I could see 3 of the six rams we were stalking. Then my son said, "There's the Big One to the right, he's so heavy." It started at FNAW's National Convention in 2006 when I sat next to Dennis Pahlisch of Bend, Oregon and watched him become the successful bidder on a Viscano's Biosphere Sheep Hunt in Baja Sur, Mexico. This would be his grand slam ram.

Later that day, I purchased the Idaho Governor's tag to complete my ¾ slam, Dennis and Colorado Outfitter, Scott Limmer, who Dennis and I have hunted with for years decided to try for another Biosphere tag in Minnesota for Scott's grand slam ram.

The following months brought many suggestions that I should purchase the final available Biosphere tag that would be auctioned at Oregon FNAW's Banquet. The thoughts of going together, as a 3 hunter group, to enjoy the hunt of a lifetime and hopefully all 3 of us, take a good ram, finally took it's toll on my self control and I purchased the tag.

My son came on the hunt to video the adventure and National Geographic sent a photographer, Bill Allard, to Document the hunt. National Geographic had been working on a story about hunting and what sportsmen do for wildlife conservation. This hunt would be a chance to see what FNAW's has done to help with putting sheep on the mountain of Mexico.

A wonderful base camp with comfortable cabins and dining hall faded in the distance as we rode mules into the mountains within the Biosphere most of the terrain is roadless and is truly a desert wilderness. We spike camped in a small valley and sheep were within a few hours climb on foot.
The second day of our hunt we spotted some rams that deserved a closer look. At approximately 1,000 yards the rams gave us a show and I decided the old broomed ram would be a trophy I would admire for the rest of my life.

We made the stalk, but the rams had dropped off the cliffs down the slope to feed. It took an hour to find them in the rough terrain and that brings us to the point of spotting the heavy ram. I set-up for the shot on a rock ledge. The range was 240 yards, but pretty much straight down. I had shot over my stone sheep on my first shop years ago and remembered to hold under him about 6 inches in line with his shoulder. The shot was perfect. His bases were 15 4/8 inches.
I'd left Dennis and Scott on top of the ridge, and they had moved into a position to watch the final approach and the shot. They actually saw the shot through the spotting scope. They joined us at the ram for pictures and celebration.

It was a long, late evening climb out, the bottom to another mountain and back to a trail that would allow the burrows to meet us and pack out the animal the last few miles.

It was an amazing feeling, sitting next to my ram looking at my son, and good friends with the Sea of Cortz in the background. The actual accomplishment of taking all 4 North American Wild Sheep has been self-rewarding. Reconfirming that dreams can come true.
On the sixth day I videotaped Scott taking his ram after an 8 hour stalk. A 200-yard shot brought the reality of a grand slam to Scott. Scott's ram is 170-172 B+C depending on the final measure due to a large chip in on horn.

Dennis had split off to hunt the cliffs at the end of the ridges as they drop into the sea of Cortez. They found a great ram in a large group of rams with ewes. After days of searching, spiked out with backpack provisions, he found a ram he wanted. Rob Wiley Outfitter from Wyoming videotaped the find approach. Dennis stayed calm until after the ram was down, but he let it all out after that. His ram, 177+ BC was only 200 feet above sea level. He'd hunted from the 3500 feet peak down to the sea's shoreline. We met him before dark packing out the ram, I took of picture of his footprints in the wet sand in the surf.

Baja, Mexico gave us each a special reward. Sheep hunting is different to everyone. The one thing in common for us, was to share it together which made it 3 times as good.