Where are the best places to hunt Fannin Sheep? How dark can they actually be? Would it make sense to plan a hunt for exclusively a Fannin Sheep? Have any of you harvested a Fannin Sheep? Any pictures to share? Thanks.

fannin sheep are an unrecognized species. they occur on the fringes edges where stone sheep and dall sheep meet. They exhibit some stone sheep characteristics, but mostly are dalls. There are a couple outfitters in the yukon who will outfit for fannins. Usually however they are taken on the fringe area when hunting dalls. Most common markings are a light colored saddle and facial marks.

I believe Yukon government Dept of environment classes any Dalls sheep with even one black hair as a fannin sheep. Fannin sheep are pretty well located east of Carmacks yukon, and a cross between a dall and stone.
If you want a fanin you should then hunt in the south eastern section of Yukon...
At Faro this coming weekend is the sheep and crane festival. You can see sheep right from town.. Also thousands of sandhill cranes.
Here is the link..
http://www.faroyukon.ca/index....9102-A13B07352C77%7D
Watson Lake

At one time shooting a fannin ram was a cheap way to knock off a stone sheep and complete a grand slam.

This is not the case any more. They are only slightly cheaper, as all sheep are through the roof.

The only cheap sheep left on the planet is Aoudad free ranging in New Mexico, California or West-Texas.

For $15,000 (or somewhere in that neighborhood) you can hunt the various rams of Iran, Dall Sheep, and Cacausian mountains for Tur (which aren't sheep but for some stupid reason count as sheep in the ovis/capra slams).

I haven't hunted any of these sheep other than New Mexico aoudad. Just my .02 cents. Like you I want to hunt as many wild sheep/goats as there are. My financial situation right now is not making easy.

MOA, how was your aoudad experience? Who did you go with? Did you get a nice one? Was it a tough hunt?

I went when I was 15 with my dad (22 years ago). We lived in the area, and I didn't get one. I had 2 tags (that was how they did it at the time), and we hunted the whole season for several weekends but never got on them.

There are some there, just do it! You might call the NM G&F and ask to speak to a biologist about it.

Non-res is around $400 (I think, look into it).

Oh yes, brutally tough hunt.

We hunted the lava flows near Socorro and Carizozo, NM. It was in the 60's but because of all that black rock it was more like 95 when you got down in the burps of the lava flow.

I took a fannin about 9 years ago in the Yukon. It was a tough hunt, in part due to the worst weather I have ever experienced on hunt. It was a tough hunt in tough country. I went with Pete & Sharon Jensen.

Hey Larry,

How dark was your Fannin?

It clearly was not a dall. It is mostly dark gray. The head and neck are noticeably whiter. I will try and post pictures from my office tomorrow. I think they are on my computer there.

One interesting thing about hunting that far north is the number of daylight hours. If I recall correctly, it was about 10 PM when I shot. It was after midnight when we got to the horses. It was about 5:30 AM when we got to camp.

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
It clearly was not a dall. It is mostly dark gray. The head and neck are noticeably whiter. I will try and post pictures from my office tomorrow. I think they are on my computer there.

One interesting thing about hunting that far north is the number of daylight hours. If I recall correctly, it was about 10 PM when I shot. It was after midnight when we got to the horses. It was about 5:30 AM when we got to camp.

Being from the far North I am always amazed how little time I had to do something before the witching hour in Jacksonville, Florida.

Funny!

I thought there were fannins in northern British Columbia, as well. Is that not still so?

Here are a couple of pictures. It was about 7-10 days into the hunt. The weather was abysmal. The horses sucked. We had done a lot of climbing. I was tired. We hunted a different area from a different camp. We spotted 2 fannins from miles away. We tied the horse and climbed to the top.The climb was not that bad. However, once we got to the top we had a couple miles to go. Much of this was in waist deep snow. I was soaking wet with sweat and we got to the ledge below which we thought the Rams were laying. I do vividly remember easing to the edge peering over the side with only one eye showing. It is a sight I will never forget. Magnificent does not even begin to describe it. I put my rifle across a sweater and shot. The RAM went down instantly. At this point, the guide went to retrieve our packs and other equipment. I sat there watching the ram. Much to my surprise he stood up. I shot him again and he rolled considerably down the mountain. My guess is a couple thousand feet. By the time that we finished getting the sheep (skinning, etc) and walked to the horses it was after midnight. It was just getting dark. We road to campus in the dark. We arrived soaking wet freezing at about 530 in the morning. Was it worth it? Hell yes!!!!!

That is one hell of a big sheep Larry! I'm not sure what color he really is though, with all the blood, mud, etc.

Ozultra,NM Barbary Sheep are a $360 tag and $65 hunting license. You might be able to find a private land trespass fee hunt in the Sacramentos which should give you a better chance to kill. I researched a ton of options, but not enough money for even the trespass fee.

Great pics Larry, nice ram in some really tough weather sounds like!

Futrdoc, how successful do you think a DIY Barbary sheep could be?

Charles Sheldon did research and published a great book on the integrating of Dall to Stone sheep. He has good maps of where each gradient is found.

Generally SE Yukon and northern BC is where they are found in various phases of darkness.

I also took a fannin with Pete Jensen in the Yukon along the Blackstone River. His area was very close to the Alaska border and in the more northwestern part of the Yukon. The sheep here varied in the amount of black hair and were mostly white. Mine had just a dusting of black hairs on the shoulders. This is also the area where Karamojo Bell did his meat hunting before he went to Africa to hunt elephant.

465H&H

465 H&H, care to share any pictures of your ram?

Here it is. Notice the slight gray tinge on the shoulders. According to Boone & Crocket, any black hair makes it a Stone sheep. It is the one on the left.
465H&H

They are out there, but not the easiest to find. Luck plays a little into it. Heard there were some fannin's along the border of the Wrangell St. Elias park bordering the Yukon.

Nice ram 465 h&h!

Impressive ram and story Larry (as is yours 465)!

Thank you sir!

Chuck Nelson just posted some pics on D'Arcy Echols sheep hunt. No details though but from the pics he had a great hunt.
We hunt the DooDads here in SE NM and have had great success on them. My only advice on Aoudad is to bring good optics and good boots. You'll need both.

Posted for D'Arcy Echols. Beautiful ram and beautiful country D'Arcy!

GREAT PICS! GREAT RAM!

Outstanding photos. I'll be going on an aoudad hunt in West Texas in late September. Will be a hot one. Lots of aoudads there now.

http://phys.org/news/2016-06-d...-story-thinhorn.html


Good article on DNA analysis rewrites story on thinhorn sheep.

http://www.huntingreport.com/c...nt_issue.cfm?id=1930



New Genetic Study Re-Ignites Debate on Fannin Sheep
(posted September - 2016)

Mike Bodenchuk, Editor-at-Large


Editor's Note: Heads up if you have a North American sheep Grand Slam® in the record books or are planning to pursue one! According to Editor-at-Large Mike Bodenchuk, a new genetic study is likely to re-ignite the dormant debate over the record-book classification of Dall, Stone and, especially, Fannin sheep. If these genetic findings are taken literally, existing Grand Slams may be in jeopardy, and new Grand Slams may be much more difficult (and expensive) to complete. We last covered this story in depth back in 2006. For the full background, see Articles 1639 and 1663 in our database.

Sheep hunters may be interested in recently published research on the genetics of Dall and Stone sheep. In a paper published in Molecular Ecology, researchers from the University of Alberta, the Ministry of Forests, BC's Lands and Natural Resources and the Yukon Department of the Environment examined DNA from 52 thinhorn sheep and five bighorn sheep to examine the relationships among the thinhorns.

As most hunters know, Dall and Stone sheep were once considered separate species, but scientists now recognize them as a single species, with color variations between subspecies. In terms of scientific nomenclature, Dall sheep are Ovis dalli dalli while Stone sheep are Ovis dalli stonei. The pure white Dall sheep live on the northern end of the species' range and the dark Stone sheep in the south. The so-called "Fannin sheep" (also once considered its own species) were seen as the lightest color-phase of Stone sheep....

Not a problem for me. I like to hunt them all. Debating this is a bit like debating am I Irish or German....

Absolutely awesome pics guys! Thanks for sharing them.