Differences in Dall, Stone, RM Bighorn, D Bighorn hunts

[buffybr]

I was lucky enough to have started sheep hunting in the early '80s when I moved down to SW Montana. I took 3 bighorn rams on DIY and DIY solo hunts in Montana's Unlimited ram units that each cost me only a $25 tag and a tank of gas. I backpacked one hunt and used my horses on the other 2.

In 1999 an outfitter friend of my called me about a Dall sheep cancellation in the MacKenzie Mountains of Canada's Northwest Territory. It was a fly-in backpack hunt and I was fortunate enough to have shot a great Dall ram, a mountain caribou, and a wolverine.

Two years later, that same friend called me again about a cancelation Stone sheep hunt for $11,000, but I was in the middle of a very nasty divorce and couldn't go. I'd jump on that hunt in a second now.

When I was 71 I went on a Dagestan Tur hunt in Azerbaijan. That was a horseback/backpack hunt and was the most difficult hunt that I have ever been on.

As others have posted, a Stone sheep hunt is probably the most expensive due to their limited population and availability. A Desert ram hunt would probably be the 2nd most expensive, although several states offer tags through a drawing, but you should have started applying 20 years ago.

Montana still has a few Unlimited ram tag units, but the odds of finding a legal ram are very, very low. I've been unsuccessfully applying for a Montana draw ram tag for 41 years.

My rams...

 

[jmart5687]

It’s hard to go wrong with any of the Yukon or NWT Dall outfits. I went with Tim Mervyn in 2017 and had a great hunt. They say populations are down in that area now. Lancasters seems like great guys. Arctic Red, Tombstone, Nahanni Butte, and several others all seem to get high marks. Really depends on the type of hunt you want (backpack, horseback, helicopter use or not, etc., etc….). Each outfit does things a little differently. I love the traditional horseback style of hunting. Alaska is a complex puzzle I would not be willing to try and solve at this point.

I took my California Bighorn with Bruce Ambler in BC. It was a mountain hunt with low odds of success but he and another outfitter have hunts on the Fraser River that are very high success hunts. But they are very expensive.

I get what you say about the desert hunts. They are a different experience for sure. Would not be my first choice either but I drew an AZ tag and really came to love the desert environment when I hunted them.

I would second Mervyn's for Dall. I hunted there last year and had a great hunt and great experience. While I was in Whitehorse, I spoke with a group that hunted with Bonet Plume and had great success as well.