Hey guys! I've got an area in Montana where I really want to learn more about sheep movements, summer range versus winter range, etc. Just curious if you guys have any tips for going about getting the best info from the state biologist?
Contacting Biologist
- Thread starter Jayce37
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ntodwild
Guest
No tips other than call them, explain that you are a hunter and ask away. Every biologist I have ever talked with was as open and honest as could be.
geetar
Well-known member
My experience with them has been positive and they are happy and willing to share information.
BigHornRam
Well-known member
Buy them drinks at the upcoming MT WSF event in Billings. 
The best way in my opinion is to provide them with field reports and establish a relationship that is mutually beneficial. Bios know a lot, but not everything. They don't always have the time nor resources to be everywhere and always appreciate reports. Sheep habits change over time and those who have spent decades in the hills will often admit the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know.
pabearhunter
Well-known member
Write down your questions. Call one and ask away. Then you are not wasting there time while you are trying to remember what to ask.
406LIFE
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I am always doing this. Amazing how much goodwill a burger will get you. In MT, I have yet to meet a bio who isn't also a hunter, so it's good to swap stori s and tactics. I always like to ask if there is anything I forgot. And then let them talk;. Save you questions till the end.Buy them drinks at the upcoming MT WSF event in Billings.
theat
Well-known member
I have always found that I get the best info in person rather than over the phone. Bring a map of the area. Hunters and Biologist seem to be more forthcoming when you are huddled over a map pointing out specific places that you are interested in. Biologist also tend to be much more forthcoming with info if you show them that you have been doing your own research. If you ask broad questions, you will get broad answers.
This.
It helps immensely if they get the feeling they are teaching you how to fish instead of where to fish.
EYJONAS!
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Can we ask what sheep area........
buffybr
Well-known member
Prior to one of my hunts in one of Montana's Unlimited sheep units, I went in to the FWP office and talked to their sheep biologist. When I asked him about one of the drainages that I was thinking about going into, he told me that he didn't know of any sheep in that drainage.
I went into that drainage anyway, and there was one other camp of sheep hunters camped in the east side of the drainage, so I went deeper into the drainage and camped more in the south end.
Opening morning I went to the top of the ridge on the south side of the drainage, and about mid morning I spotted a ram walking from the sunlight basin just into the shadow of the ridge. I stalked to within 200 yards of him and evidently everyone in the basin heard my shot as when I got back to camp, the first thing that my partner asked was if I brought the tenderloins out, and the next day the hunters from the other camp stopped by our camp to see what we had shot.
It turned out that they were friends with the biologist that I had talked to and he had told them that he had seen sheep just over the ridge on the east side of the basin. When those hunters crossed that ridge they spooked the sheep and had shot at the rams as they ran away. They had killed one ram. They said that the ram that I shot looked like the full curl ram in the bunch and that he had crossed back over the ridge running to the south end of the basin.
That ram turned out to be my best Unlimited ram.
I went into that drainage anyway, and there was one other camp of sheep hunters camped in the east side of the drainage, so I went deeper into the drainage and camped more in the south end.
Opening morning I went to the top of the ridge on the south side of the drainage, and about mid morning I spotted a ram walking from the sunlight basin just into the shadow of the ridge. I stalked to within 200 yards of him and evidently everyone in the basin heard my shot as when I got back to camp, the first thing that my partner asked was if I brought the tenderloins out, and the next day the hunters from the other camp stopped by our camp to see what we had shot.
It turned out that they were friends with the biologist that I had talked to and he had told them that he had seen sheep just over the ridge on the east side of the basin. When those hunters crossed that ridge they spooked the sheep and had shot at the rams as they ran away. They had killed one ram. They said that the ram that I shot looked like the full curl ram in the bunch and that he had crossed back over the ridge running to the south end of the basin.
That ram turned out to be my best Unlimited ram.
