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[recurveman]

I’ve heard multiple stories of guys buying the tag showing up and just being overwhelmed by the size of the country and not really hunting at all. In the Hunt Planner section of Montana FWP website you can find out how many hunters bought tags the previous year but I don’t recall seeing how many days they hunted or if some even hunted at all.

Ya know I just hope I'm not one of those guys. It would be a first for me but............Ya never know until you strap on the pack and start walking uphill. Or I will love it and not want to leave. Time will tell. Well I'm doing a hike this weekend starting at 8500' and going to 12,600' with my pack on. Should be a round trip of 10 miles or so. Just getting ready.

 

[Antlerfreak]

That is an incredible looking coat on that ewe. I love the darker bighorns. Best wishes on your hunt this year in unlimiteds. I don’t have a tag this year but I’m going in mid July for a few days to learn some about the country and hopefully be back next year for my first unlimited sheep hunt.

Thank you, she does have a very dark coat. She was with 2 young rams, 10 lambs, and 1 other adult ewe and she stuck out from the rest of them big time with her dark coat. Im getting her full body mounted in hopes someday I can kill a ram and have it standing over her.

 

[Antlerfreak]

I wonder what the success rate with a bow is.... it probably takes the 2 percent chance of successful harvest and turns it into a .002 chance. Unless your in 303.....

My only sheep experience was on a draw tag in CO so my experience is very limited. With that said the sheep I hunted and ended up shooting seemed pretty dumb compared to most other big game animals. I was able to get away with a lot as I did a spot and stalk on 13 sheep, So I figure in the unlimited units, its really more about finding the legal ram. Once found, if all sheep are sheep (which they probably arent) I should be able to put a move on one with decent results. Granted you never know when one may be in a spot thats with in rifle range, but a 3 hour hike to get with in bow range. But thats bow hunting I guess.

Does anyone have any experience with how spooky sheep are in the unlimiteds?

 

[MTGomer]

My only sheep experience was on a draw tag in CO so my experience is very limited. With that said the sheep I hunted and ended up shooting seemed pretty dumb compared to most other big game animals. I was able to get away with a lot as I did a spot and stalk on 13 sheep, So I figure in the unlimited units, its really more about finding the legal ram. Once found, if all sheep are sheep (which they probably arent) I should be able to put a move on one with decent results. Granted you never know when one may be in a spot thats with in rifle range, but a 3 hour hike to get with in bow range. But thats bow hunting I guess.

Does anyone have any experience with how spooky sheep are in the unlimiteds?

Like coues deer spooky.

 

[Antlerfreak]

Like coues deer spooky.

I figured this would be the case. A bit different with a few dozen hunters hiking around then just me on the mountain......being in Grizz and cat country prob add to their awareness.

 

[----]

Like coues deer spooky.

Post 534 confirms that.

 

[recurveman]

My only sheep experience was on a draw tag in CO so my experience is very limited. With that said the sheep I hunted and ended up shooting seemed pretty dumb compared to most other big game animals. I was able to get away with a lot as I did a spot and stalk on 13 sheep, So I figure in the unlimited units, its really more about finding the legal ram. Once found, if all sheep are sheep (which they probably arent) I should be able to put a move on one with decent results. Granted you never know when one may be in a spot thats with in rifle range, but a 3 hour hike to get with in bow range. But thats bow hunting I guess.

Does anyone have any experience with how spooky sheep are in the unlimiteds?

I've been on a few sheep hunts in AZ. One of the hunts the hunter left me and my buddy to stalk into the sheep and choose his animal. About 20 minutes later we hear the gun go "bang". We were eating a little lunch at the time. The hunter waived at us to come over and we did. When we got to his sheep the rest of the heard (about 25 sheep) were less than 100 yards from us but uphill a bit. We took pics and cleaned the critter. When we got done cleaning the critter the heard of sheep was still at 175 yards from us and didn't care that we were there.

Guessing the unlimited sheep aren't the same way. BTW coues deer are only spooky when they see, hear or smell you. Other than that they are not that spooky.

 

[MTGomer]

Post 534 confirms that.

I had that picture in my mind as I wrote my comment, actually, and figured somebody would make that comment.

 

[MTGomer]

Coues deer probably wasn’t the perfect comparison. Probably due to their small home range, coues deer, in my very limited time hunting them, don’t go far when spooked. They are jittery, but they aren't losing 3,000 feet, gaining it back on the next mountain and relocating 5 miles away.

 

[Antlerfreak]

Post 534 seems common with sheep. I shot my Ewe after 3 hours of carefully stalking, moving with them until I could cut them off. After I shot the ewe 30 yards below me, she did her death run straight down the mountain for 300 yards before piling up. Some of the lambs followed her not knowing what happened, but the two rams came up, passing me at 10 yards and stopping above me with in bow range for the next 10 minutes. They let me dig through my pack to get my camera out even.

 

[----]

I guess when your pounding 4 year old rams right above the parking lot they aren't that spooky. Finding a true mature 8 to 10 year old that's another story.

Always a class act.

 

[theat]

I guess when your pounding 4 year old rams right above the parking lot they aren't that spooky. Finding a true mature 8 to 10 year old that's another story.

Ah yes, EYJOYNAS! you certainly are a class act and apparently an expert on judging sheep from a couple pictures and know so much more about my hunt than me. Sucks that successful hunters have to come on here and defend themselves from other hunters that don't have any clue what they are talking about. I don't post many hunting pictures or stories on here any more because of people like you. I found those rams preseason 6 air miles from where I finally caught up to them a few days later. That 6 air miles was two drainages away, many thousands of feet of elevation gain and loss multiple times, and many more than six miles on my feet with my bivy camp on my back. Oh and it was aged at 7.5 years by several biologists and experienced sheep hunters.



As to how spooky the rams are in those units, my experience last fall was the complete opposite of every other experience with rams that I have had in my 65+ days spent in those mountains during september and October. They are typically very spooky, don't spend much time in the open, and usually disappear for good once they are spooked. I have watched many rams up there run for miles after seeing or smelling another hunter.

 

[MTGomer]

I could be totally wrong here but maybe Jonas’s comment was about the rams in the background of the photo which aren’t acting spooky and that are 4 and 5 I think, one of which was killed a little later in the season. They are young sheep and I don’t think anybody should be surprised they stuck around after theat killed the older one they were running with.

@theat ‘s last paragraph mirrors my experience with rams in the unlimiteds. And ewes for that matter.

 

[BigHornRam]

I could be totally wrong here but maybe Jonas’s comment was about the rams in the background of the photo which aren’t acting spooky and that are 4 and 5 I think, one of which was killed a little later in the season. They are young sheep and I don’t think anybody should be surprised they stuck around after theat killed the older one they were running with.

@theat ‘s last paragraph mirrors my experience with rams in the unlimiteds. And ewes for that matter.

It is very common when the old ram in the bunch gets shot and the younger rams mill around the kill site in confusion.

 

[theat]

Hey theat take a chill pill little buddy I am in no way disrespecting you or your ram or your ability out in the field. I wasnt even talking about your ram actually. You my friend are a very very successful outdoors man and beyond the hunt you do a lot for wildlife in general. I always enjoy reading your stories. So I guess I apologize that you read into my little jab that it was about you. I can only imagine who tipped you off I was talking about you. I hope you find another one in 7 years again. Ahhh this site is incredible some days.

If that is the case, then I apologize for jumping down your throat. I think you might see how myself and a few others believed that you were talking about me as a picture from my hunt was a part of the topic being discussed before your comment. Anyways, no worries on this end and good luck on your future hunts in the unlimiteds.

 

[MooseCaboose]

This has always been one of my favorites to follow over the years—finally have a reason to chime in. Had the good luck of drawing a goat tag in 316.

For those who sheep hunt in the area, could you suggest the places you most frequently see goats and/or where you’ve seen older billies?

I’ve already connected with a couple of you who post here regularly and have a few specific areas in mind. Just trying to see if certain spots keep popping up as I talk with more folks.

PM works great and I will use absolute discretion with regards to anything shared.

 

[Ltsheets]

New HT member here. I just sat and read this entire thread over the past couple days. I stumbled upon it while researching the unlimiteds. It has always been something I’ve considered as a back up plan if I don’t draw but once I moved to NC last yr from NM, it seemed like a pipe dream as a NR living so far away. A couple months ago I met a MT resident through a different forum while talking NM elk. Turns out he’s interested in the unlimiteds but couldn’t find any friend crazy enough to join him. After talking, I might just be that guy. I’ve hunted Barbary in some of the nastiest cliffs in NM and was fortunate enough to draw a Latir Wilderness archery ewe tag back in 2015. I’ve been hooked on sheep ever since. Thank you to everyone who has posted regularly in this thread and for the great advice that I’ve seen. I’ll be more of a regular now as I try and figure out what our plan is and when we are going to go. I look forward to talking with all of you in the future.

Logan

 

[MooseCaboose]

Watt are you planning on hunting sheep as well? Or focusing on the goat.

No sheep this year. Goat opens the 1st and I plan on being there for the opener.

 

[buffybr]

No sheep this year. Goat opens the 1st and I plan on being there for the opener.

First, congrats on your goat tag.
IMO much of the goat trophy is their long white winter hair. I have seen goats in the end of August that were still shedding their long hair from the previous winter. When I had my last goat tag (in 1978), the my tag unit was also one of Montana's unlimited sheep areas, so I also bought a sheep tag for that unit. I also started going into that unit on the opener, but I purposely left my goat tag home so that I wouldn't be tempted to shoot a short haired billy. The goats that I saw the opening week looked like they had just got a crew cut. I continued to go into that unit in September and October, but I didn't take my goat tag with me until November. When I did finally shoot my goat it was the 14th of November and it was -5* F and crotch deep snow, but he had great long hair.

 

[buffybr]

...Does anyone have any experience with how spooky sheep are in the unlimiteds?

I have not hunted any of the unlimited is about 20 years, but when I did hunt them I didn't find the sheep to be too spooky.

The last year that I hunted an unlimited unit was in unit 300. The afternoon before the season opened, I watched a great broomed, full curl ram feeding about 50 yards below me in the scattered timber.
The next morning there were 5 tent camps that had moved in the previous evening and scattered across the alpine basin, and an outfitter with 6 hunters on horseback walking around that basin. I was hunting with my teenage son and my golden retriever, and on two separate days, we were close enough to young rams and ewes that we could hear them chewing as they fed by us.

Another year I was hunting sheep in unit 302 (again with my golden retriever) and I came to the edge of an avalanche chute that had two legal 3/4 curl rams in it. As I had killed a full curl ram in a different section of that unit the previous year, I decided to pass on those rams, and I threw a small rock, underhanded, and hit one of the rams and they ran off and a guided hunter shot one of them.

I went back to that area the next year and shot the other ram. I believe that was the last year that unit 302 was unlimited.