In December, subscriber
Rich Papapietro hunted desert bighorn sheep in the Marble/Clipper and South Bristol units in his home state of
California with Tim Mercier and Cliff St. Martin of
Dry Creek Outfitters. Papapietro took a mature desert bighorn ram on the third day of his hunt, telling us the hunt area offered "easy hunting, easy access and lots of sheep." He goes on to give Dry Creek and its staff excellent ratings and says, "Tim and Cliff know the areas and the sheep. They are great guys to share a camp with."
The notion of an "easy" sheep hunt with "lots of sheep" piqued our curiosity, and we weren't able to reach Papapietro for clarification, so we talked to Cliff St. Martin of Dry Creek Outfitters to get a better picture of this hunt. Dry Creek is, by St. Martin's own admission, largely a sheep-specific outfitter. While they also occasionally guide deer and elk hunters, they mostly focus on desert bighorns and occasionally Rocky Mountain bighorns in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. We have one previous report on file on this outfit, number
3763 from 2003, on a desert sheep hunt in Utah.....
