The outfit I work for (Ultimate Alaskan Adventures; Steve Johnson) has had an opening come up for the August 21 hunt slot. The hunt is a backpack hunt in the Chugach Mountains and I will likely be guiding it unless another obligation arises. There have been some tremendous rams to come from the area, and members here smokepole and elkrazy both took rams with us last year.

Anybody interested, go ahead and PM me here!

Thanks,

Tanner

$20 and a worn out pair of cowboy boots is my final offer.

Seriously though, I was along for that hunt last year as a packer with Tanner and his hunter and it is some seriously cool country.

How much of a discount T? Thanks Jud

What general area of the Chugach do you hunt?

Nunyafuckingbidness mtn.......

I can get the info from ADF&G pretty easy on the authorized areas, but only wondering... most of the range is under drawing permits...

The attitude of some folks on this site continues to amaze me, which it should not.

But hey someone has to win the lotto every day.

Their area is OTC but I'll defer to Tanner on the rest.

Art, if you'd clear out a few PM's I can send you a message...

Tanner

I don't know if I'd be willing to pay money to go on a hunt with TSD.

The Team stays home in Colorado for sheep season.

Tanner

I'll double Starsky's offer. You carry all the whiskey and food for me right?

That depends if a 6 liter bladder is enough or not because that's usually all I take for whiskey... And I think you've been doing just fine on your own for sheep..

Tanner

There are two outfits in AK which are interesting for otc big rams...Claus and Johnson...

Well, sorry to hurt your feelers, there might be a little history, started by him...

There are more than two, and Johnson's area isn't exactly a slam dunk....

If you know of an area in Alaska that's a slam dunk for a big OTC Ram I might just have a kidney for sale...

Tanner

Guess I cold have stated that a little more eloquently. I know nothing is a slam dunk up here, just meant he works extremely hard in the area he hunts to find good rams, as its a very low density area.

If you are speaking of his AK Range areas, yes they are low-density, but the Chugach is relatively high throughout. I also know he does the drawing areas...

Paul knows his way around big sheep, for sure...

Wow, a little sand in the mangina has some serious staying power!

Funny to be so protective over an area he has zero experience in and less knowledge of...

I know what ya' meant, and agree 100%... It's an extremely physical hunt and the area doesn't just give rams up without some sweat equity... Some of the coolest country I've ever seen, too.

Tanner

Neither is Claus', for that matter. I'm not well versed in the AK range and the Brooks.

I'm curious about the hunt itself.

If you do a search for a thread titled "2000 words" in the general big game forum last August there's a first-hand account of my hunt, which was in the same general area. Scroll down a page or two for the description, the first post is just a photo.

When Jim Harrower retired everyone was able to go up a notch!

Hoppy is a tough act to follow!

Sheep population in Johnson's area is well above normal population of the subunit. Johnson has the experience in the area to get his client's in position for good rams. The unit does require high levels of physical conditioning. It is tougher than any other Alaskan range hunt. There are high levels of exposure in certain areas. However, if the hunter has enough fortitude the payoff is worth it. Johnson never abuses the population in the region. He takes one to three rams per year and there are generally 12-15 legal rams in the unit. So its not an area with 100 full curl rams in it but it has a stable to increasing population unlike the other Chugach areas. There was a fantastic lamb crop this spring for this unit which bodes well for old ram survival. My guess is that this will be a cracker jack year for big sheep for this unit.

Seahawk fan?

I think he is referring to his cluelessness about black bears and spouting really dumb stuff until he got lined up a little short. He works hard at parroting Stick sometimes and thinks the parrot has the answer.

Polly want a cracker?

Parrot is a cracker...

Harrower: Alaska Range?

I'd characterize the Alaska Range and the Brooks as being the toughest places for a plane-less DIY to crack without exhausting gobs of money chartering plane rides. Could also be that I'm a lousy researcher and as such gravitate toward high effort well-known locales.

Should have qualified my comment about Johnson and Claus... an adequately-demented DIY without a plane and relying on charter services or their own legs can hunt most/all of their territory if they so choose. I don't think it's safe to say the same about other places in the state.

Isn't this about a discounted hunt? You've been the resident whinner for 15 years, congratulations??

Hap guided in an area that is presently hard park Wrangells. His camp was about 10 miles up glacier from Hubert's Landing. He worked Tittman and Mt. George. Hap had two types of camps. The lounge camp for the well-heeled Hollywood types and a brutish hard "jack" camp where he would toss a client and their guide on a ridge with simple tyvek house sheeting. Many of the big sheep from the Book were either taken by Toney Oney, Hap or Howard Knutson. Jack Wilson would have a hunter or two as well. Hap had a 264 Win Mag model 70 featherweight that was incredibly accurate and travelled around the world taking out altai argali and marco polo argali in Afghanistan. Hap was a heck of a pilot and is still a dentist in California. Hap also guided up Canyon Creek and Hawkins Glacier.
Hap actually took a pretty good ram opposite off that lateral morraine up the West Fork of Barnard. He explained to me that the only way that you could get to the rams is to sneak in from up glacier late in the evenings with headlamps.

Cool stories, I love hearing about those guys and how they did it.

I took my best Dall with Paul 20 years ago up the Hawkins Glacier. 41 1/2 x 14 1/2 9 yrs old. Big droopy ram. Same side of the glacier as the old airstrip and prolly 8 miles up maybe. Johnny Coolidge and I climbed up on a rainy day rams were at the bottom of the cloud line. Nastiest place I have ever been. Saw a bigger ram but he would have fallen a quarter mile in the air to a shale slide and then rolled all the way down to the glacier so I passed. Shot the one I got in his bed. Johnny and I went back the next year and looked for the bigger one for a week but never saw him. He must have looped around back to the hard park I guess. One of Paul's guides told me that he and his twin brother had hunted the Hawkins on their own and the ice fell in on them. His brother is still under the ice on the Hawkins. He climbed out. That glacier hunting is not for everyone all rocks, ice, and mud. Twice was enough.

PS for any of you guys looking for a white one $10k is a damn good deal in today's sheep hunting world. Steve guided for Paul for years and is a straight up mountaineer. A bad ass for sure. I'm thinkin $10k is about what I paid Paul 20 years ago. Not for the faint of heart. You gotta get ready or you will wish you did. Tanner would be fun to hunt with.

It is Hoppy, not Hap. In the time I was guiding for him and the many years since I have never heard anyone refer to him as Hap.

Hoppy moved to Wyoming for a while to do a little cowboying and apparently still does a little dentistry though I cannot imagine how as his hands are about the size caribou shoulders...

One edition of the B&C book Dall sheep included over 25% sheep Hoppy shot, guided to, or witnessed. He and Oney were partners in the Barnard Glacier area but he also hunted sheep out of his Stony River Camp in the AK Range. Rita Oney took an incredible sheep there, also.

You have added what exactly?

Dennis Harms for one called him Hap.

Sitka Deer here is his phone number in Cedarville CA-(530) 279-2789

I called him Mr. Harrower to his face.

I have talked to him several times.

Jimmy Harrower and Toney Oney indeed killed some monster Dalls in the 60s on their own. Legendary sheep hunters. Those guys would walk away from a 40 and come back in a year or two when he was 42 or 44. Never talked to them but I'd love to listen to their stories. You guys are lucky to know him.

I remember seeing some of the older photos from Tony and Rita Oney and had to try for a while to pick my jaw up off the floor- those folks really knew how to kill giant rams! Would've liked to meet Mr. Harrower... Cool stories... Thanks!

Tanner

Hope you sell your sheep hunt. Tried Rokslide?

THE story you have to hear from them with both in the room is about their trip to Mexico during dental school. I have written it up here a couple times...

I have seen the Oney mounts in person...

Damn it. Too many obligations this year, including a fishing trip in Ketchikan this August, or else I would be seriously interested in this.

Great thread and stories of legends. If someone even has an inkling to hunt Dall, I'd be sending a PM so fast it would make young Tanner's head spin.

I hope there's a Campfire member who takes the hunt and I hope we all read about it come September.

Yes, I have his number and know he is in CA... realize my post sounds a little like I was saying he is still in WY and apologize for that.

Hoppy is simply one of the truly grand guys of all time in my book.

A couple guys were droning about there 338WBs and how they would just "Knock moose dick into dirt..."

A moose was spotted in a meadow right next to camp and we ran out to kill it. Hoppy walked up to the WB boys and looked at their bull, walking around it... they were amped up...

"Knocked his dick in the dirt!.........."

"With all the noise you guys have been making I would have thought he would be deader than that!"

Why are these stories not in a book?

Cool stories, tough sumbitches .

For once you are right... I was... and still am...

Hoppy was a pretty fair hand at everything he did, whether flying, hunting or guiding ! I always admired him as he treated us new guides with respect.

Bob Anderson has several pictures and stories about Jimmy Harrower and Tony Oney in his book "Great Rams". He has written two follow up books in the same style with pictures and stories with each one in "Great Rams II" and "Great Rams III". Great books if you are interested in the history of sheep hunting, especially in Alaska. Bob is the foremost historian on sheep hunting and has a writing style all his own. I'm kinda partial to "Great Rams II" myself.

IIRC there is a picture and story of a big Dall from the Tonsina Walk In Area where Tanner has this years hunt for sale in the first "Great Rams". It's for damn sure a historic area with a record for good genetics.

Boy some of you Alaskans, just can't help but run your traps... Must be hereditary??

in the words of Rodney King can't we all just get along..

Some force themselves to step into the trap too!

They might even poke the pan just to see what happens.

Tanner,
Damn shame I can't have my lard@ss in sheep shape by then.

Athabaskans call that a "stupid boy story".

Bullspit, you have 50+ solid days worth of time to get lean and mean! grin!

Tanner

That speaks volumes right there, some of you dumb bastards might wanna sit back and learn from Phil.... Hint

Yep you phuquers are bad men!! Laffin

And ART and Larry learned me up on bears!! Jesus Christ only in Alaska is a "bear" a trophy... I learned at the age of about 6 a bear was no more or less a coyote... I guess when that's when all ya got, they're a "trophy ".... Laffin

Now once again, hopefully somone buys this and gets a chance to hunt with tanner, I'm thinking ol T bone is a good sumbitch, and will work someone's sack in the dirt... Thankfully he's from Colorado and knows how to be a white man.... Re hint

Not that Phil is not a good guy, guide, and source for tons of stuff, but I worked for Hoppy decades before I met Phil...

Based on this post alone anyone would know you are a complete idiot. Congratulations!

Hey ART,I'm simply not not the one who asked the "General" area tanner hunted, on arguably one of the biggest hunting sites on the www.... you poor stupid bastard.... maybe try a PM???

PS, you're doing great... and you wouldn't rate a pimple on Phil shoemaker's ass....

Glad to see sheep hunting threads pretty much digress no matter what outdoor hunting forum your in....

While I've not had the pleasure to meet Phil I like & respect him from his postings here & from the rep he enjoys from the guides I do know

So I hope he never gets a pimple on his azz, or anywhere else for that matter the size of Art, he's freaking tall.

I'm going to say it's in the tonsina cua 13D no big secret it's the only area with over the counter tags for non residents in the chugaks. It's walk in only area can't get flown in..

Hell I could be wrong won't be the first or last

As far as Brn bears the boys from lower 48 are the ones paying $20,000 to $30,000 to hunt them...

Don't know about freaking tall, but I did watch the professional division at the International Scottish Games yesterday and I am bigger than quite a few of them... but don't expect me to toss the caber anytime soon!

Locked at request of OP.