The sheep of Bryce McGough's dreams was field-dressed and caped, its meat on pack frames. Even without a tape measure, McGough and his dad knew they were packing a trophy ram as they headed back to camp.
Carrying 80 or more pounds apiece, they opted against the route they had already traveled, one that would take them back up and over a mountain. Instead they headed down a canyon in line with their camp in the Tok Management Area, only to be swallowed by a thick tangle of alders.
Except for their two flashlights, it was pitch dark, and they were getting nowhere fast. Less than 100 yards per hour, McGough estimated.
"It got to the point where I couldn't move anymore," said McGough, a 27-year-old from Chugiak. "At one point I was afraid we wouldn't make it off the mountain. I was afraid we'd fall asleep and become hypothermic."
Drenched with sweat and beyond fatigued, they made the only decision they could. They dropped their packs near a mound of boulders and continued down, unburdened by the weight of a world-class Dall sheep with full-curl horns.
"As it turns out, the next day when we got to the top of the ridge again there was mounds of boulders everywhere. I just slapped my forehead, like, oh my god," McGough said.
An hour later, thanks to "absolute luck," McGough spotted the packs. He and his dad, Mike McGough of Eagle River, retrieved them and returned to camp, arriving at 10:30 p.m. -- 14 hours after they left -- with the horns and salvageable meat in tow.
Now, McGough is waiting for the 60-day drying period to pass for an official Boone and Crockett measurement, but it looks like the ram is every bit as impressive as he thought it was.
Carl Brent of Wasilla, an official scorer for Boone and Crockett, measured the horns shortly after the McGoughs returned from their hunt and scored it an unofficial 173 4/8.
If that score holds, the animal will rank 123rd on the all-time list of biggest Dall sheep on record, according to Justin Spring, the assistant director of big game record for Boone and Crockett.
"In the last about 12 years, there's only been seven of them shot any bigger," Spring said. "That's a big thing. We don't see as big of Dall sheep as they did in the 50s and 60s. That was kind of the heyday."
Brent said only about seven sheep a year make the Boone and Crockett list, which requires a score of 160 or higher.
"Sheep is the hardest species that makes the Boone and Crockett record book," he said. "You look at black bears and you're looking at hundreds that could make the book each year. But you gotta remember, Dall sheep are only hunted in three territories of Canada and Alaska. Black bears are hunted in nearly every state and province."
And then there's the arduous nature of hunting sheep in the Tok Management Area. The McGoughs walked in -- the other option is flying in -- and spent four brutal days spotting, climbing, stalking and packing.
They hiked for miles up wild mountainsides, scrambled across cliffs, encountered a thankfully disinterested grizzly and fought through alders so dense that on the failed effort to get the animal back to camp the same day it was shot, Mike McGough, 67, "was just collapsing after every other foot," Bryce said.
McGough, whose late-August trip marked his seventh hunt for Dall sheep, said he'd never seen even a 7/8 curl on previous trips. The ram he bagged in Tok had a full curl and then some. Each horn measured 44 2/8 inches and each base measured 14 inches, according to Brent's score sheet.
Although there is some shrinkage after the horns dry, it's minimal, Spring said. Because the original measurement was done by an official scorer, he predicted the 173 4/8 will hold up when the horns are measured again.
The Boone and Crockett world-record Dall sheep was taken in 1961 in the Wrangell Mountains by Harry Swank. It measures 189 6/8.
McGough is entering the horns in a Sportsman Warehouse contest in Wasilla and said he's hoping he wins the grand prize -- a free shoulder mount.
As for the meat, he said it's delicious.
"Sheep is by far the best game meat I've had," he said. "I've heard that from every hunter I know. You can cut that steak with a fork."
Reach Beth Bragg at bbragg@adn.com or 257-4335.
By BETH BRAGG
Anchorage Daily News