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.
