Dall Sheep Research Advice needed
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6fatrat
Well-Known Member
I hunted in the Alaska range a few years ago and shot a nice ram. The problem with the Alaska range is that if the weather is nice you will see lots of planes in the air.
I understand the Brooks range doesn't have this problem.
I hunted Mountain Caribou in the NWT, it is the last untouched land left in north America.
The price to hunt here is higher, but well worth it.
Don't hunt with Redstone, IMO.
Steve Bair
I understand the Brooks range doesn't have this problem.
I hunted Mountain Caribou in the NWT, it is the last untouched land left in north America.
The price to hunt here is higher, but well worth it.
Don't hunt with Redstone, IMO.
Steve Bair
kscowboy01
Well-Known Member
McKenzie Mountain Outfitters is pretty hard to beat. Canada offers the best chance of harvest and the best chance of a big ram. That being said, it's much more expensive than Alaska.
I got a 37" ram in the Alaska Range in 2013. If I hadn't practiced my long-range shooting, I would not have a ram. You are welcome to PM me and we can visit over the phone, as I would recommend my outfitter. He's a word-of-mouth guy and is pretty inexpensive, well as far as sheep hunting goes.
My best advice it to go to Sheep Show in Reno and meet people. Talk to a lot of outfitters and have a list of guys you want to meet ahead of the show. You can get a good feel of who to go with and to top it off, probably grab a beer with one of their former hunters and chat.
I got a 37" ram in the Alaska Range in 2013. If I hadn't practiced my long-range shooting, I would not have a ram. You are welcome to PM me and we can visit over the phone, as I would recommend my outfitter. He's a word-of-mouth guy and is pretty inexpensive, well as far as sheep hunting goes.
My best advice it to go to Sheep Show in Reno and meet people. Talk to a lot of outfitters and have a list of guys you want to meet ahead of the show. You can get a good feel of who to go with and to top it off, probably grab a beer with one of their former hunters and chat.
grandslamsheephunter
Official LRH Sponsor
Dave Dickson, Problem is he has too many sheep, to many eyes on the mountain!
Blackstone Safaris, Great people also ,hunted with both em ,Got sheep with both guys
had good times, Old sheep hunter told me either you will love sheep hunting or you will hate it, Got the Slam #1195 Hard work pays off
Blackstone Safaris, Great people also ,hunted with both em ,Got sheep with both guys
had good times, Old sheep hunter told me either you will love sheep hunting or you will hate it, Got the Slam #1195 Hard work pays off
For whatever it's worth, I would strongly advise against booking a Dall sheep hunt with Deltana Outfitters, who offer Dall hunts on the north side of Alaska's Brooks Range.
I booked a "backpacking" Dall sheep hunt with Deltana Outfitters last August on the north side of the Brooks Range, through WTA. I was in sheep shape, had proper, well-used gear, and can shoot accurately at distance in mountain hunting conditions.
I had an absolutely terrible experience - the "guide" left base camp only twice in a 10-day hunt, both times for a 45-minute hike to the same area. We spent the first four days never setting foot out of camp to see whether four rams visible approximately 2.5 miles away were legal or not.
The guide made so many contradictory excuses for staying in camp and not hunting that I started writing them down each day. The guide didn't like to use his spotting scope, and spent a fraction of the time I did behind the glass. The guide refused to spike out and provided one lame excuse after another. The guide had no rain jacket, and cited the threat of rain - repeatedly - to justify hurrying back to camp (on his only two hikes out of base camp) and/or staying in camp. I repeatedly hiked downriver, alone, for a few hours to try to find animals (I also had a caribou tag). By day 7, the guide had stopped even pretending to be willing to hunt.
The last two days of my "hunt," I was looking for animals alone all day, including miles upriver and downriver, while the guide sat in camp.
Bush pilot was appropriately shocked.
Bad enough to have a less-than-worthless sheep guide, but the outfitter was just as bad, if not worse. I gave the outfitter a full recap when I got back to their base at Happy Valley - and I did so in private so as to not prejudice the other hunters in camp and to give the outfitter an opportunity to make amends for a (presumably?) rogue guide. I told the outfitter they needed to make it right, and that I expected to hear from them soon.
Deltana Outfitters never did anything to try to make it right. I eventually got a full refund - but only after I informed them that we could go the hard route, and thanks to the intervention of the booking agent, WTA. I can't get back the time or disappointment though.
One of Deltana's owners eventually claimed that he simply "forgot" about me - even as Deltana has been repeatedly misrepresenting to the booking agent about having been in communication with me. Deltana's other owner eventually claimed he had been too busy, for three months after my hunt, to ever make a single call or send a single email -- or to arrange for anyone else at Deltana to contact me, including his co-owner. He claimed it was totally reasonable that Deltana had never made any effort to contact me or try to make things right until it might be convenient for them, some time after they were done with all their other hunts (including bear hunts) -- and only after I (and the booking agent) demanded a refund.
Deltana also apparently believes it's totally reasonable to sell a "backpacking" Dall hunt and then provide a "guide" who refuses to leave camp, stays in camp while the hunter goes out looking for animals alone (but can't legally harvest an animal alone), doesn't bring a rain jacket (or arrange for a drop-off of a rain jacket, or simply get wet as a consequence of his own screw-up), refuses to check-in with the outfitter to provide hunt updates or get weather forecasts, and completely quits on day 7 of a 10-day hunt.
Feel free to contact me if you'd like, including my positive experiences in researching other sheep outfitters.
I would hate to see any other sheep hunter waste their time and money with Deltana Outfitters like I did.
After my hunt, I met a sheep hunter in Deadhorse who had just a great Dall and caribou experience with Backcountry Big Game Outfitters (Riley Pitts) on the north side of the Brooks Range.
If I were going to hunt the Alaska Range, I'd go with Mont Mahoney, based upon my research and conversations with Mont.
+1 for Kscowboy's suggestion to go to the Sheep Show in Reno to meet many Canadian and Alaskan sheep outfitters face-to-face.
I'm planning to hunt Dall sheep again in Alaska in 2019, to try to put my terrible experience with Deltana Outfitters behind me.
Fortunately, I drew a nonresident Nelson desert bighorn ewe tag in Nevada last year, and had a great DIY desert bighorn hunt - which proved to be especially enjoyable after getting burned by Deltana Outfitters, the non-hunt they sold me, and their lack of integrity and accountability.
I booked a "backpacking" Dall sheep hunt with Deltana Outfitters last August on the north side of the Brooks Range, through WTA. I was in sheep shape, had proper, well-used gear, and can shoot accurately at distance in mountain hunting conditions.
I had an absolutely terrible experience - the "guide" left base camp only twice in a 10-day hunt, both times for a 45-minute hike to the same area. We spent the first four days never setting foot out of camp to see whether four rams visible approximately 2.5 miles away were legal or not.
The guide made so many contradictory excuses for staying in camp and not hunting that I started writing them down each day. The guide didn't like to use his spotting scope, and spent a fraction of the time I did behind the glass. The guide refused to spike out and provided one lame excuse after another. The guide had no rain jacket, and cited the threat of rain - repeatedly - to justify hurrying back to camp (on his only two hikes out of base camp) and/or staying in camp. I repeatedly hiked downriver, alone, for a few hours to try to find animals (I also had a caribou tag). By day 7, the guide had stopped even pretending to be willing to hunt.
The last two days of my "hunt," I was looking for animals alone all day, including miles upriver and downriver, while the guide sat in camp.
Bush pilot was appropriately shocked.
Bad enough to have a less-than-worthless sheep guide, but the outfitter was just as bad, if not worse. I gave the outfitter a full recap when I got back to their base at Happy Valley - and I did so in private so as to not prejudice the other hunters in camp and to give the outfitter an opportunity to make amends for a (presumably?) rogue guide. I told the outfitter they needed to make it right, and that I expected to hear from them soon.
Deltana Outfitters never did anything to try to make it right. I eventually got a full refund - but only after I informed them that we could go the hard route, and thanks to the intervention of the booking agent, WTA. I can't get back the time or disappointment though.
One of Deltana's owners eventually claimed that he simply "forgot" about me - even as Deltana has been repeatedly misrepresenting to the booking agent about having been in communication with me. Deltana's other owner eventually claimed he had been too busy, for three months after my hunt, to ever make a single call or send a single email -- or to arrange for anyone else at Deltana to contact me, including his co-owner. He claimed it was totally reasonable that Deltana had never made any effort to contact me or try to make things right until it might be convenient for them, some time after they were done with all their other hunts (including bear hunts) -- and only after I (and the booking agent) demanded a refund.
Deltana also apparently believes it's totally reasonable to sell a "backpacking" Dall hunt and then provide a "guide" who refuses to leave camp, stays in camp while the hunter goes out looking for animals alone (but can't legally harvest an animal alone), doesn't bring a rain jacket (or arrange for a drop-off of a rain jacket, or simply get wet as a consequence of his own screw-up), refuses to check-in with the outfitter to provide hunt updates or get weather forecasts, and completely quits on day 7 of a 10-day hunt.
Feel free to contact me if you'd like, including my positive experiences in researching other sheep outfitters.
I would hate to see any other sheep hunter waste their time and money with Deltana Outfitters like I did.
After my hunt, I met a sheep hunter in Deadhorse who had just a great Dall and caribou experience with Backcountry Big Game Outfitters (Riley Pitts) on the north side of the Brooks Range.
If I were going to hunt the Alaska Range, I'd go with Mont Mahoney, based upon my research and conversations with Mont.
+1 for Kscowboy's suggestion to go to the Sheep Show in Reno to meet many Canadian and Alaskan sheep outfitters face-to-face.
I'm planning to hunt Dall sheep again in Alaska in 2019, to try to put my terrible experience with Deltana Outfitters behind me.
Fortunately, I drew a nonresident Nelson desert bighorn ewe tag in Nevada last year, and had a great DIY desert bighorn hunt - which proved to be especially enjoyable after getting burned by Deltana Outfitters, the non-hunt they sold me, and their lack of integrity and accountability.
grandslamsheephunter
Official LRH Sponsor
I don't know how people can sleep at night knowing they stole from hard working people, Its all about the money anymore, in everthing, Congradulation on your Desert
Sheep,m I agree going to Reno is to me the greatest show on earth, Good Luck on your next hunt, Grand Slam #1195 Life is full of lessons BURNT ONCE VERY CAUTION TWICE
Sheep,m I agree going to Reno is to me the greatest show on earth, Good Luck on your next hunt, Grand Slam #1195 Life is full of lessons BURNT ONCE VERY CAUTION TWICE
stirner
Well-Known Member
We went with Mackenzie Mountain Outfitters 12 years ago. We, my wife and I, wanted to go back to Alaska, but when we called Cabelas, the agent suggested Mackenzie Mt. He told us that Jim Cabela used them, so we figured that if they were good enough for him, they were good enough for us. We also wanted a backpacking adventure, but Stan was non-commital until we got into camp. Probably because a lot of people want it, but few are capable. We got teamed with a 30 yr old guide who liked to hike. No idea how many miles we put on, but one day we got up at 2 AM and made camp at 10PM. In the first 6 days we saw over 125 sheep, but I held out for a ram with a flared curl. Went back to base camp, had a shower, another sheep dinner, and flew to another area that nite. On day 9, I got my sheep, the biggest one we had seen, and with a flared curl. Of all the hunts we have been on, this is the one that we enjoyed the most. I would go back again, except I'm 74 now, and we're both starting to have medical problems.
Oh, if you go to Canada, stock up on "Eat More" candy.
Oh, if you go to Canada, stock up on "Eat More" candy.
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