Hunt Planner: Top-of-the-world sheep

Updated: May 2, 2005, 8:18 PM ET

Hunt Planner: Top-of-the-world sheep

Iron body, will and equipment needed for world-record ram

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By Lynn Burkhead
ESPNOutdoors.com associate editor — May 6, 2004

One can understand why at times a white suit is the preferred camo while chasing Dall sheep in snowy Alaska climes.

Hunting sheep is tough, bowhunting them even tougher.

Toss in the harsh weather of the Alaskan mountains during the month of October and it becomes exceedingly difficult to tag a golden-horned Dall sheep with a stick and a string

But Wasilla, Alaska, sheep guide and author Tony Russ knows all too well.

In October 1988, Russ hiked into the Chugach Mountains looking for the ultimate archery challenge. A week into his adventure, he got a little more than he bargained for, in more ways than one.

"October is nasty weather in the mountains of Alaska," Russ said. "It was just beginning to snow up on top a lot. This was my first bowhunt; I had just picked up a bow in April."

Fast forward to the seventh day of his adventure. Despite seeing sheep, Russ had yet to get off a shot with his bow.

Hunt Planner facts

Species: Thinhorn sheep — Dall sheep (Ovis dalli dalli); Stone sheep (Ovis dalli stonei)
Bighorn sheep — California bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis californiana); Desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni); Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis Canadensis)

Range: Dall sheep are found in the mountains of Alaska along with the mountains of Canada's Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, and a small fragment of British Columbia. California bighorn sheep are found in the mountains of Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, and Washington. Desert bighorn sheep are found in the mountains of the southwestern U.S. and portions of Mexico. Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep are found in the Rocky Mountains of the western U.S. and Canada. Stone sheep are found in the Canadian mountains of British Columbia along with a portion of the Yukon territory.

Population: While solid population figures are hard to come by, continental wild sheep population figures likely number under 100,000 animals today.

Hunting seasons: Where such seasons are held, sheep hunting typically occurs between the beginning of August and the end of October.

Rut: Thinhorn sheep typically breed in October, while bighorn sheep typically rut a month later in November. Some desert bighorns can breed as early as late summer however.

Top hunting areas:

Dall sheep: For this snow white sheep with golden horns, Alaska is king when it comes to planning a Dall sheep hunt. Sheep densities are highest in the south-central portion of the state. Guides are required of non-residents, who can expect to pay between $7,500 to $10,000 for an Alaskan Dall sheep hunt. Hunters can also consider a guided hunt in Canada's Yukon Territory or Northwest Territories. While more expensive than an Alaskan hunt, the continent's biggest Dall sheep rams are often found there.

California bighorn sheep: While the Boone & Crockett Club and Pope & Young Club record books don't differentiate between California and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, several state wildlife agencies do. Washington offers hunters a bonus point system for California bighorns with a June 1 application deadline. Nevada's mid-April deadline is past; get in line next year since the state offers hunters a chance to apply for both California and Desert bighorns! Oregon's deadline to apply for either Rocky Mountain or California bighorn sheep tags is May 10. Idaho's late April deadline is past, but keep in mind next year that the Gem State offers some of the continent's best draw odds for a sheep tag.

Desert bighorn sheep: Of the estimated 25,000 or so desert sheep living in North America, some 6,000 or so call Arizona home. Tags are rare — generally, less than 100 tags are available to more than 15,000 applicants. But for hunters that apply and buy a non-resident hunting license, bonus points are accrued that can help a hunter's chances in subsequent years (this year's application deadline is June 8). Arizona is also tops for trophy desert rams, annually producing spiraling horns that measure in the 170 to 190 class, and occasionally, even higher. Other states in the U.S. offering a few non-resident desert bighorn sheep tags include California (3,500 desert sheep); Nevada (5,500 sheep); New Mexico (200 sheep); Texas (300 sheep); and Utah (2,500 sheep). Be forewarned however, with few tags and high draw odds, obtaining a desert sheep tag carries lotterylike odds. For those wanting to skip the tag chase and who have plenty of cash to burn — upwards of $50,000 or more — desert bighorn sheep can be hunted in Mexico's states of Baja California (3,500 desert sheep) and Sonora (2,500 sheep).

Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep: With more than 6,000 Rocky Mountain sheep, a preference point system in place, total sheep tag numbers in the neighborhood of 250, and 25 percent of those tags being issued through random draw, Wyoming will become a must-apply-in-state next year when the late February sheep deadline approaches. Colorado is another state that hunters should apply in, with tag numbers similar to Wyoming's and the former Pope & Young Club world record (191 3/8 inches). Would-be sheep hunters must obtain three preference points before being eligible to draw in the Centennial State however. But when the early April deadline approaches next year, apply — this year, a non-resident drew a sheep tag on his first year of eligibility! Idaho offers some of the better draw odds for a Rocky sheep tag and some good rams, so apply next year before the late April deadline. Montana offers some buster rams scoring 175 to 180 or better, although draw odds are tough to very tough. Still, hunters can build preference points and the Treasure State offers top end trophy animals. Montana also offers the western U.S.'s only unlimited sheep tags in a few units where hunting closes once a small quota of rams has been harvested. Other states offering Rocky Mountain bighorn tags include Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah. Canada offers Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep hunting in two provinces, Alberta and British Columbia. Hunts are expensive, especially in Alberta where despite some of the continent's top Rocky Mountain sheep numbers, price tags can fetch upwards of $20,000 or more for a hunt. For those with fat wallets, the province produces some world-class rams including the current B&C world record (208 1/8 inches) and P&Y world record (199 5/8 inches).

Stone sheep: Two provinces in Canada offer Grand Slam seeking sheep hunters a chance to tag this beautiful, but rare sheep — British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. Expect to pay $20,000 or more for a Stone sheep hunt however.

Hunting keys:

Get a tag: Make no mistake about it, the toughest part of sheep hunting is most often even getting an invite to the dance. In most of sheep country, tags are few and far between and demand is high. That leads to poor draw odds at best and lottery like odds at worst. Should you apply? Absolutely! Every year, someone draws those tags, and sometimes, it's a newcomer to the tag chase. Besides, with preference and bonus point systems in place in some states, hunters' chances of drawing a tag can actually increase over time — if they apply. For those with bottomless checkbooks, guided sheep hunts can be obtained in Alaska, portions of Canada, and in portions of Mexico.

Look for cancellation hunts: One way to avoid spending your children's college tuition to hunt sheep is to look for cancellation hunts. Each summer, outfitters in Canada and Alaska have a few hunters that back out for various reasons. Those schedule holes allow some to offer last minute sheep hunts at a reduced price.

Get in shape: As with mountain goats, sheep country is tough, rugged, and almost always vertical. If you beat the odds and draw a sheep tag or spend a mountain of money, it doesn't make sense not to be in the absolute best shape of your life when you show up in the inhospitable high country.

Carry top-grade optics: Before you can tag a ram, you've got to find him in rugged, vertical country. As with mountain goat hunting, bring the absolute best binoculars, spotting scopes and rifle scopes that you can afford.

Carry top-grade equipment: Fill your backpack with the best boots, clothing, tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear, water purifier and weapon that you can afford before chasing sheep.

Learn to shoot at steep angles: Whether you use a bow or rifle, there aren't many flat shots in the rugged alpine terrain that sheep live in. Learn to make the tough angled shots because that's generally what you'll get.

Trophy field-judging tips:

Mass over length: Because a ram has four circumference measurements versus one length measurement per horn, good mass is critical.

Blocky bodies, thick necks: As with most other big game animals, trophy rams are most often mature creatures that are potbellied, swaybacked and thick-necked.

Promising curls: Look for full curls that come down below the bottom of the jaw and sweep back up beyond the sheep's nose or even higher.

Horn length: Most record book thinhorns will typically sport horns measuring 35 to 40 inches in length. World-class rams sometimes measure in the mid-40s or better; in fact, the world record Stone sheep (the Chadwick ram) sports horns measuring more than 50 inches on both sides! Bighorn trophies will often tape out at 35 to 40 inches, with a few mega rams approaching 45 inches in horn length.

Base circumferences: If thinhorns are king when it comes to horn length, bighorns are tops for mass. Look for base measurements of 14 to 17 inches on bighorn sheep. For thinhorns, top end rams will have base measurements from 13 to just under 15 inches.

Unbroomed and unbroken tips: For better symmetry, and thus, less deductions, look for rams that sport clean tips that haven't been broken or worn down.

(Sources: "The Bowhunter's Handbook" by M.R. James; "Bowhunter's Encyclopedia" by Dwight Schuh; "Sheep Hunting in Alaska" by Tony Russ; Various state, federal, and provincial conservation agency Web sites; Cabin Creeks Wilderness Journeys Web site, www.ccwjhunts.com ; National Parks Conservation Association Web site, www.npca.org ; Boone & Crockett Club Records of North American Big Game, 11th Edition; Boone & Crockett Club's 24th Big Game Awards; Pope & Young Club Bowhunting Big Game Records of North America, 5th Edition, Pope & Young Club's 22nd and 23rd Recording Period Statistical Summaries; and ESPNOutdoors.com files.)

Still, the hunter pressed on, ignoring the rugged terrain and harsh fall weather that had left temperatures in the mid-20s. Those temperatures had turned freezing rain into near whiteout conditions, piling up eight inches of snow — and counting.

Undeterred, the archer kept pressing on, looking for legal rams and exhibiting the two qualities that define most successful sheep hunters: physical toughness and mental toughness.

Wearing a white suit in an attempt to mimic a slow moving Dall ram, Russ soon found several sheep feeding on that stormy day.

Using the terrain to his advantage, the spot-and-stalk archer slowly maneuvered within bow range.

"Two big rams had their heads down feeding together and I was only 17 yards away," Russ said. "The wind was blowing about 10 or 15 mph and their hair was blowing in the wind."

Despite being very close, Russ still had to wait agonizing moments before unleashing an arrow.

"They had their heads down feeding in some craters," Russ said. "I figured they were the full-curl sheep I had seen (prior to beginning his stalk), but at the same time, they had their heads down in these small craters, so I wasn't sure they were legal sheep.

"I couldn't shoot until they lifted their heads up and I could make sure they were legal."

As the snow flew, the ram closest to the bowhunter's position suddenly lifted up his head.

The hunter knew instantly that it was a legal ram and then some, but Russ was still unable to shoot as the heavy-horned sheep gazed in his direction.

"There's no depth perception in a whiteout and everything is a little fuzzy," Russ said. "I could see his eyes looking right over my shoulder. I closed my eyes because when you get that close to an animal, you don't let them see your eyes."

After several intense seconds, the ram put his head back down and began feeding, allowing Russ to come to full draw and let his arrow fly.

The mortally wounded sheep went down quickly, leaving Russ with an arduous and dangerous chore of safely negotiating his way out of the snowy Alaskan alpine wilderness.

"It was wet, I was wet and it was cold," Russ said. "You've got all of the meat, the cape, the horns and the gear. I had 50 pounds of gear and 100 pounds of sheep to pack out."

"This was a really big sheep. These horns were 19 pounds, which is really heavy; but, of course, this was a big sheep."

Using his bow as a crutch, the bowhunter had a difficult trek down to a glacier where he spent a stormy night before finishing the hike out, illustrating the need for a sheep hunter to possess top-end equipment for the inhospitable conditions of the Alaskan high country.

When he finally got out of the mountains, Russ found out just how big his Dall sheep really was.

"When I got home, we ended up measuring it," Russ said. "I called a taxidermist to find out how big it really was because I didn't have a Pope & Young book. He told me that it was bigger than the existing world record."

Russ' world record Dall sheep, sporting 42 5/8 and 42 1/8-inch curls on the left and right horns respectively, along with 13 6/8-inch and 14 2/8-inch base circumferences on the left and right side, has an amazing P & Y net score of 171 0/8-inches.

His astounding ram beat the previous standard by more than inches and remains today as the only archery-harvested Dall sheep to ever be entered into the prestigious Boone & Crockett Club record book.

Russ has gone on to take four other Dall sheep with his bow in hand, including a fantastic ram in 1997. The Alaska resident also has guided a number of other hunters to bow-harvested Dall rams, including the No. 2 Safari Club International ram in 2000.

But none of these hunts has ever topped his first archery ram, taken on a wild and woolly October day on top of the world in the wilds of Alaska.

For more information on sheep hunting preparation, proper equipment selection, and actual hunting strategies, check out Tony Russ' helpful title "Sheep Hunting in Alaska." Visit his website at www.tubooks.com or e-mail him at tony@TonyRuss.com.

Top-5 Boone & Crockett desert bighorn sheep

(Score, hunter, location, year.)

1. 205 1/8, Native American, lower California or northern Mexico, 1940
2. 201 3/8, Picked up, Pima County, Arizona, 1982
3. 197 4/8, Gift of H.M. Beck, lower California or northern Mexico, 1892
4. 197 1/8, Arthur R. Dubs, Graham County, Arizona, 1988
5. 192 5/8, Javier Lopez del Bosque, Baja California, Mexico, 1979

Top-5 Boone & Crockett Dall sheep

1. 189 6/8, Harry L. Swank Jr., Wrangell Mountains, Alaska, 1961
2. 185 6/8, Frank Cook, Chugach Mountains, Alaska, 1956
3. 185 4/8, Jack W. Lentfer, Chugach Mountains, Alaska, 1964
4. 184 4/8, B.L. Burkholder, Wrangell Mountains, Alaska, 1958
5. 184 0/8, Thomas C. Sheets, Chugach Mountains, Alaska, 1962

Top-5 Boone & Crockett Stone sheep

1. 196 6/8, L.S. Chadwick, Muskwa River, British Columbia, 1936
2. 190 0/8, Norman Blank, Sikanni River, British Columbia, 1962
3. 189 6/8, G.C.F. Dalziel, Blue Sheep Lake, British Columbia, 1965
4. 187 4/8, Paul D. Weingart, Ospika River, British Columbia, 1970
5. 185 3/8, Felipe Palau, Prophet River, British Columbia, 1970

Top-5 Boone & Crockett Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep

1. 208 1/8, Fred Weiller , Blind Canyon, Alberta, 1911
2. 207 2/8, Martin Bovey, Oyster Creek, Alberta, 1924
3. 206 3/8, Picked up, Burnt Timber Creek, Alberta, 1955
4. 204 7/8, James R. Weatherly, Granite Count, Montana, 1993
5. 204 0/8, James Simpson, Sheep Creek, British Columbia, 1920

Sources: Boone & Crockett Club Records of North American Big Game, 11th Edition; Boone & Crockett Club's 24th Big Game Awards; and Boone & Crockett Club Web site.

Top-5 Pope & Young desert bighorn sheep

1. 178 2/8, George Harms, Tiburon Island, Mexico, 2000
2. 176 7/8, Mark D. Morris, Pima County, Arizona, 1990
3. 175 0/8, Jim Ryan, Graham County, Arizona, 1989
4. 170 5/8, Stephen C. Christensen, Mohave County, Arizona, 2000
5. 170 2/8, Paul Harris, Clark County, Nevada, 2001

Top-5 Pope & Young Dall sheep

1. 171 0/8, Tony Russ, Chugach Mountains, Alaska, 1988
2. 168 6/8, John Sarvis, Tok, Alaska, 1998
3. 166 4/8, Braun Kopsack, East Fork, Alaska, 1990
4. 166 1/8, James Mackrell, Grey Ridge, Yukon Territory, 1999
5. 165 3/8, James D. Eskelson, Eklutna, Alaska, 1998

Top-5 Pope & Young Stone sheep

1. 174 2/8, Stanley Walchuk Jr., Tetsa River, British Columbia, 1992
2. 174 0/8, Dyrk Eddie, Gathto Creek, British Columbia, 1997
3. 170 2/8, Ralph L. Albright, Blue Lake, British Columbia, 1995
4. 168 0/8, Peter T. Woloshyn, Todagin Mountain, British Columbia, 1994
5. 167 6/8, Jim Boyer, Gathto Creek, British Columbia, 1994

Top-5 Pope & Young Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep

1. 199 5/8, Todd Kirk, Whitehorse River, Alberta, 1998
2. 191 3/8, Gene Moore, El Paso County, Colorado, 1983
3. 190 6/8, Bob Huebschwerlen, Greg Creek, Alberta, 1998
4. 190 2/8, Brian Eloschuk, Canmore, Alberta, 1982
5. 190 0/8, Richard King, Granite County, Montana, 2001

Sources: Boone & Crockett Club Records of North American Big Game, 11th Edition; Boone & Crockett Club's 24th Big Game Awards; and Boone & Crockett Club Web site.