Of all the various species available in North America,

arguably the most coveted is a desert bighorn.

And there's a few reasons for that.

They're just an enchanting animal all on their own. And then they're rare.

The opportunity to hunt them, I should say, is rare. The species itself used to be pretty prolific. A lot of the

Onisauzy artwork on cliffs and so forth from history shows as many desert

big horn sheep as it does, for instance, deer.

So presumably back in the day, they were quite plentiful.

Unfortunately, they're susceptible to diseases born by

domestic sheep and so the settlers coming out and hunting a lot of them and bringing their domestic sheep into the

wild sheep's range put a number on them.

And the numbers decline rapidly and drastically and a lot of serious conservation efforts brought them back and there are a lot of stable populations now,

but they're still a sensitive animal.

You won't find them for the most part,

living near populations.

Now, man, I'm excited about our conversation today. I'm sitting down in a beautiful trophy room or den,

whatever you prefer with two very good friends.

Colton Heward, who you all know from this podcast and his scouting and navigating

segment, and his father Gary, who was fortunate enough to draw a desert bighorn sheep tag in Nevada this past fall and we're here to hear that story.

Welcome to the show today guys.

Thanks.

Thanks Joseph. Good to be here. Oh it's a pleasure to have you. Now how long did you put in for that tag before you drew it?

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