$1.3 Million Ram

[Steve O]

Sheep are expensive to have. Everywhere they are, it takes a ton of work to keep them there, and even more to help the population grow. Anywhere they exist in the lower 48, if you have drawn a tag or have a hope to draw a tag, you have that opportunity because of the work done by the biologists and the state sheep organization and the money gathered by these auction tags. If you think otherwise you better think some more.

I’ve been trying to do whatever I can to sheep hunt for the last 25 years. I started in the Yukon and I’ve drawn a Colorado and Arizona tag here in the states. I’ve helped friends on their sheep hunts. I’m in on all the draws that make sense and same with the raffles. I’m not a guy who can bid on any hunts or tags but I’ve talked to and am acquaintances of many and even friends with a few who can. Almost all of them have their heart in the right place and are doing 1000x more than just about all the complainers. If you aren’t a life member of any state sheep organization where you have hunted or hope to hunt, you can definitely do more than complain. Volunteer for projects, donate to them. Every raffle ticket I buy I look at as a donation. I can’t write off $hit but there is a tiny chance that donation may pay off one day for me, but it sure does pay off for that one guy who wins. Good for him and good for the one rich guy that puts 1.3 million dollars (plus matching funds from various mechanisms) to help the sheep and giving the rest of us a chance at those few tags. Without that extra funding, the sheep especially are in much worse trouble. People complain constantly about the price of just the sheep tag, the fish and game certainly aren’t going to be funding their projects with the sheep tag revenue if they upped the tag price 10x.

 

[Steve O]

I’m not mad at the guy, I just think it’s stupid. Not only that it just guarantees “regular” people will never have an opportunity like that.

And for all tha talk about how great it is for sheep herds/hunting, that’s getting to the point most people can’t afford them either (as evidenced on here by people leveraging their mortgage or retirement Togo hunt one) so how is that great for the average guy that would like to hunt a sheep?

Most miss the point that the odds for the “regular guy” are not lessened by taking one tag to be taken out to be auctioned. Your odds go from 1 in 5000 to 1 in 4999…that’s the same. It heavily increases your odds for the future because of the habitat improvement, water, predator management, domestic avoidance, and disease prevention that can be done with that money.

Most people are short sighted.

 

[Steve O]

Sheep hunting is kind of gross anymore. Good for him, hope he’s happy. Not my cup of tea.

A go getter like yourself would excel in the Montana Unlimiteds. OTC non resident license of $1250 or $125 for the lucky residents. That’s cheaper than many NR elk tags. Ironically that is supported by the millions of dollars that have come from the Montana Governor tag auctions over the years…

 

[Jason Snyder]

A go getter like yourself would excel in the Montana Unlimiteds. OTC non resident license of $1250 or $125 for the lucky residents. That’s cheaper than many NR elk tags. Ironically that is supported by the millions of dollars that have come from the Montana Governor tag auctions over the years…

I considered it at one point. I helped a friend years ago on a sheep hunt in the Bob. That was good enough for me and I have no desire to kill a sheep. I’d rather wander the alpine with my dogs, looking for ptarmigan.

 

[cuerro viejo]

I’m not mad at the guy, I just think it’s stupid. Not only that it just guarantees “regular” people will never have an opportunity like that.

And for all tha talk about how great it is for sheep herds/hunting, that’s getting to the point most people can’t afford them either (as evidenced on here by people leveraging their mortgage or retirement Togo hunt one) so how is that great for the average guy that would like to hunt a sheep?

What are you talking about? You have the “opportunity” to literally draw every sheep species in North America via raffle or draw system, in some raffle cases guides included.

Public tag in that unit and you could very well draw it. The guide is not that expensive.

There is a 4k HF breeding facility in NM. There isn’t a desert unit in NM that doesn’t get supplemented with sheep from that facility. That 1.3 million just paid for a lot of sheep relocations….. what do you think the 30 +- resident $100 tags pay for? Where do you think the money came from to relocate the sheep in this particular unit from wheeler?

I wish Bezos and Elon were hunters. Probably fix Movi a lot quicker, and Texas could get back to 10 plus tags a year

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Sheep hunting is kind of gross anymore. Good for him, hope he’s happy. Not my cup of tea.

Why is it gross? People spend way more than that on even stranger things. You could move up to AK and hunt sheep for the cost of your hunting license if you wanted too. I agree that at some point some of this stuff becomes pay to play but people can do whatever they want with their money. Don’t forget that even drawing a great tag dosent mean it’s always going to go your way. Read that thread about the guy who drew the Nevada silver state bighorn tag, I don’t believe he spent nearly that type of money but he definetly had to spend money on the guides that scouted for him, even then while he got a cool ram it wasn’t a book ram at all.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Why is it gross?

Because of the money and ego involved in it. Seen it firsthand.

 

[cuerro viejo]

Because of the money and ego involved in it. Seen it firsthand.

Elk, deer and majority of sheep Hunters drive trucks to hunt.

Majority of Quail/upland hunts fly jets to hunt

Fact

 

[Fetty Wapiti]

For 1.3 mil he got shafted! Good ram, but not something to shoot on a governor tag

 

[easttex]

Well, at least ya'll got off of G. T. 's boots. Pretty sure he knows what he's doing.

 

[C Bow]

If you got enough grease baby you can fry a ELEPHANT

 

[OMB]

It’s amazing how many people contribute to these threads from a position of ignorance.

Abraham Lincoln had a great quote about this.

Lots of issues for NM sheep, they can greatly use the extra $1.3M plus matching funds to help. Thanks to that hunter/rich dude who donated the $1,240,000 than all the license money NM sheep tags raised. Odds are it was well over 10x the money raised by the raffle tag.

Systems like Utah are NFG but one raffle tag and one auction tag do wonders to raise valuable funds for the species that can’t be robbed by the general fund scum…

How many more sheep have auction tags put on the mountain? Because if we're basing it on tags available compared to 10 and 20 years ago, we have fewer. I know there are a lot of factors at play, but it gets tiring to keep hearing that we should be so grateful that the same 15 guys have a dick measuring contest at Sheep Show every year over who can pay the most to upgrade their FNAWS total score by 2". It's not a message that resonates with most hunters, much less non-hunters.

The Kuiu Conservation Direct program has probably done more dollar for dollar in the last 5 years for wild sheep conservation than most of these auction tags with exactly zero of the associated controversy that comes with a $1M tag.

 

[Jason Snyder]

As for the money, we have no idea how he got it, he may have worked for 40 years to get it. Either way it’s his to enjoy a

Absolutely it is, but I still find the “culture” or whatever you call it gross. Just my humble opinion, worth what anyone paid for it…

 

[justin davis]

Awesome ram! And awesome amount of money that goes to sheep conservation. Congrats to all involved!

 

[ShakeDown]

All those bros look in their 30s?

Yeah, probably 30ish for him. He went to high school with my second youngest brother.

 

[roadrunner]

...wealthy people will be able to afford nicer things than us peasants.

That's because wealthy people don't trade their time for money...

 

[MuleyFever]

Ive said it before but I don't get the pedestal sheep are put on. They are ugly, especially the desert variety.

I also don't understand the joy these wealthy people get out of having a team of people find an animal for them to show up and shoot.

 

[Fowl Play]

Ive said it before but I don't get the pedestal sheep are put on. They are ugly, especially the desert variety.

I also don't understand the joy these wealthy people get out of having a team of people find an animal for them to show up and shoot.

The pedestal sheep should be put on is causing the worst financial decisions of all the game animals.

 

[bojangles808]

do the guides split a tip of 10-20% of 1.3 million? that sounds sweet

 

[ozyclint]

That's because wealthy people don't trade their time for money...

They say money makes money.
The trick is getting the money to make the money.

I've said it before, words to the effect - When I started sheep hunting I only had 2 things.
A dream.... and $1.3million