Call of the Wild
01-06-2013, 03:29 AM
After a few years of seriously researching the forum and the web on how to age Stone sheep horns and analysing horns at every opportunities I had at taxidermy shops, hunter’s house and hunting stores I’d like to improve my ability to judge horn size now. I feel confident in my ability to age thinhorn sheep without calling myself an expert and reaching a higher level at judging horns is a goal of mine now.
There are lots of discussions on how to determine if a ram is mature on the forum (typical body shape of an old animal, roughness at the base, flare out tip, mass, darker at the base, tight growth section etc) and bigwhiteys wrote an excellent article last fall on this subject.
This past year I seriously started to notice the curl and mass of sheep horns from looking at all the various sheep in the Ovis/Grand Slam magazines. What I’m inquiring about is the various aspects you experienced guys use when it’s time to judge horns to determine a length and mass estimate number. I understand it takes a lot of practice but knowing exactly how and what to look for is what I’m missing. When it comes to whitetail I can see so many things and I have a system to estimate their rack score I learned after advices, reading and years of practice analysing and using a tape on antlers. But all a sheep have is two curly horns and right now I don’t find if that obvious the difference between 3-4-5 inches of length or 1-1½ inches of mass.
Don’t get me wrong I can see a difference between a 40 inches vs 35 inches horn, if a sheep carry its weight, a really massive ram or if a ram is BIG but to come up with a realistic number I’m not there yet. There are lots of pictures of live and dead sheep here and I can see many different horn shapes between the posted pictures but I can’t really put a horn length or mass measurement unless posted.
The following are few basic tips that I’m told or read on how to judge horn size
if the horns are at the jaw line or lower is a very good indication the horns will be in the high 30 or low 40 inches
how high the horns curl up
if the tip of the horns are well above the bridge of the nose that’s sign of horn length
if a ram has these features it should break the 40 inch mark easily and could make it’s way in the mid 40 inches
I find it somewhat easy to see if a ram carry its weight but how to call how much mass it has at the base is tough to tell
I recall a taxidermist saying if a baseball ball doesn’t fit inside the inner curl it equal mass, something like that
I’m sure new and experienced sheep hunters can learn from this and improve too.
Thanks
There are lots of discussions on how to determine if a ram is mature on the forum (typical body shape of an old animal, roughness at the base, flare out tip, mass, darker at the base, tight growth section etc) and bigwhiteys wrote an excellent article last fall on this subject.
This past year I seriously started to notice the curl and mass of sheep horns from looking at all the various sheep in the Ovis/Grand Slam magazines. What I’m inquiring about is the various aspects you experienced guys use when it’s time to judge horns to determine a length and mass estimate number. I understand it takes a lot of practice but knowing exactly how and what to look for is what I’m missing. When it comes to whitetail I can see so many things and I have a system to estimate their rack score I learned after advices, reading and years of practice analysing and using a tape on antlers. But all a sheep have is two curly horns and right now I don’t find if that obvious the difference between 3-4-5 inches of length or 1-1½ inches of mass.
Don’t get me wrong I can see a difference between a 40 inches vs 35 inches horn, if a sheep carry its weight, a really massive ram or if a ram is BIG but to come up with a realistic number I’m not there yet. There are lots of pictures of live and dead sheep here and I can see many different horn shapes between the posted pictures but I can’t really put a horn length or mass measurement unless posted.
The following are few basic tips that I’m told or read on how to judge horn size
if the horns are at the jaw line or lower is a very good indication the horns will be in the high 30 or low 40 inches
how high the horns curl up
if the tip of the horns are well above the bridge of the nose that’s sign of horn length
if a ram has these features it should break the 40 inch mark easily and could make it’s way in the mid 40 inches
I find it somewhat easy to see if a ram carry its weight but how to call how much mass it has at the base is tough to tell
I recall a taxidermist saying if a baseball ball doesn’t fit inside the inner curl it equal mass, something like that
I’m sure new and experienced sheep hunters can learn from this and improve too.
Thanks