CO S17 Bighorn 2025

[HuntHardColorado]

Hello, I'm new here but have been browsing for a while now. I drew a bighorn tag for S17 rifle in CO this year. I have a good gameplan of where I'd like to hunt this year knowing it'll be rough terrain. Couple question for those who have hunted this area:

1. Do you feel like it's worth it to pack into an area and spend several days you hope rams will eventually visit even tough you haven't spotted any before going up?
2. Or rather, would you approach the hunt as a spot and stalk style?

I also read on the Flattop wilderness report the rams have moved out of their normal concentration areas. Not sure I put a ton of decision making making weight into this, but it was interesting to read. OnX concentration areas cover where I'd be hunting, and it seems like there wouldn't many other places they'd move out to. Any suggestions or thoughts of where this might be would be appreciated.

 

[Sandbrew]

My thought process has always been glass don't hike. I've spent plenty of time hiking for sheep and have had far better success looking for sheep from afar. You can cover a ton of the higher elevation of S17 from very far away. If you have an area you have seen sheep 3 out of 4 days and you plan to hike in for day 5-10 that might work. Good luck with my tag.

 

[Poser]

In some cases, you may have to backpack in 1-2 nights to get to the glassing vantage (or vantages) you need to fully glass an area. So, the answer to your question is "sort of -it depends"

 

[Sandbrew]

In some cases, you may have to backpack in 1-2 nights to get to the glassing vantage (or vantages) you need to fully glass an area. So, the answer to your question is "sort of -it depends"

I agree with this as well. I would ceratinly start with the easier to access/glass places and cover as many places as you can then narrow down the locations you can't see without hiking. A wise old sheep hunter when I called asking for tips on locating rams once told me this, after hiking around for 9 days in a wilderness in Colorado looking for a buddies ram without seeing any. "Now you know where they are not at." There's a lot of truth in that.

 

[Short Track]

I heard the Ewe's are not with the rams that time of year. So if you see a bunch of Ewe's... look elsewhere. Not sure if it's true.

 

[Seth]

I hunted it in 2020. PM me and I’m happy to share what I learned. There’s lots of UP in that country, so I hope you’ve been working the legs and lungs! Enjoy every moment of this experience.