Barbary Sheep
- Thread starter hoshour
- Start date
swampokie
Veteran member
I've been super-busy working on the CO and OR MRSs and a lot else. Working every night until late and haven't been on the forum in a while.
It was a very disappointing hunt. The guy I went with, whom I very much enjoyed hunting with, had something come up that cancelled his scouting trip at the last minute and that cost us, because I live a long ways away and neither of us had ever been in that unit. When opening morning dawned the orange army was everywhere. Landowners blocked access to tons of BLM with locked gates and owning strategic parcels. One ranch hand with a ranch that owned 100+ sections kept harassing us to move our camp and moved 1000 domestic sheep into the area we planned to hunt where guys my partner knows had scored consistently.
We hunted hard for five days and saw almost nothing except deer. We hiked from 10-20 miles a day over hills that were nothing but rocks and we glassed a lot more by driving to hills and hiking up to look around awhile with binos and spotter. We did run into one group of a couple dozen while we were driving to another area, got out and one of us three shot an OK ram before the group took off. That was it. We ran into a couple of wardens on the third day who said we were the only group they checked that had gotten one.
If I had it to do over again, I would get there a couple days early to scout, walk in at least two or three miles before daylight to get away from some of the coming pressure, find some good glassing points and spend some time to locate an undisturbed ram and be in place opening morning. Look on the map for water tanks, canyons cut into rolling hills and rocky cliffs. They love prickly pear cactus. Plan on doing a ton of hiking where every step is on a rock and pack a lot of water and a tripod.
Just realize that while you can see a lot of country, they can see you easily too so don't skyline yourself or move a lot until you've really covered it for awhile early in the morning. Be careful coming up to ridge tops. One guy in our small party jumped a monster ram by walking ahead and not pausing to look before he walked over a ridge. They vanish in what looks like completely open area and in three days we never found that ram again. They are nomadic and if you spook them, they'll likely go for miles. I think with all the pressure and all the land-locked land they knew where to find some peace and quiet. The only other person I know that got a ram also got him opening morning and got him about four miles in from the road.
The other thing you might want to consider is going late in a month-long season when they may have returned to normal. If I lived within any kind of decent driving distance I would have liked to have gone back. They're beautiful animals and I hope I draw a tag again. Next time, I'll have a better idea of how to hunt them and I'll know the area some.
It was a very disappointing hunt. The guy I went with, whom I very much enjoyed hunting with, had something come up that cancelled his scouting trip at the last minute and that cost us, because I live a long ways away and neither of us had ever been in that unit. When opening morning dawned the orange army was everywhere. Landowners blocked access to tons of BLM with locked gates and owning strategic parcels. One ranch hand with a ranch that owned 100+ sections kept harassing us to move our camp and moved 1000 domestic sheep into the area we planned to hunt where guys my partner knows had scored consistently.
We hunted hard for five days and saw almost nothing except deer. We hiked from 10-20 miles a day over hills that were nothing but rocks and we glassed a lot more by driving to hills and hiking up to look around awhile with binos and spotter. We did run into one group of a couple dozen while we were driving to another area, got out and one of us three shot an OK ram before the group took off. That was it. We ran into a couple of wardens on the third day who said we were the only group they checked that had gotten one.
If I had it to do over again, I would get there a couple days early to scout, walk in at least two or three miles before daylight to get away from some of the coming pressure, find some good glassing points and spend some time to locate an undisturbed ram and be in place opening morning. Look on the map for water tanks, canyons cut into rolling hills and rocky cliffs. They love prickly pear cactus. Plan on doing a ton of hiking where every step is on a rock and pack a lot of water and a tripod.
Just realize that while you can see a lot of country, they can see you easily too so don't skyline yourself or move a lot until you've really covered it for awhile early in the morning. Be careful coming up to ridge tops. One guy in our small party jumped a monster ram by walking ahead and not pausing to look before he walked over a ridge. They vanish in what looks like completely open area and in three days we never found that ram again. They are nomadic and if you spook them, they'll likely go for miles. I think with all the pressure and all the land-locked land they knew where to find some peace and quiet. The only other person I know that got a ram also got him opening morning and got him about four miles in from the road.
The other thing you might want to consider is going late in a month-long season when they may have returned to normal. If I lived within any kind of decent driving distance I would have liked to have gone back. They're beautiful animals and I hope I draw a tag again. Next time, I'll have a better idea of how to hunt them and I'll know the area some.