Whitefish resident Glen Prestegaard recently took a bighorn ram ranked by the Safari Club International record book as No. 3 in the world for muzzleloader. The ram was taken on public land near Plains during a self-guided trip.

Prestegaard scouted the area, flew over the mountains by helicopter, then hiked with his black-powder muzzleloader for “many days” before spotting a big ram several miles away. Using a scope and aerial and topo maps, Prestegaard marked its location and hiked in.

As he approached the ram, he found nine sheep altogether. He waited for more than an hour looking through timber to identify the largest of the group.

Prestegaard’s shot was from 90 yards. He then called his sons Kaleb in Whitefish and Thor in Idaho. They both drove to Plains and hiked in to the rock slide where the ram was taken to help pack it out.

Prestegaard waited 30 years for this tag, which he calls “arguably the most coveted tag in North America.”