By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
Logandale resident Jessica Leavitt had incredible luck on Monday, November 20 when she filled her big horn sheep tag.
Her husband Kyle had done some significant advance work. He scouted out this particular animal and had been watching it all summer long. But in typical hunting fashion, the week before the hunt opened, the sheep they had been watching was nowhere to be found.
On opening morning in area 244 in Arrow Canyon, Jessica and Kyle along with Daryl Leavitt and Reese Hoy went to look for the ram.
“Monday morning we walked up to a ridge and Kyle sat down to look,” Jessica said. “Before I even had my stuff pulled out, there he was. Kyle had spotted him.”
Daryl Leavitt then acted as the spotter and guided the couple closer to the sheep. Once they got close enough they took a look and were extremely disappointed to find it was not the ram they wanted to shoot!
“I thought, ‘We walked all this way for nothing!’,” Jessica said.
Interestingly, she had broken her ankle in the spring while on a turkey hunt. So she was somewhat nervous about hiking again in the rugged terrain. Her fitness tracker read 10,000 steps before 8:00 am had even rolled around.
But her efforts were not in vain. Only 130 yards away they spotted the ram they had come out there to find.
“Everything very much fell into place,” she said.
Jessica was able to shoot the ram from that location. Her father-in-law Penn Leavitt met up with the couple and helped the group pack the sheep out.
“I am grateful we had all the men that were there to help pack it out,” said Jessica. “I was excited I got the sheep quick, no one likes to hike 10 miles on Thanksgiving!”
The ram she shot had 14 inch bases and scored 165 inches and 1/8. For many the 1/8 may not be of big importance or it may seem silly to include that measurement. But for Jessica it means everything. That is because her ram is 1/8th bigger than the ram her husband shot during his hunt 7 years ago!
