Return of the Ram Hunting Article

Return of the Ram! Hunting Article

by Glenn Dee Summers Bighorn Sheep

With the help of good game management and financial backing from the hunting fraternity, bighorn sheep are once again thriving in the Deschutes canyon.

Lying on a shelf and peering through 8-power binoculars, I had a close-up view of two small rams as they lay in the shade of an overhang chewing their cud mere inches from a 2,500-foot drop to the Deschutes River.

On the next ridge closer to the river, a dozen ewes and eight lambs grazed or lay bedded next to the nearly vertical slope. Day after day I watched rams, eventually employing a 30-power spotting scope. I was scouting the Deschutes River canyon for a friend and client who had drawn a coveted sheep tag for the area. That the sheep were even there is a testament to modern game management.

When the Europeans arrived in Oregon, California bighorn sheep lived in most of eastern Oregon, and Rocky Mountain bighorns populated the state's northeast corner. Wild sheep disappeared from the Deschutes canyon shortly after the pioneers appeared and were gone from the state by 1945, victims of diseases from domestic livestock and uncontrolled hunting.

Read the entire article Return Of The Ram! at Washington-Oregon Game and Fish Magazine.

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