AK Sheep, Population Observations

[FAAFO]

I killed my first sheep (other than aoudad) this season on August 26th in the Alaskan Range. We knew he was a good one, but I was ecstatic when he broke the 40" mark. F&G aged him at 9 years old. He has 14-2/8" bases too.

Beautiful ram! I’d be curious which office aged it too. I’m not getting 9 due to growth rings intervals but I’m not the best at aging either. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Clarktar]

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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What a great post. I appreciate your restraint for shooting something just because it's legal and you spent money to get there. Great perspective on a trip into the mountains.

 

[Clarktar]

I had mixed feelings about the post and probably should have held off. Thanks for the feedback. It is a publicly posted image so I don't feel permission is required. It was shared with the world.

For clarification, I am not critical of the hunter and I hope they had a great hunt and are more than happy with their trophy and experience.

I am, however, being critical of guide services that promote taking young and barely legal rams and for toeing that line so closely that a significant number of them are taking sub-legal rams on an annual basis. That particular guide has a disclaimer on their web site that says the areas they hunt are known for sheep that reach 8 years old without being full curl.

Barely legal dot com

 

[nicsegebrecht]

Great ram! Just curious, which fish and game office sealed him for you?

Anchorage

 

[wantj43]

I killed my first sheep (other than aoudad) this season on August 26th in the Alaskan Range. We knew he was a good one, but I was ecstatic when he broke the 40" mark. F&G aged him at 9 years old. He has 14-2/8" bases too.

Great ram! Congratulations.
Would be interesting to plot those growth segments on a growth trajectory chart.
Again, congratulations.

 

[Snyd]

Barely legal dot com

Back in the any ram days it was a big deal to shoot a full curl ram. Nowadays if a guy shoots a 7 or 8 yo ram just at full curl he gets frowned upon cuz he shot a dink that is barely legal. Barely legal is still legal. A 50 or 50.5 inch bull in a spike/fork/fifty area is also "barely legal" but we don't see the same judgement there expecting everyone to shoot at least a 60" bull.

Some guys have goals of shooting a trophy class ram, other guys are hoping to at least get a legal ram. Each to his own.

Guides are the same way. I know a long time guide that would only let his clients shoot what he considered trophy class rams. Since the sheep population has fallen off for various reasons he is not even booking sheep hunts anymore and hasn't for a few years.

Again, each to his own.

peace

 

[Clarktar]

Back in the any ram days it was a big deal to shoot a full curl ram. Nowadays if a guy shoots a 7 or 8 yo ram just at full curl he gets frowned upon cuz he shot a dink that is barely legal. Barely legal is still legal. A 50 or 50.5 inch bull in a spike/fork/fifty area is also "barely legal" but we don't see the same judgement there expecting everyone to shoot at least a 60" bull.

Some guys have goals of shooting a trophy class ram, other guys are hoping to at least get a legal ram. Each to his own.

Guides are the same way. I know a long time guide that would only let his clients shoot what he considered trophy class rams. Since the sheep population has fallen off for various reasons he is not even booking sheep hunts anymore and hasn't for a few years.

Again, each to his own.

peace

The context of population status is an important element of my comment.


Too each their own indeed.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[MntHunter]

Barely legal dot com

Just as a point of reference, that website is not a sheep hunting website.

 

[Bambistew]

I'm shooting every barely legal ram I see from here on out. Might as well be me, vs a NR.

 

[Timjohnson11]

I killed my first sheep (other than aoudad) this season on August 26th in the Alaskan Range. We knew he was a good one, but I was ecstatic when he broke the 40" mark. F&G aged him at 9 years old. He has 14-2/8" bases too.

dream ram, congrats sir!

 

[mdoolin]

On a more positive note I did finish out the season walking into a new area and just like the other area I hunted this year i found a high number of lambs. There were a surprising number of ewes and lambs and almost every ewe had a lamb. One ewe running by herself even had a set of twins.

Here is to hoping for some more mild winters so the populations can start rebounding. Not sure what we will fight about when that day comes...

 

[ColeyG]

On a more positive note I did finish out the season walking into a new area and just like the other area I hunted this year i found a high number of lambs. There were a surprising number of ewes and lambs and almost every ewe had a lamb. One ewe running by herself even had a set of twins.

Here is to hoping for some more mild winters so the populations can start rebounding. Not sure what we will fight about when that day comes...

That is a great positive note to end on. Not as positive as hiking out with horns and meat, but great news for the future.

Congrats to all that were able to harvest an AK sheep this year and for those that didn't, I hope you made some good memories in the hills and enjoyed the pursuit.

+1 on the hope for a few sheep friendly winters.

 

[Bambistew]

Preliminary statewide harvest is 360 rams. I'd expect harvest to be similar for the next couple years, then be much lower for a couple years then bounce back. Hope we get an easy winter. Reports of good lamb crops this year in many/most ranges.