Montana Unlimited units

[Jake Larsen]

The last time I went into any of the Wilderness Areas or hunted in any of the Unlimited Sheep units was in 1999. I was down to only one horse then and my Son and I packed him back into a section of Unit 300 that a friend of mine had killed a nice ram in the year before.

I saw a full curl broomed ram the afternoon before the season opened, then opening morning there were orange pumpkins all around that basin, 4 tent camps in the largest clearing in that basin, and an outfitter bringing his dudes on horseback through the basin. My Son and I and my Goldern Retriever were close enough to several ewes and young rams that we could hear them chewing the grass that they were eating, but we never saw a legal ram.

As for the fires, I think that they have provided more food for the wildlife. 1988 was the worst fire in years in the Yellowstone NP area. In the summer of '89 I helped with some Forest Service trail work in the Hellroaring drainage just north of the Park. The grasses in the burned out areas were higher and brighter green than I had ever seen them before. Today, many of the lodgepole pine areas in the Park that were burned out in '88 have 20-30' high LPP new trees that are almost too close together to walk through.

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas I visit family in the Denver area. About 4 or 5 years ago I found an area just west of Golden, CO where I've counted up to 20 Bighorn rams wintering. I've seen them there every winter since I first discovered them. Last summer about a half mile of that hillside burned. Two weeks ago I spotted a half curl ram feeding on the new grass in that burned area.

That’s been my experience and understanding as well. Historic photos show MASSIVE mind boggling conifer encroachment in most mountain ranges in the west the last 100 years or so. Fires seem to be the recourse, and show nothing but benefit for the wildlife. They can make it harder to get around sometimes though. It’s interesting to think about these macro environmental cycles of half century or century long periods. We see a tiny little snapshot in one human lifespan


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[AndrewEatsTags]

I'm lucky enough to have started hunting the Unlimiteds in the early '80s. There were more unlimited units, and way fewer hunters. Some years some of the unit quotas didn't fill.

My biggest problem was that I didn't take those hunts seriously enough. Back then we could apply for a limited unit, and if we didn't draw, we could just buy a $25 Unlimited tag. I did that for about 10 years in several units and most years I wouldn't even see another hunter. There also wasn't a 7 year wait to apply if you killed a ram. Most years I just hunted opening weekend, and if I'd get a ram, great, but if I didn't, there was always the next year.

The year that I killed my last Unlimited ram I almost had a confortation with another hunter.

The year befor a friend and I packed a camp in with my horses. About a quarter mile from my camp, an outfitter had a camp with 1 guided hunter and another friend of mine was staying there, but not being guided hunting.

So opening day no one from either camp saw any rams on the mountain above our camps. The second morning, the Outfitter's guide and hunter went up the mountain. The Outfitter and my other friend stopped my camp. We talked and all decided to go around to the back side of the mountain to glass the avalanche chutes for sheep. The Outfitter balked at my Golden Retreiver going with us.

After glassing for about an hour without seeing any sheep, the Outfitter decided to go up the mountain to check on his guide and hunter. He asked if any of us wanted to go up with him, my friends said no, but I said that I was there to hunt so I went with him.

About half way up the mountain I found some fresh sheep tracks going up the mountain so the Outfitter and I split up, him going up an avalanche chute, and I went up through the timber. Higher up the mountain, I came across 2 rams below me at the edge of the avalanche chutes. Both rams were legal, but because I had killed a full curl ram the year before, I decided to pass on them.

I then picked up a walnut size rock and threw it underhanded and hit one of the rams. They ran up the mountain. A few minutes later a shot rang out, then both rams ran back down and stopped just above me. One of the rams ran out into the avalanche chute and the other ram had been gutshot and his small intestines were dragging on the ground like a rope, and he ran the other direction into the trees.

I didn't want to see him suffer so I followed him and caught him in the next avalanche chute, and gave him a finishing shot, then went back and found the Outfitter and his guide and hunter, and took them to the dead ram. I helped them dress the ram and helped carry it over the mountain and down to their camp.

In 9 years of hunting that mountain, that was the 1st ram that the Outfitter had killed. He invited me to a steak dinner at his camp that night, and gave me the biggest Porterhouse steak, and gave my dog all of the bones.

So back to the almost confrontation that I mentioned earlier...

The next year I went back to that area by myself. Opening morning climbed up the mountain, and a little way down the other side I found and shot the ram that I had passed on the year before. While I was dressing him, the Outfitter from the year before and his hunter showed up.

The hunter congratulated me and offered me a drink from his pocket flask, which I thanked him for but refused the drink. Talking with them, they had been on the next ridge and saw me stalking and shoot the ram. The Outfitter had told his hunter to quickly take a long shot at the ram, but his hunter had refused because I was already stalking the ram.

The Outfitter then told me of a trail where I could get my horses close to my ram, and offered me one of his horses to pack my ram out.

Of my 3 Unlimited Unit rams, this one had the shortest curls, but at 9 1/2 years old was the oldest.

Just stumbled across this, but that's a great story