesome, awesome day hunting. And she really got the full sheep hunt experience from a blizzard in the morning, climbing the mountain twice, crawling through the, the wash and then just making a perfect shot and having everybody there and everybody being able to watch and be a part of it was, was pretty incredible. So we packed the ram out and you know, got back to camp and, and got to celebrate with everyone. And it was just such an awesome team effort of, of people spotting and being a part of the hunt and, and then Christy, you know, making an incredible shot and staying persistent as things like, you know, other people shooting at the ram and the ram running all over the mountain. And. And relocating him and getting in, it was just. It was an awesome hunt. And what an incredible old ram of the mountain. Like, it was really cool. I think one of the things that happens on a lot of hunts is we find animals, right, and we make our plays. But your chosen course of action may not be the best course of action sometimes. And one of the things that I like to think about when you're going into. You've got something spotted, whether it's a mule deer, whether it's an elk, whether it's a sheep. Doesn't really matter. Is making those game winning plays. And sometimes that means, you know, whatever that. That play looks like where you're at. Okay, yeah, it's very straightforward. Go to here, go to there, make your shot. But other times, you almost have to think of it as steps ahead. In some instances, we were almost a little. I don't really know. Like, maybe not too timid, but, like, being a little bit timid. In some instances where, okay, the ram is somewhere that's good, but we aren't there yet, and then they get up and move, and you kind of miss an opportunity. You know, there was. We could have moved in on those rams in the snow earlier, but we. We also didn't know that other people were. Were converging on them. Right. But it probably wouldn't have mattered. I don't. I don't know if it would have mattered. But then there's times where you have that approach for now versus that approach for later. And so one of the things that I like to think about is planning that approach where you've got the best play. So in this particular instance, on this particular sheet, right. We knew that we could have continued. Like, we had our vantage and we were high, and I think sometimes we get locked into a course of action, is what I'm trying to say is where we've got our chosen course of action. And I've done this. Everybody's done this, where you're like, okay, I'm up. Up here at the top of the mountain, and the deer's like, at the top, but then it maybe moves down or whatever. And you kind of know, like, the. The best course of action, like, to follow that ram from our gained elevation would have pushed through a lot of other sheep. It just would have never worked. It would have been on the same hillside as sheep. The terrain we would have never been able to see. We would have been continually chasing this ram, and that ram would have got away instead of looking at, okay, well, we've Gained so much, and we're way up here, and we've got, you know, the elevation. We kind of have to go, okay, now what's the best course of action? And it comes back to the thing that I talk about more than anything on this podcast. Go the best way, not the easy way. You know, I knew when. When I. When they. When I heard that that ram got up from his bed for the cross canyon, I pretty much told Christie. I was like, I'm pretty sure we're gonna, like, just want you to mentally prepare that we're gonna have to drop down this mountain and come back up from a different angle. And then, you know, confirming with the guys that were watching, like, yep, that's what's gonna have to happen, because, you know, it was the best course of action. Yeah, we could have kept our elevation and tried to follow that ram around, but it. I know for a fact it would not have worked. We would have bumped other sheep. We would have blown it. The wind wasn't great. Like, we just had to make that best course of action and change it up, Go with the approach for now and hopefully have a better approach later. And then the other thing when moving in was I think that this happens a lot, especially with, like, modern equipment and, you know, what have you is a lot of. A lot of the time. We'll find that. That play that's like, okay, well, this ram's bedded. Let's just use this. This particular hunt as an example. The ram was bedded, and I knew that if we came in from one side, we'd be able to get closer, but we wouldn't have a shot until he got up. Okay, now, if we came around the other side, we would have a good view of the ram bedded and potentially be able to shoot him where he's at when he was there. So I pulled out my onyx maps, and I. And I mapped. I used the range, the measure distance tool, to range from where we could get to. To where the ram was. And I'm like, from where he is on the Society can see approach, we'd have to pop up, and we'd be about 440 yards, and then we would be absolutely out of COVID We would be locked into that range. Now think about if you're moving in and that ram gets up and walks 50, 100. Now that Ram's putting himself at a further distance and giving you a worse shot than you would like. He's. He's continually pushing himself out at that distance. And then what happens is People are like, okay, well I'm going to go for the play that's right now where I can get a shot and something happens or they're, you know, they're kind of at their max range and they go, well now I gotta, I gotta make a shot. And you got a more marginal shot. When the other play, you know, I pulled it out and I'm like, okay, we can get to here. If he gets up, we have that further, you know, that 420 yard shot. If he moves, we'll be able to. But we, if he doesn't get up, we can actually close the gap to three, two, whatever. Like we have, we have the option to move in closer. And so we decided that path because it was the, the path that was for the, the approach for like for when he gets up. But it was the better approach, it was the better gamble. It wasn't going because if the other one it was gonna, it would have been a far shot and more opportunity for that ram to get further away. Whereas if we moved in tighter and he started to walk up the mountain, we still have a good hundred yards of, of shooting and distance to make a really good shot on him before he gets up and over the top. And so thinking about those plays and as far as not necessarily what do, where do I need to get to right now to shoot him where he's at, but having that, the right kind of patience, okay, it's time to move and when it's time to move, you got to get in when you can get in. But then having the right kind of patience of saying, okay, once we get in, we don't have to go to the spot where we can shoot him right now in his bed. It'd be better off to pick the spot where we can shoot him once he gets up because we'll have more options and more opportunity for a really good shot once he gets up. And I think that there's that right kind of patience that thinking about the scenario and saying what's going to happen next and what's the right type of patience play. I think there's also, you know, the opposite where you're, if you're sitting back too far and you're just watching everything unfold, there can be going to continually be out of range, make a move that is disadvantageous to you. So you got to be in the right spot, but then also have the right kind of patience once, once you're within that, that striking zone and picking the right play based on the, the right kind of Patience, if that makes sense. Now, the other thing is, one of the things that I will commend Christie for, for sure, was the patience for the right shot. She was set up. She had a solid rest. The ram popped up. And when that ram jumped up, it was absolutely majestic and absolutely exciting. Right here's the ram. He just jumps up on this rock. It looked like almost slow motion, and he's standing there. Now, she could have gotten the gun real fast and made a shot, but it would have been a rushed shot. The ram was not spooked. But I think that what happens a lot of people, it's like when something happened or he's looking your way, people like this. This rush of adrenaline hits, and then the fear of, like, he's gonna blow out. And we just kept going. Like, Pete has no clue we're here. You have all the time in the world. And she knew it. You know, we talked about it before the ram even moved. He's like, just wait for your shot. Pick your. Pick the right shot. Ram jumps up, he starts feeding, and his head's down, feeding, and he's quartered hard away. A lot of people. I was joking. I was like, myself included, you know, I was like, half of us, half the guys out here would. As soon as that hard quarter shots there, and the rams in scope are going to shoot, and they're either going to shoot through and hit him in the horn, which happens a lot on desert sheep because their horns are big and their bodies are small, or they're going to hit back and make a bad shot. And it's like just having that patience of waiting for that right shot. It felt like forever. But in reviewing the video, you know, time. Time definitely plays tricks on you. When the things are going down, when you're close to an animal, when whatever. You just have to remember that slow it down. And that ram started feeding. He's eating. He's quartered hard away. And she just waited, waited, waited. And that ram popped up on the rock and gave her the absolute perfect broadside shot. Had she rushed it earlier, yeah, she might have got the ram. But also, things could happen. You know, bullet go through, hit the horn, hit it back, have to shoot, like, not the outcome that you want. So the patience in that waiting for the right shot made a big difference on the outcome of. Of how that story went down. I've been on plenty of sheep hunts with people and. Or just any kind of hunt, and in those, like, moments when they can be patient, it's just that that anxiety of it's happening in that just now, now, now, now, now mentality screws a lot of people. I've seen it happen to a lot of people, even people with a lot of experience. And honestly, it's happened to me before where you're like, oh geez, especially with a bow, where you're like, oh man, this is my shot and I'm not going to get another one. But really, if you would have slowed down, analyze the situation and just had the right kind of patience, you probably would have got that better shot or that better opportunity. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes there's those times where I'm not saying every single scenario is the same, but there are those times where you have to act fast. And there are like my wife's goat, it was like this goat is going over the mountain. When it gets up and goes around the corner. It's an act fast scenario. But in one where the animal is just feeding and has no clue you're there. Whatever. It was not an act fast scenario. It was a wait for the perfect shot scenario. And she did an incredible job waiting for that right shot. And when the right shot was presented, she followed through with it and made an incredible shot. And that right there is, you know, a lot of times the difference between the success story and like, oh man, I, I missed the ram or I hit the ram in the horn or, or we made a bad shot and had to chase it down the mountain. All those kind of things, the things that can go wrong when you don't have that right kind of patience. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that story. It's always fun for me, especially in the middle of the season, to be able to come back and, and share kind of the, the things that go on on the mountain and the things that, you know, you kind of notice as they happen during the season and some of those tips and tactics. One of the things that we're going to be moving into a little bit, I want to talk a little bit about some mule deer hunting, some mule deer hunting strategies. And before we get into that too, I'm going to be doing a couple of live wild call in lives. So if you got mule deer hunting questions or even, I mean any hunting questions for the upcoming seasons, maybe you got some November elk seasons, whitetail, whatever it is. We're going to be doing a couple call ins this week. So pay attention to that. I've got in order. People are always like, how do, how do I get in the call in? Just check my Social media, Instagram. I generally put it on the stories, maybe even a post. And then just when the lines open, there's like 30 people can call in. Once you're in, then it kind of randomizes and then issues like an order. And then I go through the order and I've got a whole system for giving away the prize. I've got some really cool prizes for a couple of the call ins, some Roka sunglasses and jet boil system. So some really cool stuff for some of the Collins coming up. So pay attention to those if you guys are interested. And then another thing I want to mention, an awesome supporter of this podcast, Vortex Optics. You know, on. On a hunt like this, where it's all glass, man, I mean, it. It's between binos. I was running the 12 by 50 Razor UHDs, and I just, you know, I go back and forth like, I'm like, yeah, you know, some years I use my tens more, and this year, I swear every hunt's just been, like, dialed for twelves. A lot of open country. And man, those 12s have helped me just turn up stuff that is hard to find. And then just going from that straight into the spotter. I've got my, like, mag view on the back of my spotter so I can pop in the video. And actually, so the shot like this hunt, I forgot to mention this. I was filming as best I could. I never want to impede someone else's hunt with the filming, but it's always fun to have. And as we crawled in, I'm like, it's just dumping rain. We're soaking wet. I'm like, I'm gonna leave the camera and just film everything with my phone and film the shot and everything through the. The Vortex spotter with the Mag View adapter on there. And it looks like. I mean, it looks phenomenal. The footage quality is just great, especially at that range, like 200 yards. I actually, I didn't have it zoomed all the way in, so I got the black circle and I just punched in on the video so it fills the full frame because it was, you know, pretty close. But I didn't want it to. To move out of frame in case I had to move. I didn't want to be sticking my hand up there moving too much. And I could just sit back and watch. I was staring at the screen. I had no perception of where that animal was because I'm just like looking through tight in the spotter. But having good optics is key for a lot of these, these western hunts. And then you know, one of the things that I've been pretty stoked on, the Vortex Razor HD 4000GB rangefinder, which is their Geo ballistics. And like I was saying on. On the last hunt, I mean, it's been so dialed with, you know, you. You essentially just giving you the output for whatever the yardage is. So when I've been shooting my new seven back country, I mean, I was shot after. After they got the sheep, I took my gun out. We were just shooting it and had like some. There's like a cow vertebrae, like bone laying out there at 4. Sorry, it's 500 yards. And just like first shot, center punch. I mean, just like the dope on that has been so dialed for, you know, even with that little bit of different weather and elevation and everything. Just absolutely dialed. We do have those on our website. Man, I don't now. I just looked in. I'm like, hey, we're sold out. But hopefully those come back in stock. It's been. That's been awesome. But if you guys are in the, in the market for looking for any optics, rangefinders, spotters, any Vortex products, I've got them in my store. Remy warren.com. you can check them out there or, or wherever else you get your. Your optics. Got a lot of spotting scopes in there right now, rifle scopes and binoculars. So if you guys are interested in any of that. And then also we've got the tripods, like the radian tripod and other things. Is shooting platforms or just glassing off of. So something to check out. And if you're like, hey, I'm not in the, in the market for that. One of the things that I did have in my pocket was our Live Wild lens cloth cleaner. Because it was dumping rain. She's got the, you know, the scopes getting fogged up and wet. And right before the shot, I just. I reach in my pocket, pull out my lens cloth. I was saving it for a moment, such as this. Hand it to Mike. I'm like, clean it off. And he just like cleans off the lens and there we go. Then it's time. Time to shoot. So we've got those. It's got, you know, spray, a little spray bottle and a. And a lens cloth cleaner. Those are awesome for just keeping your optics clear. Whether it's just cleaning them from the dust and everything like that. It's crazy. Once you clean your glass, you mean generally? I'll do that. I'll be glassing glass and glassing. And I'm like, man, clean it wow. Okay. It's like fresh set of eyes. So get good glass and then keep that glass clean and optimal for looking through or when the weather hits, you know, get the water and the steam and all that stuff off of it. Always have one of those lens cloth cleaners that's a little hot. Tip. Keep, keep the Len. Like I generally have two. One in my bino harness, one in my pocket and the one in my pocket is for like only just before I shoot, keep it dry and in case I gotta clear off the rifle scope because it, it makes a big difference having a good field of view and being able to see really well through that rifle scope. And then the final thing that I want to mention, if you guys are into some awesome logo wear, my Day six Arrow company we've got some incredible new hats and shirts available. They're going quick, they're going, they're selling like hotcakes I guess, which is good. But we've got the Day six. We call it the heavy hat. It kind of looks like a Coors original banquet hat says Day six. And then we've got one the, the buck and buffalo hat which is awesome. Some really cool shirts like an elk packout shirt and some other logo wear like that. So if you guys want to rep some of the Day six gear, it's, it's available. We got some on our site, some really cool new logo wear and stuff like that. Also if you're gearing up for a late season bow hunt or any bow hunt, our Evo broadheads we've got fully stocked up. We've been cranking on components and building and fletching and getting arrows out to try to get our lead times down. I mean these are fully hand built custom arrows. The toughest arrows out there, the best components, the best design and strongest broadheads. So if you guys are interested in some of that stuff, day6gear.com go check it out. It always, always helps us. And you know, thank you guys so much for all the support over the years through Day 6 Company, our store@remymorren.com and just like the support of the podcast, I, I noticed too on Spotify some great comments on some of the past podcasts. So thank you guys. That always means a lot. I know on some of these podcasts now you can drop comments and stuff like that on there, whatever ratings and all that stuff. So that always helps and we appreciate it. I'm just gonna say until next week, Ram Jam on, we'll catch you guys later.