AK Sheep, Population Observations

[ReddingArcher]

no kidding. I have a hunt booked for next year in the wrangells, and this thread has me sweating bullets. Will be interested to hear this year goes from my outfitter.......as well as his thoughts on numbers in his exclusive use areas for the coming seasons.

Who are you going with next year? I’ll be in the Wrangells next year also. Despite the downturn I’m still pumped! I can’t wait for the adventure.

 

[Kotaman]

I’ll be in the Wrangells in two weeks…

 

[schmalzy]

I’ll be in the Wrangells in two weeks…

Just got out and had an awesome time. Who you hunting with?


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[Kotaman]

Just got out and had an awesome time. Who you hunting with?


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Ultima Thule…Looks like you killed a great ram. Who were you with?

 

[schmalzy]

Ultima Thule…Looks like you killed a great ram. Who were you with?

Alaska Dall Sheep Guides - Mont Mahoney


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[Bambistew]

Cool name drop dude

Edit to stay on topic:
Is anyone willing to take a stab of % decrease in harvest this year?

I'll guess 330, and 1/3 will come from the Wrangells. Going to be a rough year.

Maverick needs another mail order bride or to find his old password. That thread was FAF... He's been hunting since he was in diapers when you dobthe math. He has 3x as much experience as any of us, and don't forget his 3 month appointment to the BOG 20 years ago makes him an expert on nothing. He's clueless and doesn't have a solution that's unique.

 

[wantj43]

I'll guess 330, and 1/3 will come from the Wrangells. Going to be a rough year.

Maverick needs another mail order bride or to find his old password. That thread was FAF... He's been hunting since he was in diapers when you dobthe math. He has 3x as much experience as any of us, and don't forget his 3 month appointment to the BOG 20 years ago makes him an expert on nothing. He's clueless and doesn't have a solution that's unique.

From time spent in the Corps i’m familiar with “FMF” but not “FAF”!

 

[slick]

Fun as F, I think?

Is Maverick the same as Mykolaivka887?

If my quick math is right 473 rams were reported killed under the General Hunt and Drawing hunts last year.

I’ll take a stab and say we don’t break 300 this year.

 

[VernAK]

There's been two come out of DCUA and checked at Delta.

 

[Arcticmanak]

I hunted the DCUA last year and did not see a legal ram. They told me that the success rate last year was the lowest in the past 8 years. Just talked to Delta F&G today and like Vern said, only two rams checked in there. They said aerial counts this year were way down.

 

[VernAK]

I recently talked to two pilots that flew through the Mt Harper area and saw no indications of sheep.

 

[D.W.T]

There's been two come out of DCUA and checked at Delta.

I was out playing on Saturday and crossed paths with one of those rams being packed out. I congratulated the hunters, but have to admit I was pretty jealous. I'm sitting at 17 and 0 on the draw for that hunt.

 

[Clarktar]

I observed sheep the last week so numbers look good to me.

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[B_Reynolds_AK]

I flew in a cub all over the Southern Wrangell’s last week before the opener. The lack of 8+ year old age class rams is very concerning.


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[LivinGood]

I was out playing on Saturday and crossed paths with one of those rams being packed out. I congratulated the hunters, but have to admit I was pretty jealous. I'm sitting at 17 and 0 on the draw for that hunt.

Hunted the DCUA last week for my cousins tag and it is slim pickings for older rams. Saw 15 rams and 2 of those were solid maybes. Sheep seem to be real spread out as well. Hunted the same area 5 years ago on my tag and saw 30 rams with 10 being clearly legal. couple more years with good winters and hunting should be good though.

 

[ColeyG]

Well, that is a wrap for sheep season for me. It has been three full seasons since I last laid eyes on a legal ram. I'd like to think I haven't gotten worse as a sheep hunter as more time has gone by, but I am certainly beginning to wonder. As much as I would like to believe that maybe I am the problem and suck at sheep hunting, sadly, I think the problem is much larger at the moment.

The sheep numbers overall, and beyond that, numbers of mature rams in Alaska is absolutely dismal. Definitely a continuation of the downward trend over the last handful of years and this will be the case for years to come if, and that is a big IF, winter conditions are conducive to high survival rates. In the last 4 years I've spent time on multiple trip in the Wrangells, AK Range, and Chugach, and in most places, it just seems like the age class of legal rams is just plain missing.

I spent time in three distinctly different areas on two 7-9 day trips this year and didn't see any rams bigger than 3/4 curl, and a fraction of the sheep that these areas traditionally hold. As usual, we covered a lot of ground and looked over a lot of ridges and into a ton of valleys logging about 145 miles on foot. In many places, sheep were just absent. No fresh sign, grass and weeds growing in ridgetop best. In others places, a smattering of ewes, a few lambs, and occasionally a single 4-5 year old ram might be found.

For the last few years I've been seeing something that strikes me a highly unusual, lone immature rams, and single 3-4 year old rams hanging out with ewes and lambs. Finally late in my second trip this year I saw a group of 3 small rams, but by and large most of the rams we've been seeing were singles, which, based on my experience, is highly unusual for young rams.

We documented approximately 12 winter killed sheep in 2 valleys in the Wrangells this year as well. Obviously we only saw a small percentage of the terrain in these valley's close enough to make such observations, which really makes me wonder how many actually died there.

I continue to hear of similar experiences from hunters and guides that have been in the game for a while and know what "normal" is, and this ain't normal.

Of course plenty of hunters have enjoyed success, and of course some old and very nice rams have been harvested. It will be very interesting to see how this years harvest and participation rates compare to last year's, the lowest on record for rams sealed. It will also be interesting, and I am sure depressing, to see how many sub-legal rams were taken. It was approaching 10% of the known take halfway through the season according to some bios I talked to.

Tough times for sheep and sheep hunters here in AK.

 

[ColeyG]

Hunted the DCUA last week for my cousins tag and it is slim pickings for older rams. Saw 15 rams and 2 of those were solid maybes. Sheep seem to be real spread out as well. Hunted the same area 5 years ago on my tag and saw 30 rams with 10 being clearly legal. couple more years with good winters and hunting should be good though.

Man I wish I could share your optimism, but based on what I have been seeing, there aren't many young rams working on getting older, and not many ewes on the hill to rebuild the population. Ewe/lamb ratios were as bad as I have ever seen this summer. I am trying hard to find the potential light at the end of the tunnel and it seems like a long way off if things go well for sheep in the near future, which is a giant maybe at best.

 

[CHL]

Just depends on where you’re at I guess. I was in the Alaskan Range and killed a nice Ram. Saw 11-12 total Rams with one more legal one, and three more that were dang close. Killed on the second day so certainly didn’t get to look at all the country we had planned on either.

 

[Atigun]

We saw over 50 rams on the first hunt this season and many were in bands of 4-6. No full curls, but 3 were aged at 8 years old. 3 half curl rams solo. 60-70 ewes with very few lambs and a few young rams running with them. 3 winter kill rams with two being half curl and 1 full curl. Golden eagles galore. Heading back out in a couple days to close out the season.

 

[Homer]

Just depends on where you’re at I guess. I was in the Alaskan Range and killed a nice Ram. Saw 11-12 total Rams with one more legal one, and three more that were dang close. Killed on the second day so certainly didn’t get to look at all the country we had planned on either.

Have you hunted in that area before and if so how did the numbers compare this year to in the past? It just seems like it’s all so relative. This year I saw what I considered to be a large number of sheep but talking to the pilots who have flown in for years and years the numbers were 1/3 of what they historically have been.