{"id":284627,"date":"2025-11-15T11:55:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T11:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/284627\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T11:55:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T11:55:13","slug":"north-dakota-hunter-shoots-pending-state-record-bighorn-ram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/284627\/","title":{"rendered":"North Dakota Hunter Shoots Pending State Record Bighorn Ram"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This fall, Nick Schmitz, of Grand Forks, North Dakota, killed an absolutely massive bighorn sheep that stands to set the new state record. The story of his hunt began when he drew one of the most coveted tags in North America: a North Dakota bighorn sheep tag, of which North Dakota Game and Fish (NDGF) allocated only eight for the 2025 season.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI had gotten a call from Game and Fish and wasn\u2019t able to answer,\u201d Schmitz told MeatEater. \u201cBrett Wiedmann left me a message telling me to call him back ASAP. I was worried I\u2019d done something wrong, even though I didn\u2019t think I had. But when I called him back, he got right to the point and said I\u2019d just drawn the hardest tag to draw in North America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025, 21,221 hunters applied for the tag, making the draw rate 0.03%. Filled with \u201ccrazy excitement,\u201d Shmitz soon called David Suda, a buddy he\u2019d originally met back in high school. Suda happened to be one of the few people familiar with North Dakota bighorn, having shot the current state record after drawing the once-in-a-lifetime tag himself in 2020<\/a>. Since then, Suda had heard of another massive ram in Western North Dakota.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a bunch of buddies that work out there, and one of them sent a group chat a picture of this ram along the side of the road in the springtime,\u201d Suda said. \u201cSo when Nick called and told me he\u2019d drawn the tag, I told him the hunt was going to be something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"nd<\/p>\n

By opening day this fall, Schmitz had scouted his hunt area several times but hadn\u2019t seen the giant ram. In the meantime, he and Suda ran into the hunter who\u2019d bought the Governor\u2019s Tag\u2014and learned they were pursuing the same critter with the help of guides.<\/p>\n

Schmitz was joined by Suda, his father, and his brother-in-law, Tim, on the hunt. That first morning, after parking the truck, they bumped a ram about 300 yards from the truck. It was snowing, and they couldn\u2019t tell how big it was. They tried unsuccessfully to catch up to it.<\/p>\n

The group switched spots and glassed up a group of sheep of seven or eight ewes and three or four rams. Tim, the brother-in-law, suggested pursuing one of the rams, but Suda encouraged Schmitz to hold out for a bigger one. It\u2019s a good thing he did.<\/p>\n

That evening, they went to another spot, which Schmitz describes as \u201cgood sheep country,\u201d characterized by steep ridges. Suda had seen sheep there before. It was a difficult spot to reach, which Schmitz and Suda hoped kept some of the other hunters from being there. Suda, walking slightly ahead, spotted the ram first. Then Schmitz glassed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had 11 ewes to himself and seemed comfortable where he was at,\u201d Schmitz said. \u201cI was just looking at him and was amazed by the sheer mass. Out of all the rams we had seen, you could tell, like holy smokes, he had some serious mass to it\u2026Suda turned to me and said, \u2018this is the shooter.\u2019 I kind of had a panic attack. I was bent over on my knees trying to control my breathing because the moment was just, boom, there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

Schmitz soon got into position, using his brother-in-law Tim\u2019s pack as a rest for his .270 Winchester rifle. He had a 345-yard shot. He got comfortable, dry-fired, then chambered a round. He took a shot with the ram quartering slightly away. Video footage shows it was a clean miss\u2014just inches from the ram\u2019s horns\u2014but Schmitz didn\u2019t realize it at the time, since the ram seemed to stumble on the shot. As the ram started jogging up hill and away, Schmitz fired another round, and then another.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know where he was being hit, but you could tell he was hurt at that point because he was slowing down,\u201d Schmitz said. \u201cThen he gave me a broadside shot, and I put the last round in my gun right into his shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ram went down, and Schmitz and his buddies started screaming and celebrating. Getting to the ram on the opposite ridge required a roundabout route in steep country, and by the time they got to it, it was dark. But they found the ram.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first reaction was, \u2018Wow,\u2019\u201d Schmitz said. \u201cLooking through the scope was one thing, but seeing the mass in person was unbelievable. It didn\u2019t look real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suda, too, was shocked by the ram\u2019s horns. \u201cI knew he was big from the pictures and the spotting scope, but he was way bigger when I got up to in person. I was blown away by his mass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

That evening, Schmitz and Suda met up with Wiedmann, the NDGF biologist who primarily works with the state\u2019s bighorn sheep population and coordinates with hunters who draw tags. Wiedmann told MeatEater that the state boasts trophy bighorn because of abundant forage and limited hunting opportunities. He\u2019d been aware of the sheep Schmitz shot for several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first saw him when he was about 5 \u00bd, and he just had such mass,\u201d Wiedmann said. \u201cI watched him year-over-year. I knew he was pretty nice, but when they dropped the tailgate to show me him, I was shocked. I was like, man, that ram is actually a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ram was 10 \u00bd years old when Schmitz shot it. The horns had a length of 39 \u215e inches, with base circumferences of 17 \u215c inches. The ram green scored 197 6\/8 inches, which stands to easily top Suda\u2019s record sheep, which came in at 186 3\/8 inches. For reference, the largest hunter-killed bighorn ram<\/a> taped 209 1\/8 points Boone and Crockett and was killed in South Dakota by Clayton Miller in 2018. After the 60-day drying period, Schmitz will get his trophy officially scored.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blessed just to draw this tag and be able to go on this hunt. You\u2019re one of the luckiest guys in the state just to be able to do that,\u201d Schmitz said. \u201cI knew I was going to be successful when I gave Suda a call and he said he would join and help out. I didn\u2019t have any expectations of breaking a state record. That was all just bonus, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

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