sheep hunting

[mikek blacktail]

I was thinking about trying sheep hunting next season in region three around clinton or cache creek.I was wondering if anyone could help me with some info about these areas.This is the first time I've thought about sheep hunting so I'm new to hunting the species.Are the sheep in region three california big horn or rocky mountain bighorn.
When is the rut.
Where are they located in this region.
Will they stay in the same general area from may to november
any info would help I'm going to do some scouting trips next year so if anyone could point me the right way that would be greatly appreciated.
THANKS

[bighornbob]

If your interested in sheep hunting, welcome to the biggest bunch of liars there are

First off no real sheep person will point you in the right direction thats just the way we are.

Now back to your questions. The sheep in the cash creek clinton area are californias. There are rockies and they are located in the spences bridge area. Basically all of 3-17 is classified as Rocky country even though they are probably more calis near cash creek then Rockies.

The rut is usually in the first week of November/ give or take a week. Season closes on Oct. 20 so you wont be hunting the rut. The rams might be closer to the ewes but they will not be chasing yet.

The sheep can be found any where in the area you are looking at. I have seen sheep in sheepy looking areas and others times have not. Then you see them in a field with some cows another time.

The sheep will move quite a bit from May to November. I heard of a study in the area where they collared a ewe with a GPS collar to track her movements. They put it on when she was on the winter grounds. They went back later in the summer and looked for her in the summer ranges. but they could not find her. They went back to the winter range and found her. When they got the collar off and looked at the data the sheep actually went up to the summer range and back to the winter range a few times that summer. It took her only a few days to do it.


For a new sheep hunter I would reccomend getting the book Return to Royalty at Chapters. It is a fantastic sheep book and its only 7.99. Beats the 50 I paid for it when it first came out.

PM if you want some more info besides where to go

BHB

[Orangethunder]

The last post was about as accurate as any sheep hunter can put it. Here are my 2 cents: get your hands on some good maps of the area you plan to hunt, do lots and lots of scouting and get to know the area, invest twice as much as you can afford on optics if not more, be in really good shape, learn to enjoy cactus thorns and plan on seeing lots of hunters. And one other thing, hunt with a guy that has already killed lots of BIG sheep so the first legal ram (if you find one) isn't big enough for him. Good luck.

[mikek blacktail]

thanks I don't want anyones secret spots ,i'm going up to do some scouting next summer I hunted up that way just after the season for sheep closed I was looking for deer but spotted ahuge ram with a ewe I'm know sheep expert but he was past a full curl and it got me interested.so next year i'm going to try for a ram.

[NightOwl74]

Interesting. But one question, what's the meat taste like? Is it comparable, to, say, a whitetail in September?

[Deaddog]

sheep meat.............no not comparable to white tail.......... MUCH BETTER

[Stone Sheep Steve]

There was a BIG Cali poached out of a farmer's field near Clinton this fall. The farmer found the ram dead in his field and reported it but by the time the CO's arrived someone had snuck in and cut the head off. I wish I had the pic of the ram on my computer as the CO in the area had live pics of the ram and the farmer recognized the ram. He was WELL above the bridge of his nose on one side and above the bridge on the other.

Ba$tard!

SSS

[Gateholio]

There was a BIG Cali poached out of a farmer's field near Clinton this fall. The farmer found the ram dead in his field and reported it but by the time the CO's arrived someone had snuck in and cut the head off. I wish I had the pic of the ram on my computer as the CO in the area had live pics of the ram and the farmer recognized the ram. He was WELL above the bridge of his nose on one side and above the bridge on the other.

Ba$tard!

SSS

Was this wihtin the last 2 months?

[mikek blacktail]

There was a BIG Cali poached out of a farmer's field near Clinton this fall. The farmer found the ram dead in his field and reported it but by the time the CO's arrived someone had snuck in and cut the head off. I wish I had the pic of the ram on my computer as the CO in the area had live pics of the ram and the farmer recognized the ram. He was WELL above the bridge of his nose on one side and above the bridge on the other.

Ba$tard!

SSS

what part of clinton was it found,
i wish for once you could hear about a shot poacher instead of the animal he shoots.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

I just requested more details from my taxidermist about the sheep(he couldn't rmember offhand) but he doesn't get to his computer very often. I'll post the info when I know more.
The source email was from C.O. Bob Butcher if my memory serves me correct. If anyone knows him it may be faster to get the info that way.

SSS