My son and I are off to hunt for a big ram in the morning. His luck in drawing tags has been almost suspect. Now he's drawn in what probably is the top area in the state. This will be his first ram...providing we get one. I'm not sure who is more excited. He or I! If we do I'll post a picture. Happy hunting to all.

Well it aint the Marco Polo you want, but I would take it!

I wish you guys all the luck. Maybe he didn't use it all up in the drawing!

It always amazes me how i know a bunch of people who draw these low-odds tags. A colleague of mine drew a desert sheep tag here in Arizona last year! I met some guy last week who drew an Arizona Bull elk tag two years ago WITH HIS WIFE. Of course, I have been putting in for Utah Cow Bison (supposedly 1/3 odds when I started now 1/10) for 5 years now and my father put in for the Henry Moutain Bull hunt for 25 years and never drew.

All my whining aside, good luck on your hunt!

JohnTheGreek

We'll all be waiting for those pics! I wish you well on your hunt. The time with your son will become priceless to you!!

Good Hunting,

Good luck! That is one animal that is high on my list.

I really appreciate living in alberta as we buy our bighorn tags over the counter with no drawing necessary.Myself and a friend will be leaving on oct 18 for our own bighorn hunt and hopefully his first ram as well.Best of luck on your hunt.

stubblejumper,

It is nice, isn't it? Alaska is the same way, just our over-the-counter tags(harvest tickets/reports) are free.

The thing is Alberta Sheep are Way smart! Very difficult to kill a legal ram. Im sure if they reduced the number of tags by implimenting a draw, noone would ever kill a sheep.

There are very good reasons why most alberta hunters never kill a sheep.Many are too lazy to spend the effort to find a place where legal rams hang out.Most won't go to the effort to pack in and live out of a tent for a week or so and hike every day until they kill a ram.Most that I know won't go far enough from a quad to even get into sheep country.Killing a ram takes a lot of effort and enough time to learn how to locate and hunt sheep.Two years ago when I killed my last ram, I hunted for six days and saw ten rams out of which four were legal.We were hunting the end of october and saw no other hunters.Most hunters hunt early when the weather is nice and never hunt the best part of the season when the rams start moving.I know of one individual who drew a tag for 437 this fall and now is not going to hunt.He has never hunted sheep and had no idea what was involved.After driving down to look at the hunt area he is not willing to make the effort to pack a camp into the area and hunt on foot.Over two thousand people applied for this tag and only eight drew it and now he is going to let it go to waste.A draw is not necessary for sheep in alberta not because the sheep are so smart but because many people have no idea what it takes to successfully hunt sheep.

I sometimes wish they would put sheep on a draw system. Maybe you can only get drawn every three years? Like they used too for trophy antelope in AB. A very endangerd species is a legal ram in kananaskis during hunting season.

Gonzolas-In fact there is a waiting period of one hunting season after you kill a ram before you can buy a trophy sheep tag again.I killed a ram in 2000 and was not allowed to buy a tag in 2001.With this system you can't kill more than one ram every two years.If you don't kill one however you can buy a tag every year.The fact is that the majority of sheep are killed by a very small percentage of sheep hunters so most hunters rarely kill a ram.Because of this the system works well as many people can hunt each year but the successful ones can only hunt every second year which does reduce the number of sheep killed.The easy to access sheep areas are often crowded.For example the cadomin minesite is like an anthill during the season.On the other hand the remote lesser known areas have little hunting pressure as most won't bother with the effort required to access them.If you are serious about sheep hunting and are willing to make the effort there are still good areas where you will not be hunting in a crowd and there are legal rams to be found.The bottom line is that you have to make the effort to find these places as the serious sheep hunters don't often divulge their best areas.

Stubblejumper- Yeah I know that if you shoot one you have to miss a year. The last one I shot was in 99. The problem though in my area there was always a million hunters. Any legal ram was spotted usally within a day if it went into a legal area and was toasted. Thats why I was saying a legal ram in K country is an endagered species. Kinda like being dropped in a large mine area. I was thinking that if once you were drawn for a sheep tag and wern't able to apply for three years maybe you would think twice about pulling the trigger on a squeeker and hopefully better trophy quality. And maybe you wouldn't have a bunch of people out there who werent serious about sheep hunting. Nothing bugs me more than a rat race to a sheep or someone who doesnt know a thing about sheep, then goes after them without doing there homework.We have always found the first week and the last two weeks are the best time to hunt sheep.

Happy hunting

Stubblejumper

Check your email. Look at the nose of one of the pics, weird eh.

Just a quick note. Sheep is dead. Andrew shot a beautiful ram on opening morning (15th) at 8:00 am. Scores 177 green.

39 1/2 on long side and 34 on broomed. 15 3/4 bases. One shot. 75 yards. 30 -06 fed n.p. 150 grain.

I'll get some pics and story in the near future. Next is my Montana moose permit which took me only 30 years to draw!!!! Moose are starting to rut........here we go.

Keith,
I think we can wait on the pictures and story until you have the Moose to go with it
Good Luck!

Keith,

That's fantastic. Congratulations to him, and you.

Wayne

Congratulations Kieth to your buddy, sounds like a great ram.Good luck on bull winkle.

Gonzolas I dont want to start an argument but what is wrong with someone shooting a squeeker? The law says its legal, he has done some work to even get where sheep are, done a stalk and completed the hunt with a shot.The meat is great and maybe thats all he/she is looking for.If you spend 20 days looking for the big whitetail and see a 4 point on the last day and shoot him, is that considered wrong?Trophy quality drops when this happens. I know in the willmore that book sheep are rare so if I go in there why is it bad that I take a ram thats just past legal?In order for someone to learn about sheep they have to get out and go.I know from experience that someone who knows sheep country will rarely share it with someone else,so the new comers must get out,probably with a "new sheep hunter" .These guys go to easily accessable areas to learn.I know all about trophy quality and the hunt,Bobby Turner has said that you should only be allowed to get 2 rams in a life time,would that be right?I dont agree with a draw. This year I was 8 miles from a road, walk in.I saw the damndest thing 2 youngsters maybe 20.One guy was wearing Hawaian shortsand wearing sandals, yup sandals.It was like he made a wrong turn at the beach,except he was carring the rifle in a case.Was he serious? I would say yes,walking that far in sandals.I guess if a guy doesnt like what is happening in his area its time to move on to greener pastures.But I havent found that pasture because no matter where you sheep hunt someone else is already there. Good luck this year.

Keith-Congratulations on the great ram and good luck with the moose.Love to see the pictures when you get around to it.
Ken-Anybody that walks that far in sandals has got to be one stubborn guy.Not too bright but stubborn.Just the kind of guy who might make a sheephunter someday.

kenatalberta- I agree with you I don't see anything wrong with shooting a squeeker if you worked hard for it. I also dont agree with only being able to shoot 2 sheep in a lifetime. But with a draw, that once you wrere drawn you could not apply for three years maybe you would have a better hunt or higher trophy quality. For example in K country I am almost willing to bet that 99% of all legal rams are spotted within the first 3 days of hunting season. Any ones that are close to leaving parks are also knowen. If you had a draw maybe you might wait for a larger one knowing that you could not apply for three years. And if you did want to shoot just a legal one which is fine too, then F& W can control the amount of legal sheep being shot in one area. I dont think making Bighorn a Full Curl is a great solution either simply because you can get some huge sheep that wil never be full curl because they have broomed off horns.

Gonzolas,
I am another one of the guys hunting sheep in the Kananaskis. 408 & 406 to be exact. The beauty of sheep hunting is that it is self regulationg. The number of sheep legally killed in the area in 2001 was 3. This is well within the carrying capacity of the population, so why would we restrict the number of hunters? It is irrelevent how many people actually get out to hunt sheep, what is relevent is the sucess rate. 406 and 408 and a sucess rate between 3% and 5% with an average of about 150 hunter days per animal taken. Not trying to start an argument, just laying some facts out there. It does frustrate me when I have to compete with other hunters to get a ram. There are still some places that are simply too tough for most people to get into. Adn like Stubblejumper correctly stated, the terrain more then anything else is what eliminates hunters and regulates the sheep harvest. Do you think people would have the same great success hunting whitetailed deer if they lived in good sheep country?

those are my thoughts not yours,
Thomas

In my haste I forgot to offer my congratulations on a very nice ram.
Congratulations, your son is now a sheep junkie!