A 185″ Dall Sheep with Dan Montgomery and Hank Flatow. In this episode we talk with Dan Montgomery and Hank Flatow of Alaska Trophy Adventures who just guided hunter, Louis Breland to a true giant of a Dall Sheep. This ram is 11 1/2 years old and has a green gross score of 185 2/8″ and a Net score of 184 4/8″ The ram had incredible bases that measured at 15 2/8″ It is truly remarkable in a Dall Sheep to have that kind of mass. We enjoy hearing the story of the hunt and how it all played out.
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00:00:01:09 –> 00:01:24:05
15 and a half, 15 a quarter bases on a doll Sheep that he is the biggest body sheep that, that I had ever seen. I’ve literally seen the two gas mountains take grown tough men and chew ’em up and spit ’em out. Anything to do with Western big games. Welcome to the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour. Hey everybody. Adam Bronson here at the Epic Outdoors Podcast, brought to you today by Under Armour. Appreciate them sponsoring everything we do here and being our podcast sponsor, title sponsor for that today. We’ve got a, a cool couple of guests. I want to give a call. We have, have news of, of a giant doll sheep that’s, that’s, that’s hit the ground up in Alaska and with Alaska Trophy adventures. Dan Montgomery, Hank Flatto, and want to give them a call and talk about it. This is not just your normal doll sheep. You’ll find out some of the details here in a minute. So let’s give ’em a call and let’s discuss the specs on this giant doll sheep that weren’t for the ages that just hit the dirt. Yep. Is this Dan? Yes, is. Hey, it’s Adam. How are you doing? Yes, it is. That’s what it, it’s, Hey, you got, how do you do it? You got you and Hank there or you got Hank building something? We’re on the telephone. Yep. Well, appreciate you taking a few minutes today.
00:01:24:05 –> 00:02:34:28
Hopefully you’re, it’s midday and it’s sheep season in Alaska, so you must be in between hunts. I caught you for a minute. Oh, we are, we are getting our, our fourth hunter in at six 30 tonight and walking in the field up Eagle River tomorrow morning. Got another draw Hunter to go, huh? Well, great. Yep, yep. Well, let me maybe before we dive into some new juicy news that you guys have for us about a big ram, why don’t I just for maybe some of our listeners that don’t maybe know who you guys are, a lot of people do, you’re very well known in the sheep hunting world, but maybe for some of our listeners that, that don’t know Dan Montgomery and Hank Flatto, let’s just have you guys take a couple of minutes each and maybe we’ll start with you Dan, how, give us a little bit about your background, how long you’ve been outfitting and guiding there in that Chuga country. You’re all of Alaska, I know you do bears in the peninsula in different places. So tell us a little bit about yourself. I started assistant guiding back in 85 over in the wrangles and in a little bit in the Chuga. And then in 93 I got my registered guide license and started my own business, Alaska Trophy Adventures.
00:02:35:16 –> 00:03:45:05
And I, a friend of mine showed me the Juga range back in 1990 and I fell in love with its rugged terrain and real inaccessible areas and stuff. And I loved the rocks. I like like to hunt up in that really steep stuff and, and I feel like I’m one of the few guys that are real comfortable in that country and, and those big rams were up in some of that country and I just fell in love with it. And so that was the first area I signed up for when, when I got my license in nine three. And I’ve been guiding in the, in the chu ga ever since. When you say fell in love, because I, I’ve never hunted in the chuchu ga in the, I don’t know how long it’s been a draw now, has it been, I dunno, 10 or 15 years roughly. Maybe not quite that long, but it’s been, 2008 was the first draw year. Okay. So 12 or 12 or 13 years up above. And then 14 C has been draw for the last 35 years. Yeah. So I’ve driven around it. But if for you to fall in love with those mountains, for anybody that hasn’t seen the Chuga Mountains, the word angry kind of describes the, that mountain range. There is nothing rolly ply about. It looks like they were just jutted up out of the earth.
00:03:45:15 –> 00:04:55:25
I mean, they are jagged and, and angry mountains, you know, much like the rainbows. And like I said, I’ve always been really comfortable. I was always outside as a kid and stuff, but I’ve always been really comfortable crawling around the rocks. I’ve never taken any mountaineering courses or something, but I’ve taken several mountaineers sheep hunting and we took ’em in the country. They said normally they wouldn’t ever go in without roping up, you know, and stuff. But I’ve always been good at being able to see it and feel my way through it and, and I feel like if a sheep is in that country I can get there, you know? Yeah, yeah. And that’s really, I just fell in love with it because it was so rugged and so remote. A lot of it that I knew I would pretty much have it to myself. And that’s what it’s kind of panned out over the years and it certainly got a reputation that Atch has of being very rugged. We took Kevin Small on a ram in 2016. We got a nice 43 and a half inch ram that made the book and, and he sent it all over the world, including some of that very, very intimidating tour country and stuff. And he said he had never been in a country that rugged ever anywhere in the world. So yeah, it’s, I was, you know, yeah.
00:04:55:26 –> 00:06:01:18
And there’s a lot of that, you know, the wranglers wrangle, I guess maybe by Alaska standards are probably the most similar looking, I, I don’t know. I’ve not been in all the ranges up there, but they’re, they’re, they’re not far from each other, but they, I dunno, they must’ve been the same age or geology or whatever. They look somewhat similar. Yeah. The southern wrangles especially is, you know, over there is especially rugged and stuff in places. And same thing, those rams, those big old rams tend to have their sanctuaries up in there and, and as soon as they, they start hearing some airplane traffic or something, you know, this approaching scene and they just crawl back up in those places and they’re extremely hard to get to at times. And, and we kind of specialize in that over the years. Well, what’s what’s amazing to me is, you know, you see a lot of sheet pitchers all over, I don’t know, NWT Yukon, other parts of Alaska, of nice growing grassy mountains and feet everywhere. And, and when I’ve been to Alaska at a couple different times in certain places, I, I wonder these things must eat rocks. ’cause I literally don’t see any green in some of this or anything.
00:06:01:20 –> 00:07:05:19
And, and there must be just enough and, and I guess one ram can get by on just enough somewhere, but that’s always stood out to me in some of the very backs of some of those drainages. There’s just ice and rock and, and there’s sheep and I don’t know what they’re eating, but they’re there. Yeah. You, if you crawl right up into that country that you got is basically a coastal range. And, and, and even down here in the lower part of it by Anchorage and stuff, you got green all the way up. There’s little pockets of grass and stuff all the way up, clear up into the rocks and stuff. And some of the, the interior stuff up towards Glen Allen and stuff is a little less than that, but all of ’em are, there’s a lot of rain and there’s just a little bit of grass and greens all the way up through it. You go over to the Alaska range, you know, you get up in the Brooks Range, everything, and there’s a certain elevation in those mountains that they’re just sterile. You get up, you know, at say 5,000 feet and above that it’s just kind of sterile. There is nothing growing up there, but we’re mild enough down here that even up high, there’s always a little bit of greens.
00:07:05:19 –> 00:08:10:01
And there was one time we, we had spooked some rams and they went way up and they were at about 7,300 feet and we got up there in the fog and stuff and we watched one come out right in front of us and they were eating the big leafy black lichen right off the rocks. Wow. That was the only thing up there. And they were just scarfing that down like it was candy, you know? Ah, and so that was a little clue to me with what they were doing up there and what they were eating on, but it was all over the rocks up there and that’s what they were eating up there. Well, I know you do peninsula bears in the spring and later fall as well, Dan, but I’ve, I’ve pretty much known you since I’ve known you a couple decades or whatever as a sheep and goat guy in the chew ga. And it sounds like that’s pretty much where your maybe first love as far as Alaska is. That’d be safe to say. That would be very safe to say. Yeah, I’ve, I’ve hired sheep for the first 11 years. I was in Alaska before I started my own business and stuff, and, and I just, I just fell in love with it. It’s, I, I always equated it, you know, you can get around good in the mountains, it’s kinda like hunting an antelope in the mountains.
00:08:10:23 –> 00:09:19:00
They aren’t difficult to see. They’re white. You don’t have to glass for hours to try to pick ’em out of the landscape. They’re either there or they aren’t. And, and I’ve always had the ability to run all over those mountains and, and get wherever I needed to go. And I remember the first time I landed in sheep country, we set up our camp, we flew in with a friend from Juneau and we set up camp and I left camp at noon and, and I got back at midnight, which is just as it was getting dark back, you know, in, in early August. And I’d seen 68 rams and one full curl and several seven eights, which were legal back then in 83. And, and you know, I went out the next day and saw 28 and there was seven of them were full curl. And, and it was just easy, you know, to get around that country and, and, and yep. It was just a thrill. Just I couldn’t believe I was up there. I didn’t wanna shoot anything. I, I had all these rams all over, I wanted to look at every one of ’em before I actually went hunting. Yeah. Wow. Pretty special. Is it not, I’m, it’s safe to say it’s not quite like that today, numbers wise, you know, it, it’s, it, there certainly were, there’s a lot of ranges, chew gases.
00:09:19:06 –> 00:10:31:01
We got really hurt in the last 15 years as far as amount of rams we have available to us and stuff now. It’s very, very scattered and, and you know, it’s nothing like it was, you know, in the mid nineties and stuff, it was a lot of more sheep and, and you could just go hunting through the mountains and expect to see, you know, you know, probably 20 or 30 rams in a day, you know, and now we’re, yeah, we’re quite a, you know, we’re, we’re probably two thirds of what we had, you know, less sheep than what we had back then, so. Gotcha. It certainly isn’t that way anymore, but with the dropper permits and everything, it’s really reduced the pressure on ’em. We’re actually killing older rams and bigger rams than we did back when it was open, you know, before 2008. Yeah. So, and it’s mainly just, it’s been a good thing overall that way, but, but it’s certainly, there’s a lot of concern on my, on everybody’s behalf that’s certainly on my behalf of where we’re going with this population in the future because of the, there’s just so many, so few of ’em now that I just don’t know if there’s enough recruitment into the population to, to sustain it and Wow. Well that’s, that’s scary stuff. Well, Hank, are you on still there? I want to get to know you or listeners a little bit. How are you doing today?
00:10:31:22 –> 00:11:36:05
I’m doing great today. Thanks Adam. Yeah, well good. Tell me a little bit about, I mean, how you and Dan got hooked up and you’re a lower 48 guy, Montana based, I think, and when did you start going up there and how did all that begin? I started 18 years ago working for Dan. I, I bugged Dan for a job and he gave me a job pack in moose sheds one summer. And that’s, I did pretty good at that. That sounds like it. And, and he kept me busy, busy doing that. I did good enough job where he, he gave me job packing on a sheep hunt during sheep season. I fell in love with it and I just kept going from there and, and you know, eventually got my guides or assistant guides license and, and I was pretty young. I think I got my first hunt for dam when I was 23 years old and absolutely fell in love with it. And I drop everything every August that I have going on to make sure I’m sheep hunting now. Yeah, you’re based in Montana, right? And you go up there for Oh yeah. Better part of two months in, in the fall, right? Yep, that’s correct. Yep.
00:11:36:18 –> 00:12:42:29
So Dan, what I gotta ask, so is your, is your idea of, of trying to see if some young kid’s gonna pass the test or not putting through packing moose sheds for a summer and see if he makes it? Is that, is that your first step? Well, certainly it was back in the day. We, I haven’t done a lot of, of, you know, the moose shed’s kind of, it’s, it’s actually very, very popular right now, but it’s actually a little too popular. The yeah, the, that’s a little harder to find ’em, like we used to, we used to go out and, and be able to fly around the airplane and spot sheds and, you know, we’d spend two or three weeks out, up by Fairbanks there in the, in the late May and early June, and we could pick up about four or 5,000 pounds of them. Geez, I see. This was a, yeah, this is a gig. I see. We’re used to hunting mule deer sheds. Hard to and elk down here don’t make any money. Yeah, yeah. Well, I, I just had to joke. Yeah, you get a young guy and here’s a pack frame and, and here’s a, here’s a map of general locations where I think there are, and we’ll see here at dark and see how many you can get back here type thing. So nope, we didn’t do that.
00:12:43:10 –> 00:13:45:22
What we did was gave him an aircraft radio and I would get up in the air and I’d have three of those guys on the ground walk into different areas and then I would, I would give ’em a direction to start heading and, and get ’em over there to where the moose antlers were and stuff. And then I would fly one guy, get him lined out on his next antler and then fly right over, you know, it’s just within a half mile. Wow. Just mile, quarter mile, just keep circle line the next one up and Oh yeah. Yep. That’s what I want. They got a load or, or we would pick ’em all up and pile ’em up and then start packing ’em back to a strip where I could get into. Gotcha. Yep. Well that’s an interesting way to get your start, Hank. So you’ve said, when was your first sheet hunt? Was that, was that first hunt? 20 when you were 23, you said that was when you did your first sheet hunt? I was started most first year. I started when I was 21. I guided my first hunt, which actually was a brownberg hunt when I was 23. And then when I was 24 is when I, when I really started guiding my first, guiding my first sheep hunt at the age of 24. So, gotcha. And the rest is history.
00:13:45:24 –> 00:14:39:22
I was hooked and, and just been absolutely thrilled and, and, and very fortunate to be able to do what I love to do ever since then and look forward to it every year. So how many years has that been that you’ve, you’ve been doing the sheep then? This is, this is, I’m trying to find out how old you are. I guess that’s another way of Okay. I’m, I’m 38 years old and I’ve been doing it for, I, I’ve been working for Dan for 18 years. Gotcha. So two years as a packer. And then I started guiding on my third year kind of pack, geez, on sheep hunts my third year. And then, and then the, during brown bar season on my third year, I, I I ended up guiding Brown Bear Hunt. Geez, Dan, he’s not even 40 years old. It’s making me feel young. You’ve got a, got a keeper there. He’s done 18 years and he is not even 40. So Yeah, you must, you must like it up there, but, well, let’s, let’s, let’s fast forward a little bit.
00:14:40:16 –> 00:15:40:09
I, I guess just to get into maybe the guts of why we’re maybe talking to each other today, you guys, you know, it’s what roughly what a week or 10 days into the sheep season here and we got word a few days after the opener that, that you guys had had smashed just a, just a tank of a ram and I wanted to get into that, but I, but I wanted to do it justice and talk about, I guess this was a ram that you guys had a little bit of history with. And I guess I want to tee this up too. This did happen to be with, with an auction hunter, but which one thing that I think is definitely worth pointing out in Alaska is auction hunter can hunt anywhere, but they don’t get a start earlier than everybody else. Is that right? They still can’t start till August 10th, correct? That’s correct. They, they, they have to be hunting in an open area and every one of those open areas have at least one more permit holder in them, you know, and stuff. Yeah, that’s right.
00:15:40:09 –> 00:16:51:25
There’s a couple dry areas, you know, and you could shoot ’em in a non dryer, but traditionally, you know, most of the auction hunters are taking place in 13 or 14 c you know, 13 to your 14 C in the draw areas and Yeah, the, the auction permit itself is for all that you guys draw areas. Yes. Gotcha. That, that particular one. And then there’s the one, the, the separate tag that’s auctioned off is for to, to delta the same thing and it’s, it’s for the draw areas for Coke. Gotcha. Yeah. Well, so yeah, so in, in this case, this ram and we’ll just talk about it. I mean this is a hundred, 185 for you listeners to wonder why are they calling about a dead, a dead a doll sheep? We’re talking about 185 inch doll sheep. I got him at one eight. Yeah, I got him at 180 4 and four H green score. Okay. Yeah, you’re talking net so you’re right. So gross 180 5 and 2, 180 4 and four. Yep. What, what, what a specimen. I’ve seen the pictures and it’s something to behold, but I guess we’re talking about these draw areas, but what’s unique about this is, this is not from a dry area, that this auction guy was the only guy that could hunt there or one draw hunter.
00:16:52:08 –> 00:17:53:03
This is from an area that, that has, you know, a couple, you know, a dozen, couple dozen tags a year or something like that, if I’m not mistaken. Is that right? That’s correct. It has 25 tags a year. Five of ’em are for non-residents, 20 residents. This Ram is 11 and a half years old. He’s been legal, you know, for the last three years, you know, and so, you know, it’s a little bit of a surprise to to, to how much he scored. Certainly we never put those that kind of mass on him, you know, where he, where he ended up racking up that kind of a score. But, but he was a very, very big loop on him, very big loopy ram and, and with a lot of mass and it makes his horn looks a little shorter and we just, we knew he was, we were looking at a good ram and it kind of depended on what kind of horn length he had, but we really had no idea he was gonna score up into the one eighties. So was it a couple years ago, I think I was talking to Hank, you guys had seen this ram, was it two years ago, 2018? Is that when you think you first saw this ramp? It was, yep. Yeah.
00:17:54:00 –> 00:18:54:19
And anything that stood out to you about them or was it just another, I mean, you guys do live and and guide in the area where arguably is the biggest doll sheep in North America are at the moment, but yep. Anything that you thought, well, this is one to watch, or is he just like, eh, just another really, really good ram that we’re gonna need to kill in a year or two? What, what was your thoughts then versus maybe if you saw him in 19 and then versus all right, let’s fast forward to 2020. The, the, the basis on him, what was, what our caught our, I mean his weight, overall weight, but certainly the bases on was like, holy cow, look at the bases on him. But he wasn’t even really anywhere close to full curl then, you know, and so he immediately thought a 9-year-old boy, he’s gonna be a dandy in a couple years, but, and he was nine and he wasn’t full curl and that’s, he wasn’t full curl. I don’t think he made full curl until this year. Yeah, that’s amazing. And, and there I know there’s, and that, and that’s, yeah. And, and with all that mass that makes him score so good and then being not full curl, that’s basically the only reason he was alive.
00:18:54:25 –> 00:20:07:18
If, if he had been some kind of a curly ram with 46 inch horns, oh yeah, he’d been dead three years ago, would’ve ago. There’s lots of people that probably saw him that didn’t realize, you know, what they were looking at, including us, you know. What did you think two years ago? I mean, and I don’t know if you had a, you must have had a draw hunter in there. This is an area you guys normally hunt every year. Did you, did he get the legitimate pass or did you have a, what you thought was a better ram that year that you took? Just curious. Yeah, we, we, yeah, we took, you know, we’ve taken a couple grams and, and two years ago we had a big ram on the other side of, of that area that, that, you know, we didn’t end up getting any but through circumstance, but end up being 45 and a quarter 1 75 and three quarters officially doing a Crockett. So that one was obviously it jumped out at you like, this is a absolutely fantastic ramp f you know, so that’s what we were hunting then. And then last year we just didn’t take any pictures of him or anything, but we were aware he was still there, but he wasn’t full curl. Did you want to, you know, put somebody in there and, and then not have him be aged legal, legal, you know? Yeah. That’s tough.
00:20:07:20 –> 00:21:16:00
So that’s a tough call and, and talk about that. Yeah. It’s, and Hank, Hank or Dan talk about, I mean most people, I mean the, the Alaska law is either eight years old or full curl to be legal or double broomed I guess, which he was not. Yep. But, but the chew gat probably more than any other range, and you guys correct me, are are, aren’t those rams, they have more of a tendency to be the low droopy curl and don’t hit full curl at a, at a age of eight, you know, more than maybe other ranges within Alaska. Is that safer to say? Yes. It, it’s, we’ve killed numerous rams that were 42, 42 and a half that were barely full curl, you know, and what, what about that? Like what about their, is it because they’re dropping so low Dan and then, and, and then starting to turn up, but they just need more time to get, you know, past the nose, so to speak, or past the full circle? Yeah, it’s, you know, like I said, it’s, that’s, you know, you’ll look, you’re always, you know, looking at something that, you know, for a long time I never even considered looking at Rams that weren’t full curl, you know, and stuff.
00:21:16:02 –> 00:22:28:23
And once we started, actually the Ram population dropped and stuff there in, in the mid two thousands that we started looking at some of ’em and, and they ended up being 10, 11, 12-year-old rams that were just shy of folk crow but still had good masks and stuff. So, you know, it was kind of, kind of when you, when you started doing that, then it just kinda opened your eyes to some of that. But you got it, this ram was so heavy that it just didn’t make as horns look that long. And I was just kind of shocked that he was actually, we had him at 42 and seven eighths by 42 and five eighths and, and with a 15 two inch bases and, and, and that kind of mass, there isn’t any ram that’s un broomed in the book that has that kind of mass all the way through. His horns for his last quarter is seven and eighth, you know, and so we just never put that kind of number on. We thought if he was, if he was 38, he would go 1 68. If he was 40 he’d go 1 72. But then you start jumping up to 41, he is 1 74, 40, 42, and then he is 1 76 and then, then you kick in another eight extra inches of mass. So you basically an inch bigger on every quarter than, than you expect even a heavy ram to be. Yeah.
00:22:28:23 –> 00:23:53:10
And then there’s eight inches right there. And then they jumped you up to 1 74. Yeah. Yeah. Just to run through those. Only 180 4, excuse me, run through those real quick. Yeah. 42 and 5, 42 and seven length. The base is 14, 2, 14 and five. First he’s 15, 15 5 and 15, sorry, 15, 15 2 15 5, sorry, first quarters, 14 and four and 14 and six. That’s unbelievable. And then half you’re at 12 and six and 12 and five. Yep. And I know there’s a, I would say 80% of doll sheep killed are about 12 and a half to 13 and a half inch spacious that basis. Yep. Correct. I would say 80% over, we’ll just call North America and this, this thing had that at half point and then both over seven inches on the, on the threequarter line. Yep. Unbelievable. Really. So, I mean, I’ve, I’ve never, I mean I, I look a lot of sheep score sheets and I’ve never seen one like that with, with the, with the thin horn. Really haven’t. And I know there’s, you know, stone sheep that are like, like that in some regard in BC that I’ve looked at at least square sheet wise. But 15 and a half, 15 and quarter bases on a doll sheet that packs it, you know, incredibly well is gonna get sneaky big. And like I said, that that low drop and, and I don’t know that that ram kind of comes out and then comes forward.
00:23:53:18 –> 00:24:55:13
I don’t, it looks, looks that way in the picture. I killed a ram that looks, seems like a dink compared to this ram a couple years ago in Alaska. But, and I remember my guide said, Hey, you know, when we get in on this thing before we just kill him, we gotta make sure he is legal. And I remember looking at him and I’m thinking, if that ram is not legal, we are, there’s nothing we are here for. Because in my mind, you know, I don’t ever have to, you know, hunting desert sheep that are always brooming. We never have to worry about krill or or age. You know, you have, you know, you, you want an old ram, you know, we know what we’re looking for, but we don’t have to look for those legal identifiers that you guys have. But anyway, long story short, he had a, I remember that about it ’cause my ram came out and he pushed forward towards his face as opposed to start coming up and that that extra length is kind of going out away from his head and not turning up. And this ram resembled out to some extent and maybe is why he wasn’t full curl till this year. But I don’t know, just a freak.
00:24:55:15 –> 00:26:03:01
Yeah, yeah, I mean that’s, yeah, I’ve seen the pictures of your ram and it’s exactly kind of what he does, but he’s, even with all that mass it’s even more pronounced, but it looks shorter horn because of ’cause of the mass. But we killed one back in 2004 that, that I knew wasn’t full curl when we were going in there. I’d seen him for the last five years and looked at him to his spot and scope several times and, and I knew he wasn’t full curl, but I just felt like he had to be old. Yeah. And we got in there and, and he’s nine years old and I couldn’t count nine, but I could count eight over and over and over and over, over again. And I looked at him and literally counted rings for two hours and I was just sure he was, but he was absolutely not ful curl. He ended up being 40 and two eights by, by 14 and four eights and his last quarter was six and an eighth and he only ended up scoring 1 73 and six eights. But I was terrified when we shot him, you know, because the guy said, aren’t you happy? And I said, yeah, I’m happy, but I’m gonna be a lot happier. I get over there and count age rings on him. Yeah. I don’t want the fishing, don’t want.
00:26:03:01 –> 00:26:52:24
So I got over there and you know, and he is nine years old. I’m like, whew, I don’t want this, I don’t want 173 inch rim hanging in the fish game office. You know? ’cause they confiscate it, you know, I want you to, I want you to be able to take it home. That’s what I’m here for. Yeah. And, and so that’s, that’s what you’re, you know, you just have that kind of pressure on you out there and, and you’re, you know, you’re, you’re pretty, you know, I’ve looked at hundreds of ’em, you know, and so I was pretty sure what I was looking at, you know, and, and certainly sure enough to, to take him because I just knew that I’d seen him so long they had to be older, you know, but, but they, they just don’t have that classic look. You talk about 40 or 42 inch ramps. Everybody thinks they’re gonna be curling a quarter and stuff and, and these rams in this two gas range just aren’t always like that. And this one particularly is, nobody would’ve dreamed he was that big, I don’t think. Yeah.
00:26:53:04 –> 00:27:46:24
You know, we, we looked at him, you know, for, for a couple days there through the spot and scope and we certainly realized he was heavy and stuff, but, and we figured he would probably make book, but we had no idea he was gonna be this kind of ram, you know, and then you get up to him and, and the mass on him, it, it looks more like a big horn, you know, it’s just like, holy cow. Yeah. I suspect there’ll be people when they see the pictures, they’ll be like, wow, that’s, that’s what a 180 4 or five ram. I wasn’t expecting that. You know? And, and, and it’s because of the shape and the build and that, you know, a lot of, a lot of the doll sheep that people maybe the eye-popping doll sheep are those thin twisters that, you know, 43 and they’re coming back on themselves. So then our, our galley flare in this ram has none of that look at all just a, just a freak. So yeah. What, tell, let’s talk a little bit about, I guess your honey hunter, the lucky hunter, you know, you’re there.
00:27:46:29 –> 00:28:46:27
I mean he, I mean, I don’t think he had the pressure to shoot a a hundred, a 184 inch ram, but you had a few days to look, look over some rams and, and this one obviously did it for you this year and you felt he was, he was in love and you one day hunt, I guess you killed it opening day. Tell us a little bit about, about the hunt itself. Well, you know, on, on, on on the actual hunt, you know, we rely on Dan’s incredible eyes and then, and he knows he’s watching these sheep grow up and, and, and, and you know, we, Dan definitely felt like this was the best ram that chew got you this year to go after. And, and so, you know, the, the governor’s tag hunter, he was just looking for the best ram we could put him on the great guy. And, and Dan felt like this was the best ram. And so yes, we watched him and then, and you know, we, we brought spy camp in and, and then I climbed the hill the night before the opener and I took, I took pictures of this ram through my spawn scope at 1,052 yards.
00:28:46:27 –> 00:29:53:15
And, and you know, and you, you still look at those pictures and you, you still, you still don’t think that he’s what he is, you know, you know, you go up there and, and we thought that yeah, he’s gonna be right in that low one 70 class and even leading into an opening morning and, you know, opening morning was pouring rain and, and, and, and windy and, and everything. And it was just kind of the break we needed to, to get up on that ram. And it was in some really tough terrain to get up over the top of him. He was in a, in a, a good basin to where you couldn’t come, you know, from the backside and get up over the top of him. And, and so I knew that, that going into it, that we, our best chance of probably killing that ramp, you know, again, you got 20, you got 25 tag holders in there of the five non-residents and the 20 residents. And so you’re gonna have some pressure in there and, and I knew we needed to probably try to get that ramp killed pretty quick and you just couldn’t approach it from up over the top. So we used that, that cold weather and the rain to our advantage and, and got up early and, and we, we looked for that ram. I couldn’t see him where he was the night before.
00:29:53:15 –> 00:30:46:15
And, and so I checked the next base and over, couldn’t find him there. I went out to another point, couldn’t see him across the hillside, so I went, God, he’s gotta be there, you know? So we went back and I, I just kind of got that gut feeling that he’s right up above us and, and somewhere here and it is not the position as, you know, the she hunter, you wanna put yourself in looking from below. But I snuck out and I, I kept looking around, snuck out another 10 feet, another or 10 feet and, and didn’t see him. And so I, I was just kind of getting ready to, to, to kind of head back towards the hunter. Had left the hunter about, oh, about 50, 60 yards behind me. Just, there’s one of us going out and, and all of a sudden Ram walked out right in front of me and I was like, oh boy, you know, there he is. And, and then the big one walked out and he is two 12 yards. And you could definitely tell it was the big one. Was there two, just two ramps? There was actually three of ’em together. Okay. And, and then all of a sudden there’s three of ’em out.
00:30:46:15 –> 00:31:48:22
So I’m, I’m sitting there pinned down in a rock in the marine field, 212 yards from, you know, biggest ram I’ve ever seen in my life, which I, again, I didn’t exactly know it either at that point, but, you know, and, and then the ram one ram fed in another ram fed in behind some rocks and, and the big ram was out and facing away. And, and I was like, I just don’t wanna screw this up. So I kind of waited another ram fed out. So, you know, when the, another ram fed back in, I just, you know, the big ram was facing dead away from me. And I just took off, grabbed my hunter seat, he’s right here, 212 yards above us. And, and we crept out and, and, and I saw this rock, it was angled the same pitch of the slope, basically, where he could put his gun on. And we got out to that point and I pointed it out to him and, and, and, and he was very educated on it and, and making sure that we had great communication on, on the right ram. ’cause there was another really big ram with them, a pretty big ram with them, you know, looking back on it now anyways, but, and made sure we’re on the right ram and, and Louis Shaw, I think about 200, 2 30 yards at that point.
00:31:48:25 –> 00:32:50:22
And, and, and the ram hunched up and I said, you got him hit good. And, and he walked in a little ram, walked in behind him and told him not to shoot. And then that little ram cleared and, and made sure on the right ram again. And he shot again and dumped him. And we were pretty excited, obviously. And then we walked walking up there, you know, I, you could see the Ram’s head looked like he was, his head was 18 inches off the ground. ’cause how big that loop was on him. And I, I told my my guy one horn ho one horn was on the ground and the other one was sticking up, you know, they weren’t Yeah, that’s what you’re saying. Wow. You know, and Yes. Yep, yep. And he was laying on the side there and I told my young assistant guy in Packer that, you know, Mike Gray, that I said, you ever seen that Mike? He goes, I’ve never seen that before. And he knows what he’s looking at, you know. And how far were you out at this point? We were about 60, 70 yards away from him at that point. Yeah. You know, and, and walk up there and, and really the first thing that really stood out to me, well, all besides his horns was his body size.
00:32:50:27 –> 00:34:09:25
I mean, you, you knew something that he was the biggest body chief that, that I had ever seen and just giant, giant body on him. And you, you start putting that together and you know, that that a, you know, a big animal is gonna hide, is gonna hide him, is big. Yeah. They’re gonna hide. He’s gonna hide his horns. Yeah. Yep. You know, and, and then I, I, I knew, I knew, I still didn’t know what exactly a hundred percent what we’d killed when I walked up to my news, the biggest round I’d ever been a part of. Wow. And, and I’ve seen some big rams on the ground and we were pretty ecstatic. And, and he, he was, it was just, I mean, there’s a video that I hope never services to the internet of me walking in circles going crazy just ’cause of really how excited I was. Who has, does the hunter or Mike have that? Who would we bribe to get that video? Who, who has that? Mike Gray backer has, has video deal. Okay. You know. Well, Dan, you make sure that that never get gets put away, vault can be bought. That’s right. Yeah. Keep that. That’ll be a jewel someday to watch, watch. But yeah, that’s Hank’s point is, you know, it, it can’t be stressed enough how big this ram was BodyWise, it just made everything look proportionate kind of when you knew that.
00:34:10:01 –> 00:35:19:13
But until you actually walked up to him, you really had no idea. You know? Yeah. I could tell that in the pictures, the face and the head, the, the depth of the head from like the forehead to the bottom of the jaw, you know what I’m talking about? Just the Yep. The, the blockiness of the head versus a, a slender, you know, some doll sheep frankly, and can look kind of dainty, slender faced and slender nose. And I know part of that is, you know, if you shoot sheep in, in July or early August in, in some of the Canadian provinces, they’re not haired up quite as quite as good. And that can be part of it. But you know what I’m saying, these, these two got rams are just not that way. They are stout, they’re oxes. They’re, they’re, they’re, they’re just built different. So, so yeah. Did you, I have this, I have this thing myself with, with my thumbs and two of my fingers that if I walk up on a ram and you know, it’s that initial, sometimes you can’t wait to get there ’cause you know Exactly, you know, you just killed a giant other times, you know, you killed a really good ram and you don’t know how good, but, you know, he is really good. And I’m talking desert sheep and some rocky Mountain Bighorn down here in Lord 48, never a thin horn.
00:35:19:25 –> 00:36:26:05
And, and I’ve got, you know, two of my fingers and my thumbs when I make a circle, it’s, it’s dead on 15 inches. And so if I walk up and I have an initial, and if they don’t touch, I know I’ve got, I know I’ve got something really good ’cause I’m in, we’re in Utah and you get a 15 inch plus desert sheep, that’s a, a really good ram. It’s a really good desert sheep. Anyway, and, and you know, Rocky’s generally if we kill one 15 and a half, 16 plus. But anyway, if I got, if I got space in there, I I know immediately you got anything like that Dan or Hank there in this case Hank, where you walked up, did you do an initial grab and was it just the whole, the whole thing in your hands, two horns? Or did you, did you something had to click that this is a freak in, in your hands. A abso absolutely. You know, just looking at ’em, you know, you knew. And then, and then exactly the first thing, just what you mentioned. First thing I did is I, and I, I took both my hands around his bases and I, and we, we have about the same size hands, I think Adam and, and my fingers didn’t touch and I went, holy crap. You know, I’ve seen a lot of big horns on the ground and done the same thing to big horns.
00:36:26:05 –> 00:37:25:09
And that it really started hitting me. And still, I, I still couldn’t fathom those numbers of what he really was. You know, it just, you’re just going. Yeah. But that’s exactly the first thing I did really. And that, and I, and I, I, I knew I didn’t, you know, I, I just absolutely knew at that point how big he was. And, and I, I I threw out a number out, out there on that video. And did you? Yeah, I did. Was I was still, what was the number? Do you or you liberty to say what was the number? I’ll tell you what that number was. Yeah. I, I looked at that ram and I felt those basics and I said, you guys, we just killed a 1 78 to 180 type of ram. I said, I this ram could go 180, you know, and you cheated him. He’s way bigger than that. Exactly. Exactly. You, you still, it it is. And it all sheep guides mine. Putting those type of numbers. I mean, still I’ve been around enough big horns, but just this is like more of a big horn sheep than Yes, obviously, than anything else. And you know, if I had walked a big horn, done the same thing, I’d, that’s what my guess would’ve been.
00:37:25:09 –> 00:38:15:05
This is probably you maybe a 180 5 ’cause you’re used to that, but you’re not used to saying that on a doll sheep, you just don’t even think of it in your mind. Well that’s why you guys, when you’re seeing this ram and, and he’s not clearly full curl for a couple years, so you’re not just like smashing and kill him ’cause you’re, well let’s see what he turns into you. You never go in your mind to 15 plus. Well, I’ll bet he’s got 15 plus bases. You never would say, I don’t know what you guys nor is 14 and a half probably a number. You guys govern yourselves at quite a bit. I mean, you’ve killed bigger. Yeah. But, but is that a number that you’re like, if he’s really heavy, let’s give him 14 and a half base. Is that, is that a, is that where you kind of put the ceiling on most rounds? Yeah. That’s good. That’s just what I was giving him. I was giving him, if he was 14 and a half, and then if he was 13 and a half on his next quarter, then if he was 11 and a half, that’s even big, but 11 for sure.
00:38:15:09 –> 00:39:16:28
And then if he was six and a half, you know, like I said, I was giving him at 38, he was gonna be 1 68, you know, and they just kept growing from there, you know, but giving him that extra inch on every quarter was not even in my mind. No. Well, what a, so after you, you took a bunch of pictures, you took some video that is sometime might make a, a lot of money on YouTube it sounds like, but after all of that was done, did you have to spend the night there? I don’t know what time of day it was, or did you get him back to a spike camp that night? And Dan, when did you get a, when did you get a get your hands on him? Well, Hank called me and he, he called me right after they got to the ramp and, and he said we killed him at 11:11 AM Oh, okay. So they had him before noon and then I flew in the next morning early and hiked in and met him on the way out. And I got to pack him for the last two miles off the mountain. Did you, you had to get him out and, and fondle him. You didn’t just, you know, pack the pack, you had to get him off the pack. You weren’t gonna say, well, I’ll see what my own body Yeah.
00:39:16:28 –> 00:40:21:21
You had to at least get him out it’s little latch and carried him off the mountain, you know? Yeah. Well what was your initial, what was your initial wow. ’cause now, and I don’t know how it is for me when I kill the big Graham down here, when you get ’em off the body, especially if they’re on a big bodied rocky that kind of gobbles ’em up and you just got a skull in your hands of, of just a skull. The jaw is off, usually lower jaw. They, I I love that. Impressive. Here’s this is your, this is what this guy carried around. And so that’s what you would’ve got the first time. What was your impression, Dan, when you grabbed that set of horns? Well, just when I, when I hank at him in his pack and he took him out and, and I’ve got my hands on him and, and that’s the first thing that jumped out as is just how massive this thing is. You know, you just, you just never felt a doll sheep like that in your hands. Even a heavy one didn’t feel like that. It’s just like so overblown. It was just really incredible, you know, and, and you know, just a different kind of a animal altogether. We’ve got a couple other rams that are, that are almost 40 inches that score 1 62 and 1 63 and a half.
00:40:22:09 –> 00:41:26:11
And you, you put those horns next to ’em right now and, and it looks like a different species. Yeah. That’s, he’s just so much born and the horns weigh 10 pounds more than those other sets. 10 pounds. What did, yeah, this did you weigh the, this guy with all the meat removed from his, with all the meat removed from his skull and the brain out of him, he still goes 27 and a half pounds. Wow. Oh shoot. Unbelievable. Well, I assume, are you gonna, well this is assuming I don’t, I well, I don’t think we’re gonna have a sheep show this year. I’ve been hearing that rumbling, so I’ve heard it’s canceled. Yeah. Yeah. So I was gonna say I’ll see him at the sheep show, but I, I guess we won’t, I don’t, but you gotta bring him the next year I something or we gotta get replicas or something because he is probably gonna want, hunter’s gonna want him mounted at some point. But yeah, I would love, I would love to, you usually have some replicas and I’m looking forward because I think this is gonna be one of those rams. Like I said, the pitchers on that giant bodied sheep are not gonna probably have as much wow factor as most people are expecting a ram of this magnitude to have. But I think when they pick up the horns, they’re gonna be in awe.
00:41:26:15 –> 00:42:49:16
And, and I, I wanna put into perspective, let’s talk just for a minute about what we’re talking about. We’re talking about a doll sheep that is I I guess top 10, top five or 10 ever. And, and you just don’t kill mid one eighties doll sheep anymore. I, i, numbers wise, not just in Alaska, but in most places, provinces are, are not what they were back when they were, you know, in the sixties, seventies and eighties when, when, you know, things were just riper. This is like, to liken it in the mule deer world, this is like killing a 300 inch hard antler mule deer or 3 75 or, or, or sorry, 4 75 or 4 85 elk. This is something of that magnitude, something that’s just, this doesn’t even happen. And I don’t know if you guys, I’m you, you, you are thin horned experts. Where in your mind, I mean, how long has it been since they’ve killed a ram? Let’s just even say 180 plus or, or of this size? Yeah, Sherwin, you know, I don’t, you know, looking at the, at the book and stuff, but, but this Ram Sherwin Scott killed one that was 180 4 and, and five eights back in, in 84, and that’s the last ram of this kind of size that 36 was taken. That’s been entered in the book. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That’s a unicorn. That’s what we’re talking about here.
00:42:49:16 –> 00:43:56:06
Stuff that, but you know, and, and, and looking at that ram, you know, you’re, you’re looking at the, at the, you know, at the, at the Sherwin Scott Ram, you know, and you’re looking at 44 and seven eight by 47, you know, and so he is just a, you know, it’s just a, you know, a different kinda look altogether. You look at the, the current Boone and Crockett record book and look at the, the top 10, they got pictures of ’em here on the, you know, on the book and stuff. And, and there’s nothing, there’s an old one that, that, you know, that was, that’s 180 2 that’s broomed off on both ends real hard and stuff that was picked up in the Kenai that, that in 69, that, that has a lot of mass like that. But he’s broomed, you know, so guy. So it’s gonna bunch up the, it’s gonna bunch up the mass measurements more than a long on, on broom Ram. You, you mentioned something a minute ago and to, you know, your other Rams this year, I think you said 1 62, 1 64. Is that about right? Something what you said 1 62 and a half and 1, 1 63 and a half, yeah. Green score. And those are, and they were, they were 39 and a half and 39 and three quarters. That’s what I mean. These, those are big sheep.
00:43:56:15 –> 00:45:10:05
I mean, those are sheep that big, 99% of people will shoot anytime they see him whenever opening day, whatever. And they most nine 99% of people probably should, if you don’t, you’ve probably killed a bunch of doll sheep and you’re looking for something that maybe doesn’t exist where you’re hunting or, or just hoping for something bigger. You know what I mean? That’s, I mean, yeah. And what I told those hunters were that if every one of our clients killed a ram like this, everybody would be happy. Yeah, that’s right. That, I mean, that’s the 99%, those are great rams, you know? Yep. And you said that this thing’s 10 pounds heavier, is that what you said? Yep. 10 pounds. Yep. That’s unbelievable. But well, it’s 20 inches of, of overall score I guess. And so you gotta get there and the mass is where that, that’s gonna come from. So. Well, I imagine your hunter’s beyond thrilled. I mean, I, I can’t imagine that, you know, there’s, these are one of those things that just happened to you both as a guide, both as an outfitter, as a hunter, obviously hard work preparation, being in the right area, you know, having a great tag. All those things have to come into play, but these things just happen.
00:45:10:06 –> 00:46:12:18
There’s, you know, there’s freak human beings, Shaquille O’Neills that are 350 pounds and seven foot two or whatever, and we’re, we’re what we are, you know what I mean? We’re, we’re all people, but some people aren’t really people. They’re freaks, you know, but some of our athletes and, you know, things like that. And this is one of those instances, so that’s pretty special. So you’re, you’re, I don’t know, I dunno what you’re gonna do the rest of the year or the rest of your lives, I guess, when it comes to trying to top that, because you probably won’t, but you know, that and, but the fact that it happened once means it could happen again. I guess that’s the, that’s the other way to look at it. Yeah. We, we certainly aren’t looking at topping that. I don’t think anybody, you know, that is rational would think that they could go out and top that, you know, it’s just not gonna happen. But, but the fact that he could get this old and be that big in a, in a fairly well hunted area, you know, that wasn’t exclusively by any means, you know, it’s a pretty amazing thing too.
00:46:12:24 –> 00:47:16:21
I mean, it just kind of shocks me and I, I just, you know, you just say you just have no idea, you know, you can imagine what the tag would’ve went for if you could say, well, we got one we’ll think of going in the mid eighties. You know, that’s, yeah. You know, I mean, you know, it’s just, you just don’t think that way. But, but we’re certainly pleasantly pleased that, that he is what he is and he’s a great old ram. I’m glad he got to be eight and a, I mean, 11 and a half years old, and that he, he’s got his genetics out in that herd. It doesn’t look like he did a lot of fighting. I can imagine that. No, yeah. You know, like you was talking, it’s kinda like a Shaquille O’Neal going up against that featherweight. Yeah. You imagine hitting horns with that guy. That guy probably was, well, you know, he didn’t have much competition that wanting to beat on him. Well, yeah, you look at these other Rams you just talked about, they’re big, they’re 40 inches and they’re, their horns are 10. Just the horns themselves. Horns and skull are 10 pounds or 10 pounds difference. Not, not to mention his body and everything else and all of the momentum. And so it’s pretty, pretty easy to see that he could probably rule the show.
00:47:16:21 –> 00:48:33:10
And one thing worth pointing out, you know, a book, a book doll or stone is 170 inch net, which in my opinion is one of those minimum scores anymore. That probably is too high, you know, of all species I think. Yep. The thin horn sheep are the ones that are too, I mean, a desert sheep is 1 68, a desert is lower. And, and I don’t really know where 1 68 came from, but, but I guess in Utah I kinda like it ’cause we don’t kill giant, giant sheep in Utah. But I have a chance to kill a book Graham every year with some of my hunters if it, if it breaks 1 68. But the one 70 is really, there’s, there’s a lot of years. You guys know this in North America, there’s, there’s the, there isn’t a book gram killed or entered I should say. And maybe there’s one killed and not scored somewhere. But you know, I’m saying that’s a rare, there’s not very many books sheep killed a year, you know, a Rocky Mountain book Gram is 180. So this thing’s, you know, easily a book. I mean we killed 182 inch rocky here in Utah last year and I, I, I made a video probably like Hank’s when we did that, but that was a Rocky Mountain Bighorn, he’s supposed to be 180 2, you know, so pretty rare stuff I guess just to put everything like that in perspective, so. Absolutely. Yep.
00:48:33:23 –> 00:49:44:19
Well, anything we left out about this? I know it’s, you guys gotta get to the mountain, you got a hunter, it sounds like, you know, you’re flying in and hit, you know, he’s flying in or whatever he is doing with, with Covid. Maybe talk about that just for 30 seconds. Is there any issues with there that your hunter’s coming in, what, what are they, what are they doing? I mean I know sheep season goat season’s coming up, what are you guys having to do? Just have a, a test within 72 hours, Dan? That they present when they get, get there? Yeah, that’s what they got in place now up till a la August 11th, all you had to do was, is have a, a test within 72 hours or be tested once you got here and then quarantine yourself until those results out. But they, they changed that on August 11th and now you have to have that test in hand and, and so far everything’s, you know, there’s, it’s just barely available out there. There’s some places that have a hard time getting that back to you or guaranteeing it, but so far we’ve had no problems getting people in and, and they’ve had their test and nobody’s had positive or anything. I did have a packer that has packed for me for three years that lives in Juneau and, and he, he came down with it about the 5th of August.
00:49:44:24 –> 00:50:57:11
So, so we, we were short of packer to start the season right off the bat, but I had another friend that, that does goats down in, in Kechika. We got him up and stuff that Gotcha. That so far we haven’t had any real issues and stuff. We got, we’ve got four goat hunters coming in here in late August to start the season on September 1st and couple sheet punches. Everybody’s pretty lined up right now. We haven’t got any problems and there hasn’t been any threat of closing it down altogether or anything. We certainly have more cases up here now, but Yeah. But so you, you guys both going in on this one or Hank or who’s, who’s going on on this one? You going back in Hank? Well, we’re not sure actually as of right now, I, I’m certainly hoping to on that, you know, you talk about the, the chug gas being brutal and I I’ve I’ve literally seen the chug gas mountains take grown tough men and chew ’em up and spit ’em out. You know, I have and, and so on this hunt, I’ve, I’ve been doing a while and, and, and I ha I’ve had a bad knee while my good knee, it, something happened on this last hunt and I’m not sure what’s going on, but it, it swelled up and doubled in size and, and I have now fluid drained out in my calf and my calf’s is really big.
00:50:57:11 –> 00:52:06:27
And so I’m actually going to the doctor today at three o’clock and geez, and I gotta, I gotta get the go ahead to, to, to do this next hunt. So I’m, I’m praying that, that the doctor says there’s nothing serious and, and that I can go on the hunt. If not, Dan’s gonna head in. We might both head in. I’m not sure what’s going on, but Dan will probably had in with me if, if that’s the case. So Well geez, it was, it was all the dancing that got his needle. Yeah, I was gonna say it was probably was, you know, well hopefully that’s something they can just drain off. I don’t know. I’ve had one of those like that and they drained it a couple times and it went away. I don’t, it probably took something they gave me, prescribed me and it went away. But hopefully that’s all it is. ’cause you’ve got a bunch of goat hunter sounds like coming. I know you’ve got a goat hunter in a different area down south. That’s gonna be a real troublemaker this year later on for you Hank So I’ve heard, I’ve heard he, you know, ends up wanting his guy to pack all of his stuff. He’s just one of those guys that’s always just, you’re waiting handed foot on him, so I hope you, yeah, I hope you hope you’re up for it and your knee’s better for that one, so.
00:52:07:14 –> 00:53:06:25
Well I think my knee will be, it. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s drained some today. It’s feeling better today and I’ll be ready to go on that one. It sounds like a better Yeah, for all you guys that don’t know the funny thing, you know, he’d be happy with a 12 inch Billy, so Yeah, I don’t think it would be a problem that that’s all. Yeah, and I, he wants his gear packed. He wants, you know, nice, nice weather, not very many rain, much rain and you know, really good food and a, you know, 11 and a half inch Billy. That’s all he wants. That’s it. It’s pretty easy to Perfect. We’re on, we’re on track for that right now Adam, so I think we’ll see what happens. Just for your viewers, to be perfectly clear, the the hunter is you Adam, that that’s right. That that’s me. So yeah, I, I got lucky and drew a tag in southeast Alaska. You’re gonna, you gotta hunt the rainforest and catch you again. Yep. I’ll be hunting the jungle. So anyway, but yeah, Hank, Hank after he is done guiding for Dan up there in the, she goes down and helps another outfitter down there on some little bit later season goat hunts. So we should team up there.
00:53:07:18 –> 00:54:15:01
Knock on wood, I’ve got my 72 hour, you know, people lined up, you know, it seems like they changed stuff every day but I’ll, I get a good piece of paper, I’ll be there late September, early October or whenever you guys are hunting, done hunting Montana, right? You guys got a rocky to go kill Lauren’s got a, a rocky tag, right? Yep. Lauren’s got a rocky mountain tag and the brakes there, so we’re gonna be down there in October. So is it October? Is that when you’re gonna go or is it gonna be Yeah, that’s what with the, with all the, the goat hunters and the moose and stuff. It’s just the, we got that bow hunter that starts on October 1st and trying to get down there and do something and then get right back up here. It’s just tough to do. Yeah, pretty tight. Well that’s a two and a half month season in Montana and it is. Yep. And then the rutt comes on late October, November Anyway, so. Well you guys have been great. It sounds like we gotta let Hank get to the doctor. That’s one thing. And then I don’t know, Dan, you sounds like you better get your pack packed. You might be heading into the mountains tonight. It’s, it’s been packed. I’m ready to go. So, well Alaska trophy adventures, Hank and Dan, we really appreciate your time today. Congratulations on incredible Ram.
00:54:16:10 –> 00:55:27:07
We look forward to maybe later this next year showcasing some more of the details of, of Lewis’ Hunt in our Epic Outdoors magazine. Just wanted to get it, it’s that time of the year when the hunts are starting down here, the archery deer hunts, but Alaska things are underway with sheep and whatnot and I’ve rambled this magnitude and such. Great guys, we wanted to call and kind of get it from the horse’s mouth. So we really appreciate you guys taking a few minutes with, with me today and our listeners. I’m sure they’ll enjoy it and look forward to seeing more of the details of this special, special round that you guys were able to take. For all of our listeners or anybody that’s maybe interested in hunting one with you guys some point, it, it’s not something you can just book a hunt for. Doll sheep, the Aries that you guide in 13 D 14 C sub units are a draw. So why don’t you talk just a little bit about that and the timeline. It’s coming up here in December and you know how they get ahold of you, things like that. Okay. Yeah, the application period for the draws is November 1st to, to right around December 15th. Sometimes they run it a couple more days to the 17th, but, but you have to have a guide client agreement contract with the guide before you can apply.
00:55:28:08 –> 00:56:37:27
You know, we, we apply hunters through your service, you know, and, and you know that application period is pretty long. It’s a month and a half and, and the odds are in that in some of the areas are are about one in 20 and some of ’em are as much as one in five. It depends on what hunt you’re in putting in for and what time of year and stuff. But, but there’s some giant rams out there. You know, the Rams we killed this year, there’s two 11 year olds and 10-year-old since we’ve been in the draw the last five or six years getting a lot more older rams and just really good rams and you know, we’ve averaged for the last seven years we’ve averaged 40 or better every year except for one year. And then we averaged 39 and three quarters on our, on our rams we taken in particular year Unrun rams. So they’re just really giant rams in this country and the genetics are still there and it’s just a real opportunity if you, if you, you want to get a a large doll sheep and, and don’t mind the rugged terrain and, and you know, hunting and, you know, it’s certainly physical hunt but, but you know, you don’t have to be an absolute animal to do it.
00:56:37:28 –> 00:57:48:24
But it certainly helps to be in good physical shape and just have a real positive attitude and we can get just about everybody where they need to be. Well and that’s, I have a lot of people ask me here at Epic Outdoors about, hey, should I be playing the Alaska doll sheep draw? And, and I guess I would just say to them, yes, but it depends. If you are itching to go, you have your money set aside, you’re in shape, you want to go this year or next year, you should play the draw. But you, you probably need to have a contingency plan. I, I mean I don’t know how many years I’ve applied with you, you guys and you know, I gotta have a contingency plan ’cause I wanna hunt sheep at some point in my life and, and that’s the reality of it. But for those, those li guys are ladies that draw their tags, you got a special, special special hunt. Wait, I know we had one of our clients, Kara Robertson, she drew in 2019 took a, an awesome ram with you guys. I think it was just 1 68 or nine right there official. Just a, just a stomper. And anyway, some subtle differences between subunits as well that, that I think come application time. You could call us here at Epic Outdoors or call Dan and talk with them about unit choices.
00:57:48:28 –> 00:58:39:25
You can buy up to what I think is it six applications? Is that what you can pay for six per per se? You, you can apply up to six times. Six times and so you can do all one, you can put ’em in six different, six different, but it’s a little bit different up here. It’s kind like having a point a a preference point system, you know, you get a little bonus being able to apply that many times and stuff. I think it’s just five bucks per entry if I’m not mistaken. $5 per application. So buy your hunting license with the current hunting license. Yep. Yep. Buy your hunting license and then, you know, $30, you might as well do all six and, and you’re in the draw six times for whatever, but you can help maybe pick a subunit for the clients too to help match match them, you know, if they, you know, certainly I, I I, yeah, I, I, you know, quiz the clients on their physical abilities, what they’re looking for, you know, what kind of hunt they’re looking for and stuff.
00:58:40:25 –> 00:59:52:09
14 C is, a lot of it is just hiking only some of that country is 20 miles in to get into where the sheep are and, and 13 d and all that country is all fly in, you know, I, I know it like the back of my hand so there’s a lot of places I can get up, you know, pretty remote on the glaciers and stuff that a lot of other people can’t, but, but just kind of what, what this particular hunter and what he’s looking for and stuff. So, but there’s a lot of opportunity out there. There’s quite a few tags available and, and like I said, we’re getting some really good old rams and that, that always makes me happy. I I hate killing 8-year-old sheep. I like killing something that’s 10 or 11 or 12. Yeah. Well that’s great. Well we appreciate your time. You got a few months, few months to think it over. I guess the, the one thing about that, they do get the draw results usually right about mid-February, if I’m not mistaken. So you still have that is Yep. Quite a few months to plan, but it’s, you know, it’s just foregone conclusion. Somebody’s gonna draw. You got your name in the hat again. Alaska doesn’t have a point system. Get your name in the hat, just a pure random draw and if you draw you’re gonna have a special hunt. So appreciate you guys again, your time.
00:59:52:09 –> 01:00:00:17
Thanks again and good luck on your next hunt and stay safe. Thank you. Thank you Adam. Yep, you bet. Talk to you later. Take care. Bye now.
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