Hello!
Can anybody help me locate some outfitters that can offer sheep hunts to average people, without the largest bank accounts?? Both the North American continent and the rest of the world is of interest. I know it´s not for free someplace, but right now I can´t afford 10.000 dollars for a hunt. Is the Rocky Mountain Bighorn the best choice for my wallet in the States?

/Thomas L, Sweden

Good luck! From what I've seen cheap and sheep don't go together. Well... maybe blue sheep. I've seen some of them reasonable priced, but IMHO their not much to look at.

Ibex in Mongolia is cheaper than sheep anywhere.

Maybe a "do it yourself" sheep hunt in Montana but success is about 10% last I checked.

Cheap sheep? Hmmmmmm. I can get you on a nice suffolk for $250!

To be honest, a cheap sheep hunt don't exist any more. Dall is the least expensive of the slam. And it isn't cheap by any means.

Perhaps not what you are looking for, but, Texas has pretty cheap sheep hunting. It's nowhere near real mountain hunting for sheep but various types are available for $1000 give or take. Most of these are on high fence ranches, the ones I hunt range from a couple of thousand acres up to 13,000 acres. My pic on the left shows a Texas Dall sheep I took last August on one of these ranches. The ranch was 8,000 acres and they do a lot of spot and stalk hunting for the sheep. It's the only way I can afford to hunt sheep.

Free ranging Aoudad in TX is probably about as cheap as you can hunt sheep - outside of Merino sheep on high enclosure rannches. Supposedly, the Aoudad is a very good hunt.
- mike

quote:

Ibex in Mongolia

Dogcat!
Where can I find some information on the mongolian Ibex hunts?? It sounds interesting.

Thomas,
Contact Jeff Neal at 918 299 3580. He is an agent and sends a few people every year over there.
Good Luck

It's not the typical North American sheep experience, but you could hunt mouflon on the volcanoes in Hawaii. You'll have extremely rugged terrain, tons of game, huge bag limits, low cost, and you can go to the beach on a day off if you like. PM me for details.


Okie John

Here in Montana we have a couple of areas that are deemed unlimited areas (they are on a short quota)for sheep, if you got that tag and did your schooling you could hunt for them pretty darn cheap.

Just and idea

MD

quote:

Dogcat!
Where can I find some information on the mongolian Ibex hunts?? It sounds interesting.

Thomas, check out the hunting forum topic "Hunting in other parts of the World". Some info there.

You may also want to send a private message to Aziz as he apparently has a wealth of info and experience chasing sheep, goats, etc. worldwide and I, for one, wished he'd post more and frequently on his travels and hunts.

Good luck on your quest and keep us posted on what you may find.

DB

quote:

Here in Montana we have a couple of areas that are deemed unlimited areas (they are on a short quota)for sheep, if you got that tag and did your schooling you could hunt for them pretty darn cheap.

Mark, yep. Didn't Montana fish and game recently (1 yr ago) thin out some sheep due to their range proximity to domestic sheep? Such a shame when they could have sold those tags for major $ and put that money toward other uses.

DB

Thomas,
That is a recipe for disaster, better you save that money for a good sheep hunt some years down the road, else your going to get ripped off, if they have cheap prices its because they ain't got any sheep or equipment and are looking for a sucker...I hear these kind of horror stories every day from propective clients....

Thomas:

Go to Mongolia. PM me and I will give you some details. It is a great hunt for a very reasonable price. And a 45 inch ibex is a damn nice trophy.

As mentioned earlier, go for an aoudad. They are fun to hunt and will cost you about a third of that 10k. The hunt can be tough. They won't make it easy on you, and they can absorb some lead.

I can't bring myself to accept a "Texas Dall". A Dall to me lives considerably north of Texas.

A mouflon just looks to "domestic" to me.

I think you would be happy with an aoudad hunt.

There are free-ranging Audad hunts in canyon country that would be challenging hunting. There are Aoudad on smaller fenced properties which would be an entirely different type of hunt. Should you book one, be sure you know which type it is.

Thomas

I have to agree with Ray. If someone offers you a "CHEAP SHEEP" there is a problem with the hunt.

As far as I know there are only 2 alternatives and neither one is great. One choice would be to hunt the unlimite s area in MT with a very low success rate or move to AK and hunt dall sheep as a resident. The latter is very doable but even as a resident you will have quite a bit of cash in gear and charter flights.

Save your bucks and do it right when you have the money.

Regards,

Mark

While the Audad is not exactaly a sheep, it's somewere between sheep and goats, They can be extremely hard to hunt. Go to the Davis Mountains or the Palod Duro Canyon. The have been free roaming for over %0 years. The Mouflon is a wild sheep of the world.. Here in texas there are pure strains of these avaliable. Some are crossed with Barbado and other domestic sheep. These are usualy called Corsicans. The texas Dall, Desert and others all basicaly color phases of these. Back to the Mouflon These can be beautiful trophies and a 'decent' hunt if the ranch is open/large rugged enough. But for a great, well urned, trophy try the Audad. It won't disaspoint! capt david

Hello. As said above no such thing exsists. I would love to go on a sheep hunt of any kind in my life but by the time I could save the price would probably be double what it is now. And I'm not about to spend what could be 3 or 4 semesters at a Ivy League school for my son just to have a sheep on the wall. Another route would be to save up a chunk of change and apply in as many western states as you can. Odd's are long but I hear people actually do draw PM me if you want some help applying and where to start. Good luck.

quote:

Where can I find some information on the mongolian Ibex hunts?

I looked into this a while back. CanAsia came highly recommended. I also heard a lot of great things about Safari Outfitters. Send them both an email, I'm sure they'ld be happy to give you more info and setup a hunt if your interested. One of the great things about Mongolia is after you have taken an ibex or two you can head down to the desert floor and hunt gazelles. Hope this info helps.

Dids a hunt in Mongolia a few years ago. great time and the best value out there. And a 40"= Ibex is a great trophy. While you are tere you can drool over the Alti MT argali sheep

Thomas,
It looks the two Marks, Dobrenski and Young have hit the nail on the head. Montana unlimited districts are availbable to non-resident hunters and can be unguided. I have not checked the cost but it must be around $700 about now. This is a quota system with 48 hour closure once the legal limit is met. In the past it has been something of a foot race as the season has a tendancy to close within a day or two of opening. That closure is often weather dependent. The two areas are the Beartooth Mtns. north of Yellowstone Park and the Gallatin Mtns core area along the northwest boundary of the Park. The Beartooths are extremely rugged and prone to the equinox storms that can last for three days and be life threatening even if you're a seasoned alpine hunter. The Gallatin range is also backcountry but perhaps just a little easier for a backpack hunter to negotiate. The herd density is dependent on many things in the Gallatins, not the least of which is migration out of Yellowstone. I have hunted both a number of times without success, but I have seen immature rams, ewes and lambs on these hunts. Two years ago I was going after a mature ram in the Beartooths that I had spotted the night before when the season closed that morning. The only reason I knew about the closure is that I watched to young men take another ram as I headed up the mountain. This is not an easy hunt by any stretch of the imagination, but it is as far as I know the only place on the planet where an individual can hunt bighorn sheep without a guide and inexpensively. However, you must do you homework to plot sheep distribution, which Montana FWP will help you with and plan to be hunting as a scouting or reconnisaince outing up to a week before the season officially opens. As long as you're not packing a rifle along you are within the legal right to do so. But be ready by the opener as this is something of a competitive hunt. The game is also played by a number of outfitters with many years experience finding sheep in the vast wilderness of Montana. The number of hunters varies, but generally there are 35 to 110 per district with from one to three full curl rams allowed on quota. I have had some wonderful days up there hunting in the fall weather of September and there have been other times I've glad to get off the moutain in one piece. If you've got to buy a plane ticket from Sweden then Mongolia might be kind of a bargain for guided hunts. Texas sheep are not Rocky Mtn bighorn. BIG DIFFERENCE! Just depends on what your expectations are. Good luck.
Yellowstone

Dungbeetle-yeah from what I hear that deal happened. I can't believe that the F&G would make such a deal as that!! To me that stuff was a bunch of you know what. (not that it riles me or anything eh)

MD

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(not that it riles me or anything eh)

___________

I ground off 2 back molars on that one. I dont recall the actual # of sheep taken but want to say it was <20 but >12. You recall? A special lottery dwg for, say, 5k$ tags would have brought in some appreciable money along with other income for the State of Montana for lodging, guide fees (for those that wanted one), trepass fees for the Ranchers, etc. Hard to fathom sometimes.

DB

Mark and dungbeetle,
That sheep kill must have ocurred in the 300 districts. I haven't heard that story until now but it must not have happend over here in the Beartooths. I think the last sheep grazing allotment was discontinued in the upper Boulder drainage two years ago. FWP has closed Spanish Peaks and I thing Lee Hart has quit guiding in there. Where did this happen?

Two bad the quit the S Peaks hunt I know of 2 really nice rams there. Found them the year b4 they closed it.

As I understand it and I am not totally sure on this but F&G wanted to plant the sheep. Ranchers had a tizzy about them wanting to do it.

So F&G basically told them that if the sheep started to give them any issues that they could be taken out.

I hate to say it fellas but this is just another case of "Land Gods". Sorry to vent this and should keep my mouth shut but I believe that ranchers/farmers are the most cottled and underwrote people out there.

IMO that is.

MD

Yellowstone, I dont recall the exact area that the "cull" was done in. It was on this forum, though, before it was changed over. I dont know if a search would yield anything on it as I haven't tried that.

I think Lee Hart pretty much gave up his operation in the Gallatin area (across from Sky) and maybe does Dude tours, etc., not sure. The wolf problem hurt lots of folks in that area but that's another subject. Dont know if Lee is still in Hell Roaring or not.

Back on the Sheep, I can understand about the concerns of disease transfer and all to Livestock but there should be a better method for culling than was apparently used.

DB

Dungbeetle,
Thanks for the update. I also hunted Mirror Lake in Spanish Peaks, etc. the same year and time Diana was killed in Paris, whatever year that was. It was a rodeo and I got close but no cupee doll. I do recall that FWP killed several over at Lost Creek near Anaconda because one of those big rams wandered down the valley toward Warm Springs and pollenated every Suffolk and Rambaloute he could corner. They also did the same with a wandering ram on the lower Boulder between McCleod and Big Timber. I saw that ram early in December along the road and he must have been in the 175 class, which is very nice for the Beartooth. There were a lot of woolies in the East Boulder drainage. I've seen no sheep out of Gardiner or Chico in many years, but with the final settlement of the West, grazing allotments are going to have to go the way of ice houses and biplanes. Americans want a different focus on the remaining public lands and they are slowly getting it. I sympathize with the ranchers to some degree but their time is fading and public land hunting will fade right behind them. Quien sabe'?

Yellowstone,

I am trying to remember the post here on that sheep cull and may have to blog it. I "think" I recall a poster clipping it from a newspaper from Bozeman or Helena, maybe. I think it may also have been mentioned in the Montana Outdoors magazine. I need to blog it. I was somewhat amazed that FNAWS was seemingly silent on it and I dont mean that as a slam at FNAWS.

I fear you may be right on the public land hunting, over time. The key to that will be the individual states since GWB signed the recent act.

DB

Dungbeetle,
Well it's midly amusing how far we've drifted since our friend in Sweden asked about cheap sheep hunting. I didn't buy an unlimited tag this year but one of the guys in our office has opted for 501 so I guess I'll be a pack mule. Best Regards,
Yellowstone (over in Billings by the way)

quote:

Well it's midly amusing how far we've drifted since our friend in Sweden asked about cheap sheep hunting

Yep, a high jack and I'm guilty. Good luck on that hunt and post something when it's over.

DB

Thomas L:
I think you can find a "cheeper" sheep hunt in Alaska with some research. You'll have to stay away from the well known guides and probably have to find a "new" guy by word of mouth. Some of the new guys are ever bit as good as the well known guides.
If you use an Agent/Outfitter or search the net, you will most likely pay about the same for any hunt.
Word of mouth is your best bet.

Thanks for all help folks! We´ll see what I can find. Both Alaska and Mongolia seems very interesting! The fence-hunts in Texas etc. aren´t really my thing.

Try Ray Atkins. I have an email address for him you can use:
atkins@mtaonline.net
I will be hunting Dall sheep with him next August.

For Euros this is the booking agent.

http://www.diana.dk

They obviously speak Danish and are a little closer to home for us.

Thomas,

The Diana agency books for Ibex in Asia, Europe, and Spain.

Wild sheep in British Columbia, Yukon, and Asia.

A Mongol Ibex can be had for E4000 plus airfare.

It's on my list of things I need to do now, that I have an African safari in the bag.