barbary sheep

[carterj16]

How are the success rates on these hunts. There quit a few animals with good rates of harvest or is it a tougher hunt? Seems like it would be a fun hunt to try sometime.

 

[sportsman01]

Tough hunt without a doubt. There are good numbers of sheep in some of areas, but for the most part they are spread out and live in some rugged country. Definitely a fun hunt, but challenging and you spend lot's of time behind glass. I've hunted them for 4 yrs now and have been able to find sheep every yr with the exception of this one (still have three weeks though). Most of the time it takes a few days before you figure out where they're hiding. This is usually areas close to private or areas on the map where contour lines are stacked on top of each other!!
If G&F would manage the herd a little differently I think it would be a better hunt. They need to make it a RAM only hunt with a minimum restriction (say 15" or so) and cut the tags down a bit...then it would be a phenomenal hunt. But, since they're exotics, and they don't like them in Desert Bighorn country, I'm sure that'll never happen. Anyhow, it's a fun hunt, just expect to spend a few weekends at it and lot's of glassing.

Good luck!

 

[smarba]

Quite a few animals with good success rates...HA HA HA.

I've spent a LOT of time driving, hiking, glassing and as spotsman01 explains, sheep are few and far between.

It took me a few years before I even laid eyes on one and since then it's still hard to find them. Even areas where I find them one time are seemingly devoid of sheep the next attempts.

If you have time to hit it hard for multiple weekends, then maybe. If you're looking for something to do on a casual weekend attempt then extremely low odds.

I agree with sportsman01 that if the G&F would manage them, it could become a great hunt, but QSM (quality sheep management) is definitely not part of the current plan.

 

[carterj16]

Im out of state so it would be a week long hunt and not the weekends.
thanks guys

 

[mozey]

Agree with what's been said above. They move around a lot, pressured or not. I've seen over a hundred in one day and been back the next weekend to the same location and been completely skunked. That wouldn't be so bad except it's a five or six mile hike in over some nasty terrain. Unless you like being a human pin cushion, make sure you have some good 10" all-leather boots and wear some chaps, or you'll be picking various "stickys" out of you hide for several weeks thereafter. Even with that, I'm still extracting some from last week's foray...

 

[outdoorsdude]

The last information I read, put the population density at One animal for every Four square miles. Got that from NMG&F two years ago. Does anyone have an update on that?

So, figure if you see.... IF.. 4 Billies, that represents a 16 square mile search area- here's to great glass and better boots.