Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire hunting abandoned farm animals

someone told me there are few abandoned sheeps on BLM or other public lands and we can shoot/take them any time.

assuming animals are abandoned, is it legal to take them? i don't want to call Idaho Fish and Game because i trust you more.

For sure check with authorities. If wrong, it might be someone's finest registered bull.

Years ago there were some feral Mouflon sheep in Oregon on BLM that were fair game, but for sure check with Fish and Wildlife.

About all those abandoned donkeys and horses....

Dog food

If you find some feral cows, let me know The sheep are all yours.

Back in 2018 there was a big stir out in California over cattle roaming free in the Sand to Snow National Monument. There were also some pit bull dogs out there. The cattle and the dogs were scaring people that wanted to hike in the walk in only park. I believe horses are legal there. Looks like a good solution would be open season. Shoot all you want and drag them to the road with horses. Would be as good as bison beef, tough and tasty. With California's big Asian population the dogs could be hunted too.

Been a problem in the wildlands of SoCal for awhile.

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-feral-bulls-20180302-story.html

i prefer sheeps because of my ethnicity .

Well, there was a lion or tiger that got loose near Pocatello or Idaho Falls some time back. An escapee from the zoo or circus or some such thing. When it was announced on the radio, most of SE Idaho went on a Safari in order to save the world from that man eater. Shooting Mrs. O’leary’s car scaped cow is pretty small potatoes for Idaho.

A couple friends went on a DIY aoudad hunt on public land somewhere in TX a few years back. The area had a bunch of feral cattle that were fair game. They saw some but didn't want to pack them out of the canyon, although legally they could have left them for the coyotes.

I would not want to eat a feral sheep.

I seen a black panther the other day

Cows gotta be stump broke! All you need is a pair of rubber boots for sheep.

I don't think he was thinking about eating them...you know.

I missed the ethnicity part.....

At the resort in Utah, which my daughter is employed, there had been several sightings of a loose Bovine. Within two hours of her Facebook post stating such, a rancher rolled up with three shepherds and a trailer full of saddled horses. He said it was his bull & had been missing for quite a while.

You never know. I'd hate to be skinning said Bovine when the rancher approached with several of his hands. Would likely be quite a tense situation.

I'm not sure about Idaho but in Montana it is illegal to have a sheep in the cab of your truck without a chaperone, so you should keep that mind.

High fence deer and elk are farm animals. Some years ago, when Sen. Jim Risch was governor of Idaho, a bear tore down a fence at an elk farm in eastern ID. All the elk were ear tagged as required by law. The owner wasn't able to catch them all so the governor put out a carte blanche on them. Anyone could shoot any ear tagged elk at at any time. It was to prevent them from mixing with wild elk. The owner threatened to sue anyone who shot one. He would lose but it could cost a hunter a bundle in legal fees. Only a fool is going to involve himself in a lawsuit over an elk. That would be nuts. I never heard how it all came out or whether all of the elk were eventually captured. I don't think all that many were shot, though.
As revenge, the elk owner ran against Risch in the next election. He got shellacked.

Jim;
Good afternoon, I hope that this first day of the month/last day of the week finds you and all of your fine family well.

In ancient times, I want to say the mid '80's, I was hunting for Columbia Blacktail on one of the Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and Washington.

My hunting partner used to live there and knew some of the locals so we had a bit of an in on some private land. The local fellow upon whose couches and floor we crashed, mentioned to my friend that the local feral sheep had been spotted recently by the outfit logging the chunk of land we'd be hunting.

There was some animated discussion regarding a couple instances where locals had attempted to eat one and found it much less than a satisfying culinary experience.

Sure enough, early the next morning as we were easing into the spot, I spied what looked like a blackberry bush moving slowly along or perhaps something in a homemade ghillie suit. Upon further examination with binos, we both spied the roughest looking unshorn, long tailed mess of a sheep one can imagine.

Even now as I type this Jim, I shake my head at how, well filthy and disheveled this thing looked.

Both of us wondered aloud just how hungry one might have to be to kill and attempt to eat it.

We also wondered if some sheep shed their wool naturally or if they just got so heavy eventually they couldn't stand.

In the back of my mind I want to say this thing looked like there were maybe patches of wool missing, but I might be totally wrong about that too Jim, as there's been a whole lot of memories made and lost since that hunt.

All the best to the OP in his quest for feral mutton for sure, though I'd love to hear if it's edible or not.

Best to you all.

Dwayne