Alberta Bighorn Outfitter Recommendation

[AlbertaFisher]

Good morning all,
I literally just got back from Rocky sheep in the Willmore Wilderness Park three days ago with an outfitter mentioned in this thread. I am pretty disappointed with the whole Alberta process and animals. DO NOT GO TO ALBERTA FOR ROCKY unless you want to go 2 to 3 times or more. That will be 3-400K. You are better off buying a governors tag if you can afford it. 15 days on horseback and everything that goes with it. No legal Ram only half curls. Huge issue as mentioned is residents being able to buy a Ram tag for 80 bucks over the counter then add Natives allowed to hunt all year no restrictions. Public hunting area so other outfitters are hunting the same Ram you are and not to mention the bears. Day 3 had a 9ft grizz charge us and saw 12 more huge bears after that. There is no Grizz hunting allowed in Alberta! The place is a bad place to hunt, period! The list goes on for me with one bad thing after another but I won’t go into detail. We all need to stop buying these hunts, the outfitters need to make this a trophy fee hunt so they have some skin in the game! 100K is absurd for a maybe kill. Make the hunt 40K and add a realistic trophy fee of 20-30K, which is still ridiculous. This would have completed my slam so the sales of the outfitter worked on me to sign! Bad decision. I’ll keep putting in for my points and take my chances there before Ram hunting in Alberta. I know that there were 8 hunters taken to this area this season and only 1 hunter got a Ram. Horrible kill percentage. The two guys before me in camp were also trying to finish their slam and no Ram for them either! Not sure if you can personal message me here but if you can I will give more details privately!

To be fair, that’s Alberta for you. Our land is a wild place, especially the Willmore… a place I am very fond of. The legal sheep are far and few between, and the outfitter pressure across Alberta pisses us residents off. It takes 5-10 years of annual effort from residents to shoot a ram out here (I know several), so it’s not like we’re laying in all the bushes sniping them out immediately. Additionally, usually residents just take one ram in their lives, rarely more.
Outfitter cover the mountains with their tents and lay claim to the land in July (season for residents opens Aug 25). This is Canada, where we have what is called crown (public) land. It doesn’t matter that I don’t like the outfitters (I haven’t done a trophy sheep hunt yet), and it doesn’t matter that they don’t like residents and our indigenous people. We all have to get along. The winters are long and harsh, so everything grows slowly out here. Management isn’t the best, but also the amount of outfitter tags they allow is absolutely ridiculous.
There’s always a truth in the middle. Sorry your hunt didn’t go the way you wanted it to. I went to Alaska fly in to do a DIY float down a remote river and I was told the coho salmon were closed the day I arrived on the river before the plane left me and my friends there. I know how you feel, but also, enjoy the journey. It’s not healthy to always focus on the kill and forget the path to the end goal — like everything in life.

 

[Rooferrich]

Good morning,
I agree with all you've said. You guys have a great thing there. Maybe what I am trying to point out will help you. I just want to point out how outfitters are misleading the foreign hunters, almost to the point of it being an unethical sales presentation. They all tell us the odds are 50% and that is no where true. I understand hunting and going home empty handed but a money grab is all these outfitters seem to be offering. One out of eight hunters taking a legal Ram this season is no where near 50%. I love Canada and have had some of my most favorite hunts there and I will be back but not for Sheep!

 

[AlbertaFisher]

Good morning,
I agree with all you've said. You guys have a great thing there. Maybe what I am trying to point out will help you. I just want to point out how outfitters are misleading the foreign hunters, almost to the point of it being an unethical sales presentation. They all tell us the odds are 50% and that is no where true. I understand hunting and going home empty handed but a money grab is all these outfitters seem to be offering. One out of eight hunters taking a legal Ram this season is no where near 50%. I love Canada and have had some of my most favorite hunts there and I will be back but not for Sheep!

Awesome response, thank you for the cordial conversation. I agree with everything you’ve said as well. Outfitters are saturating the landscape there. There needs to be a cut in tags or area allowance for them for everyone to be able to harvest a sheep. For residents, if we were to harvest a sheep, we are ineligible for a tag the following year — the outfitters get at least 8 tags every year.
This ultimately screws over you guys wanting a quality hunt, us residents, and ultimately, the sheep. Unable to grow to a legal “squeaker” size, I’m not sure why our province isn’t putting more effort into better management.
The reality is, sheep have moved into very very remote areas where they aren’t hunted, where they can the hunted (mine sites and parks), or live much of their lives in the timber during hunting season.
I agree that many of these outfitters are disingenuous about expectations. If you do buy the ministers tag, shoot me a DM I maybe able to point you in the right direction.
Cheers

 

[cuerro viejo]

Good morning all,
I literally just got back from Rocky sheep in the Willmore Wilderness Park three days ago with an outfitter mentioned in this thread. I am pretty disappointed with the whole Alberta process and animals. DO NOT GO TO ALBERTA FOR ROCKY unless you want to go 2 to 3 times or more. That will be 3-400K. You are better off buying a governors tag if you can afford it. 15 days on horseback and everything that goes with it. No legal Ram only half curls. Huge issue as mentioned is residents being able to buy a Ram tag for 80 bucks over the counter then add Natives allowed to hunt all year no restrictions. Public hunting area so other outfitters are hunting the same Ram you are and not to mention the bears. Day 3 had a 9ft grizz charge us and saw 12 more huge bears after that. There is no Grizz hunting allowed in Alberta! The place is a bad place to hunt, period! The list goes on for me with one bad thing after another but I won’t go into detail. We all need to stop buying these hunts, the outfitters need to make this a trophy fee hunt so they have some skin in the game! 100K is absurd for a maybe kill. Make the hunt 40K and add a realistic trophy fee of 20-30K, which is still ridiculous. This would have completed my slam so the sales of the outfitter worked on me to sign! Bad decision. I’ll keep putting in for my points and take my chances there before Ram hunting in Alberta. I know that there were 8 hunters taken to this area this season and only 1 hunter got a Ram. Horrible kill percentage. The two guys before me in camp were also trying to finish their slam and no Ram for them either! Not sure if you can personal message me here but if you can I will give more details privately!

CO is around 70-100k for LO sheep tags and you are looking at 160-180 rams, and 99% success if you have whole season

 

[AlbertaFisher]

CO is around 70-100k for LO sheep tags and you are looking at 160-180 rams, and 99% success if you have whole season

Better growing season and good management at its finest eh! Im glad you guys have that amazing resource

 

[dirtshooter]

A big issue with Alberta, Canada hunting in general, is the indigenous hunting. No rules no regs. Spotlighting, multi kill hunts, wastage, out of season hunting just to kill a cow with a calf still inside. They're the reason the AB goat season was closed for so long and why the aB bison season is closed again. It's worse in BC, they decide who can hunt what and have a say in the regulations yet don't regulate themselves.

 

[AlbertaFisher]

A big issue with Alberta, Canada hunting in general, is the indigenous hunting. No rules no regs. Spotlighting, multi kill hunts, wastage, out of season hunting just to kill a cow with a calf still inside. They're the reason the AB goat season was closed for so long and why the aB bison season is closed again. It's worse in BC, they decide who can hunt what and have a say in the regulations yet don't regulate themselves.

The primary reason the bison closed down is because of the ambiguous status of the heard up near the NWT boarder. There was an outfit that started up there and hunted the shit out of them (still in court) and that’s why they closed it up as a blanket statement from what I understand. I can’t speak about Zama. I don’t think we can fully blame the indigenous hunters as I know many and they respect the hell out of the rules. A few (if any group) can ruin it for many.