AK Sheep, Population Observations

[Doc Holliday]

I’ve been eagerly checking the meat pole thread hoping to see some success.


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It's been noticeably quiet this year on the pic thread, meatpole thread, as well as hunt report threads. Zero on all 3 as of this moment. I hope that changes soon

 

[ColeyG]

Numbers above updated after culling out a few bad records in the data set. No major change to the patterns.

Regarding the mythical 40" ram...

>40" Rams Harvested

2019 = 54 (5.3% of total)
2020 = 40 (4.5% of total)
2021 = 29 (6.0% of total)
2022 = 19 (6.5% of total)
2023 = 18 (6.5% of total)

 

[AK Troutbum]

How many 40" rams killed? Two, three?

I think 40" rams are talked about like 30" mule deer (or 16" antelope)- but they are rare; very, very rare- yet it seems like everyone has killed one

I've never killed one that big, but I know at least a handful of people that have. A 40" ram gets you into the "trophy class/club", just like a 60" moose, and although I've never killed a 60" moose, I know quite a few people who have. I'm sure there were a lot more 40" rams killed back in the day, compared to probably the last decade or so, but they are still out there, and they still get taken every year. There used to be a way you could look up the size of the sheep killed annually for a particular hunt, but I don't know if that is still possible on the F&G website.

 

[mtwarden]

5-6% still pretty rare, but good on the guys finding them!

 

[AK Troutbum]

@VernAK posted on another forum that a friend of his killed a 41 incher, 3 days ago.

 

[mtwarden]

@VernAK just posted on another forum that a friend of his killed a 41 incher, 3 days ago.

Nice!

 

[jofes]

What is the normal loss in length after drying? 1/2 an inch?

 

[VernAK]

Nice!

I won't post the young lady's pic but it was a beautiful ram.......I didn't measure the bases, but I was envious.

 

[Liv2HntBigBullz]

Seems to be real tough out there, lots of photos of unsuccessful hunts and pictures of sublegals on the hoof.

 

[Alder_]

There's been a 20-33% decline in the number of 40" rams killed annually since 2019, that's kind of sad.

I've got reports back from 6 friends.
Two struck out. Four killed rams.

One was a group of three and it was one persons turn to shoot unless they ran into more than 1 legal ram.

I haven't seen pictures of any of their rams posted anywhere yet, and I know two won't get posted.

 

[ColeyG]

There's been a 20-33% decline in the number of 40" rams killed annually since 2019, that's kind of sad.

Even sadder is that the overall population has declined equally across the state. Big rams make up the same percentage of overall harvests that they have for the last handful of years at least. We don't have just a lack of big rams problem, we have a major lack of sheep problem.

I went out for a quick trip with a friend over the weekend to help him put together a strategy to get close to a group of rams he saw during the youth hunt a few weeks back. Saw a handful of rams, nothing approaching legal, and about 20 lambs and ewes. The lamb to ewe ration was very good, approaching 1:1, which I was glad to see. Southern Talkeetnas.

 

[Alder_]

No doubt.
But they're still out there and ya can't shoot one sitting on the couch.
Bummer we're in a lull.
We also saw high lamb:ewe ratios but it would only a few different groups.
Makes me hopeful.

 

[diamond10x]

Why are we only using the last 5 years as evidence for anything in trends for populations?

As far a as in field reports, was in the field 10 days and ewe to lamb ratio was 1:1+. Did not see a ewe without a lamb but saw several with twins. First time in the area so have nothing to compare to as far as numbers as a whole. No legal rams were seen, only a few banana horns and one 5/8 curl.

 

[ColeyG]

The managers aren't, they are looking at the big picture. I am, because I am interested in what is happening "now," or rather in the very recent past.

Who wants to take a guess as to the overall harvest this year. With last being the lowest on record at 340 rams, do you think we will do better than that this year? Worse? Or about the same?

 

[Alder_]

I'll take a stab and say lower again.

 

[ColeyG]

I'll take a stab and say lower again.

That is my feeling as well based on anecdotal reports so far.

I am going with 275-ish and close to 10 % of those being sub-legal, again...

Based on the average age trending down the last handful of years, I will be very curious to see if that continues this year, or if we will bottom out at about 8 as the average.

 

[Alder_]

He worked in MT.


Signed up.

Seeing 8-10 30" deer per trip? @robby denning is that you??

 

[mtwarden]

Like I said everyone was seeing and killing 30” bucks, just happened that when I was checking them they were mostly 2.5 year old bucks.

Funny, the same thing played out during antelope season, lots of 16” bucks seen and killed, just not when I happened to be there

 

[ColeyG]

Like I said everyone was seeing and killing 30” bucks, just happened that when I was checking them they were mostly 2.5 year old bucks.

Funny, the same thing played out during antelope season, lots of 16” bucks seen and killed, just not when I happened to be there

Sounds like a classic case of "shoulda been here yesterday!!" The ones that get away are always way bigger than the ones that you get as well, right?

 

[Bambistew]

Lots of 39" rams are rounded up to 40. The stats I looked at included about 30 years of data, the total length decreased when mandatory reporting started as well, horn circumference and age. Self reporting and measuring isn't consistent.

There are less than 50% of the sheep today that we had 10 years ago. Those big rams are harder to find, and very few old rams exist today. I believe F&G said the oldest they checked as of Monday was 9. They did check in a 12-13yo as I was leaving.

By the end of the week we'll know where we stand. As of Monday morning (9/19) there was 133 rams checked statewide. Usually ~70% are harvested/checked in by the first 15 days of the season. I believe there was at least half a dozen checked in after mine yesterday. I'm guessing we'll be a little less than last year, but not by a lot, saying 300-320. We have another 2 years before we really drop off, and I predict we'll stay around the same for a couple years, then its going to be ugly in some areas. Very few to no old rams, and very few 3-5 year old's in many places. I'm hopefully on a solid bounce back. We saw good lamb numbers last year and again this year.

I think there has only been 3 killed/check in the Chugach Park so far.

On sub-legals there were at 4/33 in Anchorage as of Monday, I think that included the sub-legal auction tag ram. Guessing statewide sub-legal take is similar from FBX and Palmer office.