Barely one day into bighorn season, California may have a new state record.
Sacramento area native John Berens shot a desert bighorn sheep measuring nearly 186 inches on Saturday -- the opening day of bighorn season in California -- while hunting in the Orocopia Mountains with guide Terry Anderson of San Gorgonio Outfitters.
Anderson told The (San Bernardino) Sun that the ram would beat the old state record 182 inches by at least four inches after a required drying period.
"It was just a great old ram," Anderson told reporters. "And he was holed up the farthest from the world you can get in the Orocopias. It took us 7 1/2 hours to reach him from the trucks."
After watching the ram for nearly four years, Anderson said, he and Berens set off into the mountains at 3:30 a.m. to the spot where the ram had been seen last. Eight-and-a-half hours later, Berens had the state record.
Anderson told reporters he was also present when hunter John Bauder shot the previous record 182-inch ram in 1999.
What a massive ram. Have you ever seen anything like it?