To all,

I just got back from an exotic sheep hunt and was fortunate enough to shoot a very nice Muflon ram with a handgun.

The owner of the range said the ram should rank in the top 20% of the handgun records.

My question is how does SCI measure sheep horns. Is it the standard full curl length plus the four eqally divided mass measurements like B&C uses.

Also, is there a listing of the current SCI records on the web or do you have to get the book?

Thanks for your information!

Good Shooting!!!

50

Sheep are measured using Method 11: Length of each horn along its outer curve + basal circumference of each horn +
circumferences of each horn at 1st quarter, 2nd quarter, 3rd quarter (based on length of longer horn). SCI Minimum for European Mouflon, North American Introduced, is 105.

As far as I know, SCI does not have their Record Book on the web.

George

GeorgeS,

Thank you for the information, that is exactly how I thought they measured them, just wanted to be sure.

My ram has just under 29" curls with base measurements right at 10". His overall score it 125 6/8" gross.

Does SCI use a "gross" and "net" measurements for deductions? If so, my ram nets 125 1/8".

I do not think this will go in the top 20% as the world record I believe is in the mid 130's but I am very happy none the less and the hunt was a good hard one, well at least as hard as they can get for these sheep.

Once I found the herd, it took nearly 4 hours to finally get a shot at a quality ram. There were two older rams in the area with more mass but each had broomed at least 8" of horn off each curl.

I feel my ram, while around a year younger then the others was the dominant ram in the area as he was with the ewes and the others were off a short ways.

Again thaks for the information.

Good Shooting!!!

50

You're welcome. That's a nice ram.

SCI doesn't 'do' deductions. The gross score is the total score.

Perhaps your guide was referring to the Records of Exotics record book.

George

Well done. I just took my first exotic sheep last weekend, a Hawaiian black, and had a great time. Can you give us details about the hunt. Some pictures would be nice.
Sevens

Seven,



I have gone on three exotic sheep hunts so far, one near Spokane WA, one in south Texas and this last one in Shoshone, ID.



On the first two hunts I harvested two Black Hawaiian rams, the hunt in WA, was with a handgun where I used an Encore handgun chambered for the 50 A.E. and harvested a 114" ram at 134 yards.



The hunt in Texas was a much more difficult hunt as we had to hunt only from fixed tree stands and only with archery gear. The sheep knew the stand sights very well and while I did harvest a ram, it was not trophy quality.



This latest hunt was in south Idaho and was alot of fun. When I booked the hunt the ranch owner said that the sheep he had were definately trophy quality but if using a handgun or archery gear, would be very difficult to harvest on of the mature rams.



I got there Friday evening last week and was able to get out to the hunting area in time to spot a few of the Muflon sheep as well as some of the Fallow deer he had in the same area. Had I seen a mature(5yr old or older) Fallow buck I think I would have had to take one of those as well but I saw only small bucks.



On saturday morning, I got to the hunting area at sun up and was met by the ranch owner. This is a smaller ranch so there is no guide services or anything else. You go in alone, you hunt alone and you haul out alone, on foot.



Being from Montana and having packed out several animals, this was not a big deal.



I got settled in an area covered with large lava rock formations and started glassing for the herds.



In talking with a group of hunters that had been to the ranch the month before me, they discribed two rams in particular that were very old and that I should try for one of these. They said they would be easy to pick out as they both had broomed off the tips of their horns.



After a bit of glassing, I found a herd of mainly young rams. Having never seen a mature Muflon before some of these looked quite impressive and one that I watched for over an hour almost got the hammer but I held off as I did not see the two old rams discribed by the other hunters.



By mid morning I had watched dozens of sheep but none of the monsters supposed to be on the ranch.



I set down and had a sandwich and an apple juice and then decided to wonder to the other end of the hunting area to see if I could find the breeding herd.



Sure enough they were there and unfortunately they were tipped of to my approach by a herd of Fallow deer.



I crawled into some rocks and set up to glass the herd. They did not know where I was, only that something(someone) was in the area and the herd huddled up together with the rams in the center of the herd.



I had been glassing the herd for over an hour when something made the herd move toward me. I ranged them and found they were just over 300 yards away.



The handgun I was carrying was a custom XP-100 chambered for the very potent 338 WSM wildcat. Its load using the 180 gr Ballistic Tip driven to 2850 fps had already harvested enough Montana game out to 320 yards to know it was fully up to the challange of such a shot.



Problem was that the wind was blowing quite hard and with the herd milling around, such a shot at those ranges would be very risky, spell that EXPENSIVE!!



I decided to settle in and see if the herd would move closer. Over the next two hours the herd very slowly moved my way until, at about 5:00 pm, I ranged the herd at 225 yards.



The wind was letting up enough to take a shot at this range but the herd was still very tight. I began getting serious about which rams I would take if the chance arose.



I did see the two old rams but was not impressed by the look of their horns and several rams that looked to be only about a year younger had noticably longer curls so I decided to pass on the old boys.



I picked out three other rams that I felt were good shooters, easily making the SCI minimum score with a handgun. Problem was that they stayed close together never giving me a clear shot with the big single shot.



I then noticed a small band of ewes about 20 yards closer that came out from under a ridge that had a very unique herd ram with them. All the other rams had typical Muflon horns that generally pointed nearly straight down or only slightly forward.



The ram with the ewes had very good mass and his curls were deep and ended with a 5" point straight forward. I felt he was magnificent to look at so I turned my attention to his herd and forgot about the others. It was much easier to keep track of one big ram with ewes the a few big rams with alot of younger rams.



Being I do not have all the money in the world, I wanted no risk in shooting a younger ram.



I spotted this ram at about 5:15 pm and now it was pushing 6:00 and the sun was getting low. I was getting frustrated because everytime the big ram would try step out of the herd, there were two ewes that flanked him almost like a shadow. The clearest he would get would be his rib cage out in from for a couple second and then the ewes would trot up and cover him. Seemed they were protecting their ram.



The herd continued to walk from my left to right as they neared a large group of rocks. They started behind the pile and began to disappear one at a time. I was getting a little nervous as the light was beginning to fade and this was a one day hunt.



I noticed there was a small saddle in the rocks that should allow me to see the sheep as they passed by. My only worry was that the saddle was large enough to see a single sheeps body in length and if the ram walked through with a ewe in from or behind, I would probably not get a shot for that hunt.



I ranged the last of the herd as they when behind the rocks, they were at 208 yards and were traveling pretty much perpindicular to my position. I quick review of my drop chart on my scope said the impact would be roughly 2" high at that range.



I settled the cross hairs on the saddle hoping to see the big curls of the ram come first and right on cue they did. It appeared he was alone as well. He stopped with a large rock covering his front shoulders and I knew the ewes were coming soon and considered a neck shot but on a ram that size, hitting the horn would be a real possiblility.



Just then he took a step forward exposing his entire front shoulder. I tickled the 1 lb trigger on the XP had at the boom, I lost all track of the ram.



I did hear the classic hollow thump of a front shoulder hit though but still decided to wait a couple minutes to see if he came out with the herd. When he did not, I got up and walked over to where was at the shot.



Sure enough the 180 gr Ballistic Tip centered both shoulders and he was laying right where he stood at the shot.



I was very happy to say the least. He was my second SCI trophy class ram with a handgun and this one will go much higher into the books.



Next I need to get a Corsican and then a Texas Dahl and I will have the exotic grand slam.



I do not have the pictures back yet but if you sent me a private message, I will scan them in and e-mail you the pick when I get them.



Good Shooting!!!

Sevens,

If you don't mind, I would like to hear about your hunt. I like hearing from fellow exotic sheep hunters.

Thanks,

50

look up this web site it may help-


http://www.hedgesoutdoors.com/bighorn.html

Fiftydriver,

Mine is now were near as exciting as yours, but here it goes.

Like yours mine was a one day hunt. I drove down on Friday and didn't get in till rather late, so I was unable to glass for animals. I got up early the next morning and set out down the mountain. (The cabin is located at the top of the mountain). I followed the guide, carefully glasssing the large boulders for any sheep. " There's a nice group of rams over by those rocks," I heard my guide say. I froze and looked to where my guide was pointing. I didn't see a thing. The guide said they were moving and might be aware of us, so if you want to see them we better move quick. I fallowed, carefully watching my step. I crawled down a little ravine and on to some rocks. "Where are the sheep?" I whispered. "Shhhh", I watched my guide point directly below us. We had worked ourselves to the rocks right above them. I could see the sheep jerking their heads back and forth, looking for any danger, stomping their feet. My desire to shoot one was great, but I passed and we backed back up the mountain and began walking the ridges in search of more sheep.

After quite some time of walking and glassing and not seeing anything but a beautiful view of the valley below. We decided to set up in a ground blind and try to flush the sheep up a game trail. I was hesitant, but I hadn't seen anything since the morning, so what could I lose.

I sat behind the blind (just a bunch thicket) for only an hour, but it seemed like forever. I sat trying to be quiet, but blinds just arn't my thing. I was glad to hear the foot steps of my guide returning. He was astonished to hear I hadn't seen anything. It was agreed upon we would try an aproach of crawling through the thicket to try and spot a bedded sheep.

We were walking along the mountain side when I spotted a coyote. I was allowed to shoot all the coyotes I saw, but was unable to get a shot off before he vanished into the brush. Almost immediatly after the coyote, we got a radio call from another guide saying he found a group of rams back up towards the top. We began our hike back up the mountain.

While climbing the mountain my guide stopped me every so often to catch my breath, "Can't shoot when your out of breath." I coudn't believe the terrain we were hunting. I was expecting a valley with gently rolling hills. These were steep rocky mountains.

We finally made it to the top and met up with the other guide. We glassed the group of sheep only to find that they were infact the same group of sheep as seen earlier that day. I looked the group over. A nice corsican, a beautiful Hawaiian black, a smaller Hawaiian black, and a Texas dall. I looked them over meticulously and settled on the bigger Hawaiian black. His coat was clean, his mane was full, his curl was deep, and he was going to be mine. I made up my mind, I was going to shoot him. I informed my guide and the stalk began.

We were about 175 yards from the group up wind and up hill. We slowly made our decent. Carefully we crawled to within 50 yards of the sheep. I setup on the side of a large boulder. The sheep were on a flat stretch of ground. They were moving and would soon be over the side of the platform. I had to shoot him now or never. I chambered a round flicked off the safety. I remeber my guides exact words, "When the sheep infront of him moves... shoot him! Shoot him!" I pulled the trigger. I heard the crack of my rifle. I saw the blood on the sheep's flawless ebony coat. I watched as he took a step, fell to the ground, kicked a few times and expired. I slowely began walking up to him. As I walked up to him the reality that I had just taken my first big game animal began to sink in. (I have been pretty unfortunate during deer season). I set down my rifle and touched the horns of the ram. The racing of my heart overwhelmed me so much that I had to sit down. The usuall "Good shot" and "Well done" were said, but I was oblivious to the world around me. I was inside my head reliving the moment over and over. I don't think there is a better thing in the world than to spend some time hunting. Now I can't wait for elk season in Montana.

If any of you have pictures on ways to have your sheep mounted, They would be much appreciated. The head's at the taxidermists and I don't have a clue on what pose to choose.

Sevens

Almost forgot to tell you. The rifle is a Howa 1500 s/s in 30-06. I was shooting Federal classic 150 grain hishoks. I took out both lungs and got a nice exit wound. I'm not sure on his score, but he has a 1 1/4 curl with thick horns.

Sevens

Your score ties for SCI 181 overall as of last printing.