I know an area where the success rate for NR will be 0% this coming year.
Dang Dude
Take a breath!
You want to get rid of evil Guides and non residents I get it! ANYTHING to get rid of competition!
But you also need to get rid of Residents who scout from the air. Land and then go up the drainage and kill a sheep! Happens many many times every year!
Go on utube and see how many guys “I can’t believe it, I landed and went up this drainage and there just happened to be a legal sheep!
LOL
Same thing with hunt every year if you want but you only kill ONE sheep every 4 years!
You can’t tell me guys are living off sheep meat!LOL
ESPECIALLY when they have their own plane.?
I really couldn't care less if NR get to hunt here or not. No body is living of sheep meat and if you look at some threads here recently, many hunters leave lots of meat in the field.
In 2016 the BOG instituted a ban on aerial spotting during the season. I have no doubt it still happens from time to time, but it isn't happening many, many times a year. I honestly have heard of 1-2 credible instances in the last 7 years. If it was happening all the time, you'd think it would be a lot more prevalent and you'd hear about it. Curious how you know it happens all the time?
Too many cameras out there and people paying attention. I know in the areas I hunt, I haven't seen a single plane spotting since the ban, and I used to see 2-3 in a 10 day trip. Sheep aren't that hard to hunt. The hard part is finding a legal one. Many of those youtube videos are guided hunters, with guides who have a lot of knowledge. I don't watch to many of those videos, so maybe it happens or is more obvious. Curious what your sheep hunting experience has been in Alaska. The areas I hunt, the guides know exactly where the rams will be, and so do I. Flying doesn't gain you anything, we already know where they'll be from year to year. Its funny seeing guys post their big hunting stories and talk about their hunt, unbeknownst to them that their guide scouted their ram a week before they showed up and knew he was there.
One every 4 years? Why? Jealousy?
The AK Professional Professional Hunters Association successfully passed a proposal to limit NR to 1:4. They knew full well the only people it would impact were next of kin non residents. Guided hunters that go more than 1 time in 4 years was incidental, and it wasn't like they couldn't fill the slot, if the dude couldn't' rebook. They also got the rule passed that next of kin must share their bag limit with their resident kin... That was later rescinded. Funny how the NR guys with their panties in a wad, didn't realize that unless you play the $ game you're a worthless POS and should be regulated. haha That's also the reason we will never have unguided sheep hunts in Alaska.
If you are a sheep hunter and don't have money to play, you are unwanted.
Very, very few guys kill more than one sheep in 4 years. We looked at the impact and what it would do during the review if the APHA proposal, for NR went to the 1:4 it eliminated about 12 hunters out of a 4 year block, about 8 of them where Next of Kin (a couple of them used to post on this forum, actually). For residents it wouldn't have much of an effect, because success rates are so low, along with the fact that most residents only hunt sheep occasionally, or once in their lifetime. Out of ~4500 unique resident sheep hunters in a given 4 year period, about 110+/- killed more than one ram in that time frame ~2.5%. About 1500 rams were killed by residents. There would be basically no net effect on harvest or it would be indiscernible.
The 1:4 rule was first used as a management too for bears on the peninsula in the late 80s. The effect there was much different because a large portion of the guys taking bears were killing more than one bear in 4 years. IIRC it was about 18-20% of hunters were taking more than one bear in 4 years. I don't recall for sure, its been a few years since I talked to the bio that proposed the rules. It had a dramatic effect on harvest. I know 3 guys that took 8-9 bears each, before it was changed.
There's only so many sheep to go around, and we haven't seen the bottom yet. This issue has been going on for over a decade and its going to get even worse.