New Mexico Barbary Sheep Hunting Free Range

Posted by John Stallone on 07/25/2017 in Western Big Game | Leave a comment

New Mexico Free Range Barbary Sheep Hunting: John Stallone

I had waited 7 years to draw a free range Barbary sheep tag in New Mexico, so when I finally drew the tag I knew that I didn’t want to squander the opportunity. Plus This hunt takes place in February and my construction business gets extremely busy in the spring so I know I didn’t have the time to dedicate to properly execute this hunt. So I contacted my friends over at Kiowa hunting services to see if they could help me on the hunt. My buddy Grant Hottman also drew the tag and was up for the task. Grant had been guiding for Barbary sheep here in NM for the last few seasons under one of the best Barbary sheep guides in the business Rand French who grew up there in Roswell.

Well trip planned and tag in hand I made my way to New Mexico to start my Barbary Sheep hunt. Driving in we were in whiteout conditions most of the way,  driving at snails crawl for a lot of it. When we finally made it to Grant although there was no snow it was  cold and extremely windy which made it very difficult to glass. By the end of the first afternoon I was finding it very hard to see with all the dirt in my eyes. Day two was more of the same 30-60mph winds  just beat us down and not having laid eye on a sheep yet I was stating to wonder if 3.5 days was gonna be enough to get it done.

Day 3 showed promise it was the coldest day but the wind was substantially less and I had a good feeling about the new terrain we got into. After a few mile hike in the dark we made it to our first glassing point for the morning. It didn’t take long for Grant to turn up a band of Rams off in the distance. We made a quick plan to leap frog our way to the rams because they were so far I didn’t want to risk losing sight of them.

After a few hour stalk I found my self out of cover 585 yards away setting up for the shot. I got set up and waited for him to feed broadside and made an incredible shot. The work was not over we had to get him quartered up and packed out 7 miles back to truck. all in all it was an amazing experience and I recommend it to anyone looking for a great hunting experience.