AK Sheep, Population Observations

[Sneaker]

Auction tag really went sub legal? What's the story on that?

 

[Bambistew]

Auction tag really went sub legal? What's the story on that?

Yes, apparently $230k doesn't buy why it used to.

Lots of stories floating around. Supposedly missed a big ram and then it ran into a group and he shot the wrong one. Hard to say if the story will ever come out considering the $ and people involved. Got to keep shit like that under wraps and play it up as aw shucks, could happen to anyone. These are "professional" hunters they should be held accountable and made an example of. If they can't follow the law and get off with a slap on the wrist, no one should have to.

 

[WalterH]

I think I remember a guide talking about the non-res auction tag on the "sheep hunt pricing" thread a while back. Perhaps we will get the rest of the story there?

 

[diamond10x]

Another sheep report:

In a large portion of a unit that usually sees 50%+ success rates, 4 of 22 hunters (hunters split between 3 or 4 outfitters) killed rams. I know of a 5th ram that was killed in the area by a buddy so that would be 5 out of 24.

 

[FAAFO]

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

 

[Alder_]

2024 ram, cause sheep thread needs a sheep.

 

[Bambistew]

Another sheep report:

In a large portion of a unit that usually sees 50%+ success rates, 4 of 22 hunters (hunters split between 3 or 4 outfitters) killed rams. I know of a 5th ram that was killed in the area by a buddy so that would be 5 out of 24.

50% success for guided hunts? That's some expensive camping trips. I think it's worse than last year. I don't think we'll see 300. Age of harvest will be really low. Hopefully lamb numbers are looking better.

 

[IBen]

9yo 37/36 nearly 15 inch bases

 

[AK_Skeeter]

Two sheep hunts this year....

First hunt I saw an abundance of sheep and 8 rams came out of that drainage this year. Lots of up and comers. One observation this year which was interesting to me was that we saw lots of rams in groups of 1-3. In previous years rams have been grouped up with 5-10 other rams. Don't know what to make of it.

Second sheep hunt was in an area I have hunted 7 other times. In areas we typically see 100 sheep over a 2-3 period, we only saw roughly 30-40 and no legal rams and only 1-2 lambs. All the rams we saw were 4-5 year olds. It's an area known to have been hit hard over the past two years by spring weather. Sad to see that area in such decline.

1-2 lambs! That is the problem in the last 4 years, extremely low lamb production and survival.
Winter rains, icing and rain on snow events are the primary cause. The winters of sugar snow that
blows away may be less common in the future.

 

[diamond10x]

50% success for guided hunts? That's some expensive camping trips. I think it's worse than last year. I don't think we'll see 300. Age of harvest will be really low. Hopefully lamb numbers are looking better.

That success rate is across the board guided and non. The numbers of guided in the area I have no idea of success rate historically but I'd have to think its 70+ to bump up the non-guided numbers. That 4 out of 22 this season is a disappointing number. Some expensive camping trips no doubt. From what I heard is that they weren't seeing a lot of sheep either but, almost all ewes that were seen had a lamb/lambs with her which is good news.

This report lined up with what I was seeing in the same range, not a lot of sheep but every ewe I saw had a lamb or two with her.

 

[Trial153]

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

if you think they are doing much better in CA, your sadly mistaken.

 

[FAAFO]

if you think they are doing much better in CA, your sadly mistaken.

They are doing way better than AK. It’s not even close. And the Canadians are actually trying to address the problem unlike AK.

 

[Alder_]

FAAFO, serious question.
How are they addressing it?

Mineral licks?

 

[FAAFO]

FAAFO, serious question.
How are they addressing it?

Mineral licks?

Look at the management side. They’ve addressed lower populations quicker than AK has/will. AK still has unlimited NR sheep tags FFS.

Yeah the outfitters are allowed to drop mineral blocks. Can’t do that in AK. That’s a good point. There’s a few more related to that but best explained by the people who are doing the work. Not me. I’m a rokslide Randy. I only help by buying raffle tickets. I don’t care about conservation unless there’s a chance I can get a tag

 

[mdoolin]

I was surprised honestly in the area i hunted with what my wife and I found.

We met a father son duo on the airstrip on the way into the field who had killed 2 rams from a group of 5-6. Their rams were 9 & 10 and they said one of the other rams in the group was clearly legal as well.

My wife and I got dropped shortly after that and although we didn't see a ton of sheep we found a 9 yr old ram by himself to hunt. We actually spotted a group of ~15 rams several miles and drainages away that we were working toward when we found my wife's ram. The area we were hunting had two groups of ~15 ewes most of which had lambs.

Definitely not the hay day but there are still mature rams roaming the mountains and hopefully we can start rebuilding from here. The pilot we flew with told me back when he started flying in the area(70s) he remembers talking to another pilot/outfitter in the area complaining at the lack of sheep. The other pilot told him he should have seen it 5 years earlier(much worse). His point was since that day he saw the sheep population get better and better until it's peak several years back.

 

[Kisaralik]

Here is some interesting info in the context of avg age of rams getting killed and avg horn measurements from the last handful of years, 2019 tp present. Some of this will likely be a repeat for those that have been following along for a few years.

Data from ADFG's harvest data tool: https://secure.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=harvest.lookup

Rams Harvested
2019 = 840
2020 = 627
2021 = 487
2022 = 424
2023 = 340

Avg Age of Rams Harvested
2019 = 8.65
2020 = 8.81
2021 = 8.28
2022 = 8.21
2023 = 8.06

Avg Horn Length
2019 = 35.09
2020 = 35.25
2021 = 35.03
2022 = 35.88
2023 = 35.32

Average Horn Base
2019 = 13.02
2020 = 12.72
2021 = 12.79
2022 = 12.78
2023 = 12.91

Interesting how the average age of rams killed has gone down 1/2 to 3/4 of a year, but the horn measurements haven't really changed much. If anything it seems like horn dimensions proportionate to age have improved/increased.

Does subsistence sheep harvest get filtered into these data sets at all? I have yet to figure out where that info appears but occasionally I see a horn length that seems wayyyyy to small and as an extreme outlier. That said, I suppose there are some local-residents shooting monsters in NP's as subsistence too...

 

[ColeyG]

My understanding is that all subsistence harvested sheep are reported to and sealed by the state. The feds don't do anything with sheep re: permitting and/or reporting as far as I am aware. I too have wondered about those 25" 5 year olds in the data and have assumed those were fed subsistence sheep and/or taken in any ram draw areas.

I am also wondering if the sub legal sheep get included in that harvest data or if those are kept out? I have assumed they are included, but really have no idea.

Maybe Joe Want or one of the other bios can elaborate?

 

[ColeyG]

Well, sheep season is a wrap for me.

Going into the season I had plans to take a couple of quick peek type trips into two areas before heading into the hills for a longer trip with my primary partner in late August. Both of the quick hitter missions were cut short due to weather without every really having the chance to get eyes on the primary objective or any rams.

In late August I got into the eastern Alaska Range for about 8 days and covered a fair bit of ground in two primary drainages. This was all new country for us so I don't have any idea of what a normal baseline for the area is. That having been said, I was pretty encouraged by what we saw. 120-ish sheep overall. 17 rams, three of which were legal but not what we were looing for. Very good lamb to ewe ratios at 1:1.

The week before we got into the hills it dumped snow. 12+ inches at 5000 feet and up. That was a bit limiting for where we wanted to get to, but definitely moved most of the animals out of the high country for the remainder of the year.

No horns came home with us this year but some memorable memories were made as always. A few videos of the youngsters we got to spend some time with at the link below.

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[cbeard64]

Congrats on a great hunt! Personally, I am much more impressed with your story and photos than the ones we often see with hunters posed with young dead squeaker rams.

 

[ColeyG]

Congrats on a great hunt! Personally, I am much more impressed with your story and photos than the ones we often see with hunters posed with young dead squeaker rams.

Man there has been a lot of those this year. I can't count the number of photos of rams I've received from friends asking "how on earth is this thing legal?" this year. I'll be curious to see how the age avg breaks down for this year when the data is out.