Tips For Bighorn Sheep Hunters And "Wanna Be's"

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This year 407 lucky hunters, 374 residents and 33 nonresidents, drew a Montana bighorn sheep license.   In total, 20,040 hunters applied for the license. Bighorn hunting season generally opens Sept. 15, in all but a few districts in the state.   The season generally ends Nov. 27, with some exceptions.

Here are some commonly heard recommendations from bighorn sheep hunters to those planning their first hunt, or dreaming of a future hunt. 

·   Do your homework. Practice your identification skills. Look at a lot of pictures, study trophy mounts and practice seeing bighorn sheep in the wild so you can judge whether the animal you’re looking at will be the mount you want on your wall.   

·   Learn to visually assess the curl of the horn from the base, does it maintain its mass, does it get spindly at the tip? Visit taxidermists to see different rams. Don’t forget to take your digital camera to take pictures of the rams you see so you can compare them later. The Internet is also a useful research tool.

·   Choose your weapon well in advance and know it inside and out.   How far can you shoot reliably? How does your rifle work in the wind? A large caliber gun may be important to have with sheep, some believe.   Others say a smaller caliber, for example, .270, will do the job provided you make a good first shot. The goal is to hit that animal and keep it there. A bighorn ram hit in the lung might still go a couple hundred yards. That might be acceptable on a grassy ridge, but on the Rocky Mountain Front that animal may go right over a cliff.

·   Invest in good optics.   The pros suggest a good spotting scope with the best optics you can afford, a great scope on your rifle, and reliable binoculars.

·   Take your time. On the flip side don’t wait to the last minute. Don’t shoot the first animal you see, but be sure you have a mature ram before the territory is snowed in and inaccessible.

·   Be patient. Remember, if the sheep aren’t there one day, they are very likely to be there the next.

·   Be in good physical shape.

·   Access is something hunters need to think about well in advance. Get out and talk to the landowners about access; plan how you’ll be able to get the harvested sheep out of the area; get a good landownership map and know where you are when you pull the trigger.

You can’t over plan for a sheep hunting expedition, whether you have finally drawn a permit for the bighorn sheep hunt of your dreams, or you’re preparing for a hoped for future hunt.