Crown method.

[kaboku68]

I have been very happy with the Crown method of age determination that has been developed by Clay Lancaster. It is pretty genius. It works well on all Ovis species. I can't see myself using something else. He discusses it on the Mindful hunter podcast and on Youtube.

 

[tdot]

Here's a link.

I was watching this last week. Very interesting.

Have you actually used it in the field?

 

[kaboku68]

I have a bunch of dinks and three good rams at Sportsman's in Fairbanks where I am part time. Using the 12X42 NLs and then some 10X42 Vortex Razorbacks to go through all of the sheep mounts in the store. We have Quantity over Quality with the exception of two nice ones and the old 13 year old monster shot up Red Sheep Creek that was seized by the Feds.

 

[kaboku68]

People up here used to do that a lot and they seem not to do it as much. People would stop at sporting goods stores and score and field judge sheep. I guess it is not as cool anymore or maybe I am not paying attention.

 

[tdot]

Probably YouTube makes it easier to learn without having to actually inspect real sheep. Or atleast it's easy to think that sitting at a desk.

 

[JColony]

Thanks for sharing!!! From the perspective of a complete rookie, confirming legality is a very intimidating thought.

 

[oenanthe]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. What he says kind of lines up with one of my rules of thumb, which is that if the first obvious growth ring (the three-year annulus) is at more than half-curl, the ram is legal.

I've got to say, though - and maybe it's because I had to suffer through two years of Latin in high school - his saying 'annuli' instead of'annulus' is confusing. My Latin teacher would've slapped me silly for that. A single growth ring is an annulus; two or more are annuli.

 

[Grassymike]

Like his system a lot. My one Ram on the wall meets the criteria. Now just to get in the hills and glass some sheep up to start practicing the system.

 

[tdot]

Son of a b.... just aged a Ram that I let walk last year on the last day of my sheep hunt. I wasn't able to count rings on him with 100% confidence and unfortunately he had assymetrical horns. When I first looked at him, boom! He was an easy full curl. Set up rifle, spotting scope on a tripod, prepared for the shot. Then took a 2nd close look to confirm legality. He was just short of legal. I watched him for a few hours and never again was able to confirm a full curl. I finally decided I better let him walk as I felt like I was starting to force him to be legal. Was reviewing photos the next day and realized that he'd switched directions from when I first saw him, and never again switched back. I had 1 face on photo and his horns were clearly asymmetric, 1 full curl, 1 side not quite there. Rookie sheep hunter mistake.

This method shows that sheep as legal, even on his short side.

 

[ytlogger]

Son of a b.... just aged a Ram that I let walk last year on the last day of my sheep hunt. I wasn't able to count rings on him with 100% confidence and unfortunately he had assymetrical horns. When I first looked at him, boom! He was an easy full curl. Set up rifle, spotting scope on a tripod, prepared for the shot. Then took a 2nd close look to confirm legality. He was just short of legal. I watched him for a few hours and never again was able to confirm a full curl. I finally decided I better let him walk as I felt like I was starting to force him to be legal. Was reviewing photos the next day and realized that he'd switched directions from when I first saw him, and never again switched back. I had 1 face on photo and his horns were clearly asymmetric, 1 full curl, 1 side not quite there. Rookie sheep hunter mistake.

This method shows that sheep as legal, even on his short side.

That's a better mistake to make...

 

[AK_Skeeter]

Good discussion of false annuli at 16:00 in video.
See also:
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/...ng_sheep_horns_under_full_curl_regulation.pdf
The also have a good discussion of false annuli:

 

[SLDMTN]

Hot off the mountain. What say you for age?

This is a fun one, I know what F&G aged him at. What do you think?

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[Blockcaver]

Dead head looks to be 10 or 11 and the bottom ram 12. Great old rams! The dead head is tough to age and might be older...really hard to tell without handling him, but he sure as heck was a dandy older legal ram based on age assuming he lived where there were open hunting seasons,

 

[SkunkCabbage]

..........

 

[SLDMTN]

The dead head I haven’t gotten sealed with ADFG yet but I’ll report back when they age him.

The lower ram got aged at 9 which leaves me scratching my head. I still think he’s older than that but I’m not a biologist. He only had a couple teeth left and was slow moving around the hills.

 

[AK Troutbum]

I was guessing 8 on top and 9 or 10 on bottom.


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[Clarktar]

9 on the dead head is my guess.

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[Cactus kid]

9-10 on the top

11-12 on bottom
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[kaboku68]

9-10 on top.

11 on bottom.

 

[deadwolf]

If either of those sheep are less than 10 I’d be shocked


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