Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Sheep hunting cost vs. other Alaska huntimg?

I have been dreaming of hunting sheep one day but I am getting older and now I am thinking about hunting somthing else. It looks like Caribou Grizzly hunting would be easier and cheaper. Has anyone done both or tried to hunt sheep when he was a bit to old and had a hard time and wish he didn't?

Well, right now, I'm 65 and have been sheep hunting off & on since I arrived in the "Yuke" in 1967. Each time out, it is tougher than before but I keep chugging along. We didn't go this year due to the cost - even for we residents, it ain't cheap. I think we're going next year - gotta check with my pard on it however.
NOW!! IMHO, there's nothing like sheep hunting. Something about seeing a beautiful ram outlined by the blue sky while standing on a mountain top. BTDT. Kinda like a religious experience.
In short, my advice is to do it if you can afford it. It won't be getting any cheaper or easier in the future. Check out different guiding operations and, assuming you settle on a guide, make sure you let him know of any concerns you have. Age? Bad knees? etc. A good guide will allow for a client's short comings such as those. Also, the mountain range you hunt can be a determing factor. I went into the Wrangells once - back when I was a strapping youth. NEVER again or since. The Alaska Range is quite rugged as well. The Brooks Range is my personal preference for several reasons. The mountains are older than the AK. Range or Wrangells, therefore aren't quite as rugged - easier to traverse. The downside is that the sheep tend to be smaller and it's more costly to get there.
In closing, if you seriously want to do it and can afford it, you should go. (IF YOU DON'T GO, YOU'LL REGRET IT LATER IN LIFE WHEN YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT OR ARE TOO OLD. Caps intended to make my point.)
Good luck & enjoy.
Bear in Fairbanks

Ed,

Last year at 69, I drew a DCUA tag and had a flight service drop me and a buddy off in the high country. We set up our camp and spent a day close by observing distant bands of sheep. On the second hunt day I took a nice mature Dall's ram and we packed him back to our camp site.

Exactly a year prior I had my heart rewired and a decade earlier, the Mayo Clinic had saved most of my lungs. As bear advises, find a guide that is will to work with you. Sheep hunting need not be a hike over an entire mountain range as sheep move around too. I hiked 2-3 miles for mine but while waiting for our flight out, sheep were appearing within a few hundred yards of the tent.

Go for it!

+1 on what Bear said..."there's nothing like sheep hunting."

I'll add that sheep hunting is not for everybody. It is tough, grueling, and body-beating. When you think you are in good shape for other hunting, you are only in the initial stages of being in shape for sheep hunting. The weather plays a big part in most sheep hunts. Often times you are cold and wet and pretty much stay that way for the entire hunt. If it doesn't rain, you will get soaked from sweating on those high-exertion climbs. Not many places to dry out when staying in a two man, or smaller, tent. Is it worth it? You BET it is!!!! When you wrap your hands around your first set of sheep horns, YOUR first ram, you'll be hooked for life...and be thinking seriously about doing it again. If you enjoy pitting yourself against ol' Mom Nature and knowing that you won't let her win, you just might like sheep hunting. On days when the sunshines during a sheep hunt, you'll think that you are truly in heaven...the views of glaciers and mountains and mountain lakes and snow capped peaks. You can't find prettier country anywhere on earth. I won't mention the slick shale slides and boulder hopping and crossing those fast moving streams and rivers that some how always manage to be just over the top of your hip boots.

Some grizzly hunts can be very physically tough too. You don't mention if you have ever been hunting in Alaska. If you have the desire, time and $$$ to afford it, GO! Go now, before you can't. You don't mention how old you are. I am now 60 and think I have at least one more backpack sheep hunt in me. I work out a lot and try to stay in decent shape year round, but when it comes time for my next sheep hunt, I'll work out a LOT more, drop a few pounds and look forward to every step in those wonderful mountains of Alaska.

There are some griz hunts available in the summer where one hunts along salmon streams and those hunts are easier than most bear hunts, from what I have read and been told. Bears taken at time of the year, have 'bald' looking faces. At least they do to me. I much prefer the spring or fall bears that seem to have much thicker and fuller hides.

I have never 'wished' I didn't go on any hunt. Sometimes I have wished I was a bit younger or in better shape, but I have always thoroughly enjoy every day I have spent hunting, be it for birds or deer here in Nebraska or sheep and other critters in Alaska.

If it helps, I'll add that I have never regreted any of the money spent on any of my hunts, and have especially enjoyed all of my hunts in Alaska. Probably could have retired earlier if I had hunted less, but I enjoy memories more than money! I made my first trip to hunt in Alaska in 1987...as soon as I got off the plane in Anchorage and saw that wonderful country, I KNEW I'd be back. And I have been, many times.

If your dreams are of sheep hunting, definitely GO and start planning now for getting it done next year. There are lots of great people in Alaska that will do all they can to help you fulfill your dreams.

GOOD LUCK on getting on that sheep hunt you have always wanted. Many on this forum would be glad to help, just ask some questions and soon you can be getting on that plane to our Last and GREATEST Frontier.

Just had to add, after seeing Vern's post ( by the way Vern, Congratulations on your ram!!!!), this thread is bringing out us old-timers! Great to see that and see that some of us continue to do those things we enjoy so much in spite of our age. Heck, I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do when I grow up.

I just turned 49. I will need to save for several years. I do not have any physical problems but after reading all the post here it sounds like you need to be 18 and a top 5 marathon runner to enjoy your self. It looks like it will be every bit of $20,000 to go. I have never hunted Alaska but it is my dream. I do not want to spend the money to realize I can not do it or it is so difficult it will not be enjoyable. I will hunt Alaska as that is my true dream. Sheep is just one of the animals I would like to hunt but I am starting to think it is to late and it would be better to go to plan B.

Ed,

I went back in 07 with an outfitter that hunts the Wood River. Even today, the cost is nothing close to 20 k. I think he charges 10.5 k for a 10 day hunt, and he does his own flying. I was 44 at the time, and I was glad I got it off my bucket list.I shot a beautiful 9 yr ram on the opener, and was very happy with the way I was treated. Send me a PM if you want any more details.

Bryan

I'm 70 and about to be 71 next month, I am hoping to go somewhere sheep hunting next year. Probably Alaska, as every where else more expensive. One thing that occurs to me is, it would seem from reading some of the hunt reports, there's no need to bust ass to get to the animals. Take your time. Might be longer getting there, but probably not so hard on a person. If you're getting ragged, take a break. I don't see why it has to be a marathon. To me, part of the hunt, would be to enjoy the territory, and camp part of it. A lot of the hunt stories I have read, makes it look like everyone wants to do it in 3 days. Like I said, why not take some time, and don't make it unpleasant.

That attitude is likely to produce no sheep... Enjoy the camping trip. Weather conditions change so rapidly in AK sheep country that every opportunity has to be capitalized on. It is not uncommon to be fog-bound for days, and not unreasonable to think you might be at any time.

49 seems young to me, it depends upon what kind of shape you're in at 49 I suppose and how much training and dieting you're willing to do for the hunt. If you're 20 lb.s overweight and need to tune up your cardio a 2013 sheep hunt certainly seems doable.

If you're 80-100 lbs. overweight perhaps not so much


Yep Vern out there at 69, but Vern's a stud!

EDM:
As an addendum, what the other guys have written is spot on but I do agree that if you're in a spike camp, ya better bust butt to take advantage of good weather. As part of your trip planning, it's possible for you to be weathered in and the plane can't come to get you. If so, don't get angry, just accept it. Maybe an early freeze & the lake is iced over & a float plane can't get in. You never know.
Also, as with other hunting, expect the unexpected. Harry Swank shot his world record Dall as he stepped out of his tent that fateful morning. Again, if you can afford it & have no serious physical disabilities, I think you should do it. Of course, it's real easy to spend someone else's money. (:~))
B.I.F.

I guess my point was, I'm going there to hunt, which doesn't necessariy mean, shooting something. Do I want to? of course, that's the reason for going. But the effort in doing so more important than the actual killing of the animal. At least to me. But I came up when, IF you got a deer every 3rd year, it was considered fine. Today we see folks claiming a 100 deer killed, and it seems that the emphasis is on killing something. I really don't think these folks would even go out, if they didn't think they'd kill something every year. I'm not talking about not hunting, but if climbing a mtn to get to a sheep, and get ragged, stop and recuperate a bit. When I was young, lived where there were mtns and could climb them pretty good (might be called foot hills out west). But while I can still climb pretty good, might be huff'n and puff'n pretty hard.

When I was in Africa last year, actually got turned off by the "we have to get you this or that". WHY? I told the PH, look, in the US we go buy a license, say in Col. for Elk/Deer and go out hunting. While we, of course, want to get the Elk/Deer, don't see it as a total flop if we don't. In fact, Elk success probably about 25% most places. So "getting it all" not something to be concerned with. Would prefer quality to quantity anyway.

Have read a few sheep hunting stories on here in the past week or so, and evident, it's ardorous, but that's part of the whole thing. Can remember reading when young, that a lot of sheep hunts were 2 weeks long, and not because of the horse ride in. So give it some time. I'd probably want to go in with the intent of spending as much time as I needed. But that's me.

ghost,

Nice post.

The africa thing was just to make more money... can't make more if you aren't shooting animals you have to pay for as you shoot...

49 is still young and you can do it easily if your in decent shape. I try to go every year but sometimes it doesn't work out, like it did this year. I'm just a bit older than you and I plan on hunting sheep sheep until i'm well into my 60's, maybe even my 70's if I do things right.

I dread the day when I can longer chase ovis in the Alaska mountains.

The African hunt I was on, was a pkg one, so 5 animals included. I have been there a few times, and one was the shoot it then pay for it, and guide did try to hustle the shooting part.

Well, I bet no one has tried a hunt a wish they didnt cause its in the experience anyway. But it sounds like cost is a factor and if you can get a caribou or grizzly hunt for half the cost of a sheep hunt you can hunt the same terrain and still take home a nice trophy. Also, most outfitters have machines, horses or particular strips they use for less fit clients and can easily accomodate someone at 70 provided they can shoot straight!! The reason for the grueling hunts you read about are thats what the clients want or they are trying for the best possible trophy...

I was 33 with my daughter on the way when I first went to Alaska on a sheep hunt in the Talkeetnas. It was supposed to be a guided moose hunt (my dream hunt) but I didn't draw a tag so opted for the sheep hunt after talking with my guide. I trained for 9 months with a pack, climbing stadiums, running, etc and I was nowhere prepared for the death march my guide put me through, but I was successful nonetheless. The following year, I went on an unguided moose hunt with a buddy out of Galena. I was in relatively good shape, but the work began when I had my bull on the ground...a different type of work, but damn moose are big. In 2010, I went unguided for caribou in the Brooks at 38. I trained by doing P90X and I was in better shape than my sheep and moose hunt combined, although I didn't climb as high as my sheep hunt or pack as much as my moose hunt. With a 6 year old and now a 7 month old, it's hard for me to justify a 40% increase for a guided sheep hunt. However, if I had to choose I'd do a sheep hunt, again, in a heartbeat. I'm going next year for moose, again, and I'd like to do a brown bear and goat hunt too. However, in my opinion nothing compares for mental and physical satisfaction and overall Alaska experience than a sheep hunt.

Doesn't matter your age, just do it. Everyone needs to experience it once. I was 42 when I went. It hurt like heck and I was wondering why I paid all of the money to do that to myself, but after the sheep was down, it all turned. Actually trying to figure out a way to get back to do it again!

Also, my Dad was there as well, he too took a very nice ram. He's a retired Phys Ed teacher and he was 73 years old at the time of the trip. Matt Snyder was our guide and he and his family were better than we could have hoped for as guides. Just great people.

Since you have a few years, start now and get in shape, when you think you are, double your workout and you will stil wish you had done more. As someone told me, the only way to train for Alaska is go to Alaska. I did, and have to figure out a way to get back there!

Age has nothing to do with it, it's the attitude. Plan on a great time in an incredible place with absolutely wonderful people and you will enjoy it. The sheep, though beautiful and a great trophy, are secondary.

I have been hunting 5 times in Alaska and being from Michigan it is always a dream to go there. I have been on two moose/caribou hunts there and we hired a bush pilot to take us out in a promising area and drop us off for 10 days. Went on a bear boat "ride" out of Whittier, ate and slept on the boat but unguided. Became friends on that hunt with a resident and went caribou hunting along the haul rd, aka Dalton Hwy with him one year. This past August I sprang for my first guided hunt and went Dall sheep hunting in the Talkeetna mountains. Trained pretty hard and was successful, only wished I had done it years ago. I am only 58 and in decent shape, but ten years ago would have been much easier.

Circumstances always dictate our decisions but I really want to hunt sheep again and grizz are high on my list also. Don't think a grizz hunt is much cheaper for us non residents but if you combine it with caribou it may be. Most of the time I believe sheep hunting is pretty much a single animal hunt.

Don't deprive your family and hunt as much as you can. We can't take it with us, as far as I know.