Unfilled Tag on Guided Sheep Hunt

[mfsights257]

Hunted the Wrangells this Aug w/ great outfitter, saw 7 Rams, only 1 legal ( 2 guides said not sure, 1 said it was) , resident hunters everywhere. Left w/ unfilled tag, my bucket list hunt. Everyone I talked to said Alaska has had major decline in sheep populations and quality of hunting. If I go sheep hunting again it will be in NWT or Yukon.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I have a guided stone hunt next year in BC....have been paying a little bit at a time since I booked in 2020 in order to afford it. There is no way I will ever go on another one unless I win it in a raffle or become a BC resident. Obviously I want to be successful, but if I hunt through the entire duration of the contract, it will easily be the most extreme hunting experience of my life, and therefore worth it. All I expect is to be physically and mentally challenged, and for my guide to keep us walking over the next hill.

 

[adventure907]

Hunted the Wrangells this Aug w/ great outfitter, saw 7 Rams, only 1 legal ( 2 guides said not sure, 1 said it was) , resident hunters everywhere. Left w/ unfilled tag, my bucket list hunt. Everyone I talked to said Alaska has had major decline in sheep populations and quality of hunting. If I go sheep hunting again it will be in NWT or Yukon.

Any pictures of the ram in question by chance?

 

[mfsights257]

Any pictures of the ram in question by chance?

Unfortunately, no

 

[TheGrayRider]

Here is a photo of a Dall’s ram from 2021 we hunted but was just not full curl. The assistant guide said he needed about 6 more months of growth. We studied him for over an hour. Best of luck, TheGrayRider.

 

[MallardSX2]

I'm way too much of a poor sport to spend 30K and come home empty handed.

Some of you guys stories are soul crushing. lol

 

[USMC-40]

I'm way too much of a poor sport to spend 30K and come home empty handed.

Some of you guys stories are soul crushing. lol

Try spending double that…

It’s more about the adventure than the trophy, I love these hunts because I come home and appreciate things like water faucets, and I prove to myself that I am still somewhat ‘tough’

 

[MallardSX2]

Ya, if I spend 60K to hunt sheep my wife and I would be divorced. FOR SURE. lol

Glad I never got the itch.

 

[BeaverHunter]

Try spending double that…

It’s more about the adventure than the trophy, I love these hunts because I come home and appreciate things like water faucets, and I prove to myself that I am still somewhat ‘tough’

Can I play devils advocate for a second? You can go on a super physically demanding hunt for a different species for damn near for free and not kill anything. Like hunt the frank church for bears and kick your ass and be miserable for as long as you want(with some great adventure and scenery). And a non resident bear tag cost about $100 dollars and the gas to drive to the edge of the wilderness or worst case spend $500 on a plane ride in. And guys aren’t paying 25k-60k for that. So it must be more about the trophy than most guys let on.

 

[HornPorn]

I think @adamkolesar said it best:

"...The relative "value" of pursuing sheep is necessarily subjective. Hopefully we all have the resources and opportunity to follow a pursuit that most rational people would consider crazy..."

 

[TheGrayRider]

This is no game for the weak-kneed and faint-hearted. Hunter success is not high, not because there aren’t enough sheep but because there aren’t enough people with the temperament to become sheep hunters.
—Jack O’Connor, “The Bighorn,” March 1960.

 

[USMC-40]

Can I play devils advocate for a second? You can go on a super physically demanding hunt for a different species for damn near for free and not kill anything. Like hunt the frank church for bears and kick your ass and be miserable for as long as you want(with some great adventure and scenery). And a non resident bear tag cost about $100 dollars and the gas to drive to the edge of the wilderness or worst case spend $500 on a plane ride in. And guys aren’t paying 25k-60k for that. So it must be more about the trophy than most guys let on.

Fair question, and I’ve hunted the Frank - I really have a passion for chasing sheep. Hard to explain, it’s just where my hunting passion largely lies

 

[the hack]

"Hunting is the brokering of hope. The prices vary, but the end result is the same: A renewed vigor for life and respect for death."

 

[FLATHEAD]

Happened to me on a Brown Bear hunt. Most expensive hunt I've ever done.
Hunted HARD for 10 days from a drop camp. Snow, Sleet, Rain every day. Walked and glassed our butts off from daylight till dark. Saw 2 bear. They never stopped walking and
we couldnt catch up. Never fired a shot.

 

[shooterrdy]

Buy Insurance on the tag. Not that I have but I hear it's possible.

 

[Ralphie]

I'm way too much of a poor sport to spend 30K and come home empty handed.

Some of you guys stories are soul crushing. lol

No kidding. And then some of the stories of missing rams. I’m still haunted by coyotes I missed 20 years ago and I can hunt them any time I want almost for free.

 

[jmez]

Can I play devils advocate for a second? You can go on a super physically demanding hunt for a different species for damn near for free and not kill anything. Like hunt the frank church for bears and kick your ass and be miserable for as long as you want(with some great adventure and scenery). And a non resident bear tag cost about $100 dollars and the gas to drive to the edge of the wilderness or worst case spend $500 on a plane ride in. And guys aren’t paying 25k-60k for that. So it must be more about the trophy than most guys let on.

Unlimiteds in MT. Hunt sheep, and not much more adventurous and ass kicking than that.

Sent from my moto g power (2021) using Tapatalk

 

[T1ippo06]

Sorry to hear about your unsuccessful trip. I have a trip to the Yukon scheduled for Aug 2023 and I was wondering if you would mind sharing the concession number or even the general geographic area of the Yukon you were hunting. Of course, if you wanted to share the outfitter name that would be fine too.

1. How many square miles in the concession?
2. How much of the concession is mountain range e.g. Ogilvie Mountains? The Yukon concessions...some are "more better" for moose/grizzly/caribou and some have more (or less) habitat for Dall/Fannin sheep.
3. Ask the outfitter "How long have you/your family had this particular concession?"
4. The Yukon has seen some tough winters and then some "Spring Thaw" with ice storms where the previously-cleared sides of mountains turn to ice, and the sheep starve. Entire age class gone.
5. There are certain areas of the Yukon that have lost up to 50% of the sheep population. For example, the Spring of 2013 was horrible north/northwest/northeast of Dawson City. Sheep starved/froze to death in March/April. Areas "that had up to 3000 sheep are still at 1800 sheep and haven't recovered".
6. Try to get some of the data from the "Thinhorn Sheep Conferences", or whatever the "Thinhorn Summit" meetings are called in Canada. Populations are down in the Yukon since 2013 due to at least three bad winter-kills and haven't recovered. Some areas and pockets did okay but the overall numbers are down.
7. Ask your CA outfitter how many sheep hunters they are taking per year, and is this the same number as prior to 2013? Success rate and average age of rams taken?
8. I am a US citizen, and have hunted sheep in OR in 2009, in the Yukon in 2012, 2013, BC in 2014, the Yukon in 2015, 2016, Idaho 2018 and Mexico 2019 and back to the Yukon one month ago. You have to pay more in CA as compared to most sheep hunts in OR/ID or AK, train the same like your life depended on it, and keep an optimistic attitude. I was lucky enough to be the only person to draw the OR and the ID sides of Hell's Canyon through the non-resident random draw. Book rams both times and dang near died in OR due to persistent rain/sleet in late October, and lots of hiking in ID as we came in from the backside and didn't go near a jet boat.
My main suggestion, assuming you are training/shooting/weaning down your gear list to a minimum, is to find out the # of hunters/year over the past 10 years, the ages of rams taken, and get references of successful and unsuccessful sheep hunters. Just my two cents, and I'm heading back to the Yukon next year. I will not divulge the outfitter, but the adjoining outfitter concession has not decreased their # of hunters while the outfitter I'm hunting with has decreased his # of hunters by 1/3 so as to maintain an older age class of animals.
I don't spend a lot of time on social media so may not be back to respond as I'm going to out of the country a couple of weeks hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain with my wife and planning to stay away from the internet for awhile.
Bryan Martin, about 6-7 years ago, posted some interesting comments on the "Stone's/Dall's/Fannin's" sheep hunting data/opportunities in CA. You may be able to find a Rokslide member who copied/pasted his comments.
Best and good luck,
Tippo (aka "That Black Dawg")

 

[Mykolaivka887]

I went to Alaska last year and never saw a legal ram. I did shoot a beautiful grizz on my sheep tag. She wasn’t huge but she was very pretty. Not sure there was any legal rams anywhere close to me.

You mean that you killed a grizzly on your Brown/Grizzly Metal Locking Tag. Legally, by statute, you can't put a Sheep Metal Locking Tag on a grizzly bear.

 

[Afhunter1]

You mean that you killed a grizzly on your Brown/Grizzly Metal Locking Tag. Legally, by statute, you can't put a Sheep Metal Locking Tag on a grizzly bear.

Yeah that was it. Thanks for the clarification!