Rhett Goolsbey is a younger, hard-working ranch child from Powell, Wyoming. He performs soccer, wrestles, and is a 4H member. And he’s now the youngest hunter in Wyoming historical past to kill a bighorn sheep. Rhett harvested the ram alongside his dad Invoice after drawing a lottery tag.
“He’s solely within the 7th grade and weighs simply 62 kilos,” Invoice tells Outside Life. “However he’s an excellent shot, with plenty of expertise searching geese, geese, and pheasants. I knew when he obtained that ram tag it was perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime probability at a bighorn. So we deliberate for it.”
Invoice contacted Wyoming’s Ishawooa Outfitters, and so they organized a father-son mountain hunt with guides T.J. Redder and Jonas Started. The group headed into the Absaroka Vary in early September, the place they arrange a high-elevation base camp. Invoice, a rancher with 5 different sons, says they rotated by way of horses every day.
Picture courtesy Invoice Goolsbey
They spent days protecting lots of miles and glassing for sheep in rugged terrain. Fortunately the climate was respectable—that they had only one wet day however no snow.
On Sept. 6, the eighth and last day of their mountain hunt, they noticed two massive rams within the distance. It was brilliant and sunny out.
“It took us 90 minutes to work into place for Rhett to get a shot at one of many rams,” Invoice says. “It was 6 p.m., and he used the clothing store’s precision long-range rifle to make an ideal shot on the ram at 416 yards.”
Rhett used a 6.5 PRC rifle loaded with 142-grain Winchester ammo.
“It was an ideal hit behind the shoulder, and the ram made only a couple steps, then fell far down the mountain facet,” says Invoice, who provides that it took them round 20 minutes to even attain the ram. “We figured we have been at about 9,000 toes of elevation when he shot his ram.”
Picture courtesy Invoice Goolsbey
It was getting darkish by the point the hunters obtained to Rhett’s bighorn. After caping and de-boning it, they determined to arrange a spike camp slightly than trudge again to base camp at nighttime.
“We didn’t have a lot meals with us, so we ate among the [ram meat],” Invoice says. “Rhett thought it was nice.”
The hunters estimated the ram’s weight round 150 kilos. Invoice says a full shoulder mount of the sheep will likely be made and hung proudly of their household dwelling.
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The Wyoming Sport and Fish Division has formally acknowledged Rhett because the youngest hunter to have lawfully taken a bighorn ram within the state. In 2021 the state altered licensing restrictions permitting younger hunters to use for a coveted bighorn tag at age 11, as long as the teenager was age 12 by the top of the 12 months.
Rhett was 11 when she shot his ram. He’s now 12. It’s the primary massive recreation animal he’s ever harvested. With considered one of North America’s most coveted big-game animals below his belt, what’s subsequent for Rhett and the Goolsbey household?
Picture courtesy Invoice Goolsbey
“Rhett additionally has an elk tag this 12 months,” Invoice says. “And he’d sometime prefer to hunt moose, dall sheep, and buffalo. His older brother Russell shot a mountain goat this 12 months. He additionally has an elk tag, as do I.
“We’re going to have to purchase one other freezer.”