High Country Domestic Sheep Hunting

Joined
Apr 17, 2017
Messages
533
Location
ID
I am located in Idaho, and have had multiple experiences in the past where I hike into a high country area to scout or hunt only to discover hundreds if not thousands of sheep accompanied by potential sex offenders/sheepherders.

Any tips on how to know where the sheep are, or might be before I show up to the trailhead and/or glassing point?
 

RickH

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 26, 2012
Messages
126
Location
CO
As said above just contact the govt. agency who manages the land. They should have a schedule of where the domestics are or should be at any particular time. I hate them on public lands in the high country.
The fact that they transmit disease (pneumonia) to bighorn sheep and have literally killed off entire herds of bighorns, documented, is a huge reason they shouldn't be there, especially where grazing allotments overlap with bighorn summer or winter range.
 
Joined
Oct 5, 2018
Messages
2,062
Location
Colorado
You can still find just about every type of game around cattle. When sheep come through, everything moves out.
Is that mostly because they are accompanied by people and dogs or just because there are so many? I've only run into a big herd once but I wasn't hunting. The cattle, similar to the sheep, detract from the my wilderness experience.
 
Joined
Aug 11, 2017
Messages
2,685
Location
Florida
Is that mostly because they are accompanied by people and dogs or just because there are so many? I've only run into a big herd once but I wasn't hunting. The cattle, similar to the sheep, detract from the my wilderness experience.
Man sheep are an entire other thing. They are crazy loud, aggressive dogs running around, they graze everything down to the dirt, just overtly disruptive to everything.
If I hear a herd coming through I pack up and move areas completely.
 

Poser

WKR
Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
5,614
Location
Durango CO
In CO, you can look up the grazing permits. The FS requires some elevation rotation: they start higher some years and lower the next, but they occupy fairly larges areas so no real way to know exactly how they will be moved around the permitted area. I generally avoid them and where they have been because they shit in all of the water sources. I do routinely cross though them to access certain destinations, though. The dogs have historically been cool with me. Usually escort me through the herd, but I have heard stories of aggression.

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