2020 dall sheep NWT outfitters

my two brothers and myself are planning a dall sheep hunt(with possibly caribou added) for 2020. I've done a fair amount of research already, talked to most of the outfitters up there, and obtained lists of hunters to call. Our outfitter list includes Harold with Gana river, Stan Stevens MMO, Travis with ARRO (only available for 2021 for all three of us). I haven't yet talked with Chris and Sharon with Bonnet plume or Werner and sunny with south nahanni. I would appreciate any help or feeback from any of you that have hunted with any of the outfitters listed above or had additional recommendations.

Our priority is the Dall first and then if possible and time permits to chase caribou. I'm leaning toward Gana river or Stan with MMO...I had a great talk with travis and ARRO but we would rather not wait until 2021 if we don't have to. We are looking for as much of an adventure as possible so the use of a Helicopter is not at the top of our list. I have nothing against anyone that uses one and Stan explained their usage and typical hunt using one. Cost for most of the above outfitters is all similar so that is not really a determining factor. Its hard to try and separate the operations over the phone from WI so anything you have to offer for help would be appreciated!

You could not go wrong with any one of the outfitters on your list. My choice would be MMO, given that they are the only one I have hunted with, but the others have very good reputations. Stan, his family and his guides are top notch. It is a professional, honest operation. Everything he told me was exactly how things went. His guides work hard, are knowledgeable and expect you to be able to hunt. My guide wanted the hunt to be my hunt not his with me pulling the trigger. I cant say the same for the other sheep hunt I went on.

I understand the possible trepidation you have regarding the use of the helicopter. I think people may have the impression that the helo drops you off at the top of the mountain and then picks you and your ram up at the kill site when you are done. I suppose a person could ask Stan if he would do this but I suspect the answer would be no. The helo defiantly gives you access to more locations since you can land far more places than a plane can but I can attest that you will be dropped off in the bottom of a drainage and you will be expected to climb day after day to find rams with all your gear on your back. If you tag out you will be expected to get the ram back to where Stan wants it. After I tagged a ram, my guide and I spent two days getting all our gear and the ram back to Stans base camp. I suspect we could have just waited there for a few days if we wanted to but I didn't want that and Stan didn't offer. I have been on one other sheep hunt in AK that used super cubs. I spent far more time flying, and never packed a camp on that hunt. One place the helo is without question easier than other traditional methods is on the moose hunt. Simply having to get the moose to a place a helicopter can land is usually a shorter trip than getting it to a place a plane can land or a boat can access. However, on a lot of non helo moose hunts the guide will impose a fairly short hunt distance due to the difficulty of getting a moose back to an access point for a plane or boat. With the helo it opens up more a lot more huntable country.

You will have a great adventure regardless of who you hunt with. It is an amazing place to explore and the hunting is beyond anything I have ever experienced. PM me if you have any questions you think I can answer.

thanks for the info, sent you a PM

I hunted with MMO in 2015 and had an outstanding hunt, it was probably the greatest hunting adventure I've been on to date. I didn't kill my ram until day 9 of the 10 day hunt. The helicopter is a major factor though that you need to weight in. There is no question that with the helicopter they can place you closer to the sheep and you have the option to move camps easily if necessary. On a more traditional backpack hunt out of a plane this is probably not an option. Of the 6 hunters in camp when I hunted with MMO the 5 others all had their rams killed within the first 3 days. I could have killed a ram on the 1st day but passed looking for something better. After that it turned into a true backpack hunt, and I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

Personally I think you need to be honest with your fitness level and your expectations for the hunt. I believe if you look around the success rates on the helicopter hunts are higher that the traditional airplane hunts. Can you go home without a ram or caribou? Are all three of you going to be in the shape required for a pure backpack hunt? My dad was supposed to come with me in 2016 for his 60th birthday and had some heath issues, that's why we chose the helicopter hunt. Ultimately health issues prevented him from coming on the hunt. There's alot of posts asking these same questions online so if you do a little Google you can get some additional feedback.

Either way I think all of the guides you've listed above have solid track records and you are going to have a blast in the NWT or the Yukon. I drew a Chugach dall sheep tag in Alaska for this fall so I get to go sheep hunting again sooner than I planned, I'm pretty excited. Good luck on your hunt planning, that alone is a major part of the adventure.

All of the outfitters you listed have solid reputations so there are no bad choices there. My son and I hunted with Travis and ARRO. We had the time of our lives and both of us killed 11-12 year old rams and two record book Caribou. If you decide to wait the extra year, it will be worth it IMO.
Travis runs an honest hunt experience. He doesn't go find the sheep from the air and then take you there. He sends you out in incredible country and you and your guide go find the game you are looking for. It was absolutely the most real ADVENTURE we had ever experienced.
As has been mentioned, hunting the NWT is a very physical event, but that is what made it so incredible. I was 61 when I went so it can be done by even old guys. You hike hard and hunt hard in the most remote country in North America. It is game rich and wild and you will likely not see another person, and seldom even see an airplane.
Obviously, I don't have experience with the other outfitters, but the NWT is pretty incredible.
Best of luck and PM me if you want more info or pictures.

thanks for the feedback and info on the hunts you guys experienced, it all helps! I'm 37 now and my two older brothers are 39 and 41 so as far as health/fitness goes we will be as good as the effort we put into it before our hunt. We shouldn't have any limitations as far as physical restrictions so that has us leaning towards the backpack hunt but I can definitely see how the Helicopter can be a big advantage to get into areas that you otherwise couldn't get into or that you would have to spend precious time hiking to. If I could hunt with ARRO in 2020 I'm pretty sure that would be our choice (and although its only 1 additional year, its 4 hunting seasons from now waiting until 2021, and that itch needs to be scratched, LOL) but we seem to be leaning MMO at this point. There are a lot of good forums (rockslide) in particular where I've been able to pick up additional info as well. Ive had great talks with all of the outfitters up there and that actually made it a little harder because I didn't really get a better or worse feeling from my talks with any of them, they all seem top notch! The research continues but like was stated above that along with all of the planning is all part of the process. I'm enjoying every minute of it!

adubs,
I totally understand your impatience for getting after it sooner than later!
If you really want to get antsy, check out all the youtube videos of hunts in that country.
Here is a link to my son's sheep hunt with ARRO:

You can also google youtube sheep hunts and OvisHunter or Ben Stourac who have guided with ARRO and you will get your fill of exciting action.

Best of luck with whoever you guys go with. You will have the time of your lives!

I would not do any sheep hunt that involved a helicopter. Many sheep hunters feel this way.
I know many who rave about their hunts with ARRO.

I know exactly what you mean. I've talked to a few outfitters that use them and it's not equally. Some describe their use of it to simply get you into areas of their concession that they couldn't otherwise and others use it to get you right on top of sheep they've already scouted.

One ?booking agent? described an outfitters use as a way to assasinate the specific ram they want to harvest. In and out in usually under a couple days. I didn't add them to my list of possibilities. I believe (maybe naively) that some use helos as a tool just like the plane to access areas and it's a true hunt from there while others use it to put you on a ram to shoot.

>I would not do any sheep
>hunt that involved a helicopter.
>Many sheep hunters feel this
>way.
>I know many who rave about
>their hunts with ARRO.

I do truly think there are some outfitters who use the helo more for transport and there are others who scout more from the air. When I hunted with MMO in 2015 I did not get the impression that Stan does much scouting from the air. In fact he was concerned with the amount of hours he put on his helicopter, which in turn relates to his overall costs. Like stated above I didn't kill my ram with MMO until day 9, and we ended up putting in some major miles backpacking on my hunt. I would hunt with them again without question. Do I think my hunt was any less of a sheep hunt because I used a helo? Not at all.

On the flip side, there are outfitters who unquestionably scout from the air. In fact, a hunter who hunted with another outfitter recently in the NWT wrote about his guide getting in the chopper to go with the pilot and look for another ram prior to moving camp locations. Once they moved and waited the required about of time they immediately killed a ram. It happens for sure.

But you can't kid yourself to believe that guys aren't looking for rams while flying in their cubs. It also happens. The disadvantage the plane has to the helo is landing. Which, don't get me wrong, is a HUGE disadvantage. The helicopter helps ALOT in that regard.

Like I said before I think you'll have a great hunt with any of the outfitters you've listed. You'll just have to decide what your comfortable with. Good luck.

1) Helos are a huge advantage simply in the ability to move you around/deposit and re-deposit you with pinpoint location accuracy (usually on top of the mountain where you just stay up high during the hunt). Goes against my idea of what a sheep hunt is all about.
2) As mentioned, many also use them to basically scout and ?assassinate? particular rams. To me, that's about one notch above just shooting them in a pen.

That's actually a pretty big reason I booked a Yukon hunt. I just didn't want to answer the ?Did you use a chopper?? question over and over again.

Now, would I use them to take my elderly Dad sheep hunting if he wanted to go? If he really wanted to badly enough, yes.
Will I use them if I want to sheep hunt when I'm 70+? I guess I'll just have to see, but I don't think so.

Littlebighorn,

Thanks for posting the link of the great 12 yr old ram your son got. Looked like an awesome hunt, big caribou he passed on too...

Congrats!

adubs,
If you go to an additional link OvisHunter you can actually see him shoot that bull a few days after he killed his ram. He is an awesome busy book bull with 21" back scratchers. His guide was an incredible kid and videoed most all of the hunts he guided. He has several videos on Youtube under the OvisHunter.
For the record, my caribou bull was actually bigger than my son's (top 20 in the book if I was willing to scrape the velvet to get it officially measured).

We had an awesome hunt in that incredible place.

After a lot of research, calls and conversations with my two brothers we decided to go with Stan and MMO. Looking forward to August 4th 2020!

Congrats adubs. I hope you guys have as much fun in that wild place as my son and I. Please feel free to PM me if you have any general questions about our experience. Sheep hunting is absolutely addicting and I can almost guarantee that this won't be your last adventure after them.

Congrats on your upcoming hunt with MacKenzie Mountain Outfitters. You are going to have a fantastic time. Helen and Stan and crew are wonderful people. I went with them for Dall sheep and Caribou in 2016. I am going back again for Dall Sheep this year.

As to the helicopter, I have been on 10 sheep hunts with friends and family and for myself in NM, AZ, CO, AK, and the NWT. The hunt with MMO was no less physically challenging than any of the most difficult hunts I have been on. And I have been on some dooseys! We backpacked our butts off. Get in shape before you go. Stan dumped us off at the bottom of a drainage and we crossed two mini-grand canyons to get a sheep.

I can assure you that Stan will not deposit you on top of a mountain and then redeposit you on top of another one. Or fly around looking for sheep to assasinate. I agree that that would not be cool at all and I wouldn't be party to it. Not only because it is illegal but who would want to do it. You will be dropped off in an area to hunt and be told good luck.

thanks for the report (especially from and experienced sheep hunter that has experience with MMO and the helo), good luck on your hunt! I drew a good elk hunt in Wyoming this year, 19-1 with my brothers and our dad and the only thing I can think about is 8/4/2020! Still doesn't quite seem real but when I look at my account balance I realize it is, LOL.

Congrats on the Elk tags adubs. Any hunt will help the time to go a little quicker, but a sheep hunt on the calendar always weighs down those clock arms! You will have plenty of time to start getting equipment, and you might use the elk hunt to test out backpack gear, etc. A dry run of what you are taking to the NWT is always in order. If I had one piece of advice it would be to do your pre-hunt workouts with some pretty good weight in a backpack. At least when the hunt starts to get close.
Oh, and the bank account... Once the fever hits that's always a serious problem!