“But I’ve always wanted one of those!” I whimper-whispered to my long-suffering wife. “To paraphrase Princess Lea about Han Solo, that is one scruffy, nerf herder you want!” Frances whispered back with an understandably incredulous tone. I had to admit that she wasn’t wrong in that the obviously ancient ram had long, matted wool almost dragging on the ground from sides and neck. Through my Binocular-Rangefinder it appeared that sticks, grass and a fair amount of dirt had taken up residence in the wool. But, to me, the color of that messy mass more than made up for its nastiness. The ram’s deep chocolate with black highlights captured my attention as soon as he and his six companions jogged into the food plot on the Choctaw Hunting Lodge property. Studying him closer I noticed that both horns went way past a full curl ending in a flair, with the right broomed off about an inch suggesting he was ‘right-handed’.

The CHL land consisted of twenty-two thousand acres owned by the Choctaw Nation and operated by Dusty and Nacolh Vickery. The beauty of the landscape and the generosity of the managers and staff made our stay incredibly relaxing. We’d spent our first three days in elevated blinds at sunrise and sunset, watching the beautiful western sky I miss so much when in my adopted state of Georgia. During mid-day hours, we wandered the property, rattling for whitetails and calling for predators with Mr. Whitetail himself. Those stand sessions, and the rambles with Larry Weishuhn, resulted in three whitetails in the cold room, all taken with a Hornady 175-grain ELD-X bullet, using a Seekins Precision-HAVAK Rifle chambered in 7mm Remington Magnum and topped with a Stealth Vision 5–30x56 Illuminated riflescope. I’ll cover those adventures in an upcoming Hornady blog. For now, let’s return to that ‘stunning’ ram.

The seven rams made their appearance with only 45 minutes of legal shooting time left. By the time I wore Frances down — or as I like to think about it, proved how lovely the ram was — the sun had set some 15 minutes previously. To put it mildly, it was dark, with the moonless sky not helping a bit. Also, during the previous ‘discussion’ with Frances, the rams worked their way out to about 85-yards, grazing in the food plot’s stand of native rye grass. When the old, beautiful-in-my-eyes, Ovis aries ram finally turned to the right, giving a broadside presentation, the red illuminated numbers of my Rangefinder read 87-yards. The clarity of the Stealth Vision riflescope, and its illuminated reticle were crucial for precise shot placement in the near dark conditions.

I already knew the incredible accuracy afforded by the combination of the ELD-X bullet and Seekins rifle. The ram froze at the rifle’s report, stumbling backwards five feet and tumbling over a few seconds later. Though I chambered another round, I could see through the riflescope that there was no movement at all coming from the fallen animal. I gave a whoop that bounced around the interior of the elevated blind, high-fived Frances, quickly heading down the stand’s ladder and toward the ram for shooting photographs and a video.

There is an ironic afterword for this story. That evening, back at the Choctaw Hunting Lodge’s…lodge, we drank our sundowners while watching our guides Drake, Terry and Austin field dress the ram. Frances pursed her lips and spoke quietly, almost as if to herself, “Hmmm, you know, for a shoulder mount, you’re leaving behind all that thick wool on the back half of the skin.” I looked at her and grinned. “You want to cut the wool off the back skin, don’t you?” She took another sip of her drink and spoke with amazing consistency, “After all, he is a beautiful animal, with a lovely color.” Two days later, as we climbed aboard our flight to Atlanta, a large bag of stick and grass-filled wool accompanied us.

— — —

Author profile

Mike Arnold is professor and Head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia and author of the 2022 book, BRINGING BACK THE LIONS: International Hunters, Local Tribespeople, and the Miraculous Rescue of a Doomed Ecosystem in Mozambique. Mike’s book is available for purchase now at bringingbackthelions.com. You can find a description of Mike’s travels, talks, and articles at mikearnoldoutdoors.com.