Y2K Grand Slam Rams




It always seems that hunting season is never long enough! I guess I realized that it is even shorter when you only get a limited period of time off to do such. 1999 was a year full of surprises. I got to return to Michigan, take two nice bucks and got a surprise of the super buck that I lost the year before.


All together that was enough to make the 1999 season a great one. As my final days of my vacation slowly clicked away, I spent as much time as I could fishing and hunting pigs, yet I was a bit put out that I could not get out to hunt Utah for a mountain lion hunt.


The wife had planned a trip for the family and in-laws to go down to Universal studio’s, after the New Years, but I was not as excited about that as I would have if I were taking another hunting trip. The week before we were to leave I got a Happy Holidays card from the president of the Orange County Safari Club International Chapter. One the front of the card was a huge Corsican ram that he had taken. Well, I guess I can not say I wanted to keep up with the Jones’s, but this sparked an idea that ended up as a great and different type hunt for exotic rams!


I had often thought about hunting exotics, but never placed it on the top of my hunting list. However here I was faced with the choice of taking a trip with the in-laws to see props from movies or hit the woods again. Unlike my wife, I did not see this as a tough decision to make. I would let them have a blast, while I headed out to another old hunting camp with early mornings and late evenings. Man, they would get to have fun while I would be humping the bush. At least that is how I sold them on the idea.

I had spoken with the owner of the ranch on a few occasions and decided I would finally pay him a visit. I called him and told him what my interest were in a Texas Dall and Corsican rams. He told me that I was in luck and he had some nice Corsican’s and some decent Dalls along with a few other rams hybrids. I told him I would head out that night and be in camp by mid day. As the wife packed the bags for universal, I packed my bags for camp and hit the highway.

Following the directions on a map I drew on the back of an envelope, I soon found myself at the gate. I followed the directions and followed the dirt road for a little over a mile only stopping a few times to let a few young red stags cross. As I pulled into the old cabin, I was met by the owner Mike Carter. He and two other guides were finishing up on some ranch work and headed inside for lunch. I was not hungry, and went ahead and started to unload my gear into the bunkroom. During the lunch, Mike told me I had a choice. I could hunt safari style, or from a shoot house. I said I would try both ways and see what was most productive.


After finishing lunch, he told me to grab my gear and we would ride around the property. I did not even bother to put on my camouflage, grabbed the 7 MM, binoculars and off we went. Throughout the tour of his 3000 acre property I saw an abundance of game. Red stag, Sika deer, fallow deer, Aoudads and a few white-tail. However my interest were rams.


We headed off to a pine thicket area on the property and slowly eased around the fire breaks, stopping to glass from time to time. I glassed four Corsicans and decided that the leading one was definitely a shooter. I eased out of the jeep and stalked through the pine thicket to attempt to cut off the rams. I stopped a few times to try to get a look at them, but the tall grass blocked my view. I continued to the area on the side of a small hill to where the rams were headed, but still no sign. I decided to head to the top of the hill to get a better look and as I topped the hill less than 100 yards away I could see all four. I took a prone position and evaluated each one to determine which one I wanted. I finally decided on a smaller horned ram with a beautiful color. I placed the cross hairs in the sweet spot, squeezed the hair trigger as the last of my breath left my body and fired. I was amazed to watch them bolt and run looking untouched.


“Damn, I could not have missed,” I thought to myself. I tried to figure where they ran, but the thick grass between the pines made visibility impossible. Mike cranked up his jeep and headed to the area on the other side of the hill. I walked to where I last saw the ram and my mind was at ease. The ram had left a trail so thick that my pants were covered in blood from following it for the 20 yards that it ran before dropping. Man, a straight through “The boiler room” shot and he kept going. I had to respect this old boy, as he was indeed tough. I had finally taken my first Corsican ram “American Safari Style”


We took a few pictures and headed back to camp where Terry, one of his guides started to cape him out. I was surprised at the quality of the meat. I had eaten goat on the BBQ before, but this looked like my first time to try ram. Mike decided that there was no need to waste the rest of the day. He wanted me to see more of his place and cull a few of the feral meat hogs he had wanted to eliminate. He had put pure black Russian hogs on the property and did not want to get cross breeding started. As we headed down one of the tram roads, a small pig ran across the road into a thicket. I could see where he had stopped and told Mike to stop the truck. I braced the 7MM across the hood, fired and dropped him on the spot. Having taken many feral pigs, I was amazed to see such a small pig with large tusk. I have taken some pigs in the Savannah River that went well over 250 that did not have the cutters that this little fellow had. It looked like Terry had another skinning job on his hands.

I must admit, the cabin was very comfortable. 2 bunk rooms with 6 bunks each, two private bathrooms, a huge kitchen with an adjoining den. After a great steak dinner, we scanned the satellite to watch some hunting shows. After a hot shower, I turned in to a comfortable bed as Mike and the guides headed out to a second separate lodge that they use as their private bunkhouse.



As I had decided that I wanted to try the safari style hunt again, we decided to eat a wonderful country style breakfast with elk sausage and wait until 0700 before heading out. The morning was comfortably warm and we got back into the jeep for day two. Although we spotted an abundance of game, the black Hawaiian and dall rams seemed to know that they were on the “hit list” and stayed in the thick brush. After riding and glassing, we decided to try a different section of the ranch. As went to leave, three black rams darted across the road and into the thick brush. Mike turned the jeep around to take a cut off road to try to intercept the rams. We headed about 300 yards and cut off the jeep. Mike instructed me to follow the firebreak and look down the rows to try to spot them. After stalking slowly I could see movement in the thick sage.


I glassed the spot and watched as the rams cautiously eased along looking behind them from time to time. I sat patiently waiting for a chance to see all of the rams in the trio. As I continued to watch they eased onto the firebreak in a “pecking order” The youngest in the front, followed by the two elders. I watched the back two and could not see much of a difference in their horn curls. As the middle ram looked towards the other direction, I could see that part of his left curl had been broken off in a stand of. I watched the last ram as he stepped onto the fire break and took time to consider if this was the one I wanted or if I should wait to see the others on the ranch. After watching him, I decided a bird in the hand is better one in the bush. After all he was indeed a super looking black Hawaiian. Again, the 7MM bolt tail was on its way and the ram staggered sideways falling into the brush he had stepped out of.




The other rams headed for high ground. I heard the jeep crank up and head my direction. Mike looked on and said “ he may not be the biggest on the ranch, but he is one of the nicer looking ones.” Looking at the back of his head, I could see scars from wounds where he had been in more than one butting contest. Least to say I was happy and off to the skinning shed we headed.


I had yet to locate the dall that I badly wanted. One the way to pick up Terry, who was working on some shoot houses and feeders, we went into an open area of the ranch. Glassing the area, I could see seven nice Aoudads grazing some 400 yards away in the middle of a clear cut. I could see that each of them would indeed make a super trophy. However, Mike wanted to save them as breeding stock to try to get them into his game management plan. I was ready to pull the 7MM out again, but I could understand his position and respected the fact that he wanted to keep a decent herd.


We headed in for lunch and talk some more on the topic of game ranches. Mike told me about what type of investment it would take to get a fully operational ranch such as his running. In all honesty, he makes more from the timber and sell of pine straw than he does with hunting. However as this is a passion of his and he makes enough to continue to support and run a properly managed ranch. (Although he admits that if he had to start from just the land, he would invest in something more financially beneficial.

It has been a dream of mine to own my own ranch of this type and after all I would not be in it for the money as much as the love of hunting and game management. It takes a lot of hard work, long hours and dedication. I guess it is a labor of love for most of those who do such on this size and larger ranches. For me this was not just a hunt, but a short course in game ranching 101. A true learning experience, that gave me additional insight on the start up and running of such a place that I one day dream of owning. After lunch, I decided that I was not leaving until I took a dall ram. Again, we started out glassing the landscape and brush for the white ram that I had come to this place for. I was starting to see many nice fallow bucks, like the one below and was seriously considering hunting one of these, but I figure since I did not see a SCI Gold class, I could wait for a trip to either New Zealand or return in 2001.





Finally after 3 hours of riding and glassing, I saw a hint of white in a oak thicket. Upon further investigation it was a lone dall grazing inside a thicket. Mike and I evaluated the ram and he said the choice was mine. I could hold out to see if we could find one bigger, or try to bag this one. During our discussion, a second and third dall stepped out of the thicker brush. I guess we had finally found them.

We glassed each one and I could not tell a great difference in the three. I was looking not only for a nice curl that passed the eyes, but a solid white coat. We decided to stalk up closer to get a better look. Keeping the wind to our face, we eased along the sage and gall berry brush to get 75 yards from the rams. Just like the others they had a pecking order. I then spotted a larger horned ram 10 yards behind the first three. Man, what a time for a decision. I decided that the third ram was not the largest in horns, but had the snow white look and curls past the eyes that I was looking for. Again for the fourth time, the 7MM did its job and laid him out flat.



I approached my downed trophy and was impressed with this super trophy. Regardless of the size or score, the hunt alone made these super trophies. We headed back to camp where Mike capped out the ram and put the meat into the walk in cooler. We settled in for a final evenings dinner and talked about the hunting business.

I hope I will not be misunderstood, but with the war against hunting, lack of access to private lands and over crowded game management areas. I see that hunting in the future may be limited to either owning your own land, taking a chance on crowded public lands, hunting out west or the far north or hunting private ranches such as these.

I hope it does not come down to this, but it amazes me to return to the States each year and have a tough time finding a place to hunt. I can remember not so long ago, all you had to do was ask a local farmer for access and you could hunt. Unfortunately it is not like this in many places and people such as myself are limited to either hunting with guides in remote areas or ranch hunting. For me this is sometimes my only option, as I do not own a huge farm or have the chance to spend time looking for a hunting spot back in the States.

I have been very impressed with operations like this and would never consider these as a canned hunt. These animals are normally born on or introduced into the area and learn the habitat rather quickly. Like any other game animal, they know when hunting season starts and when hunters are in their territory.

In closing this story, I would like to thank Mike Carter for allowing me to visit his place and I look forward to returning with my family. He indeed has a very nice operation and facilities. He also prides his operation in the fact that he caters to young and physically challenged hunters. The food was great and lodging very comfortable.

I will return again and if you would like to contact Mike check out his place on the web by clicking below.

Happy Hunting.








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