Love following this thread and enjoy hearing everyone's experience on these hunts. I have a question for the sheep guys. Do you enjoy seeing sheep hit the quotas early in the season or do you prefer it to be drawn out? Obviously the longer the season, the better odds you may have to kill a legal ram so I can see why an Unlimited hunter wants to see the season drag on, but looking at it from a conservation/management perspective is it bitter sweet knowing the sheep populations are doing well if two legal rams are harvested early in the season? Is the length of time it takes to fill the quota indicative of how well the sheep are doing in a given unit?
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EYJONAS!
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Lucky NR got the first one.......
EYJONAS!
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1.I kinda route for other hunters myself, if someone is into the hunt and putting forth the effort to do it then hell ya if they get one that's fantastic. It's a tough adventure to come out successful. Obviously it's fun to keep going and yes chances can increase especially as things get later and later but, it's still no picnic to say the least. Lots of other factors come into play especially in late October, November......
2. The quotas for every Unlimited district are fairly conservative. The sheep population is managed primarily by the Beartooths/Absarokas environment, the harvest of of these has little to no impact on the populations up there. The biologist told me once that he thinks 90 percent or more of the sheep die of old age, we could probably double the quota and it still wouldn't affect the population because we don't take any ewes......
3. No i don't believe the amount of time it takes to fill the quota has any correlation to how the sheep are doing. Some years are tougher than others to find sheep. Dryer ones seem to be the even moreso, the fact is that this is the absolute "needle in a haystack" analogy. The amount of country is unfathomable and nasty and theres just not that many of them.
All this being said I do hope to get in a trip in sometime this season however, I have some friends up there too. I hope they can connect and make it happen. Some of them much more deserving than myself on the unlimited ram....... one day maybe!
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slatebuilder
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Dam that was really quick. Do they start the quota upon phone call or checking of the ram?
EYJONAS!
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Quota starts at sunlight on opening day and goes till filled or the sunset on final day. Sounds like a decent ram, don't know the hunter but congrats to him.
dcarnell
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Honestly surprised someone could even spot one with all this smoke..... Its really bad in Paradise Valley. Good luck to all the guys chasing them especially in all this smoke.
Brandenbowhunter
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was it the Minnesotians, we saw them going in, my buddy has that goat tag
DisplacedLocal
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Visibility was pretty decent last night into the morning. Went south as it got later in the day. I thought I heard a gunshot this morning, it was hard to tell with the wind. There was a group of hunters in that direction though. I'm happy for them,I haven't seen hide, hair, nor track yet.
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shines@times
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Oh Man! And I was frustrated by all the effort and cost of getting some tooling I purchased at auction shipped out of Delta, BC--that's less than 150 miles away and I had intended to just drive up there with the pickup--it would really suck to have your sheep hunting plans shot down by a border closure. Of course, it can be difficult to socially distance in the Beartooths!
Hirtlene
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yep hard being bit by the sheep bug and not being able to hunt them. I'm sure I'm not the only guy though. just saving some vacation for next year and make a longer hunt as long as things go back to somewhat normal.....
Brandenbowhunter
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Supposed to be two down in 500, rumor has it
EYJONAS!
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Word is 2 rams down in 501.
bsmith
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First time poster, long time follower. Always been awesome following along on this thread. Came across a pack string yesterday heading into 501 to retrieve 2 rams. Didn’t see the hunting party, just the packers going to retrieve them and their camp. Quick work in there this year.
Wow! This season is sure going fast. Are they hunt talk guys?
EYJONAS!
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Not any that I know, sounds like 501 has a 3rd though.......
Damn bud. Missed your chance to get out there.
TrumpkinTheDwarf
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How the heck are you so in the loop on this stuff? Or are you just seeing the quotas go pending?
MinnesotaHunter
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EYJONAS!
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Because I'm obsessed that's how...... I know a couple things
TrumpkinTheDwarf
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I lived there the first 23 years of my life, and never managed to tap in to it. Guess I need to start an infiltration op!There is an underground hunting intelligence network in MT....
