any sheep hunters on here? I'm looking into doing a sheep hunt in one of the guaranteed units in Montana. Has anybody ever hunted those units? Any success stories? I'm always looking for advice and/or DIY hunting buddies
I never have, know a few that used to and one that still does.... Long story short, it's not easy (no sheep hunt really is) but this one is in some pretty inaccessible country, and at least at one time (not sure if it's still the case) once a quota was met the state would shut down the hunt. I think you maybe needed to call in via sat phone at night to find out if the season was still open? Again this is all 3'rd hand. The guy that still does it avg's a sheep 1 out of 4 or 5 years, which considering it's essentially an OTC tag.... seems pretty decent actually. He has the typical public land stories of stalking sheep others are after but if you don't have the 5 figures to travel into Canada or Alaska to chase sheep, it's a cheap alternative to do it year after year. I looked into this hunt a year or two ago... Coming from out of state I was pretty much setting aside a couple weeks for it, between just getting to the area and then hunting.
Craig Boddington wrote an article a while back for peterson's hunting on 5 sheep hunts cheaper than a guided whitetail hunt. He mentioned this one, it was a decent read if you can dig it up.
Meat eater podcast just did an episode talking about this exact subject. Very interesting, you should check it out. Sounds like they are very difficult hunts. They must be as many years the 2 animal limit is not met. Taking into account the fact that the seasons can be over a month ling and hunted by hundreds of hunters, that puts your odds incredibly low. The guy on the podcast said finding a sheep is like finding Santa Claus out in the woods. But if your odds of getting a sheep are 1 in 500, its about the same or better than Drawing a sheep tag... Seems like something worth trying out if you don't have a better hunt...
