News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters Police Officer Alan Borland got the chance of a lifetime last week - a shot at a California Bighorn sheep. Borland made good on his chance, taking a mature Bighorn ram with a 200-yard shot on his fifth day of hunting, September 17.
It was literally a once-in-a-lifetime shot. Oregon hunters who are lucky enough to draw a Bighorn tag can never get one again.
Borland hunted in the Poker Jim No. Three unit in the Eastern Oregon desert on the Hart Mountain National Antelope refuge - and he did it the hard way. Hunting by himself, with no guide, Borland scouted the region's rocky cliffs for three days without seeing any sheep.
Then he decided to descend to the desert floor.
"I got to thinking, there's water down there, why would the animals stay up there (on the rocks) where there's no water," Borland said.
Actually, Bighorn sheep can go a long, long time without a drink, getting their moisture from the dew where they graze.
But it turned out that Borland was right. On the evening of his fourth day of hunting, he spotted his ram.
"I stalked him... but he'd bedded down and I couldn't get a good shot at him," Borland said.
Stalking a Bighorn sheep is a painstaking chore. The animals have keen eyesight, so the only way to approach to a range Borland felt comfortable shooting from was to crawl.
The hunter returned to the area early the next morning and began his slow and careful stalk. It took him an hour to crawl and inch into shooting position.
When he got to within about 200 yards, Borland eased into a seated position and fired his .300 Winchester Magnum Browning A-bolt rifle from a stable bipod rest.
Borland's ram scored 147-4/8 Boone and Crockett points - an average sized sheep, but a once-in-a-lifetime trophy for the Sisters hunter.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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