Wild Sheep Magazine Spring Issue 2023

WINDPROOF WHERE YOU NEED IT, BREATHABILITY WHERE YOU DON’T SO YOU NEVER TAKE IT OFF

NEW MOUNTAIN EVO JACKET

Built for high-exertion backcountry pursuits, the Mountain Evo Jacket uses strategically body-mapped fabrics to provide windproof protection where you need it most while also allowing exceptional breathability and stretch, so you stay dry and comfortable throughout your hunts.

WINDSTOPPER® by Gore-Tex Labs product technology stops heat-sapping gusts in their tracks, while 4-way stretch panels dump heat and allow unrestricted movement. The result is a jacket you can put on in the morning and not have to think about for the rest of the day.

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Hotter chamberings, carbon fiber barrel options and the lightest production carbon fiber stock in the industry thanks to Peak 44TM – the Backcountry 2.0 is the ultimate combination of lightweight and ultra-high velocity.

28

28

Cover Story: Rubbed Raw by Ashley McEnroe

You call this luck?

50 The 20-Day Ram by Clay Beard

A lifelong dream comes to an end.

60

Double The Distance, Double The Success by Jeremy Bryant

A two-fer of epic proportions.

Special Sections:

On the Cover:

At 82 years young Glenn Smith has carried a silver dollar coin for 51 years on hunts for 36 species of wild sheep and 22 species of wild goat. Read about his adventures in his Rubbed Raw cover story starting on page 28 of this issue.

Errata:

The Boone & Crockett Club’s article on page 32-35 in the Winter 2022/23 issue incorrectly listed Craig Shelly’s stunning Arizona ram score as 183 7/8”. The correct score is 189 3/8”.

76

70 FNAWS by Sean Keck

An 11-pound sleeping bag and other sheep hunting lessons on the way to a FNAWS.

76

I’m Going Sheep Hunting

by Craig Boddington

The sheep hunting stories you might not want to tell.

84

A Sheep Dog Of A Different Kind by Chester Moore

Man’s best friend becomes sheep’s best friend.

Official publication of The Wild Sheep Foundation

WSF World Headquarters: 412 Pronghorn Trail • Bozeman, MT 59718

Cody Office: 1285 Sheridan Avenue, Suites 260/275

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

CHAIRMAN: Glen Landrus • ramslamvideo@gmail.com

VICE CHAIR: Kyle Stelter • kylestelter@gmail.com ..................

SECRETARY: Larry Jacobs • lljacobs4@aol.com

TREASURER: Charlie Kelly • azsheepguy@gmail.com ...............

Tony Caligiuri • tcal@boytharness.com

Julie Chapman • jhelmchapman@yahoo.com ..............................

Wayne Henderson • henappram@hotmail.com

Larry McGovern • ltmcgovern67@gmail.com .............................

Glen Pyne, DVM • pawsnclaws@sbcglobal.net

Emilio Rangel W. • emiliorw@me.com ....................................

Peregrine L. Wolff, DVM • falcolupus@gmail.com

Term Expires 2025

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PRESIDENT & CEO Gray N. Thornton • gthornton@wildsheepfoundation.org

HEADQUARTERS STAFF

PRESIDENT & CEO - EDITOR IN CHIEF, WILD SHEEP ® MAGAZINE: Gray N. Thornton • gthornton@wildsheepfoundation.org

Kim Nieters, Vice President of Operations –Auction & Awards Director knieters@wildsheepfoundation.org

Kevin Hurley, Vice President of Conservation –Thinhorn Programs Lead khurley@WildSheepFoundation.org

Terry Ziehl, Finance Director tziehl@WildSheepFoundation.org

Keith Balfourd, Director of Marketing & Communications keith@WildSheepFoundation.org

Paige Culver, Development Manager pculver@WildSheepFoundation.org

Maddie Richards, Membership Manager/<1 Clubs Manager mrichards@WildSheepFoundation.org

Megan Costanza, Banquets & Events Manager mcostanza@WildSheepFoundation.org

Mike Aiazzi, Expo & Exhibits Manager maiazzi@wildsheepfoundation.org

Jaime Teigen, Administrative Assistant jteigen@wildsheepfoundation.org

Janessa Kluth, Membership Assistant jkluth@wildsheepfoundation.org

CONTRACT

Dr. Ryan Brock, Youth Education Coordinator rbrock@wildsheepfoundation.org Reno, NV

Greg Schildwachter, Lobbyist greg@watershedresults.com Washington, DC

PRODUCTION STAFF

Gray N. Thornton, Editor in Chief

Scott Morrison, Editor/Art Director

Ashley McEnroe, Field Editor/Staff Writer

Craig Boddington, Contributor

Andrew McKean, Contributor

Ken Nowicki, Field Editor

Greg Schildwachter, Columnist

Legislative Watch

Wayne van Zwoll, Contributor

CONTACT THE PUBLICATION

Contributing photos, articles, stories, and research pertaining to wild sheep or the interests of the members of WSF are always welcome. Contributed material will be published at the editor’s discretion. Please include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you wish materials to be returned.

Kurt Alt, Conservation Director –International Programs altwildlife@yahoo.com Brussels, Belgium

Marina Meyer, MadebyMimi, LLC, Social Media Consultant mjsams09@yahoo.com San Antonio, TX

Ashley McEnroe, Staff Writer aoliverio@gmail.com Big Sky, MT

CONSULTANTS

Shane Mahoney, Special Conservation Consultant shane@conservationvisions.com St. John’s, Newfoundland

Morrison Creative Company, Inc. Magazine Design/Production Yellowstone Graphics Graphics/Design

Advertising & Editorial Submissions

Wild Sheep Foundation Headquarters 412 Pronghorn Trail, Bozeman, MT 59718

ATTN: Editor

For more information on submission guidelines, meetings and convention information, and service, conservation and hunting award criteria, please visit our website at www.wildsheepfoundation.org. All membership dues include $28/year for a subscription to Wild Sheep® magazine.

The Wild Sheep Foundation’s mission is to enhance wild sheep populations, promote scientific wildlife management, and educate the public and youth on sustainable use and the conservation benefits of hunting while promoting the interests of the hunter. The tradition began on a November weekend at Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, in 1974. Thirteen wild sheep enthusiasts passed the time by sharing stories about their encounters with the majestic mountain creatures. After realizing how fortunate they were to have all shared such incredible experiences, they decided it was time to give something back. They forged FNAWS so men and women everywhere could get more involved in the positive management of wild sheep. It was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in Iowa on September 14, 1977, and began accepting paid memberships in 1978 as more people joined the cause. The commitment and noble spirit of FNAWS quickly helped the foundation become the fastest-growing wildlife conservation organization of its kind.

DISCLAIMER While Wild Sheep Foundation strives to attract quality advertisers and donors, it cannot be responsible for the ultimate quality of the products which they may present to our members and buyers. Neither the Wild Sheep Foundation nor its Officers or Directors is a guarantor of your satisfaction with the products it makes available to you. Our dedication is to the wild sheep of the world and not to policing our advertisers or donors. We cannot, under the law, reject an advertiser or donation simply because of a prior complaint from a dissatisfied consumer. We will strive to make available quality merchandise and hunts, but without warranty or guarantee.

WILD SHEEP FOUNDATION®, WSF®, FOUNDATION FOR NORTH AMERICAN WILD SHEEP®, FNAWS®, WILD SHEEP® MAGAZINE, PUTTING AND KEEPING WILD SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAIN®, PUTTING AND KEEPING SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAIN®, THE SHEEP SHOW®, SHEEP WEEK®, MARCO POLO SOCIETY®, <1 CLUB®, <1iCLUB®, MOUNTAIN HUNTER HALL OF FAME®, and the CHADWICK RAM SOCIETY® and their respective logos are registered trademarks and cannot be used, commissioned, or otherwise represented without permission of the Wild Sheep Foundation. WOMEN HUNT PROGRAM®, WOMEN HUNT®, WH®, WOMEN IN HUNTING INITIATIVE®, WIHI®, and WOMEN HUNT®, are registered trademarks of the Wild Sheep Foundation.

GRAND SLAM® is a registered trademark of Grand Slam Club/Ovis. Used with permission.

Wild Sheep® (USPS# 009-460) is published quarterly by Wild Sheep Foundation, 412 Pronghorn Trail, Bozeman, MT 59718

Periodical Postage Rate is paid at Bozeman, MT 59718 and additional mailing offices.

Subscription Price $28.00 All membership dues include $28/year for a subscription to Wild Sheep® Magazine

Postmaster: Send address correction to Wild Sheep Foundation, 412 Pronghorn Trail, Bozeman, MT, 59718

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE WILD SHEEP FOUNDATION OF BOZEMAN, MONTANA, IN CONJUNCTION WITH MORRISON CREATIVE COMPANY, INC. OF LIVINGSTON, MT.

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MISSION STATEMENT

VISION

Our desired future state

To be the best managed, most respected, influential and relevant conservation organization benefitting wild sheep worldwide.

PURPOSE Why we exist

To Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain®

MISSION What

we do

We enhance wild sheep populations, promote scientific wildlife management, and educate the public and youth on sustainable use and the conservation benefits of hunting while promoting the interests of the hunter.

VALUES The principles that guide us

Honesty

Integrity

Respect for Others

Hunting Ethics

Teamwork

Accountability

Positive Attitude Stewardship

Respect for Wildlife Loyalty

Putting & Keeping Wild Sheep on the Mountain Since 1977

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

by Gray N. Thornton President & CEO

As I noted in my post Sheep Show® video message, on behalf of a grateful and hardworking staff and board of directors, THANK YOU to all our exhibitors, donors, sponsors, auction and raffle buyers, appeal donors, convention volunteers, members, and guests for helping to make the 2023 Sheep Show® another mind-blowing success! The altruism and exceptional generosity of the wild sheep family never cease to amaze and inspire me. Thank you!

The records you all helped us break in 2023 were many and incredible. Record Sheep Show® Raffle sales. Record banquet attendance and record expo hall attendance.

A new record of nearly $1 million in convention sponsorships, including a record $350,000 raised in convention appeals for our Take One Put One Back, Ram Lay-A-Way, One More for Four, and Women Hunt® programs as well as the Working Dogs for Conservation initiative (WD4C), with 100% of those donor direct dollars going to the programs of the donor’s choice. Thank you!

Our live and silent auctions were off the chart, including the conservation permit dollars raised for our state, provincial, tribal, and First Nation agency partners. These set a new record with more than $4.89 million dollars raised, including an incredible nine new state and tribal permit records. Thank you!

The dollars you helped us raise in Reno will fund $2.6 million in budgeted Grant-In-Aid to wild sheep conservation and grants to our guide/outfitter & industry partners. Our Reno success will also fund grants to disease research, and

THANK YOU!

our advocacy work in Washington, DC, and state and provincial governments. It will fund our handson youth education programs and scholarships, pro-hunting public relations campaigns in Canada, Mexico, and the USA, as well as our conservation work in central Asia and advocacy efforts with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, CITES and IUCN. Thank you!

Through your support and our 2023 Sheep Show® results, WSF expects to direct nearly $7 million this fiscal year to wild sheep conservation, research, education, advocacy, and other mission programs. This represents WSF’s fifth year in a row of directing more than $6 million annually to the wild sheep resource and programs benefiting them and their habitat.

You all made this happen. Thank you!

But it is not time to rest. Since the convention your staff have been working on plans and improvements for the 2024 Sheep Show® we are sure you will enjoy. We are expanding the Camp Chef Culinary Corner, focusing on some exciting art displays and our artist presence, expanding our taxidermy displays, developing incentives to attend and win sheep and other hunts, and have reviewed and will refresh all of our evening and event programs. While the 2023 show was over the top, we will never sit back and coast. You and the wild sheep resource deserve fresh ideas, new programs, and a constant effort to improve!

WSF and the entire industry have come back with a bang. We set new records as have our chapters and affiliate events held thus far this season. Our industry partners DSC, HSC, SCI and MDF/SFW all have held record

events this year as well. This bodes well for our collective missions and the species and programs we support. Yet, we still face many challenges and must not rest on our laurels. There are serious threats in the USA to our firearm rights and freedoms. There are even more threats of draconian firearm restrictions on our Canadian members and neighbors. Import restrictions by the USFWS on importation of hunting trophies from Tajikistan and Mongolia to the USA threaten to crush the conservation benefits of hunting and the livelihoods of peoples in rural communities dependent on our dollars for their existence.

Rest assured that in addition to focusing on our impact to the wild sheep resource which is our primary Purpose and Mission, your staff and volunteer leaders remain engaged shoulder to shoulder with our partners in the industry to be the tip of the sword to protect our freedoms and way of life.

In closing, thank you again for exhibiting, for your donations, your sponsorships, your bids, your gifts, your participation, your membership, and your unmatched support of our 2023 convention. You all came for the sheep, and you stayed for the party.

Enjoy this post-convention issue of Wild Sheep®! WS

Gray N. Thornton President & CEO, Wild Sheep Foundation

Editor-in-Chief, Wild Sheep® magazine

Summit Life Member Chadwick Ram Society® Member Legacy Society Member

Pair with MYSTERY RANCH GAMEBAG

CHAIR’S CORNER

by Glen Landrus Chair

Ihope this edition of Wild Sheep® finds you and your family well. Winter seems to be holding on and giving us one more blast of snow before spring. The late winter storms we are having in the Pacific Northwest are a stark reminder of how precarious life can be for all wildlife this time of year. At the same time, the record precipitation in the more arid of wild sheep landscapes will hopefully fill guzzlers and provide an abundance of forage for our desert bighorns that have faced relentless drought conditions.

“I sold it! I sold it! I sold it!”, were the final words of our auctioneer John Bair as Sheep Week® 2023 came to a close at the Grand Finale banquet on Saturday night in Reno. While for many the Grand Finale marks the ending, for our conservation staff and volunteers, it really marks the beginning of more great efforts in the name of wild sheep in 2023 and beyond.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank

you! What an amazing Sheep Week® we had in Reno in January! Leading into the show, all numbers indicated we were in for something special, and the numbers were right! I would like to thank all of our exhibitors and donors. Without our exhibitors, there is no show floor, no raffles, no silent or live auctions! I hope all of our exhibitors had a prosperous week and I hope to see you all there in 2024. Thank you to all of our donors as well, including the state, provincial, and tribal agencies that let WSF market your coveted permits. The auction tag prices were off the chart and provided for an electric atmosphere during each evening auction. Let’s hope that those funds lead to electric management projects back in the respective states, provinces, and tribal lands.

As Sheep Week® unfolded, one thing that really jumped out at me was the relentless commitment to be better by WSF staff, board of directors, and

countless volunteers. As I navigated various events and gatherings, the leaders of those respective functions were already brainstorming how to make improvements for next year. In my world of education, we call that a “Growth Mindset.” In the world of the Wild Sheep Foundation, thank you to those in leadership roles that were already plotting for positive future changes. We speak often of our purpose To Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain®, but what impressed me was the commitment of our staff and volunteers to our vision, which is our desired future state. Of course, our purpose and mission must be front of mind, but our vision and what we aspire to be is what should motivate us going forward. WS

Yours in Conservation, Glen A. Landrus

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

— Albert einstein

WILD SHEEP FOUNDATION VISION

To be the best managed,most respected, influential, and relevant conservation organization benefitting wild sheep worldwide.

YOU CAN HELP WSF PUT AND KEEP WILD SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAIN BY JOINING THE CHADWICK RAM SOCIETY!

In 2013 the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) launched a legacy campaign, Ensuring the Future of Wild Sheep, that includes tax and estate planning opportunities, counsel and advice, major gifts, and giving societies to raise the funds required to ensure the future of the wild sheep resource by directing even more dollars to wild sheep restoration, repatriation and conservation. Our vision is to build a series of funds from which a targeted annual offtake of ~4% will allow WSF to direct 100% of our convention fundraising to mission programs. Our goal is $5 to $6 million annually in mission focused Grant-In-Aid and other funding to “Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain.” With your help we can achieve this vision and goal.

The Marco Polo Society was established in 2008 as WSF’s premier giving society. To compliment the Marco Polo Society and expand this giving concept to ALL WSF members and wild sheep advocates, WSF created a new giving society in the fall of 2013 – the Chadwick Ram Society with five

benefactor levels enabling tax-deductible, donor directed gifts from $250 to $5,000 per year to mission areas of the donor’s desire. Donations can be made to the WSLF Endowment Fund, WSF Conservation Fund, our annual Convention and/or Area of Greatest Need to fund specific programs and initiatives. Chadwick Ram Society members are recognized with an embroidered badge displaying their Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum benefactor level. Members may also “upgrade” their benefactor levels within the Chadwick Ram Society as well as to the Marco Polo Society.

For more information on the Chadwick Ram Society, the Marco Polo Society or the Ensuring the Future of Wild Sheep campaign, contact WSF President & CEO, Gray N. Thornton, Development Manager, Paige Culver, or visit our website.

We cordially invite you to join the Chadwick Ram Society and help Ensure the Future of Wild Sheep!

THE 2023 NEW/UPGRADE CHADWICK RAM SOCIETY ® MEMBERS

CRS MEMBERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHA ORDER BY BENEFACTOR LEVEL

Sheep Family Snapshots

“Having grown up in Alaska I had the opportunity to experience countless adventures. Especially when I was young, I would look up to the mountains and wonder what adventures they held.

Fast forward many adventures and years ahead and today the mountains have grown on me even more. The more I have learned about wild sheep in Alaska the more I want to be able to help.

By joining the Chadwick Ram society this has allowed me to help in way I could never imagine. This is about wild sheep across the globe and help these wonderful animals is truly a blessing. I look forward to many more adventures and cresting the mountain tops to see what lies in wait looking for wild sheep atop the mountains”

Chadwick Ram Society member, Will Lee (AK)

PLATINUM - $50,000

Anonymous

Darin & Tonya Fiedeldey (OH)

Steve Letcher (AZ)

Steve & Sue Skold (IA)

GOLD - $25,000

Ryan Andrews (PA)

Joanna Lyons-Antley (OR)

Shad Hulse (UT)

Craig & Laureen Nakamoto (IA)

Donald Priest (AZ)

SILVER - $10,000

Derek Blake (AK)

Alan Day (OR)

Paul Greene (CO)

Patrick Hagens (AK)

Stacey & Dorcey Hunt (WA)

Robert Martin, Jr (VA)

JT Tubbs (MT)

Zachary Walton (CA)

BRONZE - $5,000

Louis M. Balenko (CO)

Don Colter (ID)

Brian Fienhold (TX)

Charles Hartford (CA)

Paul & Kathy Havey (PA)

Nick Negrini (MN)

Carl Nelson (AK)

Pat O’Neill & Kay Giannola (MN)

“I became a member of the Chadwick Ram Society so I could do more to help sheep than what my Lifetime Membership could accomplish alone.  I have been fortunate to take a few rams in my life, so putting more sheep back on the mountain than I have taken is a real goal of mine.  Being a Chadwick Ram Society member is a start to that pledge that I made to not only myself but the Wild Sheep Foundation family and anyone who loves Wild Sheep…”

-Jason Matzinger

Paul Spyhalski (MN)

COPPER - $2,500

Bryan & Tammy Bailey (WA)

Matt Burke (CA)

Christopher Denton (FL)

Kaleb DesJarlais (AK)

Marcus Gores (OR)

Garrett Grant (WA)

David & Natalie Hartwig (CA)

Michael McComas (TX)

Brian Nelson (WI)

Jake Nightingale (ID)

Nate Peckinpaugh & Marci Yamasaki (MT)

Dan Powell (IL)

Jonah & Skylar Stewart (AK)

by Kevin Hurley Vice President of Conservation

THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES (PART 1)

How many of us, in a personal, family, business or management decision, have had things blow up, when our intentions were quite good? I certainly have. There is what is widely known as the Iron Law of Unintended Consequences, which says, “It is a certainty that no matter what action is taken (by an individual, a group, organization, government, etc.), there will be unintended consequences.”

Especially in the biological world, there are numerous examples of unintended consequences: “results of an action that you didn’t anticipate happening.” As I write this column in early March, I just finished watching (via ZOOM!) a Ph.D. dissertation defense at Texas A&M University. This doctoral candidate’s Ph.D. project looked at the transmissibility and potential impacts of respiratory pathogens passed between aoudad and desert bighorn sheep.

As explored in great depth at the WSF-supported April 2022 Symposium on the Ecology, Management, and Economics of Desert Bighorn and Aoudad, held at Texas Tech in Lubbock, there have certainly been unintended consequences from Texas Parks & Wildlife’s 1950s introduction of aoudad into Palo Duro Canyon. Current estimates are approximately 1,300 desert bighorn sheep in the Trans-Pecos Region, contrasted with approximately 8,000 aoudad in just those shared mountain ranges.

Unintended consequences may

either be positive or negative. While aoudad have certainly provided hunting opportunities for many (i.e., “poor man’s sheep hunt”), and landowners, guides, and outfitters have realized significant economic gains from having aoudad on their landscapes, the unintended consequences of aoudad introduction and subsequent expansion have resulted in adverse impacts and continuing management challenges for desert bighorn sheep. Both opportunities and challenges have arisen, and this reality, while not insoluble, calls for clear-headed and forward-thinking approaches over the short- and long-term horizons.

Many classify three types of unintended consequences:

1) A positive, unexpected good effect (i.e., “good luck”);

2) A negative, unanticipated bad effect (i.e., “oh s#%*!); and

3) An unforeseen effect outside the scope of, or opposite to, what was intended to happen.

Although there are certainly holdouts, most people think invention and widespread use of the automobile has been a clear sign of progress, and in some cases, an absolute necessity. Who could have anticipated our issues with automotive exhaust, traffic congestion, deaths/injuries from car accidents, and impacts on global climates? And who hasn’t hit the beach on a sunny day with their families and friends, only to come home with a painful, peeling

sunburn? We all need to make choices. Good, better choices.

A clear example of biologicallysignificant unintended consequences was widespread use of the pesticide DDT to control mosquitos and minimize malaria, both seemingly good ideas. This issue led to Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking 1962 book Silent Spring, and the subsequent banning of DDT use, in much of the world. Eggshell thinning and poor chick survival critically impacted bald eagles, which have made an incredible comeback after DDT use was banned 40 years ago in the United States. Residual human health impacts and continuing presence of DDT residue in many food products reinforce the decision that was made to widely ban DDT. Alternative strategies and chemical compounds have necessarily been developed and implemented to battle malaria, with less significant side impacts.

As wildlife undergrads, I’m sure many of us learned the story of the 1859 introduction of rabbits into Australia, for ostensibly good reasons (i.e., food, hunting opportunities, etc.). But with no natural predators and litters of five or more baby bunnies seven times a year, soon there was a rabbit plague. Farmers ripped their warrens, laid poison and shot them, but still they multiplied. By the late 1940s, rabbits had reached plague proportions, and were ravaging vast areas of Australia. In many places, not a blade of grass remained, and even

bushes were stripped bare of leaves and bark. By 1950, the myxoma virus was intentionally released, dramatically reducing rabbit populations, but also prompting human health scares. By the 1980s, trials were conducted on a new rabbit control agent (calicivirus), but this virus escaped (likely via an insect vector) and spread rapidly. In the end, the calicivirus did the job it was predicted to do (eliminating rabbits), apparently without adverse impacts to Australian people, fauna or flora.

And, of course, we all know the saga of wolf reintroduction to the northern

Rockies, subsequent management challenges, and the many unintended consequences.

The fancy definition of Adaptive Management is to have an intentional approach to making decisions and adjustments, in response to new information. The simplest way to put this is: “learn from your mistakes, then do something different.” It’s what we learn as kids (or, sometimes, later in life!). Albert Einstein is widely credited with the saying “insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.”

All of us, including the Wild Sheep Foundation, need to carefully and strategically think through our planned actions, and comprehensively analyze the known, likely, possible (and, unintended) consequences of our decisions. Doing “right” by our wild sheep resource collectively rests on all our heads and shoulders. I will follow up in the next Biologist’s Corner column with some further thoughts about unintended consequences, specific to wild sheep conservation and management. Stand by! WS

Editor’s Note: A free-range aoudad qualifies for WSF Mountain Monarch Awards. Consequently, since the launch of the <1 Club® in 2012, taking a free range aoudad in North America would get the hunter “Kicked Out” of the <1 Club® (but not the <1 iClub® which is outside of North America.) In light of the management need to harvest more aoudad which negatively impact desert bighorn sheep, the <1 Club® Committee has changed the <1 Club® rules effective with the 2023-24 program.

Effective immediately, taking an aoudad under free range conditions DOES NOT disqualify a hunter from <1 Club® membership and/or entry into the 2024 hunt drawings! Go hunt aoudad and join the <1 Club®!”

The Marco Polo Society® (MPS) is the Wild Sheep Foundation’s premier major giving “society” whose members have given and/or pledged a minimum of $100,000 to the Foundation. Gifts are donor-directed, tax-deductible and can be made to the WSLF Endowment Fund, WSF Conservation Fund, or Area of Greatest Need. Additionally, funds may be allocated to specific grant-inaid, education or advocacy initiatives and programs. The $100,000

pledge can be contributed in annual installments up to a maximum of 10 years.

Since its inception in 2008, more than $8 million in MPS gifts/ pledges have been directed to WSF and mission programs. WSF’s objective is 100 Marco Polo Society members resulting in a $10 million major gift campaign.

WSF SALUTES OUR MARCO POLO SOCIETY® MEMBERS TO DATE - Alphabetical Order

Kip & Sue Slaugh (UT)

Kevin & Tuesdy Small (CA)

J. Alain Smith (WA)

Mike Snider (MI)

Daryll & Shauna Southwick (CO)

Brandon & Kristi Stokes (OR)

Jelindo & Sandee Tiberti (NV)

Matt Tomseth (OR)

Mark Watkins (MN)

Tim & Ruth Van Der Weide (IA)

Ken & Anna Vorisek (AK)

Gabriela Peterson (MI)

Ron & Vicki Pomeroy (WY)

Larry & Brenda Potterfield (MO)

Rancho La Palmosa (MEX)

Joni & Gary W. Raba (TX)

Terry Rathert (TX)

Gary & Yvonne Rigotti (OR)

Christopher Ring (TX)

Kevin & Janine Rinke (MI)

Alan & Barbara Sackman (NY)

Doug & Shelly Sayer (ID)

Roger Segebrecht (WI)

Mark Watkins (MN)

Jay & Martha Webster (TX)

Craig West (NC)

Steven & Ardyce Whisler (MT)

Clayton & Modesta Williams (TX)

Lyle & Jennifer Wood (AB)

Russ & Debi Young (TX)

Gary & Penny Young (WV)

Alan Young (YT)

RACE TO THE SUMMIT

In 2008 the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) set out to bring $10,000,000 in Mission and Program funding through a single giving society. That year, the Marco Polo Society was born. This premier giving society, comprised of donors who have generously pledged a cash gift of $100,000, just welcomed member #90. To date this incredible group has committed $9 Million to our Purpose of Putting and Keeping Wild Sheep on The Mountain. We are on the final countdown to our 100-member goal! Wild sheep need your help today as the WSF board along with the Professional Resource Advisory Board and knowledgeable WSF Conservation Directors have carefully reviewed and approved a record $1.2 Million dollars in Grant in Aid projects for the 2022-2023 Fiscal Year.

Come and join this special group of conservation heroes and help ensure the future of wild sheep and wild places with your pledge. I promise you will be in good company. Paige Culver

G. Thomas & Patricia Lang (FL)

Wayne & Denise Lennington (TN)

Kevin Gilbert (MT)

Tom Foss (AB)

Anonymous

Anonymous

Sam & Tracy Cunningham (TX)

Robert Hall & Jane Link (FL)

Louis & Patti Breland (AL)

Mark Watkins (MN)

Jay & Martha Webster (TX)

Joe & Christine Michaletz (MN)

Jeff Sorg (MT)

Lyle and Jennifer Wood (AB)

Mark Watkins (MN)

by Paige Culver WSF Development Manager

“COME FOR THE SHEEP, STAY FOR THE PARTY” SHEEP SHOW ® 2023

Sheep Family, what an incredibly blessed crew of people we are. A week of fellowship and celebration reminds me, also, of how lucky the world and the creatures that inhabit it are to have each one of you, our faithful and generous members. We have been afforded the privilege of putting our resources and efforts toward preserving something that we cherish, all the while knowing we are creating a future for our children that will sustain the adventure and romance that the wild gifts us.

I want to make sure I give a shout out and huge “Thank You” to the Sheep Show® sponsors that made our giving society member experience extra special this year. The Ensuring the Future of Wild Sheep societies lounge was generously sponsored by Snowy Mountain Rifles of Hamilton, MT. You can thank them for the cozy furniture, the snacks, and the endless cocktails enjoyed by our Chadwick Ram, Marco Polo, and Legacy Society members. Their support helped us create a space for fellowship and a perfect location to welcome new members which resulted in $520,000 in new pledges in just three days!

A HUGE win for the wild sheep resource.

Our Marco Polo Society reception on Saturday evening was top notch thanks to our generous reception donors, Cervantes Family Vineyards and Best of the West. The Cervantes Family treated us to two of their impeccably crafted signature wines and, to the delight of all our Marco Polo Society members, Best of the West was so generous to donate one

of their custom, long-range rifles for a Marco Polo Society exclusive drawing at the reception. Lucky rifle winner, Mrs. Kathy Boone, could not have been more excited! (It was made very clear right away that this was HER rifle, not Dan’s.) Congratulations again, Kathy!

We look forward to the time when we can see all of you again. Until then, stay well, look out for one another, and happy hunting. WS

“THANK YOU” TO OUR EFTOWS LOUNGE AND SOCIETY RECEPTION SPONSORS

sponsored by:

The Conklin Foundation board is pleased to announce the 2023 winner of the Conklin Award. Bradford T. Black, MD is the 21st winner of the “Tough Man” award, named after the late Dr. James Conklin, a Weatherby Award winner, who liked to pursue difficult animals throughout the world.

Brad began his big game hunting in 1997 at the age of 40. Since then, he has hunted 43 countries taking over 527 animals. 191 of these are Conklin animals, including over 94 sheep and goats.

Brad has practiced urology for over 33 years and is part of the Glickman Urology Department at the Cleveland Clinic. He lives in North Canton, Ohio with his wife of 40 years, Sharon, and has five children, Danielle, Marissa, Alexandra, Bradford, and Victoria.

Brad was a finalist for the last three years. He persevered over the other challenging finalists: Jan Dams, Jeff Demaske, Mark Hampton, Wayne Farnsworth and Barbara Sackman.

The Conklin Foundation would like to gratefully acknowledge and thank the following businesses and individuals for their generous donations.

Baranoff Jewelers

Barbara & Alan Sackman

Brilliant Stars

Canada North Outfitting

Caprinae Safaris of Turkey

Champion Ranch

Deron & Suzie Millman

Fernando Saiz Spain

Finstincts

Giuseppe Carrizosa - Spain

Go with Bo

Hunt Conexion Mexico

The support of donors makes it possible for the Conklin Foundation to continue its efforts to educate youth about hunting.

Iberian Hunters

Laser Shot

Legela Safaris

MJ Miller & Company

Point Blank Hunts

Renaud Desgrees du Lou

Renee Snider

Rex Baker

Salvaforcaza

Spanish Mountain Hunts

Vidale Safaris

LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS

by Greg Schildwachter WSF Lobbyist

THE 118TH CONGRESS

In the U.S., the 118th Congress is underway. WSF is pursuing your interests in public lands, the Farm Bill, and grazing permit extensions.

The House Majority is now Republican by nine seats – it’s been this close only five other times in the last 100 years. This tight margin led right away to a marathon of votes to elect the Speaker of the House, which symbolized the new dynamic in the House.

Members withheld support for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (CA-R-20) to win changes to the rules of the House returning to open debate on bills on the floor. They also wanted rules that help control federal spending. They achieved several rule changes that other members wanted as well.

For us the bigger thing is “divided government”. That may sound like nothing new, but as a technical term it means the two chambers of Congress are controlled by opposing parties. An old saying is back in play, which is that the House proposes and the Senate disposes. Most of the bills passed by the House will have no chance in the Senate.

However, our agenda on Public Lands may benefit. The returning Chairman of the Senate committee, Sen. Joe Manchin (WV-D), and the new Chairman of the House committee, Rep. Bruce Westerman (AR-4-R), are more likely to reach agreement.

On these issues, the “unified” government of the last Congress –with Democratic Party majorities in both chambers – was unable to reach agreement. The House and Senate reversed their usual roles as the Senate proposed a slate of bills that the House disposed of.

The several bills we led and

supported failed to reach the President’s desk.

The hang up was between access bills and land designations of wilderness and other special areas. The House wanted to move several of the land bills that the Senate would not agree to. The Senate moved access bills, including the FILM Act and the CAPE Act that we supported.

The FILM Act eliminates fees and permits for small film crews that we rely on to tell our stories of mountain conservation. The CAPE Act modifies the Qualified Volunteers Program that enables hunters to participate in population control actions on National Park Service units – allowing the possibility of bringing home meat, heads, and hides. Other helpful bills in the Senate would have simplified other permitting and access issues.

The several land designation bills we are working on, including the Malheur Community Empowerment for the Owyhee Act, may benefit too. Our contribution to wilderness bills like this is to push for management access that promotes wilderness by enabling water management, control of invasive plants, restoration after fires, and wildlife population management. These provisions are more welcome in divided government.

Another big deal in the new Congress is the Farm Bill.

The Farm Bill is a regular, five-year measure that reauthorizes the many agriculture programs that commit Federal funds without going through the annual appropriations bills. Many of these are conservation programs.

Although most of these programs work “down in the flat” on farms and ranches far from mountain habitats of wild sheep, the Farm Bill in

recent years has reached further into public lands.

An entire title of the huge bill (the last one ran to 530 pages) is dedicated to forestry. Some provisions there apply both to National Forests and Bureau of Land Management lands. For example, during the debate in 2018, WSF engaged on a provision that might have settled the issue of alternative grazing allotments. It wasn’t enacted, so we may have another chance this time.

Either in the Farm Bill or separately, the new Congress may be open to fixing the grazing permit extensions issue we began working on last year. Recall that the difficulty of completing environmental review on grazing permits began bogging down the BLM and Forest Service many years ago. Starting in 1995, Congress began relaxing the requirement for these analyses until, in 2014, it amended the law to allow the agencies to renew permits with no analysis.

By itself, this issue is probably stuck. But as part of the permitting reform issue, it may have a chance.

Permitting reform was rejected in the last Congress but the idea lives on with some bipartisan support.

Democratic Party members and the White House administration have realized that ambitions for new energy projects in wind, solar, and the mines that supply them are suffering from the time and difficulty of permitting.

So, with grazing permits, which have no meaningful permitting process at this point, there’s a chance to make a new and better one.

Your Legislative Affairs Committee discusses these and many other issues every other Friday. Your participation is welcome. WS

NWT DREAMHUNT GIVEAWAY

WSF is sending one lucky winner on an epic Dall’s Sheep Hunt in Northwest Territories with the outfitter of their choice:

• Arctic Red River

• Canol Outfitters

• Gana River

• MacKenzie Mtn.

• Nahanni Butte

• NWT Outfitters

• South Nahanni Butte

• Raven’s Throat

SCAN FOR FULL DETAILS

Join WSF or renew for $45, or upgrade your membership and you’re in the drawing. WANT MORE CHANCES? Purchase up to 5 additional chances for $50 ea. Deadline is June 30, 2023

• Drawing will be July 17, 2023

AWARDS

by Chester Moore

RAM AWARDS SHOW DETERMINATION, CONSERVATION

The Ram Awards at the 2023 Sheep Show® in Reno were a highly successful showcase of epic hunts for quality animals.

But they were even more than that.

This ceremony embodied the very spirit of the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) and mountain hunters from around the world and their steadfast dedication to conservation and perseverance.

No other moment was as inspiring to the crowd as Camryn Cunningham being recognized for completing her FNAWS.

This encompasses Dall’s sheep, Stone’s sheep, Rocky Mountain, and desert bighorn.

It’s the absolute pinnacle of North American hunting accomplishment, but it’s taken up a notch when you realize Camryn is only 13.

She is the youngest female ever to complete a FNAWS.

She began her quest when she was just ten years old and connected to a powerful family lineage.

Her father also bagged his first wild sheep when he was ten and now her sister Stormy has as well. This Texas family shows there is indeed great hope for the future of sheep hunting.

Camryn not only exhibited resilience during her hunts but some serious grit.

When a grizzly took her Dall’s sheep cape in Alaska, she recovered it by making a 700-yard shot and taking out the bear.

More than a few tears of joy were in the room as she accepted her award.

And there were also tears when Erik Weingarth was recognized for taking a 162 7/8 Dall’s sheep with

Alaska Trophy Adventures and guide Hank Flatlow.

This hunt was a tribute to Erik’s 28-year-old son Stefan who died in a tragic boating accident while hunting in Alaska in 2021.

The awards showed that even though North American sheep face many challenges, including disease and extreme weather, rams are still reaching their highest potential.

Michael Kinney took a new California bighorn record in Oregon with a massive 191 3/8 ram while hunting with Ridge Outfitters and guide John McCollum.

Robert “Bobby” Theis took the new Texas state record desert bighorn while hunting with guide Jasper Klein of High West Outfitters. The monster ram scored 187 2/8.

The Texas program was also represented by Brenton Scott’s 167 6/8 desert bighorn, guided by Cody McEntire.

“It was great seeing a new state record and other nice rams taken in Texas. That’s a testament to the hard work not only of TPWD but its partners like WSF, the Texas Bighorn Society, Dallas Safari Club, and private landowners in the Trans Pecos,” said Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) Desert Bighorn Program Leader Froylan Hernandez.

The awards also included International Awards and a Mountain Monarch category that includes wild goats. These were equally impressive and showcased hunterconservationists’ efforts in Asia.

After introducing hunter James Lines with his 122 3/8 gold-level Punjab urial, announcer J. Alain

Smith noted this is a tribute to the conservation of the species in its native Pakistan.

“Some great things are going on for Punjab urials. Hunting-conservation programs are making a difference for them across their range as they are sheep and mountain wildlife around the world,” he said.

The largest wild sheep on the planet is the Altai argali, and this year, hunter Lines was also recognized for taking a massive 253 1/8-inch ram with Wild Hunting in Turkey and Asia and guide, Kursat Ekenler.

In the past, WSF has auctioned off Altai argali tags in Mongolia to benefit the on-the-ground conservation of the species directly.

Europe was well-represented by the new SCI #1 Central European mouflon taken by hunter James Soulliere while hunting with Inferno Outdoors and guide Roland Volley. The huge specimen scored 154 5/8. Considering mouflon are the smallest among wild sheep, that’s an extremely impressive amount of horn.

Most hunters opted to stay quiet, accept their award and enjoy watching, but a couple spoke up while on stage.

Robert Cerone, whose 45-year FNAWS quest was completed in 2022, said his love of wild sheep and hunting is as strong as ever.

“Mountain hunting still gives me goosebumps.”

Donald South, who bagged a gold Dall’s, took it to another level by giving an appeal everyone in attendance could focus on in 2023.

“The mountains and wild sheep are still calling.” WS

d S START SMART

RUBBED RAW

ome say it’s superstition, but many of us believe in the power of talismans, those trinkets said to carry us good fortune. For some, these take the form of medicine bundles to protect us or even grant magical powers. For others, it’s a religious medallion or four-leaf

BY ASHLEY MCENROE

clover. As for Glenn Smith of Valley City, Ohio, it is a silver dollar whose president on the heads side is, like Glenn himself, rubbed raw from sheep hunting.

He will turn 82 years old this May, but the good luck charm in his pocket will only be 51. Though

Eisenhower’s profile on that 1972 coin has long since faded away, the dollar has never left Glenn’s side. Over half a century and six continents, 36 wild rams from 24 species and 22 wild billies of 20 species, his talisman has been along for every adventure. Retracing

Glenn’s steps into impossible places, majestic feats and daredevil brushes with calamity, it seems that silver dollar in his pocket was the ounce of providence that made all the difference.

THE JOURNEY TO 700 BEGINS

Sheep hunting was not on Glenn’s mind back in the early ’80s, when a buddy asked him if he would like to invest in a new outfitting business near Atlin Lake, BC, at a place called Indian River Ranch. In exchange for guided trips, Glenn got in on the

action and went on an Indian River fishing trip with his dad and some friends. As he was casting, he gazed up to glimpse a few rams.

“I don’t think I’d ever seen a wild sheep, but I’d read a lot about sheep hunting,” he says. The guide advised him to come back and get a Stone’s ram.

The instant when someone succumbs to sheep fever is a lot like falling in love at first sight, which is what happened to Glenn, but not when he had his first heavy set of curls in his grasp. On that return mission to BC, he climbed the mountain, peeked over the edge and found a young Stone’s ram standing broadside with his front legs poised on a flat rock and his gaze fixed on the northern horizon and the Yukon beyond.

“That memory stuck with me forever. Something happened in me from that moment—a moment with God, some might say.” He would take his first wild sheep, an old broomed Stone’s, on that 1988 voyage, but it was the ram he left on the mountain, on that rock staring into the boreal

wilds, that captured his soul and defined the rest of his existence. His silver coin back then seemed freshly minted, smooth with clear details— images, numbers, the president’s facial features. Its journey had merely begun. Fast forward four years to 1992 in the Highlands outside Butte, Montana. Glenn had the state Governor’s permit in his pocket as he nervously buffed the coin while waiting an eternity for his Rocky Mountain ram to offer him a shot. The dollar got even more wear in the Highlands when Glenn’s hunting buddy, guide and outfitter Tim Magness, narrowly escaped getting struck by a rattler, and then as bird hunters in the distance started shooting, scaring the band of sheep away.

Jack Atcheson, Jr., of Butte-

based hunting consultant firm Jack Atcheson & Sons, Inc., had advised Glenn to purchase Montana’s Governor’s tag at the Sheep Show® auction if he really wanted to get a huge bighorn in this lifetime. Though no confirmed reports of a monster Treasure State ram were rumored at the time, Glenn decided to buy it. As the Governor’s permit was put on the block, Glenn was at home calling his friend and Indian River Ranch outfitter Jammie Schumacher, who was in the auction hall to bid for him. After Glenn put in for $75,000, his phone died and the bidding rolled on without him. Sweating and scrambling, Glenn got back in touch with Schumacher just in time and won the tag for $88,000. That was the last time the Montana permit

The 1992 Highlands ram begins decades of friendship between Glenn, right, and Tim Magness.

would go for such a bargain price.

It was the only special sheephunting permit Glenn would ever purchase, and it proved to be a solid investment. He set his sights on Montana’s Highlands. While on a scouting trip in the area, Atcheson had spied what appeared to be a dead ram in the cliffs. It was later christened “The King,” the largest Boone & Crockett ram ever recorded in the lower 48 at that time, later garnering an official score of 203 5/8. The big question on everyone’s mind was whether another giant lurked in the vicinity.

The answer soon arrived. Scouting with his two daughters, Magness photographed a big boy they would later nickname “#1.” As opening day neared, this was the ram Glenn and Tim decided to go after.

A sharp crew was in the field helping them scout, including acclaimed hunter-author Duncan Gilchrist. While glassing from a ridge, they found 84 rams grazing in a meadow. “We were looking at literally a ton of horns,” Glenn remembers. One would end up in his backpack.

After the heartache of a missed shot, a less-than-ideal shot, a harrowing four-mile chase and a victorious finish, the Highlands gave Glenn his second ram and the biggest he would ever collect, taping out at 196 5/8 in the B & C record book.

As a tip for guiding him to #1, Glenn offered Magness a chance at a BC Stone’s ram. In 1995, Magness, Glenn and his silver dollar flew to Indian River Ranch for two hunts with Schumacher. Magness found success early on, and Glenn would later get his second B & C ram with a score of 171.

Almost three decades later in

2022, Glenn was still burnishing the faint remnants of Eisenhower’s profile when he completed his fourth FNAWS in Sonora, Mexico, and finally achieved his decades-long dream of entering the 700 Club. It should have been a done deal many years earlier, when Glenn was in Alaska’s Tok area with master guide Jeff Burwell looking for a 157 Dall’s ram to make the 700 Club. Instead of a big white sheep, he got two massive kidney stones. Despite the agony, he rode horseback searching in vain for rams over five excruciating days before calling it quits.

“But, I never would have gotten my 2022 desert ram, a ram of this caliber, if I had succeeded on that hunt,” Glenn says.

He also had a 2021 chance at making the 700 Club, but Glenn cancelled his desert hunt that year because his wife Peggy was fighting cancer.

“She needed me more than I needed a sheep.”

To enter the 700 Club and finish FNAWS number four, Glenn required a 181 or better desert ram. In February 2022, he and his best hunting friends Tim Magness and Marc Hansen traveled to Sonora’s Rancho El Volteadero to join Wade Lemon Hunting and guide Lance Scoggins in search of something spectacular to cap his epic career. Prior to Glenn’s arrival, local guides had seen an impressive ram. It was all flatland glassing, no hiking gear required. His last sheep hunt turned out to be the easiest, possibly a bit of cosmic payback for all the suffering inflicted by all the previous ones. The ram was a dandy, scoring 190 2/8 B & C and receiving the WSF Gold for a rifle-harvested desert at

the 2023 Sheep Show® RAM/FNAWS Awards. Racking up his FNAWS measurements to 714 inches, that desert bighorn easily swept Glenn into the 700 Club at last. And with him all the way was that old silver coin, its symbols and dates now mere ghosts, barely perceptible.

SILVER IN THE SAWDUST

Finding that lucky piece was akin to discovering a diamond in the rough, or silver in the sawdust, in Glenn’s case. He grew up on his family’s dairy farm, where among his chores Glenn hauled sawdust from a local door manufacturer to use as bedding for their 500 Jerseys. If there was more sawdust than the Smith farm could use, they would give it to their neighbors.

“A lightbulb went off in my head,” Glenn says. “I asked my dad if I could get a truck and sell the sawdust.”

The enterprise sounded promising, and on September 15, 1961, young Glenn, fresh out of high school, sold his first load for $3. Smith Bros. Inc. was born and would become one of the leading landscape supply companies in the eastern US. The silver dollar entered the story about a decade later, in 1972, when a lady paid Glenn for a sawdust delivery with two paper dollars and a silver one.

“I put that silver dollar in my pocket and kept carrying it. It’s been all over the world, on my first sheep hunt in 1988 to my last in 2022,” Glenn explains. “That silver dollar had to travel, and it took brass and lead with it.”

While some of that brass and lead never returned home, the silver always did, often with meat and horns. That silver charm has also been his romance wingman, at least

“I put that silver dollar in my pocket and kept carrying it. It’s been all over the world, on my first sheep hunt in 1988 to my last in 2022.”

once. Back when he was between marriages, Glenn went on a date and noticed the woman eyeing him oddly as his hand was plunged in his pocket. She asked what he was doing.

“Rubbing my lucky piece,” he smiled and, after pulling it out, “Here: You want to rub it, too?”

LOOKING FOR THE SILVER LINING

According to Glenn Smith, his toughest hunt would have used up eight of his nine lives, if he was a cat. It didn’t happen in Central Asia’s airless extremes or Siberia’s

frigid storms or among Kamchatka’s menacing brown bears—all of which Glenn has encountered over the decades. The bruising endurance test was a Dall’s quest in Alaska. Any day of the week, chasing after snowy white thinhorns abounds with obstacles and danger, but Glenn’s hunt was more a survival reality show before that was even a thing.

It started as he and his guide Chad were being flown into camp. All Glenn could do was watch helplessly as the landing Super Cub’s wheels caught the edge of the gravel bar’s vertical bank. Had the wheels been just a few degrees of an angle off, the Cub’s nose would have slammed into the ground. This time, the plane merely bounced back up.

Swiftly forgetting their first brush with death, the two men hiked up three drainages for a rendezvous with three rams Chad had previously scouted. Walking was smooth since the river and creeks were running low and gentle. They would later realize this was temporary. After making camp in the dark, they hunkered down for a nearly two-day wicked downpour.

“Lying in our tent, ears next to the ground, we could hear booms like thunder,” Glenn recalls. “Chad said it was boulders moving around in the river. At night, we heard a roar like an airplane engine. It was a landslide.”

Emerging from his tent in the daylight, Glenn found water creeping toward the entry. They quickly packed up and bushwhacked up a slope to escape the flood. Five hundred yards from where their tents had been staked, they discovered the landslide with a 50-foot-wide terminus.

“Had we camped there in the dark, we would have been buried alive,”

Glenn says.

They stopped at a lazy waterfall, where Chad plucked out a chunk of green fiberglass. “This is a piece of airplane,” the guide announced, then tucked the evidence in his pocket while saving the waypoint in the only GPS available at the time: his memory.

Continuing their march ever upward into the vertical, they found no sheep but made a new camp and plan. With Glenn glassing from yet a higher peak, Chad ventured out and

returned with good news. The chase was on, but their morning stalk began to get demoralizing when cliffs barred the way several times, adding more miles, altitude and exhaustion to the mission. Resting in the afternoon, the men turned their spotting scopes toward their distant campsite and watched a black bear making himself at home.

“Sitting on his rump, this funny bear had Chad’s down sleeping bag,” Glenn laughs. “He sat and squeezed it and watched the feathers fly like snow.”

Meanwhile, Glenn was reaching his limit. “I told Chad that I’m out of gas. Either we kill a ram today, or I’m done.”

Darkness was falling, so they decided to stay there and wait for daylight and, hopefully, rams. Armed with drinking water and rainsuits, they hunkered down behind a Volkswagen-sized boulder on the mountainside. It was so sheer that they had to dig in their heels to avoid tumbling tail over teakettle. Shivering through the night to stay

Armed with drinking water and rainsuits, they hunkered down behind a Volkswagen-sized boulder on the mountainside.

The remains of Glenn's snow sheep camp after a Russian brown bear's visit.

warm, they feasted on a candy bar. Their restless vigil got suddenly more exciting when the ground started shaking and a freight-train rumble shattered the silence. Boulders went bouncing by like basketballs tossed by the gods. Earthquake!

“We were lucky our rock shelter held,” Glenn says, adding that at least they felt no aftershocks.

Under a blue morning sky, they reached a spot littered with sheep droppings. The three rams had to be nearby.

“Suddenly, 30 yards away, a ram

appears!” Glenn exclaims. “I racked in a round, and the sheep stood there dumbfounded. It couldn’t believe what it saw.”

At the shot, the ram toppled over, right into a chute and out of sight. With no ropes, Glenn and Chad braved two dicey descents to reach his sheep 500 yards below. While Glenn was certain the drop had shorn off both curls, only two chips were missing from the horns. After the men stood up from taking photos, gravity stepped in, and the ram renewed his getaway, rolling down

the dizzy incline until he slid to a stop nearly at the base.

Heaving into camp with laden packs, Glenn and Chad were expecting the bear had done his worst but were relieved to discover only the one sleeping bag mauled and some otherwise minor damage. Yet, when they attempted to call the outfitter, the radio’s batteries were dead.

All the while, a glacier in the area had been melting, and water was rising. On the following day’s hike out, the men played the tide to cross the creeks. That night, they enjoyed

Glenn, left, Magness, center, and Jammie Schumacher celebrate a fine Stone’s.

KNOCKDOWN PACK-OUT OF THE WEST.

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COVER STORY

sheep meat and a grouse Chad had shot, and they started to think their luck might have changed. With the torrent ahead too swollen and swift to traverse the next morning, they skidded down sidehills to find a way.

“I’m ducking alders, and my rifle fell off into the stream,” Glenn says. “I looked for two hours with my walking stick to fish it out. Chad and

I searched 50 feet downstream. We knew the gun was gone. Before we left, one last time I put my walking stick in and hooked my rifle sling.”

It was another of Glenn’s good luck charms: that 300 Winchester model 70 had served as a handy crutch when he broke an ankle on an elk hunt.

At the main river, flat stones offered unbelievably easy passage,

but as they proceeded, Chad was overcome by an uneasy feeling. Turning around, the men were confronted by a grizzly following them with interest.

“I couldn’t reach the rifle on my pack. I stopped. The bear stopped,” Glenn remembers. “I finally had my gun ready, but we didn’t want to shoot. Chad said it was a young bear.

His mother had probably just kicked him out, but he could certainly smell the meat. We threw stones at him, and he ambled off.”

That was their final close call. After the outfitter landed safely and picked them up, Chad pulled out the fiberglass shard they had brought back. Subsequently, the area’s search and rescue team revealed that, 19 years earlier, a plane had crashed in that area. The fiberglass in Chad’s pocket led to a renewed search, where investigators found a small aircraft in a tree with a skeleton still in the pilot’s seat.

YOU CALL THIS LUCK?

All over the world, through countless miles and memories, that silver dollar was there, offering itself up as a much-needed worry stone to quell the anxiety of frequently skirting disaster. It was with Glenn on four African hunts, including a run-in with a Zimbabwe crocodile that, after being dispatched and loaded into a boat with the hunter and his crew, had a post-mortem muscle spasm that sent a cooler flying right into the pilot’s head, knocking him out. One of the trackers grabbed the steering wheel before Glenn and his team capsized into croc- and hippo-infested Lake Kariba.

In Magadan, Russia, a snow sheep hunt brought Glenn and Marc Hansen together for what seemed to be an accessible herd, close to the seashore. As the guides steered the boats inland, the sheep immediately dashed up a 1,000-foot vertical cliff, forcing Glenn and his guide to ascend using ropes. From where they stood halfway up the face, a pebble would freefall straight into the sea. That was pretty much what happened

after Glenn shot his ram, sending it airborne, plummeting 500 feet to the rocky beach. Hansen had taken his own ram from near the same height, but his sheep stayed put where it fell on the rocks. To Hansen’s horror, the guides kicked it, and his ram ended up landing close to Glenn’s. It was all tough, but fun, as Glenn remembers it, though he could have

doorway, overhead bins lacking doors and excess passengers standing up in the back of the craft as if they were riding a bus. When Atcheson sat down, his creaky seat collapsed.

Mysterious agents with manilla envelopes full of money, shadowy figures in leather coats loading the hunters into a van at night and confiscating their baggage tickets, waking up to gunfire as they slept in Dushanbe, waiting for days on the Afghan border and passing checkpoints while staring down the barrels of AK-47s—none of it seemed to rattle Glenn. Not even near sheep camp, when he dared to drink the local libation: tea spiked with fermented mare’s milk and blood. He might have been a little concerned on the return flight over Russia in a plane that glided low over the valleys because it couldn’t pressurize. Rain soaked the passengers during a thunderstorm as they descended into Moscow. The same plane, they later learned, ended up crashing in Siberia and killing all on board.

done without the giant brown bear trashing everything in camp while they were fortunately out hunting.

“I tell people I shot my snow sheep at 500-feet elevation,” Glenn says. “Compare that to when I shot a Marco Polo at 17,500 feet in Tajikistan.”

As for that Marco Polo, Atcheson accompanied Glenn on that escapade, which began with them landing in Moscow to board an old Aeroflot with holes in the plane’s

Glenn hasn’t kept the magic of his silver talisman to himself. A few years ago at La Palmosa Ranch in Coahuila, Mexico, he concluded his desert sheep hunt by giving all the staff an Eisenhower coin just like his own. During his stay, Heather Wise, the winner of WSF’s Life Member Breakfast desert sheep hunt, was also there for her first ram. Tears flowed at the breakfast table when Glenn presented her with a silver dollar to celebrate her success.

His takeaway after all the thrills and disappointments of mountain hunting is simple. When it comes to sheep hunting, Glenn’s advice is “Don’t wait.” When it comes to regrets, Glenn has one: he never

Investigators found a small aircraft in a tree with a skeleton still in the pilot’s seat.

hunted on a glacier. Now, he may never have the chance—but with that lucky dollar on his side, no one with sense would wager against Glenn doing it. Whatever you dream of, make it happen now. And, when you do, may you have along with you a silent companion sanded smooth by time, hardship and heart-pounding excitement to calm your doubts and settle your soul when the fleeting shot at glory finally stares you in the face.

Though hunters, especially ancient ones, may be rasped down by wind, water and rocks over long miles and longer years, they are kindred spirits with the solemn creatures they seek. Rubbed raw like the broomed tips of a regal ram, the old hunter endures, as does the worn-out silver he clings to like a faithful friend. Though dulled and pocked, the man, the ram and the metal all still shine with value that increases with age. WS

Silver Dollars all around after a successful desert sheep hunt at La Palmosa in Coahuila.

Every year, DSC hosts its annual Convention that raises funds for grants in conservation, education, and advocacy. The four-day 2023 DSC Convention is open to the public and will fill over 800,000 square feet with 1,000 exhibitors featuring outfitted hunts, firearms, gear, wildlife art and much more.

I want to send my sincerest thank you to Wade Derby at Crosshair Consulting. Not only is Wade the best in the consulting business, but has become one of my closest friends over the years. I can’t thank Wade enough for the amount of effort he has put in with aiding my sheep obsession, as well as helping me close in on finishing my Super Slam of North American big game. There is no one better in the consulting world than Wade Derby. Whatever your dream trip is or whatever your next hunting adventure is look no further than Crosshair Consulting.

DALL SHEEP

I want to thank Ruby Range outfitters for an unforgettable Dall Sheep hunt. Ross Elliot and his outfit are top notch!

STONE SHEEP

Quintin Thompson and Gundahoo River Outfitters are a first class operation. Their area is the premier area in British Columbia for stone sheep. Grateful for Quintin Thompson and my guide Justin Mcnain for providing me with a trip of a lifetime and a record book Stone!

DESERT SHEEP

Derick Lopez Outfitters and his team are the best of the best in Sonora. Derick knows sheep hunting in Sonora better than anyone! His private areas on the mainland, as well as his tags on Tiburon Island are the best in all of Sonora! Having hunted with Derick several times before for Mule Deer and Coues deer I was already familiar with his operation and had no hesitation in booking a Desert sheep hunt with his outfit. Many thanks to Derick Lopez and his entire outfit!

CALIFORNIA BIGHORN SHEEP

I cant express my gratitude to Ben Stourac “Famous Ben” of Arcadia Outfitting for providing me with the privilege of hunting his famed Fraser River area of British Columbia for California Bighorn Sheep. Ben and his team are in a league of their own when it comes to hunting Bighorns. His area has a large number of mature rams due to the continuing conservation efforts of Ben and his team. This was a true once in a lifetime hunt and an unforgettable way to finish my Slam!

- Justin Falatok

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It was Day 15 of a 21-day hunt and (to use my Texas vernacular) we were beginning to feel snakebit. As the stalk was just beginning on a group of four rams we had spotted feeding over a mile away, a big boar grizzly decided to make his appearance – crossing between us and the rams. The rams disappeared as the bear nonchalantly ambled over a couple of miles of ground it would have taken us hours to traverse before disappearing –and taking my hopes for a textbook ending to my hunt with him.

Were all the days of riding, hiking,

and climbing going to be for naught? Was my quest for a bighorn to complete the final leg of my FNAWS going to remain unfulfilled? Only the Red Gods knew…

Growing up in east Texas in the 1970s, the only sheep hunting I was exposed to came in the pages of the Outdoor Life articles Jack O’Connor wrote. As I read them hanging out in my dad’s small town drugstore, in my mind I may as well have been reading science-fiction stories. The Yukon, the Sonoran desert, and British Columbia seemed as far away as Mars to a kid whose biggest dream was to kill more squirrels or a bigger whitetail buck than his older brothers.

But kids grow into men, and their dreams grow with them. In 2006, I decided I wanted to hunt sheep as a “bucket list” hunt, so I went to the Yukon and took a beautiful Stone’s (Fannin) sheep.

Lightning then struck in 2014 as I drew a nonresident desert sheep tag in Arizona and took a fine ram.

This opened the door to the possibility of taking all four, so I went back to the Yukon in 2017 and was fortunate to take a big Dall’s ram.

That left only the Rocky Mountain bighorn. Fate led me to a great visit with Bruce Ambler at the Sheep Show® back in 2019, so I booked a California bighorn hunt with him for the following year. As we all know, COVID changed those plans, and the wait for my hunt dragged on until the borders fully re-opened in 2022. It was finally time to go.

Bruce and his guides are all topnotch. Their willingness to do whatever it takes to put their hunters on a ram is matched by their ability to make you feel like you are a part of the team.

And you are – because these rams don’t come easy. Long days, horseback rides over unforgiving terrain, and hiking up to vantage points where the horses can’t go are

all part of the adventure. And an adventure it surely is, as I have never felt more a part of the wilderness. It’s as close to experiencing what the mountain men must have felt as anything I can imagine. You learn a lot about what it takes to chase an elusive prey in tough country and, in the process, you learn a lot about yourself.

Watching Bruce, Dustin, Scott, and Bryan not only tackle rough country, but do it with ease and a friendly demeanor filled me with awe and admiration.

My journey began with a flight to Montana and a cross-country drive to Bruce’s beautiful home in Clinton, BC. The scenery on the way up was breathtaking, making the long drive seem less like a chore and more like

an introduction to Canada’s remote mountain wilderness. The day after my arrival found us in the cabin that serves as the base of operations. The following day was spent riding and exploring some known sheep haunts. I was amazed at how the mountain horses navigated rocks, cliffs, and other treacherous terrain with ease. Learning to trust your horse was a process, but as the days went by I became comfortable riding in country I would have thought impossible to cross on horseback.

The same was true for the hikes up to the vantage points even the horses couldn’t go. As with previous high-country hunts, my strength and confidence grew with each passing day. And the days passed quickly as we traveled to various camps across

the range looking for a ram, seeing some of the most beautiful sights imaginable along the way. From colorful mountain meadows to mint blue glacier fed lakes to snow-capped peaks – this country had it all. We were finding sheep but the big rams we were looking for managed to elude us. That all changed as we rode out of camp on the morning of the 15th day, tied the horses up to glass the country we were about to ride through, and spotted the group of four rams described at the beginning of the story feeding on a distant mountainside. Even from far away one ram stood out from

the rest, so a plan was made and the stalk began. It didn’t last long, as Mr. Grizzly decided at that moment to throw a monkey wrench into the works. But that’s sheep hunting, and our disappointment soon turned into resolve. We decided to stay with that group and camp on the mountain until we found them again. This we did – hunting them by day, laying down saddle blankets and rolling out our sleeping bags when night fell. Our picketed horses served as grizzly alarms. Despite several days of effort and some additional Herculean hikes by Dustin checking every possible hideout where they might

have gone, those rams proved to be ghosts. We never saw them again. I was beginning to slowly come to the realization that this grand adventure might end without a ram. Again, that’s hunting – especially sheep hunting. Nothing’s guaranteed even when no effort is spared.

But sometimes perseverance pays off, and our luck was about to change.

That change came in the form of a midday message on the inReach from Bruce that they had located three rams and one was definitely a ram I would want to take back to Texas. But that meant we had to bushwhack out several miles without a trail. Not only that, we had to go now to have any shot at making it to camp by nightfall and make a play on the rams the next morning. So we packed the horses and headed out, busting brush, walking the horses over blowdowns, and slowly closing the distance to the other camp. Would we make it in time? Or would darkness catch up to us, forcing us to camp in the bush and miss this last-minute chance? Again, the answer came from Bruce – not via

But sometimes perseverance pays off, and our luck was about to change.

text message this time but in person, as we met him about halfway out. He was on foot, having walked in from the opposite direction, cutting and blazing a trail along the way so we could make it out in time. I have been fortunate to have some great outfitters who gave every effort on my behalf. But seeing Bruce coming through that tangle of timber on foot and then riding out on the trail he had made told me all I needed to know about his commitment to success. It is second to none.

The next morning’s dawn found us glassing the mountainside where the rams had been put to bed the night before. Just when we were beginning to think they may have given us the slip, they appeared out of the ravine just in front of us, feeding and totally unaware of our presence. For the first time in the hunt, the odds appeared to be in our favor. A plan was made for Bruce, Dustin, and me to ride horseback all the way around the mountain behind them, tie the horses, and come in from above. Textbook, right? And it mostly was, with a few glitches thrown in.

The first glitch was the rams decided to feed right up and over the mountain. This almost caught us with our proverbial pants down. We scrambled first up, then across, then back down the slope we had just ascended trying to stay ahead of them. This mad dash finally came to a head as we raced to get behind a huge boulder before the rams fed over a tiny ridge barely big enough to shield us from them. We made it with seconds to spare, throwing ourselves behind the boulder just as the rams’ backs crested the ridge.

As Scott and Bryan watched all these goings-on through spotting

scopes from their vantage point over a mile away, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Why were we running around like banshees with the rams right on top of us? How did the rams not see us? Why didn’t we just stop and shoot the big ram? Of course, the answer was that folds in the terrain invisible at that distance were hiding the rams from us, and vice versa.

But surely we had them now. We were hidden, I had settled in with a solid rest, and the rams were feeding our way. A few more minutes and the long journey for my FNAWS would soon be over. Not so fast, because this was a story that simply refused to end.

Just as I was settling in for the shot, the rams decided to bed down for the day. Not in a little while, not in a meandering fashion, but right then. They abruptly turned, headed up the face of the mountain (conveniently hidden from us most of the way by a draw) and bedded down just over 300 yards directly uphill from us. Of course, the big ram bedded behind a boulder of his own – completely shielded from view except for his head. We were stunned by this sudden turn of events.

“Well boys, we are pinned down now. It looks like we are going to be here awhile,” Bruce said. And we knew it.

I won’t bore you with all the thoughts that run through your mind as you wait for the ram that would fulfill a lifelong dream to stand up, but they run the gamut. First you are up, then down as the adrenaline ebbs and flows like the tide. I couldn’t help but wonder how it would be when the time came to shoot. Would I be calm and steady? Or a nervous wreck? I have always tried not to overthink the shot at a ram by focusing on the

stakes, but to just treat it like any of the shots I’ve taken on any other game animal. Would I be able do that this time?

Three-and-a-half hours later, the answer came. The big ram got up, moved a little, scratched out a new bed, and laid back down. Only this time he was in plain sight. I got ready. Whispering that I was steady, but that a place to rest my right elbow sure would be nice, Bruce bent over beside me, threw a pack on his back, and said “Will that work?” It did, and I prepared for the shot. Just then it presented itself. I got down on the rifle, settled the crosshairs in with confidence, squeezed the trigger, and the rifle bucked. “High!” Dustin said. When the ram paused on his way

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up and over the mountain, I settled in again and squeezed off a second shot. “High again!!” Dustin barked. Thankfully, the ram still couldn’t pinpoint the danger and stopped once more, looking for its source. I held low, squeezed the trigger again and heard the sound of a solid hit. The ram turned back down the mountain, started to take a step, and collapsed. It was over. The long hunt, the long journey to my FNAWS, and my long-held dream. All over.

And I couldn’t think of a better ending. I was relieved, drained, and ecstatic in a way that only sheep hunters can fully understand. Our celebration on the mountain reflected all those emotions.

Scott and Bryan soon joined us, and we shared in the joy of our efforts. As always, the best part of a successful hunt was sharing it with the guys who made it possible.

When we reached the ram, the sight of his heavy, curled horns and beautiful light brown coat typical of a mature California bighorn left me filled with awe at these magnificent animals.

Photos were taken, the ram was caped, and we began making our way out of the backcountry.

As we ascended the last ridge before reaching camp, it dawned on me that there would soon be no more ridges to climb. That realization caught me by surprise, as happens when dreams come true.

Sheep hunting teaches us how to turn dreams into memories. Certainly, the future will hold new dreams and new memories, but I will cherish the memory of my British Columbia wilderness adventure and the hunt for the 20 Day ram forever. WS

DOUBLE THE DISTANCE, DOUBLE THE SUCCESS

BY JEREMY BRYANT

Here in Alberta, over-thecounter bighorn sheep tags can be purchased every year for less than the cost of a tank of gas (not saying much these days). The only downside is that there are plenty of serious bighorn hunters competing for legal rams. The success rates for resident hunters is low, and to harvest a ram, you either need to get lucky, or give yourself an edge. In the fall of 2022, my ‘edge’ would be to hike further than anyone else would – 40 miles along a ‘trail’ that cut through rivers, boulder fields, beaver swamps, and the rugged Rocky Mountains. The planning started almost a year prior while on a bighorn hunt with

my dad. During the hunt we found ourselves on a mountaintop that was 30 miles from the nearest road. From there, we could see the outline of mountain range 10 miles away. It was shrouded in clouds, and I had a feeling it was the kind of place I’d been dreaming of: A secluded mountain range filled with great ram habitat, all fortified by many days of hard hiking. While looking at it I felt like Moses gazing into the Promised Land – I just knew it must be flowing with full curls and dark capes.

I sent my long-time hunting partner Leigh, a pin on Google Maps and a note that said we’d found the most epic spot for our next

adventure. And with that, we started dreaming, scheming, and planning our 16-day DIY sheep hunting trip for August 2022.

Over the spring and summer we connected with conservation officers and biologists to pick their brains about the area. One of them, Don, was incredibly helpful and even met us for beers to discuss our plans and provide advice on accessing the area. We ended up learning about a different trailhead we could use – it would knock off 20 river crossings and 2500 feet of elevation on the hike. The downside was we needed an OHV to access the trailhead – which we

didn’t have. Luckily, we had a good friend who lent us his quad, and with that, things were coming together!

My dad, Leigh, and I got to the parking lot five days before sheep season opener. With just one rifle, and all non-essential gear left behind, our base pack weight was just 30 pounds each. We added 14 days’ worth of food, so our packs ended up weighing a very manageable 60ish pounds. The hike in went smoothly, and we didn’t see a soul or a trace of recent human activity after leaving the quad. By day two, we found ourselves completely alone in sheep country. So with a couple days before season opener, we split up –Leigh went to our intended hunting spot in the big valley, and my dad and I headed west to look at a few

secluded bowls nearby.

On our walkabout, my dad and I spotted a few groups of ewes, and followed a fresh set of particularly large sheep prints up to a glacier, but never caught up with the ram they belonged to. So on the morning of the season opener, we dropped down into the big valley to meet up with Leigh.

As Leigh led us to his tent spot, he filled us in on the happenings –including the storms he got caught in (one which caught him off guard, and left him with an inch of rain in the

bottom of his tent), and the massive black wolf he saw in the next valley over to the east. The tent spot was picture perfect – it was on a flat grassy plateau with a spring-fed creek that flowed through it. The icing on the cake was that it had a resident herd of sheep - there were 40 lambs and ewes around the tents when we got there, and they didn’t seem to mind our presence one bit. Throughout our trip they fed, bedded and played on all sides of our tents and seemed to accept us as three of their own. I’ve

never met a campsite attendant who I liked more than those lambs and ewes!

Our tent and sleeping mats were set up by mid-afternoon, and it felt like before we had even finished catching up with Leigh, we made a plan to split up again for the evening to glass on top of opposite ridges. My dad and I went up the east ridge, and Leigh headed west. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening. And unlike most times in the Alberta Rockies, there was almost no wind on top of that

Leigh and I both had tags, and we had dreamt of doubling up on rams.

knife ridge. It was sunny and warm. Better yet, we were looking over thousands of acres of untouched sheep habitat. There were scree slopes, grassy hillsides, and rocky outcroppings – all the ingredients of great ram country. We could see for miles off both sides of the ridge. It almost felt frantic since there was so much perfect country, and so little time before darkness would fall.

With two hours of light left I was looking through my binos and spotted animals walking out of a small valley to the west. My dad and I were chatting at the time and I fell silent. I didn’t say anything until I got them in the spotting scope and confirmed – they were rams! I whispered to my dad the words I had been dreaming of saying for the past year, “Well pa, we got rams!”

There were six rams, and they were about three quarters of a mile away. But they were down a 1000 foot vertical cliff, and we certainly didn’t have time to get to them that night, so we just watched. Judging them was a bit tricky as they were acting jittery and wouldn’t stand still. They would feed for a few minutes and then run full speed for a hundred yards before settling down again to feed. Our evening show ended with the rams spooking out of sight at the very bottom of the valley, close to where our two valleys met. The best part of that night, aside from enjoying it all with my dad, was that even from almost a mile away, we could tell at least one of the rams was legal. His cape was dark and his horns were very obviously past the 4/5th curl legal requirement here in Alberta – just

what we were hoping for!

During all the excitement that evening, I made sure to take a few breaths and take everything in – I focused on my feelings of excitement, and soaked up the incredible scenery and the beautiful weather. I tried to emboss that experience into my memory. It was the kind of moment that keeps sheep hunters coming back to the mountains. There is always a certain feeling of whimsy when you first spot rams – it’s a time that has so much possibility, so much excitement, so much intrigue. I prefer the first moment of spotting a good ram to shooting a ram. It’s the difference between first catching her eye from across the room in college, and celebrating your seventh wedding anniversary. Don’t get me wrong, milestones and dead rams are incredible and worth celebrating, but they’re somehow less fleeting, and mysterious than that first glimpse at your quarry. When I find myself daydreaming of ram hunting while I’m at my desk working, it’s most often about that moment when I first spot a ram!

The other highlight of that night for me was seeing the spring in the step of my 61-year old dad as we went back to camp. As he galloped down the scree slope at full speed, you would have thought he was a boy

heading to open presents on Christmas morning – it was a sight to behold. We met Leigh after dark and filled him in as we ate our dehydrated meals. After analyzing the footage I took of the rams, we figured there were at least two good rams in the band! Both rams were very dark – one had longer horns, and the other had heavier horns. We also discussed why they might have been spooked, and where they might have gone. We hypothesized that the wolf Leigh had seen a couple days prior was still around, or at least his scent was. We figured the next day we should hike down to where I last spotted the rams where our valley and the rams’ valley converged. But we also knew there was a possibility that the rams might move up into our valley overnight. So, our plan was to get up at first light and glass our valley, and if all was quiet, we’d hike down to relocate them.

I slept surprisingly well that night despite how excited I was. Normally during a night like that I’d toss and turn and wonder and ponder. Instead I rested easy, I think because even if we didn’t find those rams again, I knew we still had another eight days to hunt and I was enjoying the adventure so much. I got out of the tent just as the sky was starting to get light. I walked ten yards to a small knob, and got set up to glass. As darkness broke, I could see the resident ewes and lambs – no surprise there. They were spread out feeding on the hillside to the west of us. Some were within 100 yards of our tents, and others were out to 500 yards. Leigh joined me a few minutes later and I told him the rams weren’t

in our valley – and that once my dad was ready we’d pack up and head down to find them. However, my dad’s ‘morning constitutional’ was evidently taking longer than normal, so we waited semi-patiently as he finished his business. We were enjoying watching the lambs play and ewes feed as my dad walked over to us. But just as we were about to get up, we spotted six sheep at the base of our valley about 2/3 of a mile away. They were the rams! I could hardly believe our luck – they were headed up the valley towards us.

As the rams closed the distance feeding their way up on the West hillside, we worked to get spotters and the rifle set up. It didn’t take us long to determine that there were in fact two legal rams – both looked good. We

dubbed the darker one with the longer horns “Number 1” and the shorterheavier-horned ram “Number 2”.

The legendary guide and outfitter, Clay Lancaster, suggests the most effective way to double up on rams is to take out the lead ram with the first shot, and then most often the other rams will just stand there looking at their fallen leader, providing another shot opportunity. Leigh and I both had tags, and we had dreamt of doubling up on rams. So, we played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors right then and agreed that the winner would get the honor of watching his buddy shoot first. Leigh bested me, which meant that I was first shooter. Based on the rams’ behavior, we figured “Number 1” was the lead ram – he seemed to be leading the band

the night before, and was displaying dominant behavior in the way he positioned his head, and the way he moved and pushed other sheep out of the way that morning. We only had one rifle, and so with this in mind, the plan was that I would put “Number 1” on the ground first and then Leigh would get on the rifle and take “Number 2”.

The rams worked their way right through the ewes and lambs. It was interesting seeing the older rams simply barge through the ewes, while the younger rams spent time sniffing and chasing. The rams didn’t seem to mind the lambs though and let them hang around the band and mingle for a few minutes – a brief glimpse into the little lambs’ future as members of the ram band in a few years! The rams didn’t seem to mind our presence – they must have noticed us and our tents, but it seemed like they knew the lambs and ewes felt safe and thus weren’t concerned. The rams continued feeding along the hillside to our west which ever so slowly brought them closer to us. Each yard they walked brought them a few inches closer to us. 600 yards away. Then 500 yards. 480. 460. 455. We had the rifle set up and when the rams got to 450 yards I considered shooting. We had a Javelin Bipod set up on the rifle, and it was rock-solid. But, there were two good rams and we had two tags – we wanted to get them both. 450 yards was the maximum distance either of us was confident shooting to, so we decided to wait for a better opportunity. It was not easy just sitting by as the rams slowly fed across the hillside within range, and then out of sight. However, we knew it was the right decision. It was about 8 a.m., and we figured the rams would

be starting to think about bedding down for the day soon.

We contemplated staying put and waiting until we were confident the rams would be bedded to go and look for them. But we knew the landscape well and figured we could head north and get to a plateau close to where the rams headed and perhaps get a shot opportunity. With our minds made up, the hunt took on new life as soon as the rams walked out of sight. We threw the spotters and gear in our bags, grabbed the rifle and headed to a fold in the hills that would lead us out of sight, heading roughly parallel to where the rams went. All the while we were in perfect view of the lambs and ewes, but we were confident that based on the last couple days of getting to know them, those ewes wouldn’t be too worried to see us moving. And we were right; they completely ignored us as we headed in the direction of the rams. We constantly checked the wind as we worked our

way through the low parts in the land – going slowly and watching all sides as we moved forward. We had gone about 300 yards and were coming over a slight rise when we caught movement directly in front of us. A set of rams horns showed up on the horizon. We froze, and when the horns dropped down out of sight, we followed suit. Leigh and I left our packs, and belly crawled 30 yards ahead. We got there and saw two rams feeding, completely unaware of us. But, we were too low to get a prone shot through the grass, so we moved slowly to our left which put a little knoll between us and the rams, and then we crawled 50 yards to the top of the knoll. It’s always humbling to realize how out of shape you really are when you need to army-crawl silently while carrying a rifle – we were totally gassed when we peeked over the knoll.

What really took our breath away though was seeing that all six rams were in plain view at 200 yards, and

had no idea we were there. I dialed the scope to 200, and got the rifle set up. The rifle was set on the Javelin Bipod at the front, and resting on my bino pouch at the back – a dreamy setup for any mountain hunter. We took a minute to confirm which of the rams was “Number 1” and which was “Number 2”. We put our earplugs in and with that, I squeezed the trigger. I could tell it was a great hit. But as I cycled the chamber and settled back in to the scope, the ram was still on his feet. Another shot through the boiler-room changed that in a hurry. The next five seconds was mayhem; I did a full barrel-roll to my right, Leigh did the same to get in behind the rifle. To our dismay Number 2 and the rest of the rams took off running away from us. As I was getting nervous that rams wouldn’t stop running, I mustered my inner calmness and nonchalantly said, “Don’t worry, he’ll stop. You’ve got time. You’ve got time.” And just then as if I willed it to happen, the rams stopped. Number

I would like to thank Dan Montgomery, Master Guide & Owner of Alaska Trophy Adventures for an incredible experience in the Chugach Mountains. I would also like to thank Guide Mike Gray and Packer Hank Frank for working their tails off, keeping us safe and giving us a hunting experience that provided a lifetime of great memories. My brother, William Miller, and I could not have asked for a better group of guys. Thank you again. Onto the next one.

- Joel Miller

Two was broadside and instantly toppled over as the rifle cracked.

The moments after that felt completely surreal. We hooped and we hollered, we high fived, and I thought Leigh’s binos in his chest harness might just crack my sternum as we hugged. My dad walked up after having watched the whole thing and was just as excited, maybe more! We had come a long way in search of rams, and through hard work and a hefty dose of good luck, we had managed to get two rams. The way the morning’s events unfolded, the path the rams took, the beautiful day before us, it all felt too good to be true – the kind of thing you always hope for, but as they say, ‘hunting never goes the way you want it to’. Well that morning it did. It all went exactly the way we wanted it to!

The rest of the day was fantastic – we took photos, we cut meat, we relived the stalk and talked about each of our experiences, and we thanked the animals and The Creator. We did laundry in the creek, cleaned ram heads, and sorted out what food we’d take for the hike out, and what food we’d burn. We capped it all off with enjoying a couple mountain cocktails while watching the sunset. The only thing that darkened the day besides a brief squall, was the looming knowledge that between us and the quad there was 40 miles of hard hiking with two rams in our packs. I could already feel the bruising forming on my hips and feet. Regardless of that thought, I think we enjoyed that day as much as three men have ever enjoyed a day.

The next morning brought a rainstorm that made its home above

us for the first four hours of the hike out. Our packs were heavy and soon so were our soaking wet clothes. It was perhaps lucky that we had those back-breaking loads on to keep our blood pumping, but even with that we were downright chilled by the time the rain broke at about noon. We all laughed as I had to open Leigh’s snacks for him because his fingers weren’t working properly from the cold. The rest of the day was great, with the exception of the occasional bog or swamp to trudge through. The highlight of that day was coming across a mature bull elk who hardly even seemed to notice us. He put on a show tearing up a sapling just 15 yards from us, and then led us down the trail for half a mile before he finally wandered into the trees away from us. I’ve pursued elk for countless days in the past with a bow in my hand, and have had to work my tail off to get to even three times as far from a mature bull like him. If we weren’t still 30 miles from the truck with no space remaining in our packs, and no ambition remaining in our hearts to carry more weight, that elk would have been in serious danger. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen while out in the woods.

Day two of the pack out went through some low parts of the trail where beaver swamps consistently blocked our route. At each swamp we’d find ourselves playing a backpacking version of Russian Roulette where some side trails

would lead nicely around the swamp, and others would take us in the wrong direction to rob us of time, energy and morale. But luckily for us, moral can only get so low when you’re with great guys, and every time you look up you see beautiful ram horns strapped to someone’s pack. By the afternoon of day three, we made it to the quad. As a final piece of unwanted excitement before we reached civilization, the quad’s steering column broke on the ride out (good thing we borrowed it from a particularly gracious friend!) So after taking my little Honda Ridgeline where no other has gone before it, having the transmission warning light get some use, some dicey navigating, and executing a 30-point turn to get the trailer turned around on the middle of a hill to load the quad, we finally managed to get back to civilization.

Looking back, I realize how lucky we were to have such an adventure. We are of course thankful to have gotten to find and take two beautiful rams. But more importantly we are fortunate to live in a place that is rich in game and the wild places they need to thrive. We are blessed to have health and strength to go on such adventures, and support from our partners at home. And for me especially, I’m grateful to have shared the epic trip with my dad who I consider a great friend, and my great friend Leigh, who I consider family. WS

Jeremy Bryant is a fifth generation Albertan who lives in Edmonton, Alberta, with his wife. Jeremy describes himself as an ‘Experience Hunter’ –always looking over the next ridge for a great adventure.

To dismantle the competition, we did exactly that. We picked other polymer pistols apart to create something better, starting with the smooth, consistent pull and clean break of the Performance Carry Trigger™. You told us what you wanted — like 11+1 and 13+1 total capacity, standard — and we delivered. The R7 Mako™ will shatter preconceptions and exceed every expectation.

FNAWS

BY SEAN KECK

You may want to turn the page to the next article if you are looking for a regular hunt story. This is a story of what a Midwest whitetail deer hunter learned over the course of hunting a FNAWS: a Dall’s sheep, a Stone’s sheep, a Rocky Mountain bighorn, and a desert bighorn. Be in sheep shape, maximize your shooting capabilities, use the lightest gear you

can afford, use a backpack that carries 75+ pounds well, wear a pair of good boots, wear clothes appropriate for the weather conditions on your hunt, etc. That could be the ‘CliffNotes’ version that we all read or hear about…they are all true, but not what we really learn. Let us peel back the layers to see how sheep hunting can change us as hunters, as people.

August 2015, Brooks Range, AK: ‘The Cranker’ Dall’s sheep

“I think you are the type of guy that could really get into sheep hunting, but right now your back needs to get better so we can go after that ram.” – Cabot Pitts.

When you are on the side of a mountain for 12 days and sitting in camp because your back ‘went out’

on day one, you talk with your guide about everything – family, career, hobbies, goals – maybe too much! In all that conversation and time, there is much contemplation of all aspects of life. Are your priorities straight? What are your real goals in life? What changes do you need to make?

After three days of nursing the lower back, thinking my first sheep hunt was becoming an expensive camping trip, Cabot and I went after that ram. We swam across a river, hiked to the end of a rainbow, and witnessed a few miracles to get our cranker of a ram!

When one brings an 11-pound sleeping bag on a sheep hunt, you can imagine there was an epiphany every day for me. I had to rethink everything about my gear and then some. I didn’t realize what a change in

priorities it was going to make in me. What are your real goals in life? I had my answer after that first sheep hunt.

August 2018, Spatsizi ‘Land of the Red Goat’ BC Stone’s sheep

“…it is in the passions that people achieve their highest potential of being human.” – James Swan

After returning from Alaska, I became a member of the Wild Sheep Foundation and attended the 2016, Sheep Show®. Attending my first Sheep Show® was an adventure itself; the labyrinth of outfitters, the auctions, the banquets, the chance of going on another sheep hunt!

After numerous conversations and a lot of apprehension, check # 136 was written on June 27, 2016, as down payment for a Stone’s sheep hunt in

August 2018. I felt I was out of my league on this hunt. Over the next two years, I would meet, befriend, and lean on other hunters who have ‘been there, done that’ for guidance to prepare for this amazing adventure.

I met Kevin Muir at the 2018, Sheep Show® Grand Finale banquet. Since then, we have met in Wyoming for prairie dog control, we just hunted Coues deer in AZ, and we regularly stay in touch about hunting trips and the shooting sports. Kevin is good at imparting wisdom to us younger types. One of his best comments is, “There is nothing easy about sheep hunting.” Everything about a sheep hunt is a challenge: paying for the hunt, learning to travel with hunting gear, time away from family; not just the physical aspect.

Being an engineer, one can

imagine I like things just so, and I wasn’t receiving satisfactory answers on a few questions prior to the Stone’s sheep hunt. In a desperate act, I lobbed my questions at the Facebook Sheep Hunting group. My apprehension was eased after Matt DeFrank answered all my questions over a phone call.

Sometimes your scope isn’t verified, or your parallax isn’t properly adjusted causing us to miss the mark. I’ve learned the sheep hunting community is tight and those in it can be your best spotters. This is proven by the people you meet reading the wind, giving you corrections, and getting you back on target. Who have been your best spotters? Be sure to reciprocate when it is their turn on the firing line.

September 2020, Montana Rocky Mountain Bighorn ‘Unlimited Luck’

“For something to happen, the universe must hear it.” – Conor McGregor Spring 2020, no trips planned for the fall and there was this thing called COVID. I was thinking, why not go on a backpack trip to Montana carrying a sheep tag and a rifle? Who doesn’t want to do that?! One can imagine there aren’t many sheep hunters in Wisconsin to lean on for advice. So, I asked the universe; well actually the Facebook Sheep Hunting group again, “Any suggestions for someone thinking about hunting the unlimited units?” Surprisingly there were responses, but one came thru direct message. A few messages back and forth led Mike Bouton and I to a range-day sighting in rifles, which led to hunting elusive rams in an

Have I mentioned sheep hunters are a tight group willing to help each other?

unlimited unit in September 2020. Have I mentioned sheep hunters are a tight group willing to help each other?

About 15 miles into it, I sent my wife a one-word message, “BRUTAL”. Hunting the unlimited units is no joke. They are tough, physically and mentally. That was the most difficult thing I have done since Marine Corps boot camp. A lingering question I kept having after the Dall’s and Stone’s sheep hunts was, “Am I really a sheep hunter or just a guy that has been on a couple sheep hunts?” After this hunt, I knew the answer. After putting in the effort, Mike and I hiked out with our unlimited rams. Glad it was with Mike. Couldn’t have done it with without him.

February 2022, Isla del Carmen ‘Grandpa’ Desert Bighorn

“Don’t start”, is the advice Clay Lancaster gave in episode three of the Talk is Sheep podcast. I agree, one may find themselves in this predicament if you start hunting sheep.

At Sheep Show® 2019, it was good to catch up with old friends and hear about recent adventures. There is something about being at the show that motivates you to go on an adventure. There are different paths to take for a desert bighorn hunt. Do you book with an outfitter? Do you play your hand and apply for a draw? Do you bid on an auction tag? After multiple conversations with Sergio Jimenez, making the decision to book the FNAWS hunt on Carmen Island with Mexico Hunts made perfect sense for

me. A sheep hunt can be that once-ina-lifetime adventure for many. If I was going to be fortunate enough to hunt a desert bighorn, who would I want to do it with? Family, of course!

Carmen Island is not only a desert bighorn conservation success story, but one in a chain of islands that are

Smith. All have provided an example for us to follow in their contributions to conservation.

On the third afternoon of our hunt, we found ‘Grandpa’. Gaspar, Abundis, Mata and I were able to execute the plan and take the FNAWS ram! The chipped horn warrior was estimated to be twelve years old. The best part was having my family there for this special achievement in my little world. The remaining days on the island I was able to focus on the most important priority, my family.

T he FNAWS

“I am a collector of experiences, not animals.”

– J. Alain Smith

a national marine park. The area is full of wildlife from blue whales to the blue footed booby. My family was able to take a break from the Wisconsin winter and enjoy walks on the beach, mountain biking, or simply relaxing while I was out chasing rams. Curiosity led me to wonder whose footsteps I followed on this adventure. I noticed a few notable names within the island guest register such as Renee Snider, Joshua Spies, Tom Foss, and J. Alain

I have learned much over the last seven years hunting sheep from Alaska to Mexico. I learned how to travel to other countries with hunting tools. I have attended a shooting school to freshen up what I learned in the Marines. I no longer use an 11-pound sleeping bag. The most meaningful thing I have learned is the definition of a real FNAWS. It is the friendships and deeper relationships one makes along the way. The hunt is the experience used to make new friends and deepen the relationships with them and family. Cabot was right, some thoughts run as base line code in the back of your mind; eat, breathe, hunt sheep. You can bet that my family, Cabot, Kevin, Matt, and Mike are all on the InReach distribution list when “Ram Down!” is sent out to the universe. WS

The hunt is the experience used to make new friends and deepen the relationships with them and family.

I’M GOING SHEEP HUNTING

Remember that last word, hunting.

BY CRAIG BODDINGTON

Just the other day, I was in camp, being roasted for my 70th birthday. With far greater eloquence than I can muster, old friend Conrad Evarts described me as “Pathologically optimistic, dangerously masochistic.” Not funny, Conny Bear, much too close to home. Absolutely guilty as charged…of having at least two key traits essential to be a sheep hunter.

BY CRAIG BODDINGTON

MIND OVER MATTER: THE MOUNTAIN DOESN’T MIND…AND YOU DON’T MATTER.

PAIN IS GOOD. EXTREME PAIN IS EXTREMELY GOOD. PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY.

Cleaner mud to sleep in. Conrad (Conny Bear) gave me a T-shirt with another of my favorites: YOU DON’T HAVE TO PRACTICE TO BE MISERABLE

As a side business, we’ve considered a line of T-Shirts containing some of Boddington’s Mountain Messages:

Some will note that I’ve borrowed these from long service in the Marines, but that’s okay. Most good Marines would love hunting sheep.

As my cameraman of many years (and up many mountains) Conny Bear fixed the obvious philosophical contradiction with the caveat: “Boddington’s Big Lie.” Unstated, unnecessary to state: Yes, you must practice often to be properly miserable, and if you’re a sheep

hunter (or a Marine), you will love it.

In order to go sheep hunting, it’s essential to know, absolutely, deep down in your gut, that you will take the grand ram of your dreams. Doesn’t matter that common sense and all statistics fly against you. You will beat the mountain, and the odds, and you will win. You must also know, and dread with secret relish, that it’s going to hurt.

From first day to last, you must keep the faith. The big ram is there, somewhere over the next ridge, mandatory, because, absent that belief, there’s simply no way you could drive yourself over one more crest. This is not a camping trip,

nor nature hike, and certainly not a timed event. You can, and must, go at your own pace, but that big ram is a tangible goal. You know he is there. You’ll see him if you can just top out one more time.

Wonderfully, being pathological optimists, it doesn’t really matter that he might not be there. We keep glassing, until the last hour of the last day. And, with our masochistic bent, it matters much less that our feet are blistered, our legs aching, our backs hurting, our shoulders rubbed raw from pack straps. The pain will pass. Enduring it, privately enjoying it (if we must admit), is just part of being a sheep hunter. It’s not essential to be

crazy, but if you are, it helps a lot.

Sheep hunting is not for everyone. Admission: It is impossible to hunt the mountains without some measure of ego, some machismo, that says to the mountain: “I am the one who will beat you…and find the rams you are hiding.” Many good hunters never take that measure; others try it once and say “never again.” None of us are blessed to challenge the mountains – or the sheep who dwell there – all the time. Doesn’t matter. You will know if mountain madness has stricken. You will long to do it again, whenever you can.

The first ascent will tell you if this is for you. If you hunger for the burn

So, how bad can it get? When the weather goes down in the northern mountains, pretty bad.

in legs and lungs, and long for the cool breeze and vista from the top, then you are lost. Doesn’t matter if you can only do it once, or if you are blessed to do it many times. You will hunger for it forever, and you, God help you, are a sheep hunter.

AGAINST ALL ODDS

As I’ve written, and as is true, the wild sheep is not a superior animal. He is not as wary as any deer, although this may be a matter of remote habitat vice intellect. Interpret as you may, his habitat is his fortress. To conquer the ram, you must beat his mountain. This creates special challenges that plains and forest hunters do not encounter. Mountains must be climbed. Some are steeper than others, but physical

effort is a given.

Excepting impossible ascents (and recoveries), effort is just the first hurdle. Part and parcel to mountains are fickle weather. Clouds come and go, obscuring glassing. Snow and ice come and go, making simple climbs deadly…and needed country inaccessible. In the mountains, weather is the great enemy, but that’s still just part of the problem. We are not looking for a sheep. We’re looking for a ram. Not just any ram. I won’t put a number or an age. That’s personal, and depends on which sheep, and where we are hunting, but we are usually looking for grown-up rams. They comprise a small part of any population, and must meet the “legal ram” criteria where we are hunting. So, from the outset, we’re

looking for a small needle in a big haystack.

Being optimists, we go in knowing we will find that needle. Being masochists, we like that it’s going to hurt. There is, however, an unfortunate reality that we manage to avoid until the last sunset on the last day. We don’t like to talk about it, and in the now-exactly 50 years I’ve written about this stuff, it’s a subject that almost no editor has ever allowed me to address. I’m not certain you really want to hear this, but it must be faced. To my thinking, better sooner than later.

You may not be aware of this, but Wild Sheep’s Editor Keith Balfourd is a very good editor. When I query an article, I don’t get just a yes or no. I get a carefully considered reply,

Taking shelter from rain under a fine overhanging rock. In mountains, some bad weather is almost a given. Endure it as you must, get out of it when you can.

always with snippets that create a better piece than I could have crafted on my own.

When I proposed this story to Keith, I expected immediate rejection, as I’ve received dozens of times on the subject. The response started with, “What, you mean all sheep hunts aren’t successful?”

THE MOUNTAIN DOESN’T MIND

The mountain doesn’t care one whit how long you’ve applied for the blessed permit, or how much you’ve paid for the opportunity. Or whether you could easily afford it, or scrimped for years for this one opportunity. The mountain doesn’t mind, and you don’t matter.

Once on the mountain, things are fairly democratic, because the sheep don’t mind, either. Chances are greatly improved if you’ve trained

hard and well, and can get up the hill at reasonable pace…and with a bit to spare for the next hill, and the one after that. Odds are also improved if you know your rifle (or bow), have practiced hard and well, and can take advantage of that one opportunity. Which, by the way, is really all you can ask for…and you may not get that one chance.

Competent help also matters. Whether in Alaska, Canada, or the Lower 48, whether resident or nonresident (where legal), the hunter who secures a permit and goes it alone is in for a magic experience, but one-on-one against the mountain, one set of eyes and optics, is a massive undertaking, and the odds are long.

Recently, I was in camp with a gent who’d drawn a tough California desert sheep tag. He packed in his

own camp, including multiple loads of water. Hunting alone, he stayed at it three weeks. He saw sheep, including legal rams, but never a ram he wanted to hang a tag on. It was, and may remain, his one and only sheep hunt, but he did it his way, with no regrets. He is a sheep hunter…and may well be a better sheep hunter than most of us.

I love the experience of mountain hunting and, although I don’t do it as much as I once did, I relish hunting alone. However, I must admit that I’m more results-oriented. After waiting years to draw a tag, unless it’s in your back yard, my advice has always been to find a competent outfitter. Of course, as nonresidents in Alaska, Canada, or Mexico, licensed operators are mandatory, and most hunts elsewhere in the world are guided.

Admittedly, the experience is not as pure, but even the great African hunter Frederick Selous hired local guides when he hunted in North America and Asia Minor. A competent outfitter simplifies logistics, and an experienced guide who knows the area increases chances for success. There’s also the safety factor. Regardless of how experienced one is, hunting in the mountains alone is just a plain bad idea. My old friend and long-time compadre at Petersen’s HUNTING, Bob Robb, moved to Alaska after he left the magazine. As a resident, he could hunt sheep alone and often did…until a rock rolled off a ledge above him and smashed an ankle. His bones would still be there if a passing Fed-Ex plane hadn’t picked up the signal from his SOS device.

There is another interesting dynamic with draw-tags in the Lower

I did a brief stint as a booking agent. I learned two things: First, I’m a rotten salesman. Second, I hated being responsible for other hunters’ dreams.

Thanks to limited pressure and permits, most Asian sheep hunts are successful, but weather remains an issue. On Boddington’s hunt in Armenia in 2016 the weather wasn’t so bad, but the sheep were in Iran behind snow-blocked passes. Plenty of ibex, but not a single sheep spotted. It happens.

48. As hunter numbers increase, the odds don’t get better. Drawing a tag is a big deal, and there’s a new generation of sheep hunters, anxious to spare the experience through glassing and scouting. This was just getting started when I drew my Arizona tag in 2008. Not understanding this new situation, I had hired an outfitter and rejected several offers of assistance. It’s been a long time since Ray Collingwood confronted Greenpeacers on a horse trail in his Spatsizi area. Today, draw a tag and the people (and their optics) will come. Buddy Joe Bishop’s neighbor and mutual friend Ray Salvatori drew one of Colorado’s first desert sheep permits. Hunting alone, he was at his wits end locating sheep until a passing UPS driver flagged him down and told him where he’d just seen a band of rams.

Help is good, but areas vary, and outfitters differ in competence and effort. Caveat emptor: Let the buyer beware, and do as much homework as humanly possible. Much as I hate to say it, the playing field isn’t always level. Auction tags and hunts do much for conservation and put a lot of sheep on the mountain. Clearly this is good, but does anyone really think the holder of a five-figure auction permit hasn’t stacked the

deck…just a bit?

WEATHER AND MOVEMENT

Still, you don’t matter to the mountain…or to the sheep. They may treat you kindly, or may throw everything they’ve got at you. Just off active duty in 1978, I did a brief stint as a booking agent. I learned two things: First, I’m a rotten salesman. Second, I hated being responsible for other hunters’ dreams. I booked a guy into Yukon for a Dall’s sheep. It started to snow on his first day, kept snowing…he never left his tent. No more than the outfitter, I couldn’t control the weather, but I felt terrible. Bad enough that, when I met this guy at the Harrisburg show 30 years later, I remembered instantly. I started to apologize and he started laughing.

It wasn’t so funny in 1980, but such things happen. Truth is, I’ve been pretty lucky. My line of work hasn’t afforded me the luxury of buying auction tags or, in many cases, hunting the best areas. I’ve offset this by being satisfied with nice, mature rams. Meaning: I didn’t pass them and keep looking for monsters. I’ve taken some nice rams, few giants, and for sure I will never join the “700 Club.” In the plus column, I’ve been mostly blessed with good health

and have stayed in shape. Also, as a gunwriter, you could sort of say that I shoot for a living, so I’m always shooting and thus always practicing. Put these together: I’ve been able to hunt hard, and have usually made the shot. As a result, most of my mountain hunts have been successful.

However, despite good planning and preparation, and hard hunting, you don’t always get a chance. When I was young I bombed out hunting bighorns in Montana’s “unlimited permit” areas. That was expected; those truly are “needle-in-a-haystack” hunts, wonderful experience, but small odds for success.

In about 1990 I failed on a Stone’s sheep hunt in B.C.’s Skeena Mountains. An outfitter friend of mine had just bought the territory and, as it turned out, had little knowledge of the area. Long, tough hunt, just couldn’t find any sheep. On the last day we glassed a band of rams at impossible distance, miles of steep devil’s club ridges between us, no trails. And that was that.

Sometimes that’s the way of it: The ram you seek isn’t there or, if he is, you can’t find him. Most commonly, especially up North, and occasionally in the big mountains in Central Asia, weather is the biggest risk and greatest enemy. Not because of the misery factor. Remember, sheep hunters expect to be miserable and secretly enjoy it…especially if we come right in the end. Rather, in mountains weather creates safety issues, blocks access and, perhaps above all, restricts the visibility essential to hunting mountain game.

In 2015, Donna’s first North American sheep hunt, my umpteenth, but my first attempt for a long-coveted Brooks Range ram.

Great Dall’s sheep country in the Alaska Range 30 years ago. Obviously very tough country, but we learn very quickly if mountain hunting is our thing.

We dropped into base camp on a sandbar on the Chandalar River, greeted by eager and enthusiastic guides. We set up the spotting scopes on a fine, sunny afternoon, and in minutes were glassing a band of rams, far up near the distant skyline. At least two seemed unquestionably legal, tips well over the bridge of the nose which, in Alaska, defines legal and pretty well describes a potential shooter.

After a time, the rams spooked, and I picked up a wolverine in the brush right below them. Magic! They trooped into a cut and vanished. No problem; we’d find them the next day. Long way up, but the ascent didn’t look all that bad. We slept in, took our time organizing, and started up the next morning, clouds forming, sunshine still patchy. The farther up, the lower the ceiling got. We made camp on a bench three-quarters to the top, cold wind blowing, followed by freezing rain. We saw sheep from there, ewes with sub-legal rams. We never saw that band of rams again, but we also never again saw the skyline. Rain, sleet, snow, hail, low scudding clouds. Days in backpack tents, out of Mountain House, down to base camp for resupply, back up through deepening snow. Ewes and lambs low, no rams, tops obscured. Just keep trying, hope for a break… which may not happen. On this

Above: Donna Boddington, headed out on her August ’22 Stone’s sheep hunt with Fire Mountain, horses all “pretty packed” and ready to go. Nice weather that day, but it didn’t last…

Below: Craig and Donna Boddington, hunting desert bighorn on Carmen Island on the Sea of Cortez. Thanks to excellent management in recent years, Mexico now offers North America’s most successful sheep hunting…and no longer the most expensive.

hunt, we got no breaks.

Over the years, I’ve made some nice shots. I’m no athlete, but I’ve expended supreme effort on sheep mountains. At the end, when I climbed out of the SuperCub, the outfitter paid me the greatest compliment of my career: “How can you possibly be so cheerful?”

Disappointed, sure. Anxious to get a hot shower, you bet. Also, happy to have enjoyed a tough sojourn in magnificent country. Wife Donna is a tough hunter, prepared to push herself beyond her limits. Unlike me, I would not describe her as a lucky hunter. Took her an unusual three tries to get her Rocky Mountain goat. Not surprising that her first Dall sheep hunt failed. She went back to the Brooks in 2019 with Dave Leonard’s Mountain Monarchs and took a fine ram…on the sixth day of a tough backpack hunt. Luck-wise, she has her moments: In early ’21, she took an ancient, heavy-horned desert ram on Carmen Island. Late that same year, she beat all odds and took a bighorn in a Montana “unlimited” area. Not a big ram, but clearly legal which, in the unlimited zones, defines magnificence.

In August of ’22 she went to

northern B.C. for Stone sheep, her last ram for a “FNAWS,” hunting with the great young folks at Fire Mountain, hunt delayed two years because of COVID. Me, the pathological optimist, figured she’d be home in a few days with a nice ram. She, more cautious: “See you when I see you.”

She’d worked out like a maniac for

months, practiced her shooting more than usual. I guess she’d used up her quota of mountain magic for a little while. The mountain didn’t mind and she didn’t matter. Constant rain, high winds pushing rams down into black timber. 13 tough days, sprained ankle, blisters to the bone. Tried to the end, but not a legal ram spotted.

In sheep mountains, as in all hunting, “hunting” is the operative word. Regardless of cost, effort, and scarcity of opportunity, there are no guarantees. I’d like to think I’d have handled it as well as she did. High praise for the outfit and her (young, female, ridiculously tough) guide. Nothing for it but to smile and take pride in tough days spent on the mountain. Start saving pennies again, and hope to be granted time for another try. Just part of being a real sheep hunter. WS

On northern hunts, bad weather and time in small tents is almost a given. Donna Boddington and guide Kate Bryant make the best of it on a tough – and unsuccessful – Stone’s sheep hunt in British Columbia.

The agony of “de feet.” These are not Boddington feet, but between intermittent wet and dry, foot problems are part and parcel to long mountain hunts. “Pain is good. Extreme pain is extremely good.” Want it bad enough, and you will find a way to keep going.

A SHEEP DOG of a DIFFERENT KIND

BY CHESTER MOORE

Adog’s nose is somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 times more sensitive than that of a human.

Frequent discoveries of dogs’ smelling abilities have led training experts to develop complex tasks for canines such as sniffing out bombs and discovering bodies that have been buried and missing for years.

Now, that great power is being harnessed for wild sheep conservation.

Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C) in conjunction with

Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF), Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, along with Utah and Montana State Universities are partnering to bring high-level dog training to the fight against disease in wild sheep.

The premise?

Train dogs to smell sheep feces and detect Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (Movi), the pathogen that wreaks havoc on bighorn herds.

“Poop sniffing dogs, who knew?” commented Gray N. Thornton, President, and CEO of the WSF.

“We are thrilled to have another tool in the toolbox for keeping wild sheep on the mountain. Besides overabundant predators, the bane of wild sheep today is disease transmission. There is more work to do, but from what we’ve seen thus far, our canine friends could be a game-changer.”

Working Dogs for Conservation

WD4C has been around since the mid-1990s and had origins in biological monitoring.

“We were involved in finding

species. We would mainly use the dogs to find scat and that became very important when advances in DNA detection were found and we could locate scat and it could be examined and the species confirmed by its DNA,” said WD4C Executive Director Pete Coppolillo.

“That’s where we started, and we still do a lot of that, but we diversified very quickly. We started working in the field of wildlife crime with different agencies around the country and in Africa and Asia with wildlife trafficking issues.”

The group also works in the field of biosecurity which initially involved the detection of invasive species but has expanded into disease work.

“This has many interesting possibilities and is what has led us into partnership with WSF,” Coppolillo said.

Mask Wearing Sheep

During the COVID-19 pandemic

WD4C use Movi as a model respiratory pathogen in domestic sheep to see if dogs could sniff COVID infections on discarded surgical masks from first responders.

“It was early days in COVID, and we didn’t know much about how to handle this so we decided to just try a respiratory disease, and if we can do

that, then we should be able to apply it to COVID,” Coppolillo said.

“We worked with a herd of sheep at Montana State University that was clean and not exposed and then they were experimentally infected with Movi which is just a background infection in domestic sheep.”

The sheep were initially infected as part of another study and WD4C asked researchers to put surgical masks on the sheep.

“They did it and this was when the politics of masks was kind of at its peak, so you look at the pictures and it’s kind of funny today. But they made it work and the sheep would wear masks for a half an hour at a time and it was successful,” Coppolillo said.

The dogs were able to detect Movi on the masks and at the same time, they were able to collect dung from the sheep to lead to further studies.

A Discriminating Nose

Coppolillo said with dogs, tasks like this are as much about discrimination as detection.

“What I mean by that is dogs are good at telling the difference between two odors, not just detecting them at very low levels. They can tell the difference between an individual that is infected and one that is not

infected and in fact, they can tell the difference in dung from the same individual before and after they were infected.”

“And that’s the gold standard. It’s about whether they are detecting the bug or the infection, not just memorizing what sheep number one smells like and getting rewarded for that,” he added.

Dogs are clever and want to get rewarded and don’t understand necessarily that trainers are asking for the disease, not the individual.

“If you only train with three or four sheep, for example, they will memorize them and give you the answer you want, so the before and after have been powerful. So now what we’re doing is translating that to wild sheep work.”

Bighorn Applications

For wild sheep, the situation is much more complex because virtually every population has some sort of respiratory pathogen.

“The current thinking, and I am not an epidemiologist, is that Movi is the nasty one and it brings out all the others and makes everything worse. It’s a messy situation but agencies all over the country are sending us samples to test because no one wants to move infected animals around and

they must go through a lot to make a capture event work,” Coppolillo said.

When bighorns are captured, they have to be put into trailers and held until they can be tested and then decisions are made on which sheep can and cannot be released.

“Our vision is they can give us a dung sample right then and we can give them an answer in real-time and say this one is hot or this one looks good and then a manager can decide on what to do. Perhaps the ones detected as hot can be held and then officials can issue a lab confirmation to make a final decision,” Coppolillo said.

He believes a well-trained dog is as good as a medical test, but there are different comfort levels with dogs, and wildlife officials will have to make these decisions.

Coppolillo admits there are challenges.

They don’t yet know specifically what it is that the dog keys in on, and each individual may be doing it differently. He also mentions that they have a lot of work to do to figure out whether the dogs are just recognizing a sick individual or if they are recognizing the specific disease.

“We are going in that direction once we get the dogs trained and getting high levels of reliability which is happening now. We are

doing aging experiments and put out known positive samples to see how long that odor signature lasts,” he said.

“If this works the way we think it might, it would be amazing because then you wouldn’t even have to capture animals. If you want to put sheep into a new area you could run dogs in that area to see if there are issues from any free-ranging domestic sheep or goats.”

A researcher at Montana State University has cultured pure Movi for WD4C.

“What we’re hoping is that by training on the bug itself, the dogs will generalize, so that if we did see it in feral goats, mountain goats, or domestic sheep the dog will alert to that. But the truth is it’s a very complex problem and each dog may key in on something different. It’s something we will continue to work on,” he said.

He likens it to fishermen who can instinctively tell what kind of fish they have before they get a good look. Some can tell it’s a brown trout for example, by the type of tug and some can identify it by a quick roll.

“They can all tell what kind of fish is biting but do it in different ways. And the dogs are probably very much like this. They could be picking up on different things that lead to the same conclusion.”

In Case You’re Still Doubting a Dog’s Nose

The fishing analogy makes even more sense when you realize what WD4C dogs have recently done in invasive fish detection.

“We had a conversation with Carter Cruise who is the aquatic specialist for Turner Enterprises and works on Ted Turner’s properties. Turner has done some great things with his properties and species like the bison,” Coppolillo said.

“Cruise has removed brook trout from an area in Montana and wanted to see if they were coming back. Electrofishing which is how you would normally sample is hard, slow work and it’s kind of expensive, and in some circumstances, it can be a little dangerous. So, he wanted to know if we could find a better way to do this and try dogs.”

The dogs were trained using a combination of methods, including swabbing fish with clean cotton to capture the odor and then using those swabs to train the dogs to recognize the odor of different fish species. The dogs were also tested on their ability to discriminate between different fish species in a controlled aquatic environment.

After this, they were taken out into the field to test their ability to detect fish in a natural environment. The dogs were able to successfully detect fish in a small stream on the Turner Enterprises property.

“By putting brook trout in one fish trap on the Turner property and then rainbow trout in another, we were able to establish the dogs could distinguish between the species. And yes, both traps were underwater,” Coppolillo said.

This allows the aquatic manager to go in and electroshock if there are invasives.

All In

If current projections prove correct in the coming months, dogs may eventually be able to sample a herd’s disease status within their habitat without capturing or handling a single animal.

The same techniques could help domestic sheep producers ensure that their herds aren’t adversely affecting wild sheep.

“There is still work to be done, but WSF is all in,” Thornton said.

“If we can detect infected animals without captures and handling, what we invest in these testing captures can be put to other uses, like habitat enhancements. More importantly, will be the ability to translocate wild sheep to new ranges with high confidence that we’re moving healthy sheep and not spreading disease along with them.”

Michele Vasquez is a canine field specialist with WD4C and will be heavily involved with tests moving forward.

“We’re ready to move forward on

this project and appreciate the funding and cooperation from WSF which has really helped us on what we believe is an important project,” she said.

The dogs are ready too.

“Right now, we have three dogs that will be on all sheep captures we participate in. They are Leo, a German short-haired pointer, Stella, a golden retriever, and a Zoey a German shepherd/pit bull/husky mix,” she said.

Vasquez noted there are two Labrador retrievers (Finn and Benny) also doing sheep work.

“We just have them on cultured bacteria and experimentally infected sheep scat and haven’t decided if we want them on wild scat yet,” she said.

The breed of the dog isn’t as important as its ability to learn and enthusiasm to take to the field and do tasks.

“We show our dog lots of love and they reward us with doing things we could never do and through our training, it benefits wildlife, and this case in particular, wild sheep,” Vasquez said.

Tests will be ongoing throughout 2023 and include captures in the Badlands of South Dakota and Nebraska in the spring.

The hope is these dogs will not only be man’s best friend but become an ally for wild sheep as well.

Perhaps we are entering the era of an entirely new kind of sheep dog. WS

by Chester Moore

RAINS BOOSTS HOPE AMONG NEVADA BIGHORN WORKING GROUP

Rain!

The recent atmospheric riverbased storm systems that pounded California, have brought at the very least a slight reprieve for desert bighorn sheep and other wildlife in neighboring Nevada.

The recent downpours have taken many areas out of the highest level of “exceptional drought” to “extreme drought” and formerly “extreme drought” areas to “severe” based on the U.S. Drought Monitor models.

That was the buzz around the room at the Nevada Bighorn Working Group meeting at the 2023 Sheep Show® in Reno.

Talk of full guzzlers and more rain in a couple of weeks than has occurred in two years in some areas had members cautiously optimistic.

The caution was that rain can’t undo the damage done not only by drought but severe overgrazing by wild horses and burros.

The goal of the meeting was to get interested parties ranging from Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDW) officials to members of Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn, and other interested parties up to date on conservation efforts.

The following were accomplishments for NDW for the fiscal year July 1, 2021- June 30, 2022.

• Constructed 10 new big game water developments and rebuilt or maintained four big game and two small game developments.

• Constructed spring protection or enhancement projects at three natural springs.

• Used extensive volunteer labor and support at 13 water development projects.

• Conducted inspections and performed minor to moderate maintenance on 376 big game water developments and 292 small water developments.

• Water hauls were used to supply water on 15 big game units. With much land dedicated to military facilities, Nevada has some unique situations including bombing ranges and their impact on wildlife and sporting opportunities.

The Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (passed Dec. 2022) authorized funding to implement the expansion of the Fallon Range and Training Complex. This includes the expansion of bombing ranges (B-16, B-17, B-19, and B-20) which includes live-fire training and restricted access.

Through cooperation with sporting groups, military officials have agreed to the following.

• Avoid target placement in biologically sensitive areas.

• No targets placed within Monte Cristo Protection Area.

• Removal of tracked ordinance landing outside target areas.

Other actions included but were not limited to these impacting sportsmen.

• Expansion of Dixie Valley

Training Area (no bombing, public access allowed).

• Required agreement to provide a minimum of 15 days of access each year to portions of B-17 for hunting

• Create a National Conservation Area in the Stillwater Mountains and develop a management plan, including the use of motor vehicles, hunting, and other recreation.

“There’s a lot going on with sheep and wildlife in Nevada. We know there will be some issues related to the long drought with desert sheep in the south but there are a lot of good people ready to do what we can to move forward with conservation and hopefully we will continue to get the much-needed moisture,” said Evan McQuirk, Director of Nevada Bighorns Unlimited.

Nevada is the driest state in the union.

That fact alone gives it special conservation challenges, yet it remains home to a robust population of not only desert bighorns, but also California and Rocky Mountain bighorns.

The meeting showed there are many willing to do the work to help keep wild sheep on the mountains in Nevada.

Whether they are in the scorching high desert of the south to the grassy mountain slopes of the northeast or along the Idaho and Oregon borders, hunter-conservationists are motivated to forward the cause of sheep conservation in the silver state. WS

IT JUST KEEPS HAPPENING.

CONSISTENTLY TERMINAL

BASECAMP DISPATCHES

by Chester Moore

THE STATE OF TAJIKISTAN ARGALI IMPORTS

The argali of Tajikistan are some of the most regal animals on the planet, living very near the top of the world.

With an estimated population of more than 30,000, they are thriving in certain areas of the Central Asian nation.

Argali trophies legally harvested in Tajikistan, however, cannot currently be imported into the United States.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has denied import permits from Tajikistan for the last two years, and there are a lot of questions about what is going on in Mongolia as well,” said Kurt Alt, Conservation Director of International Sheep & Goat Programs for Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF).

Alt held a conference call with USFWS and stakeholders such as outfitters at the 2023 Sheep Show® in Reno.

“This meeting was to have USFWS present the requirements of the imports. They covered CITES and ESA and went through all their requirements to issue a permit so that everyone in the room could understand what they are asking for because there is confusion,” Alt said.

The big question among WSF and stakeholders is what information is needed from the Tajikistan government that hasn’t already been given.

“We didn’t get to that point and

even after the meeting at the Sheep Show® we still don’t know as a group and we asked repeatedly,” Alt said.

WSF helped facilitate a meeting between USFWS officials at the CITES meeting in Panama Nov. 2022.

“The person we’re working with at USFWS has been great and generally provides us with great information. When we asked her now that they’ve met with Tajikistan officials, what else they might need we were told she couldn’t share that information, due to certain privacy laws,” Alt said.

He said there was a lack of communication between Central Asian government officials and USFWS under the auspices of CITES and ESA. The governments weren’t responding to requests for information. Mongolia had major information-sharing issues but has since started providing that.

“Well, it sounds like that is changing and they are sharing information. So, now, we as a group of hunting-conservation interests, want to know what we can do to help. We just didn’t get an answer to our biggest question,” Alt said.

USFWS has gone from doing country-wide assessments, to issue case-by-case permits due to a particular legal case. That caused a major slowdown and has been part of the current situation.

“We’re at the point where we probably need to address the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a collective of hunting conservation groups and ask how we can be a force to help facilitate information gathering and move this forward,” Alt said.

Several of the people on the call voiced concerns that if this doesn’t change and hunters stop going that the resource will be harmed.

“Hunter dollars and conservation projects help support the local communities and keep the resource as a valuable commodity. It gives the incentive to keep argali and other mountain wildlife populations healthy,” Alt said.

Interestingly, markhor which numbers around 8,000 (far fewer than argali) in Tajikistan can be imported.

“A group put together a very comprehensive survey of markhor populations and it satisfied USFWS. There is no problem there, so there’s some information we just haven’t gotten on the argali issue and as of now it remains a big question mark,” Alt said.

WSF is continuing to work on this project and find positive steps to get argali permits out of the backlog and move forward to keeping hunterbased conservation on the ground where it counts most. WS

Photo taken on client’s property BY OWNER/BROKER, BLAYNE ST. JAMES

by Chester Moore

STATE OF THE MOUNTAIN: WSF MEMBER MEETING SETS TONE FOR 2023 AT SHEEP SHOW®

ild sheep were not going to take a hit. Other things might be impacted but not wild sheep, not on our watch.”

Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) President & CEO Gray Thornton boldly stated the mindset of the organization during the pandemic era at the group’s annual meeting at the 2023 Sheep Show® in Reno, NV.

“We had a little dip but fared well compared to some organizations and were able to keep putting lots of money on the ground for wild sheep conservation,” he added.

The meeting served as an opportunity to update members on projects and projections, get feedback, and set the tone for the upcoming year.

A big part of the presentation involved Grant-In-Aid, which was majorly revamped in 2022.

“We offered 1.21 million dollars in grants and only received about $780,000 in requests and not all of them were very good. So, we revamped our Grant-In-Aid last spring and focused on looking at bigger projects,” Thornton said.

Those projects were $50,000 and above and some legacy projects are in the $150-$250,000 range.

“We decided to let our grant requests come through our chapters and affiliates. We wanted to focus on the larger projects and allow them to work with the smaller ones. And the results have been fantastic. We have allocated $1.22 million for these special projects,” Thornton said.

One project is a three-state

initiative in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington (I.O.N.) that will capture and sample 275 sheep.

“This is a multi-year, multijurisdictional adaptive management project to investigate further “test and remove” as a strategy to clear Movi from bighorn sheep populations,” said Kevin Hurley, WSF’s VP of Conservation.

In winter 2021-22, 249 bighorns in four populations were captured and tested in this tri-state project; during winter 2022-23, 275 sheep in seven populations will be tested.

Other projects have funded translocation in Nebraska, controlled burns in British Columbia, and a special project with Working Dogs for Conservation that could see dogs used for sheep disease detection.

A strategy of the revamped GrantIn-Aid process is to attract more money to big projects.

For example, WSF gave $50,000 to the Wind River Reservation for feral horse removal and that helped bring in other NGOs and $340,000 to that project.

“It’s kind of like success begets success,” Thornton said.

Kurt Alt, Conservation Director with WSF Montana and of International Sheep & Goat Programs for WSF, gave a very positive report from Montana.

“Montana was not doing a lot specifically for sheep for a while, but they have just made a major commitment. The agency will commit $5.5 million to wild sheep over the next five years, and we

believe there will be a total 10-year commitment,” he said.

This includes habitat work, test and remove operations, and establishing sheep herds in new areas.

WSF Chair Glen Landrus said these successes show a focused commitment to conservation and doing epic projects in the face of major challenges for wild sheep ranging from disease to predation and habitat loss.

“There are many obstacles but WSF members, its affiliates, and our various supporters are doing an amazing job in moving forward and doing great things to Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain®,” Landrus said.

Speaking of members, WSF has seen record numbers since the pandemic. The 2020-21 period saw incredible growth of 23 percent with help from increased outdoor interest during the COVID lockdowns and the online Sheep Show® .

All levels of membership are at record levels with 10,553 in general membership, 4,840 life members, and 768 Summit life members.

Terry Meyers, Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society, took to the microphone to echo the positive feeling in the room when it was opened for questions and comments.

“We’re seeing some good things happening in Colorado. Our annual population survey just came out and there are 7,485 Rocky Mountain bighorns, which is the largest population estimate since intensive

restoration began in the 1970s,” he said.

He said Colorado has not had an all-age die-off since 2006, but there are concerns with intermingling of wild and domestic sheep on the western tier of the state.

“We’re hoping to sign an agreement for a big risk-of-contact project in the

western San Juan Mountains. It’ll be a major project where we must raise big funds quickly, but it could be a major achievement for wild sheep in the state.”

Other topics were discussed but the heart of the matter is WSF is in a strong position and poised to move forward with its continued vision of

Putting and Keeping Wild Sheep on the Mountain® .

The 2023 Chapter & Affiliates Summit was announced for June 1517 in Rapid City, SD where national, state, tribal, and provincial leaders will gather to plan, strategize, and focus on the cause of wild sheep. WS

WE GIVE CAMPAIGN UPDATE

At the request of WSF supporters and consistent with the 2% for Conservation program of which WSF is a Founding Partner, we have launched the WSF Conservation Revolving Fund “We Give” campaign. Watch for WSF “We Give” partners who proudly include the “We Give” logo in their advertisements and/or promotions as those advertisers, exhibitors and businesses give a percentage or portion of their sales to the WSF Conservation Revolving Fund. 100% of WSF Conservation Revolving Fund contributions are directed to initiatives benefiting wild sheep and the habitat they call home.

Proceeds are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law and are directed to Grant In Aid and other specific conservation projects to Put and Keep Wild Sheep on the Mountain®.

Participants to date include:

For more information and to become a part of the “We Give” team, please contact Gray N. Thornton at 406-404-8750 or gthornton@ wildsheepfoundation.org.

and Beyond, Ltd.

5. Stone Glacier

6. RPS Bancard, LLC

7. YETI

8. SITKA Gear

9. Benchmade Knives

10. Kenetrek

11. Full Curl Spirits

12. RMP Rifles

13. 5.11 Tactical 14. Best of the West/Huskemaw Optics 15. Clarke – “1% For Tomorrow” 16. Brown Precision 17. Diamond Outfitters of Arizona 18. Black Rifle Coffee 19. Eventgroove 20. iHunt Apparel

BASECAMP DISPATCHES

Joseph Adams

Tami Allen

Tres Alwood

Kelby Anderson

Myles Astle

Terrence Baehre

Yancy Baer

Louis M. Balenko

Jim Barbour

Gary Bartsch

Benjie Bates

Harbor Blake

Jeffrey Brown

Scot R Buell

Ben Buntrock

Albert (Pete) Jr Burchfield

Jolene Burke

Keith Bushnell

Tera Butler

Tom Byrd

Michael J Carpinito Jr.

Doran Carter

Casey Cawston

John Chapman

Madison Chapman

Rob Chidester

Cody Christians

Justin Chrysler

Matthew Chverchko

James Cimbalista

Todd Clark

Neil Clayton

Colin Clyne

Bradley Conklin

Mike Cox

Sara D’Agostino

Keetin Daugherty

Pat Davey

Donna Davis

Curtis DeYoung

Jeff Diaz

Sam Dieringer

Zack Doane

Ryan Dodds

Henry Dorris

Leander Dueck

Jeff Edwards

John Finch

Darrell Fisher II

Matt Froehlich

Jakob Froehlich

Casey Gallagher

Matt Gallo

Chris Gillman

Garrett Grant

Edward Grasser

Dane Griggs

Samuel Hays

Rachel Hedgecock

Jerry Hedrich

Kyle Hensen

Harbor Blake

Jim Boyer

Jeffrey Brown

Eugene Burger

Jolene Burke

Dallan Carter

David Carvalho

John Chapman

Madison Chapman

Rob Cinclair

Paul Cooke

Joe Currier

Bret Daugherty

Keetin Daugherty

Ellie Dieren

Butte MT

Odon IN

Frisco TX

Friday Harbor WA

Hay River NT

Phoenix AZ

Trinidad CO

Breckenridge CO

St. Helena CA

Houston MN

Palatka FL

Anchorage AK

Yacolt WA

Coleville CA

Williston ND

Alexandria VA

Plains MT

Helena MT

Cheyenne WY

Paso Robles CA

Kent WA

Fernie BC

Keremeos BC

Washington IN

Washington IN

Eden UT Sidney MT

Fairfield ID

Philipsburg PA

Butte MT Fairplay CO Delta UT

Walnut Creek CA Anchorage AK

Reno NV Bozeman MT

Ellensburg WA

Lethbridge AB

Mitchell OR Lehi UT Spring TX

Pima AZ

Minden NV San Antonio TX Fort Worth TX

Regina SK

Bozeman MT

Canton MI

Pueblo CO

Saint Anthony ID

Boise ID

Lamoille NV

Healdsburg CA Houston TX

Brewster WA

Palmer AK

Torrington WY

Midlothian TX

Minden NV

St Charles MI

Waunakee WI

NEW LIFE MEMBERS

Jerry Herrod

William Hilf

Grant Hill

Gabe Hofrenning

Sam Holcomb

Benjamin Holdman

Josh Holstead

Buddy Hooper

Grant Hughes

William Hunter

Adam Hurley

Eric Jeffres

RaeAnn Jeffries

Sheree Jensen

Adam Johnson

Jacky Johnson

Douglas Johnson

Thomas Jones

Jeannine Jouflas

Mark Kaul

Steve Kehrwald

Loren Keisling

Brandon Kiesling

Jeremy Kincaid

Maxwell Kirchhoff

Al Kirschner

Alan Klassen

Keenan Kremke

Wheaton Kremke

Chace Lamb

Gary Lambert

Trenton Leavitt

Taylor Leavitt

Tyson Leavitt

Jason Ledesma

Jay Locatelli

David Lynn

Michael Lyons

Olin Machen

Ryan Mallery

AW Manning

Mike Marinelli

Larry Marshall

Terry Martell Jr.

Phyllis Mayhew

Lawrence McGovern III

Greg McHale

Steve McIntosh

Aidan McKibben

James McMillan

Jeffrey McNerney

Jeremy Meads

Joel Meeks

Terry Mehlhaff

Antony Mohsenzadegan

W Michael Moody

Blaine Moores

Derek Morgan

James Michael Moyer

Greg Nalleweg

Peter Nelson

Dan Nelson

James Norris

Gary Nutini

Trevor O’Connell

Timothy ODdum

Hayden Oliver

Nathan Olson

Scott Osmera

Kyle Otsuka

Mindy Paulek

Justin Perdew

William Pine

Harvey Pitcher

Kevin Pittman

Scott Pomeroy

Blake Reese

Glen Robinson

Taylor Robinson

Jillene Roldan

Jonathan Roldan

Trace Roth

Alex Russell

John Rutt

Gary Sabolik

Jeremy Schaad

Jeff Schock

Rebecca Schwanke

Michael Scott

James Sheehan

Lovely Simonson

Mike Smith

Tracy Smith

Michael Smukall

Brian Snoddy

Cole Stemler

Grady Stephens

Bradley Stinson

Jake Stone

Charles Swanson

Dallas Turcotte

Mark Turner

Jessica Vaughan

Richard Vogl

Foy Walker

Bruce Wall

Jacilyn Wallace

Jack Wallace

Stan Weeks

Matt Weinert

Erik Weingarth

Harry Weller

Cody Wilkinson

Joseph Wittaker

Bob Wodzisz

Aaron Wolfe

Young

Zaika

Zemmer David Zyta

NEW SUMMIT LIFE MEMBERS

Matthew Dieren

Ashley Dieren

Angel Edgar

Shane Edgar

Matt Gallo

Chris Gillman

John Hendrix

Jeremy Hixson

Gabe Hofrenning

Todd Kaufman

Jon Kuhns

Perry Livingston

Steve McIntosh

Jeffrey McMinn

Antony Mohsenzadegan

James Michael Moyer

Brian Nelson

Marc Rue

Milton Schultz, Jr.

Michael Smukall

Easton Storlie

Nicholas Swindle

Lance Trebesch

Matt Utnik

Gerrick Weakley

Jay Webster

Andy Wood

Jay Yokomizo

AWARDS

ARTEMIS OUTSTANDING WOMAN CONSERVATIONIST AWARD: MADELINE DEMASKE

From babyhood, Madeline “Madie” Demaske was imbued with a passion for hunting, starting when she was 18 months old riding on her father’s back as he ambled through the backcountry in search of game. Later on, wild sheep became her obsession. With her lifelong best hunting buddy, father Jeff Demaske, at her side, this year’s Artemis Award winner has harvested scores of wild sheep and goat species all over the globe. When not gliding across distant mountain ranges in search of adventure, she devotes plentiful time and enthusiasm to conservation supporting the wildlife she loves.

As a student at Montana State University-Bozeman, she served as founding president of WSF’s MSU Student Chapter. Leading the chapter, she not only educated the public about bighorn sheep conservation but also participated in the trap and transplant of 22 ewes and lambs to promote healthy populations in Montana’s Madison Range. After graduating from MSU, she earned a J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2021 and began work as a litigation associate for Safari Club International. She has assisted WSF by volunteering at the foundation’s 7th World Mountain Ungulate Conference and serving as a member of WSF’s Awards Committee and Ladies Luncheon Committee. She is currently on the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society board of directors. For two years, she was a Sitka Gear Women’s Ambassador and has devoted her energy and kindness to a number of civic causes.

Most recently, Demaske was a member of a WSF delegation to the

19th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Her presence helped communicate WSF’s interests in conserving and restoring wild sheep and goats through sustainable-use conservation supported by international hunting.

In the hunting realm, Demaske has achieved two FNAWS and in 2012 became the youngest woman to have completed collecting a FNAWS plus 12 mountain sheep and 12 mountain goat species or subspecies worldwide. Since then, she has gone even further, collecting 20 wild sheep and 20 wild goat species or subspecies across the planet.

In addition to her life membership with WSF, she is also a life member

of numerous other conservation organizations, including the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance and Dallas Safari Club.

“If it were not for hunting and the constant efforts of conservation organizations like WSF throughout the world, I may never have seen the game and the people who live in the most remote, untouched scenic corners of the world,” Demaske says. “Not only has hunting allowed me to travel the world and see some of the most spectacular places and experience unique cultures, it has grown a fire deep inside of me to fight for something.”

And it all starts with one thing, Demaske maintains: “Take your daughters hunting!” WS

CONKLIN AWARD: DR. BRADFORD BLACK

Some people just want the Conklin Award or the Weatherby Hunting and Conservation Award. They pick their goal and structure their hunting lives around the requirements to attain that one prize. Dr. Bradford Black of Ohio wasn’t forced to choose: he won both in the same year. Also within the same 365-day span, Black was honored with Grand Slam Club/Ovis and Safari Club International’s Pantheon Award and SCI’s International Hunting Award. Four coveted jewels in the world hunter’s crown, in a year’s time.

According to the Conklin Foundation website, “The Conklin Award recognizes the world’s greatest active hunter who pursues game in the most difficult terrain and conditions, while abiding by the highest standards of ethics and fair chase, and is a strong participant in wildlife conservation.” Conferred yearly at the Sheep Show®, the Conklin Award is based on

points assigned to each hunting accomplishment. In this, the award is objective, based on the numbers. Those numbers are not easy to rack up. According to Black, one way to win the Conklin is to harvest 60 wild sheep, 60 wild goats plus the North American Big Game 29 . . . two times over. Or, do the equivalent some other way.

For the past two years, Black has devoted his precious time away from his 36-year urology practice, his family, and his hunting passion, to serve as Conklin Foundation president. After seeing the previous winner, Sergey Yastrzhembsky, take the Conklin prize, Black kicked his hunting into even higher gear. “I went after it. And it was a lot of fun doing it,” he says.

In all, Black harvested 125 animals in 2021. Budgeting three months of hunting, he did his research and painstaking strategizing to score critical Conklin points quickly and efficiently.

“I did a lot of hunting that year.

I went to Pakistan and shot 19 animals, including three ibex and two wild sheep. In Ethiopia, I took 28 animals in 24 days. In Namibia, 12 animals in 10 days.”

Squeezed into the itinerary were successful hunts spanning South Africa, Zambia, Liberia and the Tanzanian archipelago Zanzibar. Then on to Mexico for 10 more hunting successes.

At the age of 40, Black began big-game hunting and since then has taken over 527 animals in 43 countries. To date, Black has collected 94 wild sheep and goats combined (34 different ibex and 31 distinct ram subspecies).

“The tough ones are the ones you remember,” Black says, pointing to his Dall’s and Stone’s, Himalayan tahr and blue sheep in Nepal, and Russian snow sheep as the experiences that imprint on the brain and torture the body.

“These are hard hunts. Not a lot of people get the permits for them. And not a lot of people want to even go do that,” Black says.

In addition to his four major world hunting honors this past year, Black has received SCI’s World Conservation and Hunting Award (2014) and Dallas Safari Club’s Outstanding Hunting and Achievement Award (2018). Though he stands in the stage spotlight, he credits Sharon, his wife of 40 years, for taking care of their five children and warmly supporting his global hunting pursuits over the decades.

The Conklin Foundation is pleased that its signature honor is presented at the Sheep Show® to recognize the best of the best in world hunting excellence.

“WSF has been really good to The Conklin Foundation, and The Conklin Foundation is proud to be a partner of the Wild Sheep Foundation,” Black says. WS

G.C.F. DALZIEL OUTSTANDING GUIDE AWARD: NATHAN (NATE) OLSON

For over 20 years, Nate Olson has exemplified excellence in the guiding profession. Since 2015, he has wowed clients of every age and ability as a guide for Mac and Léona Watson of NorthCurl Outfitters in the Yukon Territory.

“It’s surreal to think that Nate has guided over 100 sheep hunts and has yet to harvest one himself,” wrote the Watsons in their letter nominating Olson for the G.C.F. Dalziel Outstanding Guide Award. “Guides aspire to be like him, and outfitters are lucky to get guides like him.”

From 2001 to 2014, Olson guided for Dale Drinkall in northern British Columbia, Terminus Mountain Outfitters and Folding Mountain Outfitters for sheep, moose, caribou, goat, and grizzly bear. During this

same time, once sheep season was over, he guided for Peter Kalden of Davis Point Lodge and Outfitting Ltd. in Manitoba for black bear and whitetail. Over the past two decades with Kalden, Olson has taken around 200 bear hunters and 150 deer hunters on high adventure with tremendous success.

Work has always been a family affair for Olson. While Nate guides, his wife Amy cooks and their four children help with camp chores.

“Nate and Amy’s hunt/camp experience has received 100% customer satisfaction since the beginning,” the Watsons said.

In the many nomination letters supporting Olson, he is described as meticulous, both in keeping a perfect camp, conducting a flawless hunt and caring for the horses and the animals his clients pursue. Time and again, clients say Olson’s love of his vocation shows in everything he does from the moment he meets

his hunters. He cuts no corners in delivering the most ethical hunting experience, and along the way dazzles his clients with poetry recitations by heart or harmonica performances in the firelight. Or encyclopedic knowledge of the local flora, fauna and geography. Or while packing out sheep in the wee hours, Olson’s nonstop joking to keep the weary clients’ minds off their grumbling bellies and tired joints. Optimism is the truest form of moral courage, it is said, and Nate Olson exhibits it daily.

“Nate proved that he is the person you would want at your spike camp in the best of times and the worst of times,” one client summarized.

Perhaps the most compelling nomination came from a disabled young hunter who told Olson from the get-go that he suffered chronic health conditions that would make the prospect of Dall’s sheep hunting bleak at best. Olson worked night and day to “offer a sick young man like myself the best experience possible. Two thousand feet of elevation gain on the first day just to find the band of rams had fed over the next ridge was brutal, yet there was Nate: Smiles ear to ear and a simple, ‘Now you’re sheep hunting!’ made us all appreciate the trials of the hunt, not just the kill.”

The expedition ended with backstraps over the fire and a lifelong friendship. Olson had transformed a bleak prospect into a triumph.

“Never was there a piece of country that Nate didn’t know or a sheep too far. I am thankful for the opportunity to have met such a good man, and to have learned the real meaning of sheep and sheep hunting from Nate Olson.”

Yet, as he accepted his award at the Sheep Show®’s Grand Finale Banquet, Olson seemed to hesitate. “It’s an unbelievable honor,” he said. “The one who deserves this award is my wife for what she’s put up with.” WS

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FRANK GOLATA OUTSTANDING OUTFITTER AWARD: PAUL A. CHERVENAK

This year’s Frank Golata Outstanding Outfitter Award recognizes one of Alaska’s shining stars: Paul A. Chervenak, master guide and outfitter of Kodiak Outdoor Adventures. Since 1985, Chervenak has owned and operated his guiding and outfitting business on Kodiak Island and has set himself apart in his commitment to clients’ success and safety and in his dedication to conservation.

As Jack Atcheson, Jr., explained in conferring the Golata Award, Chervenak is where he is today in large part thanks to his father giving young Paul a one-way ticket from his home in Minnesota to Kodiak Island so he could hunt and fish. He arrived, and he remained, becoming a leading voice and benevolent force for Alaska’s wild places and wildlife. Together with his wife Angie, Chervenak has led an epic life.

Since 1996, Chervenak has served on the Kodiak Fish and Game Advisory Committee (KFGAC), which reports to the state Board of Fisheries and Alaska Board of Game. During this time on the KFGAC, Chervenak has held the big game guide seat and has been vice chairman since 1999.

In 2002, Chervenak helped form the Kodiak Unified Bear Subcommittee (KUBS), which he has chaired since its inception. KUBS is a standing subcommittee of the KFGAC that was formed to oversee the implementation of the Kodiak Brown Bear Management Plan created in 2001. KUBS works with the local management agencies responsible for Kodiak’s bears, their habitat and its users. In 2010, Chervenak was appointed by Governor Sean Parnell to be the

state of Alaska representative on the Kodiak Brown Bear Trust, a nongovernment trust supporting bear conservation on the Kodiak Islands.

Chervenak’s long years of service in all these organizations have paid off handsomely: the current Kodiak bear population is at an all-time high.

Beyond Kodiak, Chervenak has an excellent reputation throughout Alaska and has worked exhaustively on statewide hunting issues. In addition to donating countless hours, he has been a steadfast donor to WSF for many years.

“Chervenak typically kills the largest bears year to year on the island and produces like few in our industry for his clients,” said master guide Coke Wallace of Midnight Sun

Safaris in his nomination letter. “This past May, he helped a client of mine who is missing a leg get a very nice brown bear on the eleventh day of the hunt! And if you have ever spent any time afield in Kodiak, you know what an accomplishment that is: it’s beautiful but the Emerald Isle also has some of the most brutal terrain to move through in our state.”

In accepting the Frank Golata honor, Paul Chervenak thanked his guides and mentors who fought the brutal fights to keep non-resident hunters coming to Alaska. “I’m just a small part of it. Thank you to all who keep booking hunts so we can continue our work doing what we love.” WS

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GORDON EASTMAN GRASS ROOTS AWARD: BRIAN SOLAN

Over the last decade, Brian Solan has served as a director, president and executive director of the Montana Wild Sheep Foundation and led the organization to remarkable achievements shaping bighorn sheep conservation in the Treasure State. Those accomplishments made Solan the ideal recipient of the Gordon Eastman Grass Roots Award, recognizing exemplary hardworking members of WSF chapters and affiliates.

This year marks Solan’s eleventh year of service to the Montana Wild Sheep Foundation. He started as a board member in 2011 and by 2015 was elected president. Around the same time, MTWSF Executive Director Jim Weatherly (2006 WSF Grass Roots Award recipient) decided to retire from his role, passing all his duties on to Solan. He took on both roles and led the chapter to make stellar gains in membership, fundraising and project funding. In 2017, Solan was “hired” as executive director with one caveat: he was not to be paid, which was just another proof of Solan’s character and dedication. Solan’s vision of hiring a part-time conservation director a few years ago and hiring a soon-to-be paid executive director will assure continued MTWSF growth long into the future.

Solan’s contributions to Montana bighorn conservation are profound and historic. According to current MTWSF President DJ Berg, in 2016 Montana was struggling to advance bighorn sheep initiatives due to ongoing frustrations between agricultural and conservation advocates. Solan stepped in with solutions.

“Brian opened up a conversation

with the Montana Wool Growers Association to find common ground. This led to a cooperative agreement between our two organizations, which was co-authored by Brian. I cannot understate how important this was for bighorn sheep restoration in Montana. This cooperative relationship continues to be the cornerstone of the progress we are

well that the landowner joined our organization and continues to assist with bighorn restoration projects in Montana,” Berg said.

In the last 11 years, MTWSF has funded approximately $400,000 in Grant-In-Aid projects. One of Solan’s most notable projects is the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area land acquisition. In 2015, Solan wrote a successful grant for $100,000 to transfer 134 privately held acres into the Garrity Mountain WMA. In total, these funds leveraged an additional $260,000, which led to the successful acquisition of the property. This project provided connectivity between the Garrity Mountain and Blue Eyed Nellie WMAs, prevented development in prime bighorn corridors and opened sportsmen/ women access into the Garrity Mountain WMA.

During his tenure with MTWSF, Solan and his team have tripled the chapter’s annual operating budget. Along with financial success, Solan has led the board of directors in critical decisions to boost membership. From 2015 to date, MTWSF membership has increased by 35 percent.

making, and it serves as a model for other organizations.”

This agreement has led to several collaborative, breakthrough projects between the MTWSF and MWGA, including long-term Montana State University College of Agriculture research on Movi in domestic sheep. Solan and his MWGA partners organized the 2017 symposium

“Sheep In Montana – Domestic and Wild” held at the state capital.

In 2019, Solan coordinated a conservation easement in the Missouri River Breaks to protect the world’s premier sheep herd from a potential domestic sheep operation. “The negotiation went so

Selfless dedication to family, friends and community is another of Solan’s hallmark traits. It’s all part of his ethos of “showing up,” according to Berg.

Brian Solan shows up to make peace and make a difference. He shows up to have difficult and productive conversations with his fellow citizens. He shows up to advocate for bighorn sheep at the Montana state capitol and Washington D.C. He shows up to raise funds and allocate them wisely. He shows up when a new sheep hunter calls him to ask for his help filling his tag. He shows up to get dirty Putting and Keeping Wild Sheep on the Mountain®. WS

JACK O’CONNOR WRITERS AWARD: MIKE McTEE

The Jack O’Connor Writers Award is presented annually at the Sheep Show®’ to recognize the author of the best published article about wild sheep, with special focus on hunting and/or conservation. Known as the “dean of outdoor writers,” O’Connor was born in 1902 and presided over the golden age of modern big-game hunting worldwide. Since his death in 1978, O’Connor’s magazine articles and books have continued to inspire, especially those in the sheephunting community.

Created by the Jack O’Connor Hunting Heritage and Education Center in Lewiston, Idaho, in partnership with WSF, the award this year went to Mike McTee of Missoula, Montana, for his article “The Rock Creek Ram,” published in the November/December 2022 edition of Sports Afield magazine.

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The story begins with a conundrum: What if you won the lottery, only to discover no one had funded the jackpot? McTee reveals the answer in a gripping, reflective and conversational style reminiscent of Jack O’Connor’s chronicles.

Recounting his uncanny luck at drawing the one and only 2021 Rock Creek, Montana, ram tag, McTee takes readers not only on his sheep quest but also into the tumultuous history of the Rock Creek herd’s tenuous existence. A century of Rock Creek die-offs, punctuated by hunt closures and sheep transplants that temporarily rekindled population numbers and expectations, made McTee’s draw highly unlikely. Sparce rams and private landowners skeptical of granting access were among McTee’s struggles, but chief among these were doubt. Doubt that a good ram still roamed Rock Creek. Doubt that he should shoot if one crossed his path.

With sharp observations and

engaging storytelling, McTee brings us on his journey through wild sheep purgatory, searching for an elusive and perhaps nonexistent mature ram in a fragile herd while hiking past the bleached skulls and decaying curls of the fallen: “The mountains were littered with ghosts,” he writes. Despite waves of bighorn deaths caused by respiratory illness, predators, wildfire, disease-spurred culls, habitat competition from livestock, and deer and nutrientparched forage, McTee finds the diamond in the ashes.

While the author’s ambivalence, sorrow and exhilaration in the culminating moment are unique and heart-wrenching, his experience echoes in the soul of any reverent hunter who has ever torn themselves to pieces across a forbidding expanse to grasp a ram’s rugged majesty in their own battered hands. Jack O’Connor would have understood completely. WS

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OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: JIM AND LEANN CRAIG

For more than 30 years, Jim and Leann Craig of Bloomfield, Indiana, have been supporting and promoting WSF in spectacular ways. They have attended every FNAWS/WSF convention since 1988 – other than the San Diego FNAWS convention

due to a car accident. They are WSF auction and permit buyers, auction donors, convention and showbooth volunteers, and table buyers. As advocates and ambassadors for conservation, the Craigs have brought many celebrities into the WSF family, including the First Lady of Indiana Janet Holcomb, who is a new sheep hunter and graced the

convention issue of Wild Sheep® magazine with her stunning Yukon ram.

In addition to giving so much to WSF, the Craigs have been 25-plusyear volunteers and committee and banquet chairs for WSF partner organizations, including the NRA, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Safari Club International.

The Craigs are heavily involved in youth education and outreach and for years operated the Craig Family Camp, a youth shooting and hunting education experience on their farm. They continue to educate through regular presentations to youth groups and by opening their Craig Wildlife Museum to area schools and other organizations for young people. Every year, the Craigs host numerous youth hunts, and they mentor both young and old to be sheep hunters and wild sheep conservationists.

In addition to all this service, the Craigs are avid mountain hunters. Jim has completed 7 ¾ FNAWS. He has actually completed eight but does not count a bighorn he took in British Columbia in 1994, as it was taken by a grizzly while he was waiting two days on the mountain for a helicopter rescue after he was brutally mauled and severely injured by another grizzly while packing out the ram.

Humble, impactful, tireless and dedicated servants of WSF, the Craigs are also tough. Now in their 80s, these two sheep soulmates continue to support and advocate for what they consider the finest conservation organization in the world. They stand as examples of how, as we age and mature, we can remain relevant leaders steering the world in a positive direction.

Perhaps it is best summarized by WSF’s Auction and Awards Director Kim Nieters, who said as the Craigs accepted their award, “God gave you to us.” WS

OUTSTANDING CONSERVATIONIST: DR. ERIC ROMINGER

WSF’S 2023 Outstanding Conservationist Award recipient Dr. Eric Rominger of the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish is a respected scientist, researcher, and field biologist who has devoted his professional career and much of his personal life to the restoration and scientific understanding of New Mexico’s desert bighorn sheep. Along the way, he has made lasting contributions to the scientific community’s understanding of predator-prey relationships and how they impact modern wildlife management.

When Rominger joined the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish, desert bighorns were in serious trouble. Only about 150-160 desert bighorns remained in New Mexico. In the previous 20 years, that number had only increased by 70 sheep statewide.

Rominger embarked on a relentless campaign to confirm the root cause of the problem. Essentially living out of his truck for some time, he identified and documented causes of decline and slow recovery in desert

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bighorn populations. Rominger challenged the status quo and proposed aggressive management actions to minimize the primary threat to bighorn recovery: mountain lion predation. Thanks to his thoroughly documented field work, meticulous data collecting and extensive research, the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish implemented targeted mountain lion management to facilitate recovery in several new and existing desert sheep ranges.

The success of this program is a testament to Rominger’s work, and New Mexico’s desert bighorn recovery would not have been possible without his efforts. Today, approximately 1,200 desert sheep thrive across seven different mountain ranges in the state, and New Mexico now offers 28 desert ram hunting tags annually. This would have been unheard of in the first years Rominger embarked on his career.

For the past 27 years, Rominger has been the key driver in moving New Mexico’s bighorn sheep program forward, but he has seen a few setbacks. Like the time, on a sheeptrapping operation in the Pecos, Rominger found himself hanging

upside down beneath a helicopter when one of his boots got caught on a cargo net. Or the time he was attacked by a swarm of Africanized killer bees while conducting desert bighorn work. Or when one of his feet was crushed after a group of Rio Grande Gorge rams above him sent a landslide of boulders his way. In all, six species of ungulates, including an angry caribou he was studying, have landed Rominger in the hospital, but he always speaks fondly of his work adventures.

Just last year, while doing some mountain lion field work, Rominger was tossed from his trusty mule, sending him to the hospital with a collapsed lung, shattered ribs and other serious injuries. We can thank his partner Debbie Crawford for nursing him back to health and getting him back on his worn and weathered feet.

His leadership record, technical authority, perseverance and battle scars incurred for wild sheep science and management make Dr. Eric Rominger the ideal WSF Outstanding Conservationist. His is a wild-sheep life lived well and yes: lived more than a bit dangerously. WS

STATE STATESMAN AWARD: TONY WASLEY

Over his 26-year service with the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), Tony Wasley has made significant contributions to wild sheep in the Silver State, throughout the western U.S., and beyond. He rose through the NDOW ranks, starting as a wildlife habitat specialist, area biologist, and mule deer project leader before serving nearly a decade as NDOW’s director. His influence and innovative thinking have been vital in advancing wildlife management in Nevada and across the nation.

After becoming NDOW director in 2013, Wasley guided acquisitions of key wildlife habitat, strengthened critical industry partnerships, increased the state’s inventory of wildlife management areas, and oversaw the post-fire rehabilitation of over a half million acres of wildlife habitat in the last five

years. Facing an ever-evolving political environment in a state of three million where fewer than two percent identify as hunters and most population is urban, Wasley worked to educate the public and government about the relevance of NDOW’s conservation work while raising awareness that all Nevadans are connected to the outdoors and the state’s natural resources.

In Nevada, Wasley has been a strong supporter and contributor to the recovery of desert, California, and Rocky Mountain bighorns. He has been a stalwart advocate for WSF, the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn, and other Nevada organizations dedicated to bighorn recovery.

Those who know and admire him say Wasley has always led with courage, resulting in an NDOW poised for greater future success, with the agility to change with the times, stay relevant and forge partnerships and cooperation across the divides

of differing opinions. His deeply personal zeal for conservation has been contagious and effective at NDOW and with the public.

“People don’t buy into what you do but why you do it,” Wasley said in receiving WSF’s State Statesman honor.

Meanwhile, he bolstered NDOW’s effectiveness with enhanced equipment, vehicles, and training for staff. The new public lands NDOW acquired on Wasley’s watch in numerous counties in the state benefit Nevadans now and into the future.

“The incredible purpose, passion, and professionalism of the employees of NDOW has made this job and my entire career here immensely fulfilling,” Wasley said.

In addition to his work at NDOW, Wasley has served on local, regional, and national conservation-related boards of directors and advisory councils. This includes his service as president, chairman, and executive committee member of both the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) and the Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA). He chairs WAFWA’s Sagebrush Executive Oversight Committee, which focuses on management of sagebrushdependent wildlife and their habitat. Wasley serves on the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture’s Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Council, chairs the North American Wetlands Conservation Council, and co-chairs the Landscape Conservation Cooperative Network Council.

In December 2022, Wasley retired from NDOW, but his retirement marks not the end but a new beginning to his lifetime career in conservation. Starting this spring, he will assume the presidency of the Wildlife Management Institute, a professional scientific and educational organization providing expertise to advance wildlife management nationally. WS

MOUNTAIN HUNTER HALL OF FAME: RON RODERICK AND THE LATE RON CAREY

The Mountain Hunter Hall of Fame award is WSF’s most prestigious honor. Induction into the Hall of Fame recognizes a select few who stand as icons in the sheep-hunting community.

To be considered for this award, the nominee must be an accomplished mountain hunter with the highest ethical standards in the pursuit of wild sheep and goat species around the world. They must have also supported conservation with their time, talent, and treasure. The winner is selected by the votes of WSF’s International Awards Committee members and the award’s past recipients. Since the award’s inception, only 13 hunters have been inducted.

While in past years only one winner was selected, this year WSF has broken tradition by recognizing

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two candidates who are equally deserving and inseparable in spirit. Neither of them ever sought this award, and neither would have ever accepted it without the other beside him. Their bond was that close. They both shared modest yet bigger-thanlife personalities that drove them to far parts of the world not to collect the most species but to sate their souls with adventure. Along the way, they each successfully hunted over 40 different kinds of wild animals.

Both were cut from the same cloth as self-made businessmen, one raised in rural Iowa, the other on the plains of western Canada. Even as young boys of humble origins, wanderlust pulsed in their veins and big dreams filled their minds.

As they became financially successful, one in the oil fields of northern Canada and the other in pizza ovens across the lower 48, they not only hunted North American wild sheep but also pioneered sheep hunting in faraway places like China, Mongolia and the Middle East before it was fashionable and accessible as it is today. They both loved the giant swooping horns of the argalis and hunted them almost 40 years ago, a time when those extreme windswept places were different worlds that will never be that wild and untouched by intruders again. In this, these two friends saw what most of us will never see. And they told the stories to inspire mountain hunter-conservationists for generations to come.

In 2002, both Ron Roderick and Ron Carey distinguished themselves by achieving the rare accomplishment of each harvesting not only a FNAWS but also 12 world species of wild sheep and 12 world species or subspecies of wild goats.

The Mountain Hunter Hall of Fame ceremony is often a crazy occasion, full of joking and banter, but this year’s award was conferred with bittersweetness and solemnity.

For only one of the two recipients was present to accept it. Ron Roderick graciously entered the Mountain Hunter Hall of Fame with the spirit of fellow inductee Ron Carey at his side.

In accepting the honor, Roderick reminded the audience that the award’s first winner was the late Chris Klineburger, the legendary mountain hunter, international travel consultant and author revered as the pioneer of Asian hunting and conservation. With Klineburger opening up the vast empire once known as the Soviet Union to international hunting, sheep hunting was forever changed. “Chris was a great influence. He’s looking down on us right now,” Roderick said.

A longtime generous donor and WSF board member, Ron Carey was an inspiration and mentor to the Wild Sheep family, a shining example to always do the right thing and not let ego or self-interest get in the way. Sadly, in November 2019, Ron was killed in a car accident while competing in a road rally in England. His wife Billi was seated beside him and was seriously injured when their vintage vehicle was struck by a truck, but she miraculously recovered. When Ron Roderick heard the tragic news, he was returning home from a hunt in Turkey, continuing his commitment to incentivizing conservation in distant, often impoverished places. Accepting the Mountain Hunter Hall of Fame honor for her husband, Billi Carey joined Ron Roderick on stage at the 2023 Sheep Show®’ before a tearful standing ovation.

“When we were facing our darkest hour, you (the Wild Sheep family) have been there for me and my family,” Billie said to the crowd. “Thank you for recognizing Ron as a great conservationist, a great sheep hunter and a great husband, father, and grandfather.” WS

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WILD SHEEP BIOLOGIST’S WALL OF FAME 2023 INDUCTEE: MIKE COX

In Nevada and across the West, Mike Cox’s influence has left a lasting mark on wild sheep conservation and management. Over his past 37 years as a biologist, 30 of those years with the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), Cox has worn a variety of hats, from regional supervisory wildlife biologist to big game staff biologist, and since 2016 has served as bighorn sheep and mountain goat

staff biologist. For over six years, he chaired the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) Wild Sheep Working Group, leading a collaborative 23-agency effort on wild sheep management in the western US and Canada.

One particular focus of Cox’s work has been documenting the impacts of unmanaged wild horses and burros on Nevada’s flora and fauna, particularly their impact on bighorn sheep, mountain goat, elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and sage-grouse habitat on public land. Cox has been

a tireless advocate for wild sheep as he educates the wildlife management community and the public about the destruction caused by unchecked populations of wild horses and burros, which greatly exceed the biomass of all other wild ungulates –including wild sheep, deer, elk – on Nevada public lands. Feral equines currently number seven times the sustainable population, or appropriate management level (AML), set decades ago.

To raise public awareness, Cox spearheaded creation of the awardwinning documentary, Horse Rich & Dirt Poor (available to view at www. youtube.com/watch?v=q6h242vy_ q8). Working with WSF and nearly 20 wildlife NGOs, this film highlights the crisis of wild horse and burro overpopulation in America’s driest state. In these waterscarce conditions, desert bighorns, pronghorn, mule deer, sage-grouse, and other species are pushed out by aggressive feral equines, which guard water holes and chase other species off. In the process, feral horses and burros leave water sources and vulnerable habitat trampled, desiccated, and destroyed. Climate change and recurrent severe droughts only multiply the threat to desert sheep and other wildlife.

An avid whitewater kayaker, bowhunter, mountain biker, backcountry skier, and overall outdoor-sports enthusiast, Cox has drawn and taken three rams in Nevada.

“I’ve been passionate about wild sheep my entire career,” Cox said upon his induction into the Wild Sheep Biologist’s Wall of Fame at the Sheep Show®. “I wouldn’t be up here without a team, including the Wild Sheep Working Group, Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn, Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, Elko Bighorns Unlimited and others.” WS

2022 CIC MARKHOR AWARD

In 2017, WSF, in partnership and collaboration with outfitters and landowners in Mexico, formed the WSF Mexico Council and launched the WSF Mexico Initiative. WSF Director Emilio Rangel and thenWSF Conservation Director Clay Brewer led the initiative, which uses market forces and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) sustainable use guidelines

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and principles to encourage landowners to produce and then repatriate desert bighorn sheep into their historic, free ranges where they had previously been extirpated.

Emilio Rangel’s Rancho La Palmosa in Coahuila, José Antonio Vallina’s Rancho La Guarida in Chihuahua, and Javier Artee’s Rancho Sierra El Álamo in Sonora are prime examples of this leadership and conservation success.

Collectively, these conservation heroes dedicated immense resources, time, and talent to transform their shared vision into a dynamic reality that has altered the history of desert bighorn conservation for all time. From a source stock of around 353 sheep they released into the wild, now approximately 1,500 free-range desert bighorns thrive on three ranches in three Mexican states where they had gone extinct just a few decades ago.

The International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation

(CIC) annually presents their prestigious Markhor Award, recognizing excellence in promoting sustainable use. WSF nominated Señores Rangel, Vallina and Artee with a package of endorsements and data bearing the well-deserved title, “Three Visionaries – Three Ranches – Three States = ~1,500+ Desert Bighorn Sheep.”

Despite very stiff competition, WSF’s three visionaries won and were recognized as the 2022 CIC Markhor Award recipients at a ceremony in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, last December at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Conservation Visions founder and CEO Shane Mahoney, who also serves as CIC president of Policy and Law, re-presented the 2022 CIC Markhor Award to these conservation leaders at the 2023 Sheep Show®’. WS

SPECIAL RECOGNITION OF EXEMPLARY SERVICE

Two professionals on WSF’s staff were recognized for their outstanding service to the organization at the

Sheep Show®’. Development Manager Paige Culver’s five years with the foundation have seen surges in fundraising, membership in WSF giving societies, and enthusiasm among WSF supporters. Dedicated, ebullient and brilliant, Culver has been an inspiring driver of WSF’s mission and success.

WSF Finance Manager Terry Ziehl was recognized for her 36 years of service. Beyond her job title, Ziehl is well-known for doing just about every job on the foundation’s roster over the years. On her watch, WSF has magnified its membership, reputation, fundraising and financial support of mission-driven programs worldwide.

“I don’t know if you’ll get another 36 years out of me,” Ziehl joked tearfully as she accepted her plaque

on stage at Saturday’s Grand Finale Banquet. “But I appreciate the love and support. I love you guys!”

A final special recognition went out to WSF President and CEO Gray Thornton for his fierce leadership in pulling the foundation through dark financial straits at the beginning of his now 15-year tenure, steering WSF through years of historic growth then navigating the tumult and uncertainty of the global pandemic. Over those 15 years, WSF has, year after year, achieved new heights in every area, including fundraising, WSF-supported conservation action globally, and engagement with stakeholders, members, and donors.

“It’s an absolute honor to serve his organization and an absolute honor to serve with this team,” Thornton said. WS

CHAPTERS & AFFILIATES

NOTE: bold/italics font denotes a joint WSF membership Chapter/Affiliate. Membership in these chapters and affiliates include membership in Wild Sheep Foundation.

FOR

CHAPTERS:

ALASKA WSF

Kevin Kehoe, President 907-441-6323 kevin.kehoe@kantishnainc.com

WSF ALBERTA

Matt Mellon, President (403) 872-7033 matt@wsfab.org www.wsfab.org

WSF ALBERTA Chapter Office

Deena Arychuk, Chapter Staff info@wsfab.org 403-845-5544

CALIFORNIA WSF

Donald C. Martin, President 310-766-3921 Don-martin@earthlink.net

CALIFORNIA WSF Chapter Office

Beverly Valdez, Chapter Staff 650-472-3889 forthesheep@gmail.com www.cawsf.org

EASTERN CHAPTER WSF

Robert Rogan, President robert.rogan@gmail.com 203-885-2194

EASTERN CHAPTER WSF

Chapter Office

Tina Everhart, Office Manager 717-588-4190 info@ecfnaws.org www.ecfnaws.org

IDAHO WSF

Bill London, President blondon777@gmail.com 208-860-0580

Tracy Rowley, Chapter Staff P.O. Box 8224, Boise, ID 83707 208-345-6171 info@amsidaho.com www.idahowildsheep.org

IOWA FNAWS

Craig Nakamoto, President 402-650-1383 nakamoto01@sbcglobal.net iowafnaws@gmail.com www.iowafnaws.org

WSF—MIDWEST CHAPTER

Mike Bouton, President 612-940-1979 mikwbouton@hotmail.com www.midwestwildsheep.com

WSF—MIDWEST CHAPTER

Mike Bouton, Executive Director 612-940-1979 mikwbouton@hotmail.com www.midwestwildsheep.com

MONTANA WSF

D.J. Berg, President 406-366-1849 dj@montanawsf.org

Brian Solan, Volunteer Executive Director 406-461-7432 brian@montanawsf.org www.montanawsf.org

MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY

STUDENT CHAPTER OF WSF

Janessa Kluth, Chapter contact 208-420-4240 montanastatewsf@gmail.com facebook.com/MSUWSF

NEW MEXICO WSF

Bryan Bartlett, President (575) 635-3499 BartleBC@yahoo.com newmexicowildsheep@gmail.com

OREGON WSF

Walter Chuck, Jr., President (541) 574-9078 The4chucks@aol.com www.oregonfnaws.org

UTAH FNAWS

Travis Jenson 801-641-5453 tjenson@xmission.com www.utahfnaws.org

WASHINGTON WSF Garrett Grant grant16garrett@hotmail.com www.washingtonwsf.org

WYOMING WSF

Zach McDermott, President 307-752-1212 zach@wyomingwildsheep.org

Wyoming WSF Chapter Office Katie Cheesbrough, Executive Director 307-399-4383 katie@wyomingwildsheep.org www.wyomingwildsheep.org

YUKON WSF Spencer Wallace, President 867-689-2074 yukonws@gmail.com www.yukonwsf.com

AFFILIATES:

2% For Conservation

Jared Frasier, Executive Director 406-221-3102 contact@fishandwildlife.org www.fishandwildlife.org

Alaska Professional Hunters Association

Angie Bloomquist, Executive Director 907-929-0619 office@alaskaprohunter.org www.alaskaprohunter.org

Alberta Outfitters Association Kevin Stanton, President 403-762-5454 aoa@albertaoutfitters.com www.albertaoutfitters.com

Alberta Professional Outfitters Society

Jeana Schuurmaan, Executive Director 780-414-0588 jeana@@apos.ab.ca www.apos.ab.ca

Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society, Inc.

Richard Schuette, President 602-790-7572 camelbackfloors@msn.com www.adbss.org

Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society Office

Tracey Martin 480-854-8950 admin@adbss.org

Association of Mackenzie Mountain Outfitters

Harold Grinde, President 403-357-8414 ganariver@pentnet.net www.huntnwt.com

Bear Trust International

Logan Young, Executive Director 406-595-6583 logan@beartrust.org www.beartrust.org

Cody Country Outfitters and Guides Association

Lee Livingston 307-527-7416 Livingston@tctwest.net

Colorado Outfitters Association Kelly Nottingham, Office Manager 970-824-2468 office@coloradooutfitters.com www.coloradooutffiters.org

Custodians of Professional Hunting & Conservation—South Africa Coira Goss +27 0 81 036 1151 admin@cphc-sa.co.za www.cphc-sa.co.za

Dude Ranchers Association

Colleen Hodson 307-587-2339 colleen@duderanch.org www.duderanch.org

Elko Bighorns Unlimited

Cory Mahan, Vice President 775-397-4465 cmahan@ram-enterprise.com

Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn Clint Bentley, President 702-499-7501 sheepspotr@aol.com www.desertbighorn.com

Fundacion De Vida Silvestre En Sonora, A.C

Jacobo Artee, President 011-52-662-212-5510, 011-52-662-217-4119 jacoboartee@prodigy.net.mx

Grand Slam Club/Ovis Mark Hampton, Executive Director 205674-0101 gsco@wildsheep.org www.wildsheep.org

Guide Outfitter Association of BC Scott Ellis, General Manager 604-541-6332 ellis@goabc.org www.goabc.org

International Caribou Foundation Cheryl Lind, Executive Director 406-404-1297 cheryl@internationalcariboufoundation.org www.internationalcariboufoundation.org

Kazakhstan Wildlife Foundation

Orynbassar Shaimukhanbetov, President acbkarlan@mail.ru

Lubbock Sportsmans Club, Inc.

Tim Gafford, President 806-771-1717 Ph 806-789-2441 Cell gaffordpest@gmail.com lubbocksafariclub@hotmail.com

Montana Outfitter & Guides Association

Mac Minard, Executive Director 406-449-3578 moga@mt.net www.montanaoutfitters.org

National Bighorn Sheep Center

Sara Bridge, Executive Director 307-455-3429 info@bighorn.org www.bighorn.org

Navajo Nation Department of Fish & Wildlife

Jeff Cole, Wildlife Manager jcole@nndfw.org 928-871-6595

Nebraska Big Game Society

Jim King (402) 430-6566 jim@glsbinc.com www.nebiggame.org

Nevada Bighorns Unlimited

Tom Fennel, President 775-250-6600 tfennell@dicksoncg.com www.nevadabighornsunlimited.org

Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, Fallon Jay Lingenfelter, President jay.lingenfelter@cccomm.co 775-427-1254

Northern BC Guides Association

Craig Kiselbach, President terminusmtn@gmail.com 250-442-7103

Northern Nevada SCI Chapter Brandon Weise bweise@nnsci.com

775-721-4700 www.nnsci.com

Northwest Guides & Outfitters Assoc.

Colin Niemeyer, President 250-306-8624 hunting@kawdyoutfitters.com

Northwest Sportsman’s Club

Nate Perrenoud 509-994-6795 www.northwestsportsmansclub.com

Purkersdorfer Jagdklub

Gunther Tschabuschnig, Vice President 011-43-676-496-6691 info@jagdklub.eu www.jagdklub.eu

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society John Hayter, President 970-389-3010 jnhayter@gmail.com www.bighornsheep.org

Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance Jason Peak, President Jpeak71@hotmail.com www.goatalliance.org

Contact: Lee MacDonald, Membership Coordinator lee@goatalliance.org

Safari Club International 520-620-1220 info@safariclub.org www.safariclub.org

Sheep Hunters of the World (SHOW) Billi Carey, Administrator 480-292-1674 www.sheephunters.com

Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep Steve Marschke, President 310-339-4677 info@sheepsociety.com www.desertbighorn.org

Tahltan Guide Outfitters Association Rudy Day, President 250-235-3395 Dayrudy84@gmail.com

Spanish Professional Hunters Association Diego Satrustegui, President +34 618 621 690 Direccion.aptce@gmail.com www.spanishprofessionalhunters.com

Taos Pueblo Michael Martinez, Hunt Manager 575-758-7410 hunting@taospueblo.com

Texas Bighorn Society Dr. Sam Cunningham, President 806-262-6889 scunningham@quailcreekent.com www.texasbighornsociety.org

Wildlife Stewardship Council John Henderson, President sirjohn55@gmail.com wildlifestewarship@gmail.com www.wildlifestewardshipcouncil.com

Wild Sheep Society of British Columbia Korey Green, President 250 793-2037 kgreen@wildsheepsociety.com

Wild Sheep Society of British Columbia Office & Staff

Kyle Stelter, CEO/Executive Director 250-619-8415 kylestelter@gmail.com www.wildsheepsociety.com

Michael Surbey, Executive Assistant 604-690-9555 exec@wildsheepsociety.com

Wyoming Outfitters & Guides Association Jeff Smith, President 307-265-2376 wyoga@wyoga.org www.wyoga.org

Yukon Outfitters Association Mac Watson, President 867-668-4118 (Office) info@yukonoutfitters.net www.yukonoutfitters.net

Yukon Outfitters Association Staff Shawn Wasel, Executive Director 780-213-4301 (Cell) swasel@mcsnet.ca

Brenda Stehelin, Office Manager info@yukonoutfitters.net

TECHNICAL/ ADVISORY AFFILIATES:

Northern Wild Sheep and Goat Council

Kevin Hurley, Executive Director 307-899-9375 info@nwsgc.org www.nwsgc.org

Desert Bighorn Council Patrick Cummings, Chair Nevada Department of Wildlife (Retired) (702) 486-5127 patrickcummings1002@gmail.com www.desertbighorncouncil.com

COMPLETE CONTACT INFORMATION GO TO: www.wildsheepfoundation.org/memberships/chapters-and-affiliates

CHAPTERS & AFFILIATES

2023 BANQUET DATES

NOTE: Dates noted are as of press time. Please check C&A websites for updates.

WSF

THE

FRATERNITY OF THE DESERT BIGHORN’S

2023

ENTRIES START AT $4.50

Deer Elk Rocky Mountain Goat Pronghorn Bighorn Sheep

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Access & Habitat program is raffling off 12 exclusive tags with statewide & regional hunts, the use of any legal weapon, & extended season dates.

The 2023 raffle will be held on May 26, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. at ODFW Headquarters in Salem, Oregon.

FOR MORE INFO: Scan the QR code or go to https://tinyurl.com/4wevpusk

The event will also be livestreamed starting at 2:00 p.m. on May 26. Go to www.youtube.com/user/IEODFW to attend the event.

THE ACCESS & HABITAT BOARD

All proceeds go to the management & research of the species, hunter access, & habitat enhancement.

One of only two California State Governor’s Permits for the 2023 season for Desert Bighorns is in the Cady Mountains. And the only one to be auctioned in California!

CHAPTER & AFFILIATE NEWS

OPEN ZONE DEER PERMIT

Hunt in any deer zone of your choice during the normal season for that zone.

CALIFORNIA UPDATE

Hard work, persistence, and patience are the hallmarks of a wild sheep hunter, and when it pays off, we are all ready to celebrate! This year we have more than ever to celebrate at the April 29th annual dinner.

DoubleTree by Hilton.

LIFE MEMBER SPECIAL DRAWING

MOUNTAIN CARIBOU HUNT

We will be celebrating a new era in our Give a Lamb a Drink (GALAD) program as our sister organization the Society for Conservation of Bighorn Sheep (SCBS) has finally been able to work through the red tape to make 90 leases on state land parcels

Win a 2023 Mountain caribou hunt in northern British Columbia with Golden Bear Outfitters! YOU MUST ATTEND TO WIN.

If you are not already a member, JOIN today! Consider becoming a Life or Distinguished Life member or upgrade while at the store. You will then be eligible for the Life Member drawing at the fundraiser. This is one

New Friends

Youth Activities

Prizes

OldFriends

Live Auction

Silent Auction

Bighorn sheep in Anza Borrego Desert State Park

CALIFORNIA

WILD SHEEP FOUNDATION

PUTTING AND KEEPING WILD SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAINS IN CALIFORNIA FOR 22 YEARS

SPECIAL CALIFORNIA STATE PERMITS

CALIFORNIA WILD SHEEP FOUNDATION

CADY MOUNTAIN SHEEP PERMIT

PUTTING AND KEEPING WILD SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAINS IN CALIFORNIA FOR 22 YEARS

One of only two California State Governor’s Permits for the 2023 season for Desert Bighorns is in the Cady Mountains. And the only one to be auctioned in California!

OPEN ZONE DEER PERMIT

Hunt in any deer zone of your choice during the normal season for that zone.

SPECIAL CALIFORNIA STATE PERMITS

LIFE MEMBER SPECIAL DRAWING

CADY MOUNTAIN SHEEP PERMIT

MOUNTAIN CARIBOU HUNT

Win a 2023 Mountain caribou hunt in northern British Columbia with Golden Bear Outfitters! YOU MUST ATTEND TO WIN.

New Friends OldFriends Youth Activities

Prizes

OPEN ZONE DEER PERMIT

Live Auction

Silent Auction

One of only two California State Governor’s Permits for the 2023 season for Desert Bighorns is in the Cady Mountains. And the only one to be auctioned in California!

Hunt in any deer zone of your choice during the normal season for that zone.

Photo Credit: Mark Gocke

Photo by Mark Gocke

Terminus Mountain Outfitters/ WY-WSF Stone Sheep Hunt Raffle

$250 per chance. 500 tickets available.

A 14 day, 1 X 1 guided Stone Sheep Hunt with Terminus Mountain Outfitters. Departing from Fort Nelson, British Columbia during 2024. Dates will be arranged with the outfitter. Contracted Rate Includes: Detailed manual for hunter preparation; transportation within hunting area; guiding services; camp staff; meals and lodging while in the hunting concession; trophy (horns, skulls and hide) care and preparation.

NOT Included in hunt cost: Air charter fees of $3000 US$ plus 5% tax= $3150.00 Per Person which can be brought in cash to Terminus; additional animal licenses, tags,trophy fees; tips/gratuities for guides and other staff associated with your hunt (5-10% of total hunt cost); crate and freight charges for shipping trophies to country of final destination; applicable taxes; optional trip cancellation insurance and medical evacuation; additional flights needed to take out extra meat, hotels in Fort Nelson B.C; additional/nonscheduled charter flights costs.

A winner will be drawn at Wyoming’s WSF Annual Convention in Cheyenne, WY on June 3, 2023. You need not be present to win. The contest is open to everyone.

Dedicated to education, Dedicated to education, supporting the research & supporting the research & conservation of mountain goats conservation of mountain goats

Memberships available through Memberships available through WSF for $40 per year. WSF for $40 per year. Join

SHEEP ENTHUSIAST Wanted

Must be willing to buy expensive gear, walk long distances, drink questionable water, eat food from a foil bag, sleep on hard ground next to friends that smell worse than you, maintain a sunny disposition, and risk divorce. Must provide your own participation trophies.

Inquire at:

www.akwildsheep.org

I DAHO IS PRODUCING SOME INCREDIBLE RAMS STATEWIDE . A LL PHOTOS ARE RAMS FROM DIFFERENT UNITS THROUGHOUT THE STATE .

GUIDELINES

▪ The 2023 Lottery Tag is valid for use in any open controlled bighorn hunt, except Unit 11.

▪ “Tickets” are controlled hunt applications.

▪ Ticket purchasers and persons named on tickets must be at least 18 years old and must be eligible to hold a hunting license in Idaho.

RANK C HURCH R IVER OF ETURN W ILDERNESS

AIN S ALMON R IVER

WYHEE R ANGE

H ELLS C ANYON

M IDDLE F ORK S ALMON

L OST R IVER R ANGE

E AST F ORK S ALMON

▪ This tag (and hunting license if needed) will only be issued to an eligible applicant (the person named on the ticket drawn).

▪ The tag is non transferrable.

▪ Drawing will be conducted July 28, 2023.

▪ Once in a lifetime rule is waived for this tag.

▪ Need not be present to win.

▪ Tickets are void where the ticket/ tag sale is prohibited.

▪ No limit to number purchased.

▪ Additional rules apply.

▪ Deadline to enter is July 24, 2023.

1 FOR $20

6 FOR $100

14 FOR $166.75

25 FOR $250

I DAHO B IGHORN L OTTERY T AG D RAWING AND S UMMER S OCIAL

VENTS IN B OISE , L EWISTON AND I DAHO F ALLS

by Renée Thornton Chair, WSF Women Hunt®

IMPACT, CHANGE AND EMPOWERMENT

What do you get when you combine the energy and enthusiasm of 10 new/newer female hunters with the unbridled excitement of the Sheep Show®? A whole lot of fun and an undeniable impact on the community!

Attendees of the show enjoyed meeting and getting to know four alumnae from the New Hunter Class of 2021 and six from the Class of 2022. The women were volunteering at the show to give back to WSF and Women Hunt® for having benefitted from their experiences during the New Hunter course and being matched with a local hunting mentor. They helped work two new

programs at the show: the Women Hunt® booth and the Camp Chef Culinary Corner. The booth saw the women engaged in outreach efforts with attendees, educating and advocating for Women Hunt®, sharing and listening to stories, and having fun providing samples of Full Curl Spirits and African Tradition wines. They also volunteered in the brand new and wildly successful Camp Chef Culinary Corner, where the audience saw them helping Executive Chef Joshua Schwencke of Gastronomy Outdoors. Chef Schwencke delivered multiple courses over the three days of the expo to an ever-growing and enthusiastic audience who enjoyed

samples of his delicious cuisine. The women also supported WSF staff in existing areas we know and love: selling raffle tickets at the Ladies Luncheon and the <1 Club® beer reception, banquet seating in the evenings, working in registration and the WSF store, and all-around helping wherever needed. Thank you ladies!

We celebrated our fifth seminar at the Sheep Show® with a fabulous discussion with Kristy Titus (Pursue the Wild), Jana Waller (Skull Bound Chronicles) and two fantastic youth hunters, Cami Cunningham and Brooklyn Widdifield. Cami holds the distinction of being the youngest

female to complete her FNAWS and Brooklyn holds the distinction of being the youngest female Alberta resident to have harvested a Rocky Mountain bighorn. It was a lively discussion where attendees enjoyed Cami’s younger sister Stormy joining her to perform an original song they wrote about sheep hunting.

November 2022 found Women Hunt® with a presence at The Wildlife Society’s Conference where we conducted outreach at our booth and delivered a seminar to a packed room of attendees. There we discussed how Women Hunt® can help and encourage women in wildlife professions engage in hunting and better understand the goals of the hunting community. The impact of our participation at the TWS conference was tangible and we plan to have an active presence again in the future, along with other industry events where we can make the most impact in our relationships with future decision makers who will have influence over the policies and

legislation which affect our hunting heritage.

The third annual New Hunter course is planned for the fall of 2023 from October 27-November

1. Applications will be reviewed by

the committee using a consistent scoring rubric and blind assessment. The successful applicants will be selected using a holistic approach intended to fulfill our mandate while meeting the interests of our Chapter

& Affiliate network. Applicants will be able to apply for the opportunity between May 1-30 by visiting https:// www.wildsheepfoundation.org/ womenhunt.

There are exciting developments

coming this year to our on-line resource plan in partnership with several other organizations. We’re looking forward to a revamp of our website to better reflect our mission, purpose, and the supports

we will provide to our community. Stay tuned for these exciting developments!

It seems that change is the word of the day where Women Hunt® is concerned! As we’re coming into our own and realizing our potential, we’re excited to launch new aspects of our programming to continue to evolve and engage with any women and young women who are hunting for…food, wildlife conservation, community, understanding, inspiration, and above all, empowerment. WS

Connect with us!

Renée Thornton (MT Chair

Julie Chapman (IN) Board Liaison

Rachel Ahtila (AB)

Linda Demmer (MI)

Sara Domek (WY)

Brandi Love (AB)

Rebecca Peters (BC)

Sue Skold (IA)

Meet the Wild Sheep Foundation’s Women Hunt® Committee

Bios and photos at: www.wildsheepfoundation.org/about/ women-hunt-committee

Connect with us: https://www.wildsheepfoundation.org/womenhunt

womenhunt@wildsheepfoundation.org

@womenhunt @women_hunt @womenhunt

CORRIE II

COMPLETE COMFORT AND CONTROL WHEREVER YOU GO...

Fifteen years of testing, modifying boots and listening to our customers led us to create a light hiker that feels agile, protective and handles like a dream. We started with our tough Mountain Boot Last atop the light and grippy Grapon™ outsole, and added K-Straps tying the base of the heel to the seven inch, double and triple stitched, padded upper, securing you in for the ride.

CONSERVATION EDUCATION

by Ryan Brock, Ph.D. WSF Youth Education Coordinator

YOUTH WILDLIFE CONSERVATION EXPERIENCE

As I approached six fifth graders sitting around a table chatting wildly, I inquired which outdoor career seminar they enjoyed the most. Not a single one agreed. “The bear dogs were the best!” replied the first young lady. “I liked learning about falconry,” responded the one on her right. The conversation continued, as each shared which three seminars each attended and what made their favorite stand out.

This occurred while waiting for the keynote presentation during one of the private learning experiences of the Youth Wildlife Conservation Experience (YWCE) that school groups were bused into during Thursday and Friday of Sheep Show®. During these private experiences, 590 youth took part in a variety of special experiences beyond the normal

hands-on learning stations. Upon arriving, a keynote presentation educated them on wild sheep, the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, and how hunters are conservationists. Focus was on specific Wild Sheep Foundation and its chapters and affiliates conservation methods for sheep and included hunting license data in Nevada and the funding it provides. School groups then looked through their program and select three of nine outdoor-related career seminars to attend. These ranged from outdoor clothing manufacturing, department of wildlife agencies, archery businesses, falconry, outdoor cooking as a career, outdoor videography, and more.

Next, the Wild Sheep Foundation scholarship winners presented during

lunch about how they became interested in pursuing a degree in wildlife management, what experiences it can provide in college, and what kids can start doing now to move towards gaining experience and preparing for a path in that direction.

Finally, the hands-on stations opened. This year we broke the prior record for the number of handson stations of 36, and offered 42 different learning experiences. The youth area filled 94,540 square feet! We never thought we would utilize that entire area…and it took years to build it up this large, but we finally did. The stations included wildlife conservation, entomology (including eating crickets), rock climbing wall, 3D archery, target archery, trap archery, two BB gun ranges, a pellet

A group of young shooters takes aim right before a disc is hurled into the air to shoot at.

SPEND LESS TIME APPLYING AND MORE TIME

gun range, two hover archery, stickit archery, duck calling, two Laser Shots, fly fishing, spin casting, a few leave-no-trace ethics, fly tying, and so much more.

One of my personal highlights was the University of Wyoming joining us and running three stations. First, they demonstrated a real dart gun into the hind quarters of a 3D sheep archery target. Kids then followed by using rifle dart guns with scopes to try to have their dart hit the rump as well. Hiding a tracking collar, they showed participants how to use telemetry to find a collared sheep. Finally, a table of sand allowed young learners to choose a foot impression to press into the sand making a track.

BIGHORN SHEEP CURRICULUM KIT

DO YOU KNOW A TEACHER WHO TEACHES LIFE SCIENCE, OR THEMED UNITS ON WILDLIFE?

The Wild Sheep Foundation has put together an educational kit that includes a variety of information and hands-on items that teaches about bighorn sheep and their conservation. The kit can be checked out for week-long segments for free and shipping is paid for.

Kit includes a ram skull, GPS collar, hide sample, curriculum book with over 20 lessons, Ovisopoly game, consumables to hand out to the students, a curriculum book and a USB drive with PowerPoints and movies for lessons with an optional “talk to a sheep expert” through Skype or Zoom class meeting.

To reserve your week, contact:

Ryan Brock Youth Education Coordinator Rbrock@wildsheepfoundation.org

Youth using telemetry to find a hidden sheep collar somewhere in the YWCE area.

With instruction, they learned how to make plaster impressions of the track and got to take that home after it dried.

Also new this year was a group of professional bass anglers who brought in three amazing bass fishing boats. They taught the kids the difference between a variety of lures and then instructed them on some common knots to use when fishing.

Nature Niños, a program from New Mexico, was also new in participating in the YWCE. They set up a campsite and had kids identify items that could be improved, such as picking up trash and leaving the site as you found it (if not better).

Saturday, the YWCE opened to the public. This day looked a little different than the school day’s events. All the hands-on stations were open the entire time. Although there were no keynote presentations, or career seminars, there were free raffles for the kids. Additionally, the Tracks Program took place for kids ages 1217. Originally the creation of Leica a decade ago, this program has been strong ever since. Youth were given a punch card and followed wild sheep tracks on the ground throughout the exhibit hall, visiting and learning from seven different participating vendors. These included: Leica, Sitka, Kenetrek Boots, Bear Trust International, Mystery Ranch, Nevada Department of Wildlife, and Northern Nevada SCI. Once their punch card was complete, it was deposited in a special raffle that took back in the YWCE area on the main stage. Prizes included binocs from Leica, a Sitka outfit, Kenetrek boots, and more. We thank these

organizations for their strong support of this yearly program.

A new record was set for the amount of kids coming through the YWCE on Saturday this year, breaking our prior record by close to 200. Additionally, we know there were a hundred or more kids who came through that we just couldn’t keep up on families registering as they entered. The data we were able to collect showed 1,245 kids coming through on Saturday alone (but many estimate it higher at 1400-1800 kids). With the 590 school kids who came the prior two days, we can account for at least 1,835 total kids. This also broke prior records of 1,597 kids in 2019 and 1,569 kids in 2020.

This event has surely grown in the twelve years it has been put on. Each year we can offer more learning experiences as more groups come on board to help. Even our volunteer base has increased. This year 293 name badges were printed with individual volunteers’ names JUST for the YWCE area, and there were still several volunteers who came and helped who didn’t receive a badge. As this event grows, so does the impact it has.

With deepest gratitude I thank all those organizations and individuals who helped make this year’s event a success. A special thanks to the Nevada Department of Wildlife, who not only provided over 50 folks alone to help out, as well as putting on a special hunter safety class at the Sheep Show® itself. A youth event of this size is successful based on its volunteers, so a huge shout-out to all those who were involved in any aspect of the event. Thank you! WS

John Bedlion, of Leica, awards this year’s grand winner of the Tracks Program a pair of optics.

We give recognition to the Nevada Wildlife Record Book Foundation for graciously helping sponsor the lunches for school groups to attend the YWCE this year!

Congratulations to Rob Kopecky, the lucky winner of the 2023 Bernie Fiedeldey “1 More For 4 Challenge”. This opportunity is for WSF members in good standing who lack only ONE of the Four North American Wild Sheep needed to complete their first FNAWS! Entry is easy… submit your hunt reports, come to Reno to attend the Saturday Grand Finale Banquet, cross your fingers and wait for your name to be called! Already have your FNAWS? Consider becoming a sponsor and send a fellow hunter on the trip of a lifetime.

Thank you, once again, to Bernie Fiedeldey and all of this year’s sponsors listed below.

• David & Sona Combs

• Renee Snider

• Darin & Tonya Fiedeldey

• Charles & Denise Swanson

• Midwest Chapter

• Kris Kohlhoff

• Ed Pabst

• Kevin Gilbert

• Jeff Haynie

• Washington WSF

• Charles & Denise Swanson

• Darin & Tonya Fiedeldey

• Darla Fiedeldey

• Richard Pierce

If you would like to be recognized as a sponsor of the 2023 “1MF4 Challenge”, please contact Paige Culver at 406.404.8758 or pculver@wildsheepfoundation.org

*must be a member in good standing and have a hunt report form and field photo of each ram submitted to the WSF Headquarters. For more information, please contact Kim Nieters, Awards Manager at KNieters@ WildSheepfoundation.org or 406.404.8750

Receive one of these beautiful medallions commemorating the “1 MORE FOR 4” Challenge. Donations of $500 receive a bronze medallion and contributions of $1000 or more receive a 1.75” silver medallion (2 Troy ounces of .999 pure silver)

Left to Right: Rob Kopecky, Bernie Fiedeldey, and Ed Pabst, previous 1MF4 winner and sponsor

Townsend Youth Conservation National Award

Sheep Show® 2023 marked the beginning of a new award that is given out at the show during Thursday’s Conservation Night. Dedicated in the memory of Butch Townsend from Wyoming, Butch was passionate and devoted much of his life to wild sheep and knew that there wouldn’t be sheep on the mountain in the future without kids on the mountain today. Thus, he and wife Kathy made considerable investments in putting and keeping kids on the mountain with wild sheep. It seemed fitting to name a conservation award after him.

The award is for a youth in 7th12th grade, as of January of the year the award is presented at Wild Sheep Foundation’s national convention, the Sheep Show®

Chapters or affiliates look within their organization for a youth who stands out in the area of wildlife

conservation. Ideally, the chapter or affiliate would select a top candidate to be recognized locally, perhaps at the banquet. Once recognized by the chapter or affiliate, the official WSF application is submitted by the nominee to the Wild Sheep Foundation through Ryan Brock (Rbrock@wildsheepfoundation.org) by August 15 of each year.

This year’s recipient is Autumn Richmond of Beaver, Utah. This fifteen-year-old has demonstrated early effort in conservation work. At an early age, Autumn began attending Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife banquets with her parents. She eventually began helping with conservation projects with her parents when she was old enough. These include youth fishing events and pheasant hunts. More recently, she participated in the original meeting to discuss putting desert bighorn on the Mineral Mountains. Later on, she was present and helped release the bighorns out of the trailer

and into those mountains. Upon reflecting on the release of these sheep into mountains that haven’t seen sheep in almost a hundred years, she felt amazing and proud to be involved in both the decision process and the actual release. Another project she was involved with utilized putting transmitting collars on mountain goats. Part of this process saw her being the scribe to record all the data collected by wildlife biologists on the goats.

Autumn is an avid hunter and understands how hunting plays a part in wildlife conservation. One of her future goals include learning more about why some particular deer herds in her area have been declining and possibly see how she can be a part in reversing that trend. Autumn looks to the future and a possible wildlife biology degree.

Chapters and affiliates, please begin looking within your organization for a youth who stands out. We would love to receive a nominee from you. WS

New Laser Shot

The decade-old Laser Shot, which has been used in hundreds of youth events, finally began running out of steam this past year. After having it worked on and still not being dependable, we reached out to the Wild Sheep Foundation’s chapters and affiliates for help. By the time Sheep Show® arrived in Reno, our Shooting, Hunting & Ethics Education Program (S.H.E.E.P.) had a new Laser Shot to use for the first time at the Youth Wildlife Conservation Experience.

Thank you so much to those organizations who made an impact in helping us order a new simulated shooting range. These organizations and individuals include: The Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn, Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation, Northern Nevada SCI, Wild Sheep Society of BC, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society, Utah Wild Sheep Foundation, Elko Bighorns Unlimited, Washington Wild Sheep Foundation, Glen Pyne DVM, Brett Jefferson, and Zach Walton.

The new Laser Shot has the advantage of being smaller, so it will cost less to ship and also utilizes infrared technology, so two youth can compete against each other on some of the programs. WS

Lost Creek Outfitters treated me with respect, kindness, and real honest hospitality while hunting sheep outside Cody, Wyoming. Without their heartfelt commitment, my dream hunt would have not been possible!

Thank you Jimmie, Jozie, Cameron, and Lost Creek Outfitters!

- Steven Austin

SPONSORS ARE CURRENT AS OF PRESS TIME

WSF SALUTES OUR 2023 CONVENTION SPONSORS

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO PATRONIZE THOSE WHO SUPPORT THE WILD SHEEP FOUNDATION

OFFICIAL SHEEP WEEK® SPONSOR

PRESENTING SPONSORS

DIAMOND SPONSORS

PLATINUM SPONSORS

JEFF & JANN DEMASKE

KEVIN & TUESDY SMALL

SPONSORS ARE CURRENT AS OF PRESS TIME

WSF SALUTES OUR 2023 CONVENTION SPONSORS

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO PATRONIZE THOSE WHO SUPPORT THE WILD SHEEP FOUNDATION

GOLD SPONSORS

SILVER SPONSORS

David & Sona Combs

TERRY RATHERT

BRONZE SPONSORS

ARLENE HANSON

RENEE SNIDER

Darin & Tonya Fiedeldey

Charles & Denise Swanson

COPPER SPONSOR

Ram Awards Belt Buckle

AZYRE

Jann Demaske

Chris Dianda

Jim Dovenberg

Dyrk Eddie Family

Tom Foss

Daryll Hosker

James Lines

Frank Noska IV

Jeff Peracchi

Kevin & Tuesdy Small

Bobby Theis

William “Bill” Tittle

Dave & Joanne Turchanski

Lyle Wood

Gary Young

Ed Pabst KEVIN GILBERT KRIS KOHLHOFF

LIFE MEMBER PATRONS

Kurt Alt

Bryan Bailey - Bailey & Landrus Hunting Company

Paul Baird

Max Banwell

Mike Borel

Joseph Brescia

Bob Brocchini

Oscar Carlson

Darryl Williams & Cassie Schaffer

Sam & Tracy Cunningham

Wes Curry

Caleb Curtis

Denis Dale

Alan Day

Robert Day

Christopher Day

Tom Edgington

Brent Fassett

Sandra Fields

Hank Flatow

Tom Foss

Cam Foss

Ryan & Tiffany Foutz

Dale & Donna Gaugler

Kevin Gilbert

Peter Gutsche

Charles Hartford

Alan C. Hayes

Jeff Haynie

Martin & Jane Hendrix

Zach Higgins

Tom & Denise Hoffman

Jim Hollister

Shad Hulse

Kevin Hurley

Brett Jefferson

Larry & Gay Johns

Kevin Kehoe

Charlie & Linda Kelly

Roger Kenner

Kris Killorn

Kevin Klumper

Dan & Jessica Kluth

John Lake

Jeff Lindgren

Robert & Marion Logan

Dr. Gordon Lyons

Jim & Ashley McEnroe

Larry McGovern

Kyle & Joanne Meintzer

Zachary Moorman

Brian Nelson

Don Perrien

Drs. Glen & Caroline Pyne

FRIENDS OF WSF

Sherwood Out tters

CONVENTION APPEALS - $359,700.00

Steve Quisenberry

Hank Raats

Dustin & Heather Roe

Lou Rupp

Doug & Shelly Sayer

Steve Skold

Kip & Sue Slaugh

Kevin and Tuesdy Small

Jim & Alisia Stager

Gray & Renée Thornton

Bill Tittle

André Van Hilten - Willow Creek Outfitters

Ken & Anna Vorisek

Aislyn Ward

Jamie & Janice Wisley

TOPOB

RJ Reynolds Grizzly Outdoor Corps.

Roger McCosker

Richard Pierce

Michjael Carpinito

Annonymous - Stone’s Sheep Initiative

Gary Young

Kevin Small

Kyle Small

Bob & Pam Keagy

Rob & Lucy Cincair

Albert Seeno

Women Hunt

Denise Swanson

Gray & Renée Thornton

Alan Day

Kevin Hurley

Colin & Rebecca Peters

S.H.E.E.P.

Amanda Brock

<1 CLUB

Adam Wickes

Luigi Soper

WD4C

Kevin Hutley

GENERAL Full Curl Spirits

RAM LAY-A-WAY

J. Alain Smith

Tony & Ginny Caligiuri

Arlene Hanson

Julie Chapman

Ian Kienath

Joe Brescia

Tom & Denise Hoffman

We invite you to become a sponsor of the 2024 Convention in Reno. For sponsorship opportunities or more information contact: Gray N. Thornton • 406.404.8750 • gthornton@wildsheepfoundation.org or Keith Balfourd 404.404.8750 • keith@wildsheepfoundation.org

WEDNESDAY GRAND OPENING

Grand Opening Sponsors Global Rescue, Stone Glacier & Best of the West

Gordon Eastman Grass Roots recipient Brian Solan

Gray Thornton recognized for 15 years of service with WSF

Biologist Wall of Fame recipient Mike Cox Mike Aiazzi recognizng 30 year exhibitor Leica. Also recognized, but not photographed was Alcampo Hunting Adventures. GRAND

Paige Culver recognized for 5 years of service with WSF

Terry Ziehl recognized for 36 years of service with WSF

SPORTING CLAYS

ENSURING THE FUTURE OF WILD SHEEP RECEPTION

THURSDAY CONSERVATION NIGHT

Conservation Night sponsors Kenetrek, SITKA, YETI, Alaska WSF & Browning

Outstanding Conservationist Eric Rominger

THURSDAY RECAP

Jack O’Connor Writer’s Award Mike McTee

Townsend Youth Conservation Award Autumn Richmond

CIC Markhor Award recipients Javier Artee, Jose Antonio Vallina & Emilio Rangel

HORSE PACKING COMPETITION

199 HORSE PACKING PHOTOS FOR VIEWING AND DOWNLOAD!

Horse Packing Contest winners Jessie & Luke with sponsors Midnight Sun Outfitting & Sherwood Outfitters

LADIES LUNCHEON

156 LADIES LUNCH PHOTOS FOR VIEWING AND DOWNLOAD!

LESS THAN ONE CLUBS

Less than One Clubs winners and sponsors

<1 CLUBS RECAP

FRIDAY LEGACY NIGHT & CONKLIN AWARD

216 FRIDAY LEGACY NIGHT PHOTOS FOR VIEWING AND DOWNLOAD!

Legacy Night sponsors Alaska Outfitters Unlimited, Schnee’s & Shikar Safaris

Conklin Award recipient Bradford T. Black

Outstanding Achievement Award Jim & Leann Craig

State Statesman Award Tony Wasley

FRIDAY LEGACY NIGHT & CONKLIN AWARD

216 FRIDAY LEGACY NIGHT PHOTOS FOR VIEWING AND DOWNLOAD!

BACKPACK RACE

96 BACKPACK RACE PHOTOS FOR VIEWING AND DOWNLOAD!

LIFE MEMBER BREAKFAST

Keynote speaker Lt. Col. Charles Hartford, US Army (ret.)

Life Member Breakfast sponsors Wild Hunting Turkey & Aisa

Life Member Breakfast sponsors Best of the West

La Palmosa desert sheep hunt & Wildlife Gallery Lifesize Mount winner Thomas Buckholz

MARCO POLO SOCIETY RECEPTION

SATURDAY GRAND FINALE BANQUET

It takes a massive team of talented hard & working people to put on an event like the Sheep Show. Here is just a fraction of the people that work for and with WSF to pull this off.

Terry Ziehl receiving a Special Service Award for 36 years of service to WSF with Gray N. Thornton and Hannah Stewart

Grand Finale Banquet sponsors Leica, Weatherby, Freelance Outdoors and Black Rifle Coffee

Jack Atcheson Jr. presenting the Frank Golata Outstanding Outfitter of the Year Award to Kodiak Outdoor Adventures Paul & Angie Chervenak

Tony Caligiuri & Arlene Hanson present the G.C.F Dalziel Outstanding Guide of the year to Nate Olson

Mountain Hunter Hall of Fame Ron Roderick & the late Ron Carey. Award accepted by Bili Carey.

Madeline Demaske recipient of the Artemis Outstanding Woman Conservationist Award with her family.

SATURDAY GRAND FINALE BANQUET

233 GRAND FINALE PHOTOS FOR VIEWING AND DOWNLOAD!

Bernie Fiedeldy sponsor of the One More for Four drawing.

One More for Four winner Rob Kopecky

50/50 winner Rob Peterson

Cole Kramer, Morgan Mason & Johnathan Blank of Black Rifle Coffee, Gray N. Thornton

EXHIBIT FLOOR • RAFFLES • SEMINARS

EXHIBIT FLOOR • RAFFLES • SEMINARS

EXHIBIT FLOOR • RAFFLES • SEMINARS

EXHIBIT FLOOR • RAFFLES • SEMINARS

3 1/2-DAY AOUDAD HUNT FOR 1 HUNTER IN WEST TEXAS HIGH

NORTH AMERICAN AWARDS COMMITTEE

Jason Peak (NV) - Chair

Buck Buckner (OR) - B&C Representative

Julie Chapman (IN)

Madie Demaske (CO)

Tom Hoffman (NY) - P&Y Representative

Anna Vorisek (AK)

Kim Nieters (WY) - Awards Director

SPONSORED BY

INTERNATIONAL AWARDS COMMITTEE

J. Alain Smith (WA) - Chair

Daryll Hosker (BC)

Gary Rigotti (OR)

Dave Turchanski (BC)

Lyle Wood (AB)

Kim Nieters (WY) - Awards Director

BELT BUCKLE SPONSORS

William “Bill” Tittle

James Lines

Kevin & Tuesdy Small

Jann Demaske

Daryll Hosker

Lyle Wood

Jeff Peracchi

Bobby Theis

Jim Dovenberg

Gary Young

Tom Foss

Chris Dianda

Frank Noska IV

Dave & Joanne Turchanski

AZYRE

Dyrk Eddie Family

WEST OUTFITTERS

Winner: Paul Shultheis

FNAWS ACHIEVERS

Marty Anderson, ID - Rifle

Steve Arnett, Alberta - Rifle

Melvin Barr, Alberta - Rifle

Brent Bates, TX - Rifle

Clay Beard, TX - Rifle

Jed Brown, TX - Rifle

Monte Brown, NV - Rifle

Bert Brundige, OR - Rifle

Brendan Burns, MT - Archery

Seth Campbell, AL - Rifle

Dallan Carter, UT - Rifle

Robert Cerone, Jr., NJ - Rifle

Xavier Cervantes, CA - Rifle

B.Joe Coy, WY - Rifle

Frank Crooker, ME - Rifle

Camryn Cunningham, TX - Rifle

Thomas Davis, CA - Rifle

Justin Falatok, SC - Rifle

Albert Fini, Jr., NY - Rifle

Tom Foss, Calgary - 5th Archery FNAWS

Rick Garzoli, Jr., CA - 3rd Rifle FNAWS

Rob Hammond, MT - Rifle

Cleve Holloway, WY - Rifle

Steven Johnson, Calgary - Rifle

Sean Keck, WI - Rifle

Bruce Kirkpatrick, PA - Rifle

George Lawrence, III, ID - 10th FNAWS (Shotgun)

Michael Lyons, IL - Rifle

Jeffrey Mancuso, CO - Rifle

Jim Manley, OR - 2nd FNAWS Award Rifle

Ted McElvain, NV - Rifle

Alan Means, NV - 3rd Rifle FNAWS

Craig Mueller, ID - Rifle

Jake Murphy, ND - 2nd Rifle FNAWS

Joe Nobles, CO - Rifle

Hank Raats, NV - Rifle

Nicholas Saner, PA - Rifle

Robert Shaw, IA - Rifle

Cody Shoman, ND - Rifle

Greg Shuttleworth, BC - Rifle

Brian Smith, CO - Rifle

Cory Smith, ND - 2nd Rifle FNAWS

Glen Smith, OH - 4th Rifle FNAWS

Julie Snider, MI - Rifle

Tharen Soroka, Alberta - Archery FNAWS

John Ed Stepan, TX - Rifle

E.J. Varos, TX - Rifle

Dan Warren, NV - Rifle

Lyle Wood, NV - Rifle

Jim Zepaltas, WI - Rifle

STONE’S - ARCHERY

YUKON

Tom Foss • Reynolds Outfitting • Guide: Dan Reynolds • P&Y Score: 166 4/8

YUKON BC

Tom Foss • Reynolds Outfitting Guide: Dan Reynolds • P&Y Score: 155 6/8

Dan Evenson • Backcountry BC & Beyond Guides: Dan Watson & James Cruickshank • P&Y Score: 153

ARCHERY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

YOUTH ENTRIES

Paul Gann • Finlay River Outfitters, Ltd.

Guide: Hunter McAuley • B&C Score: 175 4/8

Marcus Gores • Golden Bear Outfitting

Guide: Blake Williams • B&C Score: 168 3/8

Cari Goss • Gundahoo River Outfitters

Guide: Justin McNain • B&C Score: 166 1/8

Gavin Sawicki (13 Years Old) • Frontier Outfitters

Guide: G.T. Nunn • B&C Score: 183 2/8

AK BC

Harper Walton (10 Years Old) Self-Guided Hunted with her Dad B&C Score: 159 7/8

Ryane Humes (17 Years Old) • Kawdy Outfitters

Guide: Chris Leighton • B&C Score: 156 4/8

CA BIGHORN - RIFLE CA BIGHORN - ARCHERY

Michael Kinney • Eden Ridge Outfitters

Guide: John McCollum • B&C Score: 191 3/8

Casey Brooks • Guide: Self-Guided P&Y Score: 174

John Dixon • Self-Guided B&C Score: 171 4/8

Joseph Brough • Eden Ridge Outfitters

Guide: John McCollum • B&C Score: 176

HONORABLE MENTION

Mike A. Carpinito • Raven’s Throat Outfitters Guide: Brady Lough • B&C Score: 166 6/8

James Manley • Alaska Trophy Adventures Guide: Hank Flatow • B&C Score: 163 5/8

Erik Weingarth • Alaska Trophy Adventures Guide: Hank Flatow • B&C Score: 162 7/8

Mike Pilch • Midnight Sun Outfitting Guide: Logan Young • B&C Score: 160 3/8

Michael Duplan • Ultima Thule Outfitters Guide: Jay Stanford • B&C Score: 163 4/8

Donald South • Ultima Thule Outfitters Guide: Jay Stanford • B&C Score: 174 2/8

Jared McCulley • Alaska Trophy Adventures Guides: Hank Flatow & Jordan Voigt • B&C Score: 170

Kevin Klumper • Alaska Trophy Adventures Guide: Hank Flatow • B&C Score: 172 2/8

Ted Hansen • Guinn Outfitting Guide: Jonas Guinn • P&Y Score: 168 6/8

Joseph Maddock • Extreme Outfitters Guides: Chance Marshall & Kevin Marshall • P&Y Score: 164 2/8

Sheep Mountain Outfitters

Guides: Todd Longgood & Dan

Bailey & Landrus

Hunting Company

Guides: Glen Landrus, Bryan Bailey, Hank Flatow

B&C Score: 190

Harris

Johnson • L.C. Outfitting, LLC Guide: Landen Collings • B&C Score: 181 2/8

Grant Smith • Nebraska Game & Parks B&C Score: 201 5/8

Hank Raats

Kevin Klumper

Brad Kelley • Elk Mountain Outfitters Guide: Mike Wakkuri • B&C Score: 180

Shelly Sayer Guide: Self-Guided

James Manley • L.C. Outfitting, LLC Guides: Cam Foss, Landen Collings, Alan Douglas, Michael Simpson, Stephanie Lough B&C Score: 186 1/8

Gavin Sawicki Frontier Outfitting Guide: G.T. Nunn • B&C Score: 183 2/8

HONORABLE MENTION

Grant Smith • Derick Lopez Outfitter Guide: Derick Lopez • B&C Score: 184 2/8

Cari Goss • Wade Lemon Hunting Guide: Lance Scoggins • B&C Score: 184 1/8

Steven Johnson • L.C. Outfitting, LLC Guide: Landen Collings • B&C Score: 182 5/8

MX MX MX

Hank Raats • La Palmosa Guide: Emilio Rangel • B&C Score: 179 2/8

Ashley McEnroe • Rancho La Guarida Guide: Jose A. Vallina • B&C Score: 171

Todd Anderson • Amigos Guides & Outfitters Guide: Nayo Balderrama • B&C Score: 170 3/8

Glenn Smith • Wade Lemon Hunting Guide: Lance Scoggins • B&C Score: 190 2/8

Robert “Bobby” Theis • High West Outfitters Guide: Jasper Klein • B&C Score: 187 2/8

Glen “Anthony” Wyatt • Frontier Outfitters Guide: G.T. Nunn • B&C Score: 184 6/8

DESERT - ARCHERY

Zack Walton • Sonora Dark Horn Guide: Jesus • P&Y Score: 154 7/8

Anna Vorisek • Mexico Hunts Guide: Gaspar Bautista • P&Y Score: 152 3/8

Jason Soulliere • Inferno Outdoors Guide: Roland Volley • SCI Score: 154 5/8 • #1 SCI Record!

Kevin Cheng • Rancho La Guarida Guide: Jose A Vallina • B&C Score: 169 2/8

Sean Keck • Mexico Hunts Guide: Gaspar Bautista • B&C Score: 167 6/8

Brenton Scott • TX Parks & Wildlife Depart. Guide: Cody McEntire • B&C Score: 167 6/8

AOUDAD - RIFLE

MOUNTAIN MONARCH

Taaffe Caligiuri

Self-Guided

SCI Score: 143 5/8

URIAL - RIFLE

Roger Kenner

Rowdy McBride

Hunting Services

Guide: Rowdy McBride

SCI Score: 142 2/8

James Lines

Wild Hunting

Turkey & Asia

Guide: Mete Babayigit

SCI Score: 130 4/8

Daryll Hosker

Natura Sport

Guide: Dmitry Borisov

SCI Score: 123 2/8

Eric Johnson • El Cielo Ranch

Guide: Justin Kibbe • SCI Score: 151 6/8

James Lines • Wild Hunting Turkey & Asia

Guide: Mete Babayigit • SCI Score: 122 3/8

Punjab

Bukhara

Bukhara

MOUNTAIN MONARCH

IBEX - ARCHERY

Allyn Ladd

Caprinae Safaris

Guide: Sarp Sezen

SCI Score: 109 5/8

CAPRA ARCHERY AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARGALI - RIFLE

Guide: Ariunbold Ari Anand SCI Score: 74 2/8

OVIS RIFLE AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

James Lines

Wild Hunting

Turkey & Asia

Guide: Mete Babayigit SCI Score: 209 5/8

Jason Soulliere

Inferno Outdoors

Guide: Max Vorobiev

SCI Score: 208 1/8

Tharen Soroka • Guide: Bat-ochir Vvrtsaih SCI Score: 98 4/8

James Lines • Wild Hunting Turkey & Asia Guide: Kursat Ekenler • SCI Score: 253 1/8

Altai

Pamir

Kyrgyz (Hume)

Tharen Soroka

Altai Bezoar

Gobi

IBEX - RIFLE

HONORABLE MENTION

MOUNTAIN MONARCH

ROCKY MTN. GOAT RIFLE ARCHERY

Chad Germann • Zev Hunting Guide: Muugii Dorj • SCI Score: 123 5/8

James Lines Great European Hunts Guide: Ignacio Navasques SCI Score: 93 2/8

Lyle Wood Mongolia Tours Guide: Tumbee SCI Score: 109 3/8

Altai

Victoria

Gobi

Lyle Wood • Mongolia Tours Guide: Tumbee • SCI Score: 110 4/8

Jesus Viejo Gonzalez • Summit of Russia Guide: Aleksei Yaksiucv • SCI Score: 151 7/8

Dave Turchanski • Cazatur Guide: Eusebio Manchon • SCI Score: 86 4/8

Victoria

Altai

Mid-Caucasian Tur

CAPRA RIFLE AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

Frank Noska, IV • Self Guided • P&Y Score: 47 2/8

Charles Monson • BC Mountain Trophy Outfitters Guide Andre Kuerbis • B&C Score: 45 2/8

CHAMOIS

Jesus Viejo Gonzalez Summits of Russia Guide: A. Maksimov • SCI Score: 121 6/8

Bryan Harlan Indus Safaris

Guide: Sirander Ulmlelk • SCI Score: 114 2/8

Bukhara Kashmir Astore

James Lines Wild Hunting in Turkey & Asia Guide: Kursat Ekenler • SCI Score: 110 6/8

Alpine

Carpathian

Alpine

Cantabrian

Alejandro Reyes Vazquez • Jean Francios Richire Guide: Gerard Esposito • SCI Score: 27 4/8

Alejandro Reyes Vazquez • Outfitter: Stalker Guide: Irinel Stan • SCI Score: 29 3/8

James Lines • Four Seasons Safaris NZ Guide: Shane Johnston • SCI Score: 27 4/8

James Lines • Great European Hunts Guide: Ignacio Navasques • SCI Score: 21 2/8

2023 RESULTS • 35 th ANNUAL DUNCAN GILCHRIST PHOTO CONTEST

2023 DIGITAL PHOTO CONTEST RESULTS

HUNTER IN FIELD (HIF)

1st Brady Huesby

2nd Theron Johnson

3rd Casey Johnson

HUNTER WITH TROPHY (HWT)

1st Karl Blattman

2nd Vladimir Donchev

3rd Joe Hill

LIVE SHEEP (LS)

1st Ryan E. Baskerville

2nd Tessa Fowler

3rd Mike Polkowski

OPEN (O)

1st Jerry Herrod

2nd Colby Hartman

3rd Bill Sincavage

RAFFLE & GIVEAWAY WINNERS

SHEEP WEEK GENERAL RAFFLE

12-Day Dall’s Sheep Hunt - North Curl Outfitters

• S. Hunt

10-Day Alberta Bighorn Sheep Hunt

Savage Bighorn LTD.

• N. Beiter

12-Day Northern BC Stone’s Sheep Hunt

Spatsizi River Outfitters

• D. Madsen

10-Day Chihuahua Desert Bighorn Sheep Hunt

Rancho La Guarida

• R. Andrews

7-Day Late Season Alaska Mt Goat Hunt

Ultima Thule Outfitters

• G. Wilcox Jr

10-Day Alaskan Brown Bear Hunt

Alaska Hunting Expeditions LLC

• J. Downs

5-Day Alaskan Caribou Hunt

Alaska Hunting Expeditions LLC

• D. Warren

6-Day Nevada Mtn. Lion Hunt

Canyons West Guide Service LLC

• S. Weeks

5-Day Texas Aoudad Sheep Hunt - Rowdy McBride

• T. Henry

1-Day Alligator Hunt including 4-Days of Tarpon Fishing 1 Two Hunters

Bienvenue Outdoors

• D. Smith

Louis Vuitton Bag/Fragrance/Quintessa Wine & Glasses

Wild Sheep Foundation & iHunt

• C. McKenzie

Boswell’s Custom Ti-SLR Chambered in a 6.5 Creedmoor Rifle W / Scope

Steve Boswell

• R. Register

6-Day Barren Ground Muskox Hunt for 1 Hunter

Canada North Outfitting

• S. Jones

Women Hunt Raffle Package

Weatherby Vanguard Camillia Wilderness 6.5 Creedmoor

• J. Law

WEATHERBY WALL OF GUNS

Weatherby Vanguard Camillia Wilderness 6.5 Creedmoor

• K. Howard

Weatherby Mark V Backcountry 6.5 – 300

• D. Colclovgh

Weatherby Mark V BC 2.0 Carbon 300 –WBY

• C. Williamson

Weatherby Mark V Weathermark 257 WBY

• D. Hitner

Weatherby Mark V Carbonmark 6.5 WBY RPP

• C. Tenbrink

Weatherby Mark V Accumark 257

• J. Burns

Weatherby Element Waterfowl 12 Gauge

• B. Dale

Weatherby Element Upland Game 20 Gauge

• M. Miller

Weatherby Orion O/U 12 Gauge

• A. Tenbrink

Weatherby Orion O/U 20 Gauge

• E. Porath

LADIES LUNCHEON

Gun Board Winners:

Charles Daly 20 Gauge - L. Dieren

Remington Model 700 6.5 Creedmoor - D. Thorson

M&P 9 Shield 9mm - L. Williams

YETI ENDOWMENT SURPRISE WINNER

La Palmosa Elk Hunt, Weatherby Rifle, Boyt Gun Case & Yeti Coolers

• B. LeBlanc

RAFFLE & GIVEAWAY WINNERS

1 MORE FOR 4 Sponsored by: Bernie Fiedeldey

• R. Kopecky

FLOOR CREDITS

THURSDAY - 5 x $1,000

• K. Stokes

• C. Wallace

• M. A. Gallegos Sr.

• M. Roman

• D. Priest

FRIDAY - 2 x $2,500

• K. Wolff

• R. Oliver

SATURDAY - 1 x $5,000

• S. Holcomb

50/50 GRAND FINALE

• D. Patterson

WEDNESDAY EVENING RAFFLE

2024 Sheep Show Booth

• B. Valdez

2024 Sheep Show Registration

• K. Stelter

WSF Life Membership

• T. Byrd

THURSDAY EVENING RAFFLE

Weatherby Vanguard Camilla Wilderness 6.5 Creedmoor

• A. Wyatt

5 - Day Black Bear Hunt - Hunt Kap River Outfitters

• A. Wyatt

Stone Glacier Gear Package - Stone Glacier

• D. LeBlanc

FRIDAY EVENING RAFFLE

Weatherby Mark V Deluxe - .300 WBY Rifle

• T. Meyers

5 - Day Mule Deer Hunt in New Mexico Frontier Outfitters

• A. Ancho

Natural Tanzanite & Diamond Ring set in 14K Gold

• A. Wyatt

<1 CLUB HUNT DRAWINGS

Dall’s Sheep - Ultima Thule - B. Daugherty

Desert Sheep - Sierra Al Alamo - K. Hill

Dall’s Sheep - Alaska Outfitters Unlimited - M. Flores

Dall’s Sheep - North Curl Outfitters - T. Riesche

<1iCLUB HUNT DRAWINGS

Cantabrian Chamois - Herederos Hunting - D. Fisher II

Carpathian Chamois - Caprinae Safaris of Turkey - T. Elam

Pyrenean Chamois - ATP Hunt - M. Schmillen

<1 BUCKET RAFFLES

Stone Glacier Evo 40/56 - K. Howie

Schnee’s Boots - J. Tessmann

OnX Elite Membership - I. Keinath

YETI Tundra 45 - J. Grove

SITKA System - D. Hinter

Mystery Ranch Beartooth Pack - D. Kind

YETI Back Country Sheep Hunter Package (1) - B. Dee

SCCY Pistol - S. Edgar

YETI Backcountry Sheep Hunter Package (2) - A. Collins

LIFE MEMBER BREAKFAST

La Palmosa Desert Sheep Hunt & Wildlife Gallery Custom Pedestal Mount

• T. Buchholz

PATRON PRIZES

Weatherby Mark V - Charles Hartford

Mathews Bow - M. Hendrix

Kuiu Venture - S. Quisenberry

Couples Registration - K. Gilbert

Vortex Binos - K. Alt

Vortex Binos - S. Fields

Vortex Binos - K. Killorn

Vortex Scope - L. Johns

Vortex Scope - B. Tittle

Vortex Scope - T. Foss

Vortex Rangefinder - D. Dale

Vortex Rangefinder - C. Curtis

Vortex Rangefinder - H. Raats

Vortex 1000 Rangefinder - P. Baird

Lathrop Boots - D. & D. Gaugler

Stone Glacier Pack - J. Brescia

Badlands Bino Harness - D. Perrien

Badlands Pack Diablo - D. Williams

Badlands Pursuit Pack - L. McGovern

Velia Purse - A. Hayes

RAM AWARDS

Aoudad Hunt with High West Outfitters

• P. Shultheis

7

Includes permitting, English-speaking guides, all in-country ground travel, all out-of-pocket costs, and services including round trip economy air travel, $5,000 USD tip money, $2,500 for in-country incidentals, plus expert assistance on all other planning needs.

RULES & REGULATIONS

1. <1 Club “Membership” is open ONLY to those aspiring sheep hunters who have not yet taken a North American or international wild sheep ram*.

2. Annual membership in the <1 Club is only $25. New <1 Club Members receive a <1 Club T-shirt, club decal and one (1) entry into the annual sheep hunts and gear package drawing. Renewing <1 Club Members receive an entry into the annual drawing. ONE ENTRY PER MEMBER ONLY!

3. <1 Club Members must be a member of WSF in good standing on the drawing date (Jan. 18, 2024) to be entered into drawing. Family Membership in WSF qualifies. You may sign up each family member in the <1 Club for $25 per person if each family member enlisted satisfies Rule #1 above. Winner must be of legal hunting age within the state/prov. at the time of the hunt. Alaska = 10 years old • NWT = 12 years old. If not, another name will be drawn.

4. Prize packages will be given away and are TBD. Look for new information in the Summer issue of Wild Sheep Magazine as well as the <1 Club Facebook page.

5. First drawn will receive choice of hunt and pedestal mount and NEED NOT BE PRESENT TO WIN. All other winners must be present to win. Winners are eligible for one prize per year only. Travel to and from sheep hunts and shooting school is responsibility of the winners. Shipment of mounts and replicas is also responsibility of the winners.

6. Drawing will be held Friday, January 18, 2024 during the 4-6 pm <1 Club/<1 iClub Reception at the 2024 Sheep Show® in the Mount Rose Ballroom of the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.

NOTE: Membership in the <1 Club does not include entry into the <1 Club/<1iClub Beer Reception. A $20 Reception ticket is required for entry.

7. Hunts are to be taken only in the year specified by the donors. Exceptions are subject to donor’s approval. Hunts MAY ONLY be transferred to another <1 Club Member in good standing & MAY NOT BE SOLD.

8. By joining you certify that you have not yet taken a wild sheep ram* in North America (free range California bighorn, Dall’s, desert bighorn, fannin, Rocky Mountain bighorn or Stone’s sheep) or an indigenous ram internationally and that you have read and understand the Rules and Regulations set forth by WSF for the <1 Club.

*NOTE: A wild sheep ram is considered a California bighorn, Dall’s, desert bighorn, fannin, Rocky Mountain bighorn or Stone’s sheep in North America or a non-North American wild sheep taken outside of North America and recognized under WSF’s Mountain Monarchs Award Program.

The <1 Club is for those aspiring sheep hunters who have not taken a wild sheep ram under free range/fair chase conditions in North America or an indigenous ram outside of North America.

A free-range aoudad qualifies for WSF Mountain Monarch Awards. Consequently since the launch of the <1 Club in 2012 taking a free range aoudad in North America would get the hunter “Kicked Out” of the <1 Club (but not the <1 iClub which is outside of North America.) In light of the management need to harvest more aoudad which negatively impact desert bighorn sheep, the <1 Club Committee has changed the <1 Club Rules effective with the 2023-24 program.

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

Taking an Aoudad under free range conditions in North America does not disqualify a hunter from <1 Club membership and/or entry into the 2024 hunt drawings!

SIGN UP NOW

DRAWING: FRIDAY JANUARY 19, 2024

<1 BEER RECEPTION • MT. ROSE BALLROOM RENO-SPARKS CONVENTION CENTER SHEEP SHOW® - BE THERE!

RULES & REGULATIONS

1. <1 iClub “Membership” is open ONLY to those mountain hunters who have not yet taken an international wild sheep ram or goat under free range/fair chase conditions*.

2. Annual Membership in the <1 iClub is only $25. New <1 iClub Members receive a <1 iClub T-shirt, club decal, and one (1) entry into the sheep and goat hunts and gear package drawing.

3. <1 iClub Members must be a member of WSF in good standing on the drawing date (Jan. 18, 2024) to be entered into drawing. Family Membership in WSF qualifies. You may sign up each family member in the <1 iClub for $25 per person if each family member enlisted satisfies Rule #1 above.

4. Prize packages will be given away and are TBD. Look for new information in the Summer issue of Wild Sheep Magazine as well as the <1 Club Facebook page.

5. First drawn will receive choice of hunts and NEEDS NOT BE PRESENT TO WIN. All other winners must be present to win. Winners are eligible for one prize per year only. Travel to and from sheep/goat hunts is responsibility of the winners. Shipment of mounts is also responsibility of the winners.

6. Drawing will be held Friday, January 18, 2024 during the 4-6 pm <1 Club/<1 iClub Reception at the 2024 Sheep Show® in the Mount Rose Ballroom of the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. NOTE: Membership in the <1 iClub does not include entry into the <1 Club/<1iClub Beer Reception. A $20 Reception ticket is required for entry.

7. Hunts are to be taken only in the year specified by the donors. Exceptions are subject to donor’s approval. Hunts may only be transferred to another <1 iClub Member in good standing and MAY NOT BE SOLD.

8. By joining you certify that you have not yet taken an international (non-North American) wild sheep ram or wild goat* and that you have read and understand the Rules and Regulations set forth by WSF for the <1 iClub.

*NOTES: As recognized as a wild sheep ram or goat in the CIC Phenotype List Caprinae (available on WSF website) and under the rules of the WSF Ram and Mountain Monarchs Award Programs.

The <1 iClub is for those who have not taken a free range wild sheep or goat outside of North America. Accordingly, a free range Armenian sheep, aoudad, mouflon, red sheep, or wild feral goat taken in North America does not exclude you from membership in the <1 iClub.

DRAWING: FRIDAY JANUARY 19, 2024

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ADVENTURE PROFILES

seven other rams dogging a ewe in heat. Waylon and I headed up the mountain to get over the top of them while Garret stayed below to keep an eye on the rams. One-and-a-half hours later we were nearing the area, when suddenly the ewe trailed by the seven rams crossed 40 yards in front of us. She paused with the rams in tow. She turned, ran back in front of us and dropped into a slight depression. Wayne, still kneeling down, was able to spot the big ram. I slowly got to my knees. We ranged the ram looking away from me

Bill Tittle

SPECIES: CA Bighorn

OUTFITTER: Bailey & Landrus Hunting Company

GUIDES: Wayne Clouse & Garret Gurr

LOCATION: Washington

In July 2021, I won the WA CA bighorn raffle tag. As my luck would have it, I caught COVID shortly before the opening of the season. I tried to hunt but could not climb the mountain with my high heart rate and unbearable fatigue. We attempted again at the end of the season in December. Unfortunately the weather this time shortened the hunt from five days to two days with a blizzard.

Once again I played the raffle in 2022 and won the same tag. We started again on Chelan Butte Sept 1st with 100°F+ temps for the week. I had two good shots on a tremendous ram. One shot was at 50 yards with a miss sailing over his back. The real heart breaker was the miss at 17 yards with strong wind. What a way to finish a week. Mentally I was just not performing as in the past. I returned home to get my head straight with the intent of coming back during the rut.

November 25th of 2022 dawned with three to four inches of snow on the ground with limited visibility, and I was back on the mountain. Waylon, Garret (my guides) and I spotted an old ram with

Brian Winot

SPECIES: Stone’s Sheep

OUTFITTER: Folding & Stone Mountain

GUIDE: Harmish Armstrong

LOCATION: BC Canada

We left their beautiful lodge on horseback four days before the sheep opener, for what was to be a three-day ride to the camp we intended to hunt. We would however, be in sheep country starting the first night, and the plan was to continue each day if we did not find rams prior. If we found rams, we would camp on them until the opening day. As with everywhere else up north this summer, it started raining the minute we left the lodge and made for very tough conditions. We reached our first camp location late in

at 41 yards. I quickly released the arrow hitting the ram slightly in front of his left hind quarter. The arrow completely passed through the ram exiting the front shoulder into the ground. A short, 60-yard walk to the beat up, chipped 9.5-year-old warrior ram ended with high fives and shouts of excitement.

A big thanks to Bryan Bailey, Glen Landrus, Wayne Clouse, Garrett Gurr and Andy Kelso for sticking with me to get this done!

“Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”

the day. After setting up camp we decided to try and get some glassing in between fog banks. We located two bands of rams within two miles of camp, both of which looked to contain legal rams. Of course we were going to stay at this camp location!

Friday and Saturday we trekked out to glass the rams from afar when the rain and fog would allow.

Sunday we stayed in camp not taking any risk of bumping “our” sheep.

Early Monday morning (opening day) we rode out to the edge of our mountain range. Leaving the horses we climbed up to where we had last seen the sheep two days prior. They were right in the general area, however we had no viable way to approach them and were pinned at 660 yards. God was shining down on us and a fog and rain bank moved in allowing us to close the distance to 500 yards. We waited the next couple hours for the weather to clear. When it did we were looking at seven rams that were getting anxious to get up and feed. After careful inspection we picked the eight-year-old over a couple of full curl seven-year-old rams. With a perfect rest we were able to make the 495 yard shot and drop this ram in his tracks. Folding & Stone Mountain run an EXCELLENT operation. Their equipment is nine out of ten, every employee is knowledgeable and helpful, and their lodge is absolutely beautiful. Thoroughly impressed with all aspects of their operation. Thank you to Chris at OAS Hunts for helping me book this great trip!

Mike Borel

SPECIES: Nubian Ibex

OUTFITTER: Point Blank Hunts

GUIDE: Abdelrahman Osman

LOCATION: Sudan

I just had to go for a Nubian! This hunt was a couple years in the making – but now it has happened and I couldn’t be happier about it. Importantly, I felt safe throughout the trip – in Khartoum, Port Sudan and in the mountains (this despite State Department recommendation ‘not to visit’). There is some fascinating history in this country – e.g. they have multiple sites of pyramids! Couple that with the confluence of the White and Blue Nile, the Red Sea, mountains, …. I will come back to play tourist!

For the hunting, Abdelrahman had excellent equipment, knowledge of the areas and most importantly, relationships with the tribes in each area. We hunted one mountain area per day, and every day we went to a different mountain. I got my billy at 8:30 AM on day four at 275 yards. I used a rifle borrowed from Abdelrahman, and was pleased with the rifle, scope and trigger.

The trip had two unpleasant challenges 1) Turkish Air lost my bag, and so far hasn’t found it! I’m right now in a hotel in Port Sudan with my clothes doing a drip dry in the bathroom. This has been way too many days in the same clothes (I always have one set of hunting clothes in my carry on). 2) I did get diarrhea on day two, and am still fighting it. I brought a strong antibiotic, but made the mistake of packing it in my checked bag (I’ll know better next time and suggest you learn from this experience).

He’s handsome, 13 years old and tapes 36 2/8”. Best of all, he’s MINE!

This is my 14th specie of ibex. I do love ibex – so much I have one tattooed on my left shoulder to balance the WSF Chadwick Ram on my right.

Henry Crosby

SPECIES: Dall’s Ram

OUTFITTER: Yukon Peak

GUIDE: Nathan Aasen

LOCATION: Yukon

This is the first ram of my lifelong passion of achieving a FNAWS. Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of a last minute opening of the Canadian border due to COVID-19 travel bans and also being in the middle of a 39-month chemotherapy cycle from an awful diagnosis of T-cell ALL Leukemia in the early Fall of 2019. I was able to navigate the very difficult physical requirement on foot and successfully encounter a band of five rams that I was able to harvest this sheep from.

Brady Jardine

SPECIES: Desert Sheep

OUTFITTER: La Palmosa

GUIDE: Garret Jones

LOCATION: Mexico

I was able to have both my dad and brother with me on this hunt. We saw quite a few sheep and were fortunate to kill the best ram we saw on our hunt.

Brady Jardine

SPECIES: Stone’s Ram

OUTFITTER: Full Curl Stone

GUIDE: Chad Fantham

One of the most fun trips in my life. Took this beautiful Stone’s sheep and also killed a BC Canadian moose and a BC mountain goat! Not a bad 12 days.

Lou Rupp

SPECIES: Mule Deer

OUTFITTER: Self Guided

LOCATION: Montana

A Bang Up Ending to the 2022 Deer Hunting Season!

After a successful abbreviated Missouri deer season resulting in a nice eight-point whitetail, Lou Rupp and a fellow hunter loaded up on November 17th for what has become an annual mule deer hunt in and around the Glasgow/Fort Peck area in eastern Montana.

Mid-morning on the second day, Lou connected with a wide 5x6 mulie at 273 yards.

Brady Jardine

SPECIES: Gredos Ibex

OUTFITTER: Corju Hunting

GUIDE: Fran Cortina

This ibex is officially the number six Gredos ibex in the world.

Photo: Tim Shinabarger

Nick Wood

Desert bighorn /Arizona

After a decade of trying I finally drew a desert bighorn sheep tag in my home state of Arizona. I could hardly believe my luck when I saw that I had drawn a once-in-a-lifetime tag and I immediately began contacting everyone I could think of to see what sort of information I could garner on these amazing animals. The end result was a successful DIY desert bighorn hunt carried out by one of my old Army buddies and I. Truly the huntof-a-lifetime.

Way to go Nick! You are kicked out!

OFFICIALLY KICKED OUT!

Congratulations!

Sheryl Davis

Chamois

Sheryl was one of the <1 iClub® winners at the 2022 Sheep Show® Sheryl, you are now officially kicked out!

Brett Jefferson

Desert bighorn/Mexico

On March 1st, I was blessed to harvest this amazing 10-year-old warrior La Palmosa Ram. I was fortunate to win the hunt at the WSF Life Member Breakfast in 2022. Thank you to WSF, the board of directors and the Life Member Breakfast Committee for promoting life membership in WSF. Thank you also to WSF Director Tony Caligiuri and Boyt Harness for outfitting me and all the La Palmosa guides in Kryptek gear. Thank you to Tim Fallon and the trainers at S.A.A.M. for helping me to fully prepare for the hunt. Finally, thank you to Emilio Rangel and Emilio Espino, the guides and all the staff at La Palmosa for supporting WSF and making my huntof-a-lifetime a dream come true!

Beautiful ram Brett, but you are kicked out!

The following <1 Club® or <1iClub® members have LOST their membership status by taking their first wild sheep rams!

LAST SHEEP CAMP

Roger Segebrecht

Roger D. Segebrecht died at home on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023. Roger was born on May 16, 1933, in Stoughton, Oregon. He was the son of Roy and Lillian (Haugen) Segebrecht. He graduated from Stoughton High School with the Class of 1951. Roger married Carol Staley in 1955.

Roger is survived by his son, Rick; two sisters, Carol Hoveland (Jim Kessenich) and Diane Harrison; and by his K9 companion, Heidi.

After farming with his father, Roger entered the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany for two years, until 1957. He then started his plumbing business, serving the McFarland, Stoughton and Oregon area for 50 years, until he suffered a stroke in 2014. Roger retired at the age of 80 years.

Roger had many interests in his life, including being an airplane pilot and a world-wide hunter. He hunted in Africa, Mongolia, Russia, Alaska, the Far East, Europe, New Zealand, Vietnam and the USA. He harvested 17 different species of wild sheep and achieved the Super Slam of World Sheep as well as the FNAWS. He was a life member of the Wild Sheep Foundation, the Rocky

Mountain Elk Foundation, and served on the board of the ISHA.

Roger and Donald Doyle started Oregon Community National Bank and served on its board for 30 years. He and DuWayne Teigen started the Stoughton Honey Wagon business.

Roger was a member of Christ Lutheran Church, Stoughton, Masonic Lodge Post No.73, Scottish Rite Bodies, Zor Shrine, Jesters and Zor Clowns. He was a proud member of McFarland American Legion Post No. 534.

Roger was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Carol in 2013; and his sister, Linda.

Funeral services were held at Gunderson Oregon Funeral and Cremation Care, 1150 Park St., Oregon, on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, with Pastor Scott Geister-Jones officiating. Military graveside rites were provided by the Oregon Veterans.

Roger has climbed his last mountain to the Happy Hunting Grounds. He will be missed by his family and many dear friends worldwide. Online condolences may be made at www. gundersonfh.com. WS

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Roy “Doc” Schultz

Roy “Doc” Schultz was born in a three-room rural farmhouse west of Treynor, Iowa on February 23, 1933 to Donald and Dorthea Schultz. When he was 10 years old, the family moved from the Treynor area to a farm north of Avoca, Iowa. Doc attended a one-room rural school in Shelby County through the 8th grade. He graduated top of his class at Avoca High School. He began attending Iowa State College, then served in the army during the Korean War. When he returned home from the war, he returned to Iowa State. In 1958, he married Jan Thorson, who he had met at Iowa State. Doc graduated with his DVM in 1960 and moved back to Avoca to be in veterinary practice with Dr. Robert Wunder where he worked until 1979.

In 1979, he returned to Iowa State where he worked with Dr. Richard Ross to help discover a cure for a disease running rampant through the pig population. Because of this, he was requested around the world to speak and to help with swine. His many honors and awards include Iowa State University Science in

Practice Award, American Association of Swine Veterinarians (AASV) Practitioner of the Year, and AASV Heritage Award. Besides these and many other awards, Roy is the only foreign veterinarian to receive the Venezuela Swine Practitioner of the Year award.

Doc was always quick to direct any credit for his achievements to his wife, Jan, and his colleagues. Doc enjoyed his veterinary practice and especially the relationships with all his clients and colleagues. He also loved hunting and fishing which became a big part of his life.

On Sunday, December 18, 2022, Doc passed away at Avoca Specialty Care having attained the age of 89 years, 9 months and 25 days. He was preceded in death by his parents; wife Jan; sisters Bernice Lee and Dorothy Carroll.

Left to cherish his memory are his children Dr. Gary Schultz and wife Taylor of Avoca, Iowa; Kathy Schultz of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Kent Schultz and his wife LaVerne of Plano, Texas; 7 grandchildren: Dagny, Henry, Mary, Anne, Grace, Reed and Emily; great-grandson Thomas; special friend Beverly Schroder; nieces and nephews, other family and many friends. WS

Mackenzie Mountain Outfitters Stan Stevens Recent Trophies

CHALLENGE COINS

WSF’s Legacy Society recognizes individuals, families and foundations making testamentary bequests or contributions of major gifts, gift annuities or other charitable-giving instruments. Since inception of the Ensuring the Future of Wild Sheep (ETFOWS) campaign, 45 Legacy Society members have been recognized through WSF’s Legacy Society for contributions or pledges of future gifts.

Tom Grimes

Eric & Sue Hansen

Lanny Rominger

Louis & Pauline Rupp

Lee & Penny Anderson

Jack, Jr. & Cindy Atcheson

Derek W.O. Berry

Mike Borel

Cabela’s Outdoor Fund

David W. Campbell

Rick & Heather Carosone

Dr. Robert W. & Cynthia Cassell

David & Sona Combs

Monty & Becky Davis

Howard & Mary Deters

Doug & Patty Dreeszen

Buddy DuVall

*

Robert & Arlene Hanson

Dr. Paul F. & Kathy J. Havey

John R. & Mary Ann Justus

Blair A. & Victoria M. Kenewell

Robert M. Martin, Jr.

Robert and Lisa Mays

Roger McCosker

Kyle & Joanne Meintzer

Chuck Middleton

David Mode

Brad R. Plaga

Robert L. & J.P. Puette

Kevin & Janine Rinke

SCI Foundation - Hunter Legacy Fund (HLF-100)

Roger Segebrecht

Kasie and Jason Sheridan

Tim & Roxane Shinabarger

Steve & Sue Skold

Curt & Marcia Thompson

Gray & Renée Thornton

Jim Travis

Tim & Ruth Van Der Weide

The Estate of Robert B. Johnson

Zachary Walton

Wayne W. Webber

The William H. Donner Foundation, Inc

New Beginnings Campaign was the FNAWS Capital Endowment Campaign conducted 1998-2003.

Life Member Copper Coin Antique Finish REVERSE DESIGNS

Member Brass Coin Antique Finish

Anonymous Anonymous

Gregg Alan Eriksmoen

Gregg Alan Eriksmoen, 76, of Fargo, ND passed away December 1, 2021, at Bethany on University from cancer. Gregg was born September 5, 1945, in Crosby, ND to Agnes (Olson) and Anker (Eric) Eriksmoen. He graduated from Fargo Central High School in 1963 and attended college at the University of Idaho and NDSU. He graduated with a business degree from NDSU, one step in front of his older brother. Gregg loved to hunt, fish, and ski. He spent two summers working and fishing in Alaska during college. He worked for the Cork n Cleaver and was selected as the manager to open the new Cork in Minneapolis but grew tired of the 18 hour days. One of the regulars was a taxidermist who suggested that Gregg come and work for him, which he did for five years. During an outing near the Apple River, he found a black lab that was covered with ticks and near death. After removing the ticks, the dog recovered and Gregg named him Apple, the first of five black labs.

In 1977 he opened a shop in Fargo. After spending years in the traffic in Minneapolis, he wanted to know when the rush hour was in Fargo, so he could avoid the traffic. Gregg was successful as a taxidermist, allowing him many opportunities to hunt and fish. He once went on an unsuccessful sheep hunt in Alaska. When asked

He spent seven summers at Great Bear Lodge on Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada. He would measure and clean trophy lake trout for clients of the lodge, allowing them to take the filets home. During the winter he would mount the fish and send them to the clients. He became friends with a taxidermist in Bismarck and they traded expertise with different types of mounts. Gregg later closed his shop in Fargo and commuted to Bismarck to work in his friend’s shop. He had the opportunity to work on all types of big game and was truly an artist. An example of his work is the buffalo at Bonanzaville in West Fargo.

He loved to play softball. If any of his teammates want to know their lifetime stats, Gregg kept a record. His attention to detail was one of his assets.

He found he had prostate cancer in about 2005 and had the cancer successfully removed. After

recovering, he figured he should take a break and moved to Big Sky, Montana to ski for the winter, working at the “ski lock-up” in front of the main lodge.

When he retired, he enjoyed summers at the family cottage on Pelican Lake. He also took up working on the restoration of British sports cars with his younger brother and friends, having breakfast nearly every Saturday morning with the “British Iron Society” at the Fry’n Pan.

He was preceded in death by his parents and five black labs (Apple, Jack, Jackie, Hannah and Tunta). No spouse or children in this story. He is survived by his older brother Kurt, California; younger brother Neal (Karen), Fargo; and younger sister Thora (Sapa), Mound, MN; three nieces, one nephew, four grandnieces, and three grandnephews. He was known to them as Uncle Doodah because when his nieces were young, he would sing “Camptown ladies sing this song” and they would respond “Doodah, Doodah.” WS

wrangler working for Alex Davis in the Aishihik area of Yukon.

By age 18 he was guiding and was still guiding 40 years later in 1998.

Skookum Smith

Skookum was born “on the land” Feb 2, 1940, in the Mount Nansen area of the Yukon.

He grew up in a very traditional life, living on the land hunting, fishing, and trapping. Skookum started his working career at the age of 12. His first job was a horse

Being recognized as a guide at such a young age spoke to Skookums capability, knowledge of horses, the land, and understanding of the animals that a guide is tasked with tracking for his clients. Skookum continued his guiding career working for every outfitter that operated in the Aishihik area. This included, Len Burrard, Vic Hotte, Rod Hardie, and Tim Mervyn. He shared his knowledge and trained many young wranglers and guides over the years. In his career, Skookum guided or wrangled for many notable rams including Eleanor O’Connor’s exceptional ram which officially scored 177-4/8 B&C.

He passed away peacefully August 26, 2022. WS

“Kakana”

“What did you get?” He said, “I got back.”

Thank you Guinn Outfitters. Hunting with long time friends Rick and Jonas Guinn is my favorite thing to do. Jonas is definitely a chip off the ol’ block when it comes to guiding Sheep hunters. A great time from start to finish in beautiful Alberta and a great ram. Great memories.

Thank you DESERT HUNT OUTFITTERS. Luis Romero and crew are the real deal when it comes to hunting Desert sheep on the Isla Tiburon. This was another great hunt guided by Jonas. Rick came along to help the ol’ guy. This hunt was a real adventure as well as a great Desert sheep hunt. I needed both Jonas and Rick on this my toughest sheep hunt. But what a great ram. Jonas found my perfect ram. A never forget hunt.

-Larry Plog

Hunting in Spain

Our outfitter is specialized in every mountain hunt in Spain; Spanish Ibex Slam (Gredos, Beceite, Ronda & South Eastern Ibex), Mouflon Sheep, Pyrenean & Cantabrian Chamois, Barbary Sheep and more. They will prepare a tailor made hunt and program according to your preferences and your non-hunting companions. Parallel sightseeing programs are available during the hunt for the companions to enjoy Spain and its culture, history and fine cuisine.

We believe in providing exceptional service and unequalled opportunity on all our hunts... featuring not only a premier area for sheep, but exceptional opportunity for large Canadian moose, mountain caribou and mountain goat.

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Celebrating 33 years in operation

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ON THE ADVENTURE TRAIL

by Ken Nowicki

SI SENOR

“You did!” “I did.” “You sure did!” “You done good.” “Well wonders never cease.”

“Get over here ya little squirt,” roared Lead-On Highfee. “Come set between us.” He grabbed my arm and set me on one of Ruby’s spinning counter stools. “We are all ears, Boy. Tell us the sheep story.”

I was beaming like a Cheshire cat for sure. This was something I have waited years for. I got a ram and I was fixing to brag. I settled in between my old friends and took a big breath.

“How’d you guys know I got a ram,” I had to ask? “I haven’t told anyone yet.”

“Never mind, Boy,” “We know things.” “We have some pilot friends.”

“Oh, Ok,” I was thinking. “The pilot told me he wouldn’t tell a soul so I could go back to the same lake next year.”

“Where’s yer pictures, Boy? Show us first.” I opened my cell phone. “I got lots.”

“No, show me some pictures. I don’t want to be squinting at some little blower. Where’s the real pictures?” Packtrain spun my stool and I flew off onto the floor and then I slunk out the door looking for a Staples store.

I brought back a fistful of prints and started again. “See, that’s the sheep, and that’s me packing it out, and there’s the camp we had.”

“Where’d you get him?” Packtrain asked. “I bet you got him right where we told you to go.”

“Sure he did,” allowed Lead-On. “All the Boy knows is what we told him. What’s this ram score?” He dug his dirty thumb onto the picture and I made a grab for it and missed. He handed it to Packtrain who was just wiping the used chew from his knuckles.

“Not bad Boy.” “Looks about 160 something.” “How old can you make him?” “Looks 9 or 10.”

“Guys,” I said. “I’ll tell you the whole story. Let me get you some of Ruby’s pie.” So I did and they sat and gummed on the cherry pie and swilled the Joe and made faces.

So here’s most of the story: Me and Blake, my son, hooked up with a well known outfitter to get a flight into Stone’s sheep country last summer. It was my first year as an official senior citizen, and I was interested to know what that would do for my mindset.

We flew out of Watson Lake after hanging around town a few days which gave us time to look at every sign twice and sample every café three times. It is no fun sitting in an airport, and the float plane dock in Watson Lake is built right on top of a mosquito factory. I have to say I am still very impatient in my old age.

The pilot took us on a milk run. He dropped off four other hunters at Shallow Lake and Loon Lake, and then splashed us down at Topend Lake. It was pretty much off the map and I could see the meter turning and I kept wondering how much this would cost. I guess I still worry about money.

It was noon so Blake and I decided we had time to climb for a few hours, especially since Topend was another mosquito factory. I guess I am forgetful now, because I did not remember July 30 is bad in the north for bugs.

We went over a pass onto a plateau. I found a sharp rock that I am sure was a native tool and I picked it up for luck. We got to a flat spot and I said enough. The first camp gave me a good view of mountains in three directions. It was a knoll in a swamp with beaver houses and no wood except stunted willow and a few fir. Then the mosquitos came. It was sporty there for a bit, kind of like the scene in WE WERE SOLDIERS but I kept a slather on with my little bottle of Muskol. Muskol today is about 2 or 3 % DEET, which is short for Deetheyldiamiteskeeterkiller or something. Back when, you could buy 97 %, it would lift the paint off the axe handles. I loved the stuff and a couple drops were all you needed

And if they found a fountain of youth I wouldn’t drink a drop and that’s the truth

Funny how it feels I’m just getting to my best years yet The older I get

— Alan Jackson

to kill every bug in sight. I guess I am nostalgic in my old age.

Blake had me buy some modern equipment like shrinkwrap and compression sacks and little black boxes that looked like spring-loaded traps. My pack was heavy, and everything was stuffed into those bright colored tote-hauls. Sproing, you open a tent. Puff, you pull out a sleeping bag. Pop and Fzzzz, a freeze dried drink and three course meal. Wow, I guess I am open to learning something new.

Laying in bed I slept while the rain splat on (Day three it really concentrated on my little valley), I thought of nothing but those delicious freezer packs. Blake went up into the high peaks to hunt and left me down in the swamp. I slumbered for hours listening to the water gurgling in the creek and dripping off the tent fly. I invented a game, staring at the ceiling, and then closing my eyes and squinting. With various degrees of pressure on my lids I could see phantasamagorical lights and patterns. You should try it. You can see reverse images and little things sailing across the field of view like shooting stars and images of snow like you see driving into a heavy snowfall at night. Like, it sure is entertaining. I still have a vivid imagination.

Sometimes I would look out the fly, but my new REI tent has a serious design flaw. You get wet when you open it because all the walls slope out from the top. Back in the day (I know – boring) but we had the Timberline Eureka which was an A-frame and it allowed you to lay in bed and look out the bug screen without the fly obscuring the view. It was so pleasant in rain country (also grizzly country). In that REI I was constantly checking out the door to see what was making a sound – was it a bird?, was that a

grunt?, a bear?, or what? See, there were bear splats and clumps of ground digested berries and hairs festooned along the trail through my swamp. That bear was on my mind, as they are when you are alone and cooking in your tent. My tent was on the only flat spot in the swamp and it occurred to me that it might be where the bear was sleeping before I got there. As a senior I have accumulated lots of wisdom.

Sometime in the night on day three, I felt the water rising. It was just before “dawn” if you can call it that up there in early August when the days are short. I looked down at my feet and saw the water was now puddled in the tent and my pill supply was soaked. I take an upper, and a downer, and a stabilizer, and a blood pressure pill, and a waterworks dilation pill, and a low grade, well, forget telling you that, but my absolute most important is my sleeping pills. You need a supply of them in the mountains. They help you sleep when you pitch your tent in a bear lounge, and they help pass the time, and they help the body rest and the stop the infernal dreaming I am plagued with. I have also been known to give them to my companions when they bitch and moan about my constant snoring. So these are essential, and blue in color, but those BP pills are a must as well – if I don’t take three of them a day the doctor says I might die. I guess I am at the age where drugs are a necessity.

The zip lock was a wet mess, and my pills dissolved into a colored lump like silly putty, and I had to think about how to sort the mess. I laid around all day after I shored up the tent and dragged it up on some

rocks and puzzled about the problems I had. Too damned much weight in my pack, and now my pills were pooched. I lay there considering options. I have a lot of experience figuring out solutions.

I got thinking I should have packed a bit lighter. If I had done that, I could have crossed the swamp with my son and followed him up the mountain. So I closed my eyes and seen the images again, and then I woke up and took that native tool and started sawing the labels off my underwear. (I don’t sleep in the tent with many closthes on – its too hot in my polar fleece Arctic sleeping bag) Then I spotted a freaking label on the tent for gosh sakes. The stupid lightweight goassamer quality material weighs no more than a plastic tarp, and there are three or four grams of “washing instructions.” Danged if I would pack them. I sawed the labels off, but I did make a tear and incision I didn’t need. (Never cut with a dull Paleo-Indian Knife). Later on, the mosquitos found that hole.

I went wild. Maybe I took a few too much of the uppers. I cut and hacked a label off the sleeping bag, the Thermarest, the stove (it was a metal tag) and my pants and boots and so much more. I cut the edges off the freezed dry packs and soon I had enough to build a little fire and dry my pills a bit. The next day I was shaking some (I take a pill for essential tremor) so I figured I better use my knife tip to chip off a little of the puttied pills and swallow it, (I had water purifyier tablets in the mess too) so what the heck, here goes. I cut me a chew.

I felt better almost instantly and attribute that to the Tylenol 3’s in the mix, which really help the aching muscles, but I also felt sleepy (sleeping pills again – Halcion by name). I barely zipped the tent and zonked for a few hours. I woke up and found a big crusty lump of dried blood on my lip, and I guess I cut my tongue when I took those pills. After that I used my Havalon blades and not that native tool to cut the cheese block of pills.

There began an interesting cycle where I would get up and slap mosquitos in the tent, then go out and eliminate naturally, and dive back in for a few minutes of my little game closing and opening my eyes, and then sleeping. I always like a routine to get to sleep.

One day it stopped raining and I got up. It was sunny. Blake came down from the mountain. Apparently Blake got worried when the In-Reach messages were not getting any reply. It were a joyous reunion. I found he had walked miles up top and it actually hadn’t been raining up there like down in the valley where I was camped.

He’d seen a small group of rams up high and a grizzly right down beside my camp. The rams got me excited and we loaded my lightened pack and took off across the swamp and up the ridge and then I noticed I was wearing my Crocs and not my boots, so I had to go back and get them where I left them drying in a little birch tree around 50 yards from the tent-site. It’s a little trick I use in grizzly country, where I hang out my boots down the trail so the bear smells me before stumbling on the tent in the night. I expect it worked from what Blake said about the bear he saw mooching around the area. I guess with age I have become a bit forgetful.

We went up and spent a couple days hunting and I shot the ram and Blake packed it and I helped. We

took two trips to Topend Lake and then texted the pilot and the rest is history. I’m purposely leaving out a lot of details on the hunting and harvest and packing of that ram. I don’t need to bore you with those details. I guess I know what is relevant at my age and stage.

“Come on Boy, where’d you get it?” “Tell us Boy.” “We won’t tell.” “We already know.” Then Lead-on and Packtrain started poking me and tickling me and they got me giggling like a little kid, as we spun in circles on those stools. But I wouldn’t tell them where I got the ram.

I guess there’s no fool, like an old fool. I paid for the coffee and pie and pleased as punch, left Ruby a big tip. WS

Editors Note

Nowicki reports that the redoubtable authority on Dall’s Sheep and former Director of WSF – Wayne E. Heimer has released a book called Dall’s Sheep Management in Alaska from Pleistocene to Present. It is a fascinating history of sheep management in Alaska. It explains the studies and the process used to institute the full curl hunting regulations. It is also full of the wry humor at which Heimer excels. Get one at your nearest book repository or from WSF headquarters.

I choose Hilleberg tents. I choose Hilleberg tents.

Young, passionate, accomplished archeryonly sheep hunter. Youngest hunter to earn the archery FNAWS. Gets after it no matter the weather or the terrain. Can’t wait for the next hunt. Uses Hilleberg tents, including the Rogen.

i love my rogen for long, multi day trips. I do a lot of my mountain hunting with a partner, so the Rogen’s two door/two vestibule design is ideal, as is its amazingly light weight and impressive strength. Since it’s a 3-season tent, I wouldn’t take it if I were going up super high or when there’s likely to be snow, but for early season sheep hunts, it’s outstanding!

Adam Foss

The VX-5HD 3-15 x 44 is built to outlast and outperform. While others warranty failure, we guarantee unmatched optical clarity and rugged reliability for life. Because at Leupold, failure is not an option.

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