Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada BC Resident Sheep Hunting FAQ

What is the deal if you are a BC resident as far as sheep hunting......Which sheep tags can you buy OTC and which are on a draw? I understand there are bighorn, stones, and dalls all in BC

Once you get a tag, can you go anywhere in the province or are the tags allocated to specific regions?

Curious how it is managed, and if moving to BC is worth it for sheep hunting

WideOpenSpaces;
Good afternoon to you, I hope it's a bit cooler in your part of the world today as it's turned out here and all else is going more or less to plan.

Hunting in BC as a BC resident is spelled out fairly well in the BC Hunting Synopsis, which I'll link here so if I bugger it up or miss something it's easy to double check my work.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/...ing-hunting/hunting/regulations-synopsis

Here's their definition of a BC resident firstly.

B.C. RESIDENT - means a person who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada, and whose only or primary residence is in British Columbia and who has been physically present in B.C. for the greater portion of each of 6 calendar months out of the 12 calendar months immediately before doing a thing under the Wildlife Act, or if not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada, but whose only or primary residence is in British Columbia, and has been physically present in B.C. for the greater portion of each of the 12 calendar months immediately before doing a thing under the Wildlife Act.

In order to obtain a BC hunting license, one has to either take the BC CORE course which is our hunter safety course or have the paperwork proving you've taken the course in another province. Page 5 covers that fairly well.

The province is divided into 8 management regions and a BC resident can purchase over the counter sheep tags to hunt in Region 3, 5, 6 and 7.

There are very specific areas one can hunt within those regions, sometimes it's an entire sub-region but they can sometimes have geographic boundaries within it.

There are always horn length restrictions with over the counter tags, as well as compulsory inspection on all sheep taken in BC. They get measured, a horn sample taken and plugged with a unique serial number.

On LEH hunts sometimes there will be no horn restriction, so one can at times take "Any Ram".

There is no point accrual system for BC LEH so it's all luck of the draw. Some of the hunts as you can imagine are fairly tough odds, such as the one ram tag on the mountain behind our house which was 350:1 or something either way of those odds.

As to whether its worth it to move here to what the rest of Canada often refers to either as "the land of fruits and nuts" or the other definition of BC - Bring Cash - only you can decide that.

Our housing costs are likely among the highest in the country, even out here in the rural backwaters. Taxes are likely about as bad as it gets in the country too and we pay more for our fuel than anywhere else so we're told.

That said, we moved here 39 years ago for the climate and the lifestyle and have managed to make a life for ourselves despite all that.

Hope that made some sense and was useful.

If you have specific questions please ask and I'll attempt an answer.

All the best.

Dwayne

Thank you Dwayne. I really appreciate the thorough and thoughtful response.

Do residents typically hire a company to fly them into a lake, or do most have stock, or just hike in? I would think there would be a good bit of competition between residents and outfitters in those OTC units, right?

WideOpenSpaces;
Good afternoon once more, thanks for the reply and you're of course most welcome.

Access will totally depend upon where we're going to hunt, so for the thin horns up north, there's lots of planes chartered for sure.

There are a few places however where guys will jet boat in, heading up the major rivers in the area.

I suspect that only the very local hunters or the guides bring in pack stock. There were packers that we heard about before the beer flu shutdowns, but what's left of either the packers or the guides for that matter anymore I can't guess. From what we hear it really hit them hard.

When we did our annual sheep count this past February there was a young couple on my count team who were going to drive up to Muncho Lake this fall and walk in, so it's doable for sure.

While I hunt solo down here on the mountains behind the house, I don't think my family would be happy with me heading up into that Muncho Lake country on my own and honestly now that my age starts with a 6, it's likely best if I didn't.

All that to say if you can find a like minded hunter, even if you don't hunt the same spot.

Here's a link to a couple of young fellows I met at one of our annual sheep counts a couple years back and they marched in.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...-with-a-personal-connection#Post17541377

If you can figure out how to make a living here, there's no place like it for outdoor recreation in Canada. I used to ride our horses out of the corral and onto Crown Land that stretches from here almost to the back way into Kelowna. The skiing, hiking, mountain biking, canoe/kayaking etc. is amazing and it's pretty much at the edge of town.

While the hunting isn't maybe what it was in the late '80's or early '90's, some species are doing quite well still so it's not all gloom and doom.

One needs to be somewhat careful about living here and working in the oil patch if that's your line of work - just make sure you can meet the resident requirements is where I'm going.

Again if you think of anything else do give me a shout and I'll see what I can come up with.

All the best.

Dwayne

Buddy's sheep from the mountain behind the house last season.



A much younger me, but I killed this ram 31 years and 2 days before buddy's and it was maybe a half a kilometer from where mine got shot.



So yes, I do put in for the ridiculously high odds sheep hunt behind our place, cause I kinda/sorta know where they might usually be...

Hi Dwayne, I trust you are doing well.

Great picture of you with your Ram!

Cheers

Hi Dwayne, I shot the California Bighorn in my avitar the same year back when I lived in BC. Same sort of scenario, up the hill across from where I lived. A buddy shot one a half kilometer from where mine was 2 days later. lol. We must be pretty close in age.

bushrat;
Good evening to you sir, thanks for the reply and details of your hunt.

I'll turn 61 in less than two months so perhaps we are close in age?

The ram in the photo is out of the Vaseux herd of California Bighorn, when I shot that ram we still lived in Oliver but I was already involved in the annual sheep count.

Little did I know that in less than a year from that ram, we'd move out here between Vaseux and Skaha lake, right at the base of the area I'd lead the team for the count.

Funny what life hands us sometimes isn't it?

When I shot that one I want to say it was either 3 years or 5 years we had to wait to get another one.

Somehow I was deeply into chasing mulies for a bit after that and by the time I decided I should chase sheep again, they'd had a big die off and the season was suspended for a few years, then reopened with LEH only.

All the best and thanks again.

Dwayne

KillerBee;
Good evening to you my cyber friend, thanks for the comment and well wishes.

I'll begin by returning the well wishes and the hope that you all are having a decent summer despite the smoke.

We're good out here as far as fires go so far - knock on wood and all that - and I'm full on into summer projects, firewood cutting, gardening and all the usual stuff.

All the best to you.

Dwayne

Hello again Dwayne,

In Edmonton we have been doing relatively well re: Smoke, considering the amount of fires burning in both BC and Alberta.

This weekend was the worst so far but it finally cleared out yesterday, now the air quality and visibility are great, it all depends on how the wind is blowing!

How are you making out in your part of BC, do you get any smoke?

The worst part about the smoke is that it screens out the sun and the temperature drops significantly, and for a Sun Junkie like me, it does not make me happy!

We have been having a very good year with gardening, although ours is not really a garden, we do everything in pots, since we are city slickers living on a lake.

All the best to you my friend.

Cheers

My son in Wisconsin says they are making a lot of smoked cheese there.....

To add to the excellent info Dwayne has given:

---You can buy one resident sheep tag ($60) per year, good for one sheep, Bighorn, California Bighorn, Stone or Dall, LEH or "open" unit.
---The sheep tag allows you to hunt any open season (non-LEH) anywhere in the province, or for your area specific LEH ($6 application fee, non-refundable), or both until you shoot a ram, filling your tag.
---There are zero non-LEH areas for Dall sheep...unless you find an "all white" sheep in a non-LEH Stone area, which is seems to be very unlikely.
---Most Stone sheep areas are non-LEH so open for hunting Aug 1 to mid-Oct. LEH areas maybe more restricted on season length (thinking of the Spatzizi area with two week long draws)
---Bighorn and California bighorn are a mixed bag of non-LEH and LEH with more areas going LEH all the time. Seasons are about a month shorter for Bighorns than Stones.
---They have been a few ewe tags given out for the Kamloops Lake herd(s) in the past. Not sure about this year.
---Archers are lumped together with all the other hunters in virtually all the areas but one.
---I've seen some residents use horses for access up north, but it seems fairly rare.
---Some residents hike in deep...several days from the river, road or fly-in lake. Better be in good shape for the pack-out if you get lucky!