This year’s desert sheep season in the White Mountains is now officially over. The season closed Sunday September 25th. There were a total of four tag holders in the Whites this year. Three of the four hunters harvested rams. Dry Creek Outfitters had the pleasure of guiding two of those hunters.
Our first hunter was Mike Hill from Arroyo Grande, CA. Mike and his friend Tom arrived at camp the day before the season started. Guide Clay Gibert came into camp in time for the opener as well. Cliff and I had already been scouting for a number of days and had a group of rams located. Opening morning the crew spread out to try to re-locate the rams. By 7:30 am Cliff and Mike were on the rams which were bedded on a talus slope at 650 yards, a little too far to shoot in our opinion. There were five rams in the group, two of which were shooters. . We were hoping the rams would get up soon and feed into the canyon so we could close the distance. Wrong! Nine hours later they finally got up and started feeding. Cliff and Mike hustled into position. The rams fed into sight with the ram we wanted at a distance of 140 yards. One well placed shot from Mike's 270 and the first ram of the 2011/2012 California desert sheep hunting season was down. Congratulations Mike! You can read Mike's published story in our "great reads".
Our second hunter was Bill Hays of Salinas, CA. Bill booked his hunt with us after trying the hunt on his own with no success. Cliff and I, along with guides Clay Gibert and Jason Lyman, were able to locate a nice ram on day two of the hunt. We had seen a number of predators in the area and we sensed the rams were nervous and could tell they weren't going to stay put very long. It was a grueling stalk at 12,000' elevation to try to get into shooting position before the rams moved out. 354 yards was as close as we could get but Bill made a great shot with his 7mm mag. Great shooting Bill! The largest ram of the season in the White's was now on the ground. The ram scored 163 5/8 and was nine years old. Now it was time for photos and the "pack out". 
We are now gearing up for the desert hunts. We have a full schedule ahead of us and will officially begin in November 
and end the first part of February. This month the whole crew will be busy out on the mountain scouting. With two new units, there's a lot of country to look over. We're excited about the possibilities as we've already seen some very nice rams this year.
We have a great group of hunters again this year and are looking forward to the new friendships that develop when you share a hunt this special!