If you could manage sheep unit boundaries...

[HydeParkHunter]

A hypothetical question, just curious what others think...

Say there is this Bighorn sheep hunting unit in a western state. It's a pretty good size area and the state issues 4 ram tags with reasonably high hunter success rates. There is decent motorized road access to most areas, still plenty of area to get away from routes. The season is long, say, Sept. 1 - Oct. 31. There is only one outfitter that could possibly use the area.

If you had your way, would you rather see the state manage the unit as it is with 4 tags, OR.... would you prefer they subdivide it into 2 or 3 equal opportunity units (let's just assume that's possible in this case) with only 1 or 2 tags in that subunit? Would you prefer to draw in a unit that you were the ONLY sheep hunter, or nearly the only one, as opposed to having 3 or 4 other folks out there even if it was big enough to theoretically spread out?

Full disclosure: I've been putting in for the better part of 25 years and never drawn. So... zero sheep hunting experience. But plenty of day-dreaming. Hence this post.

 

[cuerro viejo]

You want the bigger area, especially if it’s a rut season as they can cover a lot of country.

The competition isn’t a big deal especially with a season that long. First 2 hunters will be done by 2-3 days as they grab low hanging good enough fruit, so that leaves 2 hunters for 55 plus days chasing oldest they can find

 

[deadwolf]

I hunted with my uncle to fill his elk tag this year, he had a very large area with two other hunters with the same elk tag. Took twenty two years to get this tag. We never saw the other hunters the entire two weeks we scouted and then hunted. I’d rather have the bigger unit and more options of area to hunt.


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[idelkslayer]

I would prefer sharing the larger unit with the other tag holders.

 

[CorbLand]

I am taking a bigger unit with more people. Most sheep units arent giving out tons of tags, so competition is relatively low. Sheep densities are usually pretty low so being able to go a lot of places is helpful.

 

[Axlrod]

The unit I can see out my front window used to be 2 units with 6 ram tags in each. Then they got sick and died. Now there are sheep there again (transplants & a few survivors). It's 1 unit with 1 tag. The next 3 units closest to me, 1 is closed due to die off/ now transplanted. The other two have 1 tag each. So I would take any unit that had more tags. I have been putting in for sheep & goat tags here for 48 years without ever drawing. I used to get excited every spring for the draw, now it just makes me genuinely sad.

 

[Marine4life]

I hunted a fairly large unit in NV with 5 tags and a 2 month season. It was basically one large mountain range. I met only one of the other tag holders and actually hunted with him a couple days. He was older than I was and I really enjoyed getting to know him and trying to help him get a ram. Felt like I had the unit to myself and if I remember correctly hunted 15 days and scouted 3 days.


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