Montana Sheep Success Story

Congrats on the great ram and the great story . Thanks for sharing.

That is one beautiful ram! Also congrats on finding someone with such knowledge who was willing to help you out just for the love of sheep hunting and being in the great outdoors.

HSi-ESi said:

That sucks about the helicopter.

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Sounds like you really earned that ram!

I feel your pain on the access and outfitter issues over there. I just got back from my third ewe hunt in that unit. That helicopter was working the south side of the river yesterday. The north and south side was getting hit hard by a red and white super cub that I am pretty sure belongs to the outfitter Faber. Tail number N080830. I would have called it in if I had service. He ruined a couple of my stalks, and I am pretty sure it was intentional since I was in the sun and in the open when he continued to circle and swoop in on the band of sheep I was approaching. I also think that whoever was in the air was communicating with hunters as I watched him circle a spot a few times and a couple hours later a pickup showed up right there on his leased ground with some hunters. Despite all that I had a great time and got my ewe. I ran into John at the ferry last year...very nice and knowledgeable guy.

I hate you.... But thanks for taking such great pictures and documenting the hunt!

Congratulations! Great story and photos and an even better ram.

Any laws broken by the chopper pilot? I would think harassment of wildlife but probably would claim were looking at trees. My they smoke something special in Hell one day.

Fantastic looking ram. Good job!

Hunting The 406 said:

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Looks similar to the N Bar chopper

LopeHunter said:

Any laws broken by the chopper pilot? I would think harassment of wildlife but probably would claim were looking at trees. My they smoke something special in Hell one day.

Fantastic looking ram. Good job!

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Were they breaking the law? In most peoples mind I would assume so. But the guy spent over a quarter million on the tag.. they will never charge.

Congrats on a very nice ram!

Hunting The 406 said:

Were they breaking the law? In most peoples mind I would assume so. But the guy spent over a quarter million on the tag.. they will never charge.

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Well, its for conservation... so.

Congrats on one heck of a ram.

Oh my. I need to find ways to follow more threads like this when I'm on the road.

That is a great ram. Congrats on your success. Thanks for sharing with us.

Now, about that chopper. I'm sick and tired of that same, or similar looking, chopper involved in so many reports that have a common theme. I'm struggling to see all these reports by serious public land hunters to just be coincidence.

Bambistew said:

Well, its for conservation... so.

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To be clear, I don't have any issue with the "governor's tag" being sold at auction, I think its a great way to raise money for conservation. It's the way the tag holders are hunting that bothers me. Harassing the units with a helicopter and essentially making it harder for the average hunter to "get it done" the traditional way on foot, shouldn't be allowed just because of buying the governor's tag. That chopper harassed the area for several days prior to opening day, flying low enough to the ground and to us that we could recognize two of the passengers. Sheep being "creatures of habit" was no longer the case with the helicopter flying around on a constant basis, we could hear it off in the distance if it wasn't within visual sight most of our time out there. In addition to this, there was a trailer parked right smack in the middle of the public air strip out there, preventing anyone from landing on it up until after the governor's tag was filled opening day. Shortly after it was removed. We ran into the fish and game that day and mentioned this to them, and all they had to say was "oh no that's just a rancher checking his cows". Whats checking cows have to do with parking a trailer smack in the middle of a BLM public airstrip? It's just crazy and it gets worse every year. The access out there for the average Joe is very very limited, as all of the private land surrounding the public land is leased up by a certain outfitter, and this is fine I suppose, as the land owners have their rights and I respect that. But there are no easements or access points, and a high percentage of the trophy rams taken in this unit are taken on public BLM land. So essentially you have a monopolization of the public land going on here. A couple months before the season opener, I had made a phone call to a certain land owner out in the breaks and informed her of my success on drawing a ram tag, and asked if it would be possible to traverse down a well traveled two-track of hers to gain access to some BLM to do some scouting. Right off the bat she said "No, You will have to call and pay C.F. to cross my property". I informed her that I am just out of college and can't afford to pay outfitter fee's. She replied by saying "I don't feel bad for telling people no, as they can hike up from the river". Which happens to be 8 or so miles as a crow flies up and down the grueling Missouri river breaks. I thanked her for her time said goodbye. I could only get ahold of one land owner out there that was gracious enough to allow me to not only cross his property, but to hunt on it as well, and I thanked him up and down for it.

The politics and the market of hunting sheep as well as other species of big game has tarnished the tradition of hunting in my opinion, as it has been turned into a monopoly of greed. This is not my idea of conservation.

Big Fin said:

Oh my. I need to find ways to follow more threads like this when I'm on the road.

That is a great ram. Congrats on your success. Thanks for sharing with us.

Now, about that chopper. I'm sick and tired of that same, or similar looking, chopper involved in so many reports that have a common theme. I'm struggling to see all these reports by serious public land hunters to just be coincidence.

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Thanks Big Fin,

It's my pleasure to share my successful sheep hunt, I couldn't be more happy.

I hope your season has gone well.

The politics and the market of hunting sheep as well as other species of big game has tarnished the tradition of hunting in my opinion, as it has been turned into a monopoly of greed. This is not my idea of conservation.

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^^^^^^^^ Word.


Congrats on your ram!

Great hunt

Very unique ram! He must have been eating well for his relatively short life to have that kind of horns.

Huntingthe406,
That all sounds almost identical to my experience this year in the same unit planning my wife's hunt. It was very frustratg at first. I'm sure I spoke to the same lady that immediately cut me off and referred us to the same outfitter. Very rude lady(not because of denying us access, just generally rude). Fortunately there is the river which provides a ton of access to a lot of land and they can't deny that. One of the people in the chopper wasn't by chance a local guide was it?

Glad you had a great hunt and got an awesome animal too. It was a great experience all in all for us as well.