Rhett Goolsbey is a young, hard-working ranch kid from Powell, Wyoming. He plays football, wrestles, and is a 4H member. And he’s now the youngest hunter in Wyoming history to kill a bighorn sheep. Rhett harvested the ram alongside his dad Bill after drawing a lottery tag.
“He’s only in the 7th grade and weighs just 62 pounds,” Bill tells Outdoor Life. “But he’s a good shot, with lots of experience hunting geese, ducks, and pheasants. I knew when he got that ram tag it was maybe a once-in-a-lifetime chance at a bighorn. So we planned for it.”
Bill contacted Wyoming’s Ishawooa Outfitters, and they arranged a father-son mountain hunt with guides T.J. Redder and Jonas Began. The group headed into the Absaroka Range in early September, where they set up a high-elevation base camp. Bill, a rancher with five other sons, says they rotated through horses daily.
Photo courtesy Bill Goolsbey
They spent days covering a lot of miles and glassing for sheep in rugged terrain. Luckily the weather was decent—they had just one rainy day but no snow.
On Sept. 6, the eighth and final day of their mountain hunt, they spotted two large rams in the distance. It was bright and sunny out.
“It took us 90 minutes to work into position for Rhett to get a shot at one of the rams,” Bill says. “It was 6 p.m., and he used the outfitter’s precision long-range rifle to make a perfect shot on the ram at 416 yards.”
Rhett used a 6.5 PRC rifle loaded with 142-grain Winchester ammo.
“It was a perfect hit behind the shoulder, and the ram made just a couple steps, then fell far down the mountain side,” says Bill, who adds that it took them around 20 minutes to even reach the ram. “We figured we were at about 9,000 feet of elevation when he shot his ram.”
Photo courtesy Bill Goolsbey
It was getting dark by the time the hunters got to Rhett’s bighorn. After caping and de-boning it, they decided to set up a spike camp rather than trudge back to base camp in the dark.
“We didn’t have much food with us, so we ate some of the [ram meat],” Bill says. “Rhett thought it was great.”
The hunters estimated the ram’s weight around 150 pounds. Bill says a full shoulder mount of the sheep will be made and hung proudly in their family home.
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The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has officially recognized Rhett as the youngest hunter to have lawfully taken a bighorn ram in the state. In 2021 the state altered licensing restrictions allowing young hunters to apply for a coveted bighorn tag at age 11, so long as the youngster was age 12 by the end of the year.
Rhett was 11 when she shot his ram. He’s now 12. It’s the first big game animal he’s ever harvested. With one of North America’s most coveted big-game animals under his belt, what’s next for Rhett and the Goolsbey family?
Photo courtesy Bill Goolsbey
“Rhett also has an elk tag this year,” Bill says. “And he’d someday like to hunt moose, dall sheep, and buffalo. His older brother Russell shot a mountain goat this year. He also has an elk tag, as do I.
“We’re going to have to buy another freezer.”
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