by Kai Jahnsen

Jim Doering is an 80-year-old with a rebuilt hip, one rebuilt knee, 5 titanium discs in his back, along with other health issues. Even with all that, he’s a huntin’ stud. During the warm months every chance he gets he’s out on the water, in his 1970 tri-hull boat that he rigged up with a 4-foot stand on the bow, shooting carp with his bow and arrow. He is one of those guys that is the definition of the term “Die Hard”. Jim has been putting in for the California Desert Big Horn Sheep hunt since the drawing started in the early 80s.

When the 2019/2020 application season began, Jim put in for the drawing just like every year. This time he got it! Jim called me up and told me that he had been drawn. It was one of those “bucket list” things. He told me that he had booked his hunt with Dry Creek Outfitters, and that he was able to take ONE person along on the hunt with him for free. Jim asked if I wanted to go with him to be that person. I was SO EXCITED to be able to share this “once in a lifetime” hunt with him.

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by Jodi Hanggi

The early morning hours of June 12, 2019, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife email, read “big game draw results available, find out if you drew that tag of a lifetime. So tapping the “see results now and entering all the necessary GOID numbers and so on I continued on down to the results list. Knowing I had maximum points for Elk, and Sheep I figured I had the best chance at the Elk tag but always optimistic that my number would someday come up for the California Desert Bighorn. So, the first results that came up on the list was Bighorn Sheep and beside the “did I win” column was the “Y” and I just about went through the ceiling when that came over. I had to have my wife double check the “Y” to make sure that it was for real, she said yep to the “Y”. I had applied for Zone 507, White Mountains. With the extra 3 tags available this year for a total of 6 for the zone I thought I would have better odds of drawing the Whites. The other reason for the 507 Zone application is that it is August and is easier to get away than in December or January as I am a Citrus Grower in Tulare County and constantly monitoring nighttime temperatures throughout the winter months. During the next few hours I started to text my hunting buddies and calling family members about the great news. One of those texts went to my cousin and long-time friend and hunting partner, Kirk Stiltz. Kirk is one of the Guides/Sheep spotters for Dry Creek Outfitters which is based out of our hometown of Three Rivers, California.

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by Kevin Townsend
California Wild Sheep - December 2017

I didn't have high hopes for 2017 based on how it started but it did get much better as the year moved along. Early in the year my best friend Brian Barton left work with what he thought was the flu. In a few short weeks he lost his life to complications from a very common virus that almost all of us carry. We grew up together, went to school, played sports, hunted and fished together for almost our entire lives, he was like one of my brothers. A few months later I was blessed with a beautiful granddaughter. Life begins and life ends, sounds simple but it sure makes you think.

One thing I kept thinking of was Brian's plan to take his two sons fishing in Alaska but time for my friend ran out much quicker than anyone ever expected. When the time came to apply for my 2017 hunts Brian was definitely on my mind. I would be 60 years old by the end of 2017 so I made the decision to stop applying for hard to draw hunts and start burning points while I still had my health.

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by Jim McIsaac
California Wild Sheep - Spring 2017

Opening my e-mail last April, I wondered what New Mexico Game and Fish was sending me. All I saw was congratulations, successful, and bhs. BHS! THAT'S BIGHORN SHEEP! I logged onto their website and sure enough there was my tag. After telling my wife, Sue, and calling good friend Gary, I sent out a "you ain't going to believe this e-mail" to family and friends.

A week later I was contacted by Gilbert Villegas, the biologist for the White Sands missile range, where the hunt would take place. I would be allowed three people to help me, and we were all required to have background checks before entering the base. Good friend and fellow sheep hunter Gary Bordessa was my first choice. My next choice was another group of fellow sheep hunters. In 2009 I hunted with Dry Creek Outfitters in Southern California. I've since been back with them helping glass for some of their hunts. They were itching to go along on my hunt. At one point 

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by Michelle Corder
California Wild Sheep - Spring 2017

"You drew the Bighorn Sheep tag!" my husband hollered on the other end of the phone. "Ok," 

I replied, puzzled by his excitement, "That's
good, right?"

As the news spread like wildfire through our small Northern California town, I quickly learned that yes, it was a very good thing; most hunters we knew had been putting in for years to be drawn for this hunt. I hit the hunting lottery - there were only three tags available in my unit, and just seventeen issued in all of California in 2016. In every conversation those first few weeks, my husband, Travis, would open with, "Michelle drew a Bighorn Sheep Tag in the Marble/Clippers!" Surprised smiles often turned stiff however, when they learned that I drew the tag with zero points.

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