Recent Calis

[dracb]

Question, can there be a difference between the actual age of a ram and the legal age of that ram as indicated by the annuli on the horns?
How does one count an annulus or annuli that one can not see and how does one know before the shot that the regional manager's designee will count the same non-visible annulus or annuli???

[bighornbob]

Question, can there be a difference between the actual age of a ram and the legal age of that ram as indicated by the annuli on the horns?
How does one count an annulus or annuli that one can not see and how does one know before the shot that the regional manager's designee will count the same non-visible annulus or annuli???

You should never shoot a ram that does not have eight annuli. The inspectors will only count rings that they can see. If it has seven rings and one is broomed off it gets confiscated. Depending on the bio and his aging technique you may or may not get the ram back. Throw in a false ring and you can really get yourself in trouble.

the counting of rings is meant to harvest old Rams (+10 years), so even with a year broomed or two with a thinhorn, there should still be 8 rings to count. The counting of rings is not meant to be done on a younger sheep that may only be eight years old or with lamb tips. Besides just counting rings one should look at spacing between rings, body shape of the ram, pecking order in the band of Rams, knowing how horns grow in the area you are hunting etc etc. All of these will help with aging a ram.

never shoot based on ring counts unless you have aged and hunted sheep for years. Even then, every year I would bet there are Rams confiscated that were shot by seasoned sheep hunters.

bhb

[dana]

Rams around here and Spences grow very large lamb tips. 6" inches some times. The local bio has only seen one ram that has broomed off his second year ( the horn looked more broken then broomed).

The ram in question has only broomed off his lamb tip. 8 countable rings and the missing lamb ring make this ram 9 years old.

Old ram for the area. Not sure why but I have never seen a 10 year plus ram locally even with the mild winters and living in town.

Bhb

Interesting! Thus why I said I was no sheep expert. I figured a few sheep nuts would give more expertise to the subject.

[john-brennan]

Excellent pics, amazing animals, thanks for sharing.

[dracb]

You should never shoot a ram that does not have eight annuli. The inspectors will only count rings that they can see. If it has seven rings and one is broomed off it gets confiscated. Depending on the bio and his aging technique you may or may not get the ram back. Throw in a false ring and you can really get yourself in trouble.

the counting of rings is meant to harvest old Rams (+10 years), so even with a year broomed or two with a thinhorn, there should still be 8 rings to count. The counting of rings is not meant to be done on a younger sheep that may only be eight years old or with lamb tips. Besides just counting rings one should look at spacing between rings, body shape of the ram, pecking order in the band of Rams, knowing how horns grow in the area you are hunting etc etc. All of these will help with aging a ram.

never shoot based on ring counts unless you have aged and hunted sheep for years. Even then, every year I would bet there are Rams confiscated that were shot by seasoned sheep hunters.

bhb

Thank you! That was my point in asking the rhetorical question.

[LBM]

Dana do you use the manual settings on your camera while taking pictures or just leave it on automatic.
Thanks