Hawaiian Mouflon Sheep

[ScreamingPotato]

Can't say for the natural habitat, but we have mouflon on some public land down here in West Texas and lots of people give feedback. It seems the ones who treat the meat like sheep enjoy it, the people who treat the meat like venison don't.

 

[bojangles808]

I will be in Hawaii hunting Axis deer and I will have an option to hunt Mouflon sheep as well. Has anyone had experience with Mouflon? Are they more of a trophy hunt or is the meat good? Any info helps!

From a meat perspective axis is good but i prefer mouflon. but i'm in the minority with that one. From a trophy perspective, mouflon rams are way more of a trophy hunt than axis. especially the pure ones on lanai. There are wayyyy more 30 inch axis deer running around in HI than 30 inch pure mouflon rams. Even the outfitter on lanai where dudley and rogan go and it costs thousands a day to hunt rarely kill a 30+ ram in their sheep zone.

The management of the lanai rams by the state also has had a role in this. about 10-15 years ago they stopped the mouflon sheep hunt for a number of years bc of the drought conditions as the herd numbers dwindled. It was only deer hunts for a while. when they brought the state sheep hunts back, they made you shoot a ewe before you got an either sex tag. That was when the ram hunting was good (2012-16 i think?). gave the rams a lot of years to grow then limited them to those who shot a ewe first , which is a bit of a challenge itself as their numbers are a lot fewer than axis deer.

Then the state changed things I wanna say about 5 years ago and got rid of the ewe first requirement. That really brought on a "if its brown its down" mentality and the age class suffered tremendously. Guys didnt have to wait to get a ram tag and go shooting the first dink they see, just to say they shot a ram. it's sad. I really started getting picky around then and spent both ram and deer hunts looking for sheepy areas, bc I knew if this continued trophy rams would be no more. I had shot a couple nice deer and got a ewe with my bow but never came close to a solid ram. I held out not even looking at anything under half curl and got lucky and shot a 31 inch ram in 2018. I continued with the same strategy in 2019 but saw less and less even half curls and quality continued to go down.

Covid gave them a year off in 2020 and last year 2021 was reduced tags/ no rams allowed to be taken so barring any changes in the states management plan this will be your best and last chance at a trophy pure bred Lanai ram possibly ever after 2 years of not being hunted. this is 4 weeks of archery then jun -october non stop rifle hunts so they are going to get pounded. the biologist say they are managing for herd quality not trophy quality, so doesn't seem like anything is changing for the better. I plan on hunting this years combo deer and sheep just like i have in years past. Hunting in the areas i know that hold sheep and hope to find a ram big enough to pull the trigger. There's deer everywhere but sheep not so much. If a big buck pops out though I will certainly go for it but the priority this season will be a ram. last light doe or ewe pops out i don't discriminate either but have the rest of the year to focus on meat hunts.

 

[chase4545]

From a meat perspective axis is good but i prefer mouflon. but i'm in the minority with that one. From a trophy perspective, mouflon rams are way more of a trophy hunt than axis. especially the pure ones on lanai. There are wayyyy more 30 inch axis deer running around in HI than 30 inch pure mouflon rams. Even the outfitter on lanai where dudley and rogan go and it costs thousands a day to hunt rarely kill a 30+ ram in their sheep zone.

The management of the lanai rams by the state also has had a role in this. about 10-15 years ago they stopped the mouflon sheep hunt for a number of years bc of the drought conditions as the herd numbers dwindled. It was only deer hunts for a while. when they brought the state sheep hunts back, they made you shoot a ewe before you got an either sex tag. That was when the ram hunting was good (2012-16 i think?). gave the rams a lot of years to grow then limited them to those who shot a ewe first , which is a bit of a challenge itself as their numbers are a lot fewer than axis deer.

Then the state changed things I wanna say about 5 years ago and got rid of the ewe first requirement. That really brought on a "if its brown its down" mentality and the age class suffered tremendously. Guys didnt have to wait to get a ram tag and go shooting the first dink they see, just to say they shot a ram. it's sad. I really started getting picky around then and spent both ram and deer hunts looking for sheepy areas, bc I knew if this continued trophy rams would be no more. I had shot a couple nice deer and got a ewe with my bow but never came close to a solid ram. I held out not even looking at anything under half curl and got lucky and shot a 31 inch ram in 2018. I continued with the same strategy in 2019 but saw less and less even half curls and quality continued to go down.

Covid gave them a year off in 2020 and last year 2021 was reduced tags/ no rams allowed to be taken so barring any changes in the states management plan this will be your best and last chance at a trophy pure bred Lanai ram possibly ever after 2 years of not being hunted. this is 4 weeks of archery then jun -october non stop rifle hunts so they are going to get pounded. the biologist say they are managing for herd quality not trophy quality, so doesn't seem like anything is changing for the better. I plan on hunting this years combo deer and sheep just like i have in years past. Hunting in the areas i know that hold sheep and hope to find a ram big enough to pull the trigger. There's deer everywhere but sheep not so much. If a big buck pops out though I will certainly go for it but the priority this season will be a ram. last light doe or ewe pops out i don't discriminate either but have the rest of the year to focus on meat hunts.

View attachment 407963

Love the picture. I'll be in Lanai next weekend hunting these things and axis, can't wait.

 

[Thecrickethunter]

From a meat perspective axis is good but i prefer mouflon. but i'm in the minority with that one. From a trophy perspective, mouflon rams are way more of a trophy hunt than axis. especially the pure ones on lanai. There are wayyyy more 30 inch axis deer running around in HI than 30 inch pure mouflon rams. Even the outfitter on lanai where dudley and rogan go and it costs thousands a day to hunt rarely kill a 30+ ram in their sheep zone.

The management of the lanai rams by the state also has had a role in this. about 10-15 years ago they stopped the mouflon sheep hunt for a number of years bc of the drought conditions as the herd numbers dwindled. It was only deer hunts for a while. when they brought the state sheep hunts back, they made you shoot a ewe before you got an either sex tag. That was when the ram hunting was good (2012-16 i think?). gave the rams a lot of years to grow then limited them to those who shot a ewe first , which is a bit of a challenge itself as their numbers are a lot fewer than axis deer.

Then the state changed things I wanna say about 5 years ago and got rid of the ewe first requirement. That really brought on a "if its brown its down" mentality and the age class suffered tremendously. Guys didnt have to wait to get a ram tag and go shooting the first dink they see, just to say they shot a ram. it's sad. I really started getting picky around then and spent both ram and deer hunts looking for sheepy areas, bc I knew if this continued trophy rams would be no more. I had shot a couple nice deer and got a ewe with my bow but never came close to a solid ram. I held out not even looking at anything under half curl and got lucky and shot a 31 inch ram in 2018. I continued with the same strategy in 2019 but saw less and less even half curls and quality continued to go down.

Covid gave them a year off in 2020 and last year 2021 was reduced tags/ no rams allowed to be taken so barring any changes in the states management plan this will be your best and last chance at a trophy pure bred Lanai ram possibly ever after 2 years of not being hunted. this is 4 weeks of archery then jun -october non stop rifle hunts so they are going to get pounded. the biologist say they are managing for herd quality not trophy quality, so doesn't seem like anything is changing for the better. I plan on hunting this years combo deer and sheep just like i have in years past. Hunting in the areas i know that hold sheep and hope to find a ram big enough to pull the trigger. There's deer everywhere but sheep not so much. If a big buck pops out though I will certainly go for it but the priority this season will be a ram. last light doe or ewe pops out i don't discriminate either but have the rest of the year to focus on meat hunts.

From a meat perspective axis is good but i prefer mouflon. but i'm in the minority with that one. From a trophy perspective, mouflon rams are way more of a trophy hunt than axis. especially the pure ones on lanai. There are wayyyy more 30 inch axis deer running around in HI than 30 inch pure mouflon rams. Even the outfitter on lanai where dudley and rogan go and it costs thousands a day to hunt rarely kill a 30+ ram in their sheep zone.

The management of the lanai rams by the state also has had a role in this. about 10-15 years ago they stopped the mouflon sheep hunt for a number of years bc of the drought conditions as the herd numbers dwindled. It was only deer hunts for a while. when they brought the state sheep hunts back, they made you shoot a ewe before you got an either sex tag. That was when the ram hunting was good (2012-16 i think?). gave the rams a lot of years to grow then limited them to those who shot a ewe first , which is a bit of a challenge itself as their numbers are a lot fewer than axis deer.

Then the state changed things I wanna say about 5 years ago and got rid of the ewe first requirement. That really brought on a "if its brown its down" mentality and the age class suffered tremendously. Guys didnt have to wait to get a ram tag and go shooting the first dink they see, just to say they shot a ram. it's sad. I really started getting picky around then and spent both ram and deer hunts looking for sheepy areas, bc I knew if this continued trophy rams would be no more. I had shot a couple nice deer and got a ewe with my bow but never came close to a solid ram. I held out not even looking at anything under half curl and got lucky and shot a 31 inch ram in 2018. I continued with the same strategy in 2019 but saw less and less even half curls and quality continued to go down.

Covid gave them a year off in 2020 and last year 2021 was reduced tags/ no rams allowed to be taken so barring any changes in the states management plan this will be your best and last chance at a trophy pure bred Lanai ram possibly ever after 2 years of not being hunted. this is 4 weeks of archery then jun -october non stop rifle hunts so they are going to get pounded. the biologist say they are managing for herd quality not trophy quality, so doesn't seem like anything is changing for the better. I plan on hunting this years combo deer and sheep just like i have in years past. Hunting in the areas i know that hold sheep and hope to find a ram big enough to pull the trigger. There's deer everywhere but sheep not so much. If a big buck pops out though I will certainly go for it but the priority this season will be a ram. last light doe or ewe pops out i don't discriminate either but have the rest of the year to focus on meat hunts.

View attachment 407963

That's what we should all be after. Doesn't get nicer than that. Ide keep it all a secret but I honestly hope it gains enough interest to get proper management. The way they have been eradicated on BI is all I need to see to be extremely skeptical of their future.

 

[woz18]

I didnt have Mouflon on the radar.. I was just going to go for Axis.. But I talked to some local outfitters and they said my timing with December would be a better idea to focus on Mouflon.

Id love to chat live with anyone that would be open to a 10 minute conversation..

Ill be out there December 1-10, and the bow will be in tow.. Even though the wife won't like it..