There, the scope of the panorama about us was fascinating. From miles away we could see occasional fluffy cumulus clouds building as they floated over the tawny desert. Then the dark, slanting columns of rain would march along under them, usually evaporating short of the scorching earth.
Red and I worked around the peak then, onto a ridge that ran above a big canyon. We soon picked up some very fresh sheep tracks, running along a bench toward the canyon bottom. Some were made by good-sized rams, and our excitement mounted rapidly.
We had followed them but a few yards when Red clutched my arm and whispered hoarsely, “Mira, mira!” (Look!)
He was pointing across the canyon. Following his arm, I saw a line of six rams moving to our right along the opposite canyon wall! They were heading for a notch in the rim close ahead of them.
Quickly, I slipped my arm through the gun sling and dropped prone. The range looked to be about 275 yards. But as I settled down to pick them up in the 4-power Noske scope, the sheep took alarm. They started running, raced through the cleft and disappeared.
Just as I started to scramble to my feet in chagrin, a magnificent ram, evidently the leader, ran up onto a skyline crag across the canyon. There on that rocky turret he poised, quartering toward us, curling horns lifted high, as he searched for the danger. This was such an absolute storybook climax to end the hunt that I am really embarrassed to tell it, but that’s just the way it happened, so help me!
It was the picture and the shot of which every hunter dreams. Now, 50 years and many sheep later, I can still see that poised ram in the hot sunlight. How many dry practice shots had I snapped before the trip at a miniature target of just such a ram!
Automatically, then, the cross hairs settled on the top of his shoulder, the finger squeezed. At the rifle’s crash, the ram collapsed and pitched off the cliff dead, struck down by a 150-grain thunderbolt.
Red and I joyfully shouted and embraced, then hurriedly scaled down the canyon walls, and up again to reach our trophy. After the sheep was skinned out, a fiendish trip in the afternoon heat lay before us to get the trophy back to camp. We needed some of the meat badly, too, and cut a loin from the ram. It grieved us to be able to handle no more, but a 40-pound head and cape with the meat, rifle, and canteens was a grueling load in the deadly heat, and we had no way to keep the meat.
The canyon seemed infinitely steeper as we started back. By the time we traversed its steep slopes again, worked back around the mountain and down its crumbling walls, we were both at the point of complete prostration. Our canteens were long dry, but throughout the day I had doggedly clung to a quart can of grapefruit juice.
We reeled to the base of the mountain and collapsed under a sparse greasewood bush. Red seemed as done as I. It was a while before we could collect our senses enough to get the can of juice opened. The thought of its contents was about all that had sustained me going down the mountain. That warm, sticky fluid was the most Olympian nectar ever sipped by man, I know. It revived us enough for the final haul over the desert to camp. There, sheep meat and the elation of success eased our exhaustion.
The trip back to Ajo was made without incident. Jack’s hunt is a story of its own, but as we sped over the highway back to Tucson, we marveled at the physical toughening that climbing gives. Going past a small, rugged mountain a couple of thousand feet high, Jack said, “I wish I had one of those in my back yard, just to run over before breakfast every morning!”
About the Author
Craig Boddington was born and raised in Kansas, where his early big-game experience, in the mid-1960s, included pronghorn and mule deer in Wyoming, whitetail and mule deer in Kansas, and mule deer in Colorado. When not involved with hunting and shooting, much of his early years were spent in Boy Scout activities. At 14 he became an Eagle Scout, at 16 received a Silver Palm on his Eagle, and at 17 was the youngest person to become Activities Director at his regional Boy Scout camp. A member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, he attended the University of Kansas on an NROTC scholarship, graduating with an English degree and a regular commission in the United States Marine Corps.
His outdoor writing career began in college and continued while on active duty. In 1979 he joined Petersen Publishing Company, where he served as Associate Editor, GUNS & AMMO magazine; Editor, GUNS & AMMO Specialty Publications; Executive Editor, Petersen’s HUNTING Magazine; and from 1983 to 1994 Editor of Petersen’s HUNTING Magazine. His current position with InterMedia (former Petersen’s and Primedia) is Executive Field Editor of InterMedia Outdoors, including GUNS & AMMO, Petersen’s HUNTING, and RIFLESHOOTER.
Craig is a professional member of Boone and Crockett Club; Wild Sheep Foundation; Professional Outdoor Media Association. Past President, Board of Governors, Los Angeles Chapter Safari Club International; Life Member, National Rifle Association; Life Member, Safari Club International; Life Member, Dallas Safari Club; Life Member, Houston Safari Club; Honorary Life Member, Campfire Club of America; Honorary Life Member, African Safari Club of Florida; Life Member, Grand National Quail Club Past Shooters Council.
Craig and his wife, Donna, divide their time between the California central coast and a small farm in Kansas.
Visit Craigboddington.com for more information.
Copyright Notice
Fair Chase in North America
First Edition 2004
Digital Edition 2012
Copyright © 2004 by the Boone and Crockett Club. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Boone and Crockett Club.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004104575
Print ISBN Number: 0-940864-47-9
E-ISBN Number: 978-0-940864-83-2
Published in the United States of America by the
Boone and Crockett Club
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www.booneandcrockettclub.com
About the Boone and Crockett Club
The Boone and Crockett Club was founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt and a small group of his friends. It is one of our nation’s first conservation organizations. Early members — such as naturalist George Bird Grinnell, artist Albert Bierstadt, author Owen Wister, forester and governor Gifford Pinchot, and ecologist Aldo Leopold — helped shape the course of conservation in America. The Club’s earliest achievements — protection of Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, establishment of federal forest reserves, which became the National Forest System, support of national and state wildlife refuges, and the framing of wildlife protection laws — are monuments to that legacy. The Club now promotes conservation and outdoor ethics; supports wildlife research, education, and management; and maintains records of North America’s big game animals taken in fair chase.
To stimulate private sector leadership on wildlife research, education, and management, the Club, in 1986, purchased a working ranch in prime wildlife habitat along Dupuyer Creek on the East Front of the Montana Rockies. The mission of the ranch, known as the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch, is research and demonstration of wildlife conservation that is integral to the economic viability of private and adjoining public lands. In 1991, the Club endowed the Boone and Crockett Professor’s Chair in Wildlife Conservation at The University of Montana to direct the Club’s conservation program.
In 2001, the Boone and Crockett Club established the Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center for Education, Research, and Demonstration at the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch. The new facility is the headquarters for the Lee and Penny Anderson Conservation Education Program. The Program’s vision is for citizens to treasure our shared natural and cultural heritage and advocate for diverse wildlife, fair chase hunting, and well-informed natural resource management to sustain their quality of life.
Dedicated to the premise that protection, careful management, and shared uses of natural resources can achieve desired social, economic, and environmental conditions without unnecessary waste or depletion, the Boone and Crockett Club promotes conservation of all resources, especially in places where wildlife tie the land together and define the character of ecosystems.
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The Club released its first publication—American Big Game Hunting—in 1893. Since then, we’ve released dozens of titles ranging from records books to journals of adventure and exploration in North America. In 2011, the Club brought the tradition of outdoor adventure into the digital era.
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