Dall Sheep Hunting Alaska

[jacksont]

I am looking to hopefully go on my first sheep hunt this season and I would appreciate any pointers on good areas to walk into with stable sheep populations. One area I looked at that would be easy for me to get to is 13c just West of Mentasta lake if anybody had any experience hunting there also.

 

[Peak a Week]

Hey Jackson - first off, congrats on deciding to go out on your first sheep hunt. That's a big commitment and you'll have a blast regardless of how many sheep you see.

There's literally decades worth of research one can do on finding sheep in Alaska. Coming from my own experience, it is 100% possible to research some solid areas through hours and hours of reading, looking at maps, talking to the local community, and hiking (a lot) during the Summer. It's pretty competitive, so have fun scouting and researching, but please just be careful not to accidentally blow up someone's spot on the internet.

Good luck out there, it really is a great challenge.

 

[jacksont]

Thank you for your advise I've spent lots of time already looking at maps in school but I'm sure that you can't spend too much time on that.

 

[oenanthe]

You'll probably find that sheep hunters are very reluctant to talk about specific locations. But from what you said, I think you might be well advised to research sheep populations and where they live in the Alaska mountains. My advice would be to read some of the sheep populations surveys that Fish and Game publishes; they might not tell you where the big rams hang out but they certainly will tell you the ranges that hold significant sheep populations.

And yeah, like PeakAWeek said, you might want to be careful about talking about specific locations. Remember, there's only about 10,000 other hunters who are now looking at the same spot you are, and more in years to come.

Best of luck to you!

 

[AK Goat Rope]

You may want to look at the Ahtna, Doyon, CIRI and Eklutha private land maps that show what land is off-limits to hunting for non-shareholders. It will be an eye opener for you as they have intentionally locked up a lot of hunting grounds adjacent to highway access.