Sakohunter264; Good evening to you sir, hopefully this finds you well and you're as ready for Christmas as you'd hoped to be by now.
Rather than suggest a specific bullet, I'll just say that in my personal experience hunting sheep locally and in talking to many successful resident sheep hunters, a whole lot of rams get shot at 100 yards or less.
When I found a legal California Bighorn ram on the mountain behind our house, it was by chasing them in the timber where we hunted whitetails later in fall and the shot was close and fast.
Again my personal experience is limited to a single ram, but in talking to folks there seems to be consensus that sheep aren't that hard to kill - very similar to a mulie or whitetail buck - certainly less "tough" than a mountain goat.
Cape damage can be pretty graphic and still made to disappear by a decent taxidermist and for me wouldn't even be on the radar.
I'd choose the bullet combination that the particular rifle I was going to carry liked the best - and the rifle would be one that I can shoot quickly and efficiently under pressure with.
Lastly, the complaint I've heard the most often from local sheep guides regarding their hunters is that they can't shoot quickly from field positions.
Anyway sir, hopefully that information was somewhat useful to you or someone out there tonight. Good luck to your friend on his sheep hunt and all the best to you this Christmas season.
