Nevada area 280 and scoring Desert sheep

[BATTLEBORN]

I will be going on a Desert Sheet hunt in a month with a good friend of mine. This will be my first sheep hunt and first time hunting that far south in NV. Does anyone who has hunted or been in Area 280 have any advise for me?

Im also looking for tips on how to best field judge sheep.

Thank you

 

[downsouth175]

I would start by taking a look at the checkout summaries for that unit on NDOWs website. It will give you a good idea of the high end, low end, and average ram killed over the last 10 years or so. Looking at the checkouts real quick there are a lot of unsuccessfuls over the last ten years, but that can be contributed to a lot of factors. The checkouts also give you a relative idea of where people have killed their rams. I haven't hunted 280 but have been in 281 and 283/284 to the east and will be back in 281 in a month as well.

As far as field judging rams I think Jay Scott had a deal online a few years ago that you should be able to turn up. If you see a ram that's 160+ you need to think long and hard about passing him. On those test site units there's always the potential for something crazy to show up, but looking at past history you will see that 160+ has been the high end in recent history. You guys will have a fun hunt. The test site hunts are fun for the unknown, no scouting just show up and hunt. Good luck.

 

[BATTLEBORN]

Thank you, I have looked at the Checkouts on the NDOW website, good info there. Ill also look at the Jay Scott scoring deal.

This test site thing is very new to me. Normally I would have an area scouted out or at least a wealth of info to go on before hand. I cant wait to get there, it will be like an early Christmas... HAHA.

 

[HUNTSHEEP]

Hey BATTLEBORN Im a guide in southern Nevada and have done a few hunts in that unit (3) including the 2 170 class rams killed the years before last.. This unit can be really tricky as you know about the no scouting. I will say there are some BIG rams in there every ram I have guided in there has had great basses. but horn length has been 36" and under. My best advice is to get out and look at rams as much as you can and compare pictures. Good luck on ur hunt!

 

[downsouth175]

Battleborn, I think Huntsheep is referencing the wrong unit. If I am not correct you are in unit 280 the Spotted Range. The rams he is talking about did not come out of unit 280. Per the checkout there hasn't been a 170+ ram taken out of that unit in over at least 12 years, but it doesn't mean there isn't something big in there. As previously mentioned there are also a lot of unsuccessfuls in that unit, but again that can be contributed to a lot of factors. Being on the Test Site really limits the amount of access you will have to the mountain range. If you are willing to hike you can get into a lot of country that other hunters will never touch. If you guys have the time try to look at as many rams as you can find, a big ram is going to stand out from the rest. The mental game has to stay strong in those units as well, you can go a couple days without seeing rams until you get the place figured out. Good luck on the hunt.

 

[BATTLEBORN]

Thanks for the info guys. To Clarify, this is not my tag. My buddies wife actually holds the tag. I think the biggest challenge will be locating the sheep, im whilling to hike in as far as they want but that decision will ultimately be up to the hunter. There are only three tags for the unit so I'm hoping there wont be a ton of competition for the same ram's.

How does the weather/snow effect sheep movement? I was in Vegas for thanksgiving and it was 80 degrees and not a snow flake in sight in the high mountains.

 

[BATTLEBORN]

Leaving a week from today.... any last minute insight welcome.

 

[HUNTSHEEP]

yes I was I get the 2 outside units mixed up all the time....... Ive guided the Deserts and the Pintwaters spotted range has some good sheep also. a lot of people just don't/can't get after it like they need to.. wish I was put on the list this year I would of loved to get out there.

 

[BATTLEBORN]

Story to follow, but this 10.5 year old warrior fell yesterday. Enjoy

 

[realunlucky]

Story to follow, but this 10.5 year old warrior fell yesterday. Enjoy

Beautiful ram can't wait to read about it

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[BATTLEBORN]

Well that was a very interesting hunt. It definitely was a different type of hunt than I normally experience with Deer, Elk, or even Antelope. We went to the class at 11am on Friday. During this class they Air force goes over a bunch of the different ordinance that you may end up finding while on the range, they tell the areas to avoid which are still active depleted Uranium areas. They let you enter the Range at 3pm, We were not on the Range 15 min when drive down the road a young, maybe 1yr old Ram comes running out of the brush and directly into the side of our truck. We immediately call NDOW who sent a Warden out to look at the scene and collect the animal. There were 4 more Sheep with the one who hit us and we watched more dam near dot the same thing. anyway on to the hunt.

One thing that I was surprised by on this hunt is how low the animals were found. Maybe it was because it is so late in the year but we found most of the sheep fairly low on the mountain.

Sticking to the game plan of finding the water and looking for animals it was not long opening morning before we were seeing sheep. Nothing worth hunting in the first spot so we moved north to the next water source. Fairly quickly we found a Ram the hunter wanted to go after. it ended up being a fairly long stalk for her and missed shot ended the day with a hunter pretty exhausted and mentally ready for a drink and bed.

Day two brought us back to the same area and instantly we were watching the Ram she ended up shooting. This brings me to the second thing I learned about hunting on a bombing Range where the animals rarely see people. The sheep are NOT scared of People. We put a stalk on him in an open area, found him in his bed and watched him lay there for 30min. This whole time the heard was laying there watching us at 211 yards. when they eventually stood up they just started milling around feeding not giving a dam we were there. This Ram was in a heard of about 15 sheep, 3 of which were mature Rams. This Ram was by far the heaviest out of the three.

It was a short two days of hunting and honestly I was expecting it to be much more difficult. I'm glad I got an opportunity to experience hunting sheep and look forward to doing it again. Ill post a few more pics. Anyone want to guess the score before I post it?

Oh yea, we got a free air show as well, this is the area the Thunderbird use a practice facility.

 

[BATTLEBORN]

Some more pics.

 

[WRO]

Well that was a very interesting hunt. It definitely was a different type of hunt than I normally experience with Deer, Elk, or even Antelope. We went to the class at 11am on Friday. During this class they Air force goes over a bunch of the different ordinance that you may end up finding while on the range, they tell the areas to avoid which are still active depleted Uranium areas. They let you enter the Range at 3pm, We were not on the Range 15 min when drive down the road a young, maybe 1yr old Ram comes running out of the brush and directly into the side of our truck. We immediately call NDOW who sent a Warden out to look at the scene and collect the animal. There were 4 more Sheep with the one who hit us and we watched more dam near dot the same thing. anyway on to the hunt.

One thing that I was surprised by on this hunt is how low the animals were found. Maybe it was because it is so late in the year but we found most of the sheep fairly low on the mountain.

Sticking to the game plan of finding the water and looking for animals it was not long opening morning before we were seeing sheep. Nothing worth hunting in the first spot so we moved north to the next water source. Fairly quickly we found a Ram the hunter wanted to go after. it ended up being a fairly long stalk for her and missed shot ended the day with a hunter pretty exhausted and mentally ready for a drink and bed.

Day two brought us back to the same area and instantly we were watching the Ram she ended up shooting. This brings me to the second thing I learned about hunting on a bombing Range where the animals rarely see people. The sheep are NOT scared of People. We put a stalk on him in an open area, found him in his bed and watched him lay there for 30min. This whole time the heard was laying there watching us at 211 yards. when they eventually stood up the just started milling around feeding not giving a dam we were there. This Ram was in a heard of about 15 sheep, 3 of which were mature Rams. This Ram was by far the heaviest out of the three.

It was a short two days of hunting and honestly I was expecting it to be much more difficult. I'm glad I got an opportunity to experience hunting sheep and look forward to doing it again. Ill post a few more pics. Anyone want to guess the score before I post it?

168

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[Slim Jim]

I’m not real good at judging sheep, but I’d say 160ish


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[Slim Jim]

Congrats to the hunter!


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[Slim Jim]

Are there any herds on shadow mountain? I work at Shadow Ridge high school near the base of the mountain and one of these days I’m going to bring my spotter to work.


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[BATTLEBORN]

Thanks WRO and Slim. This was my first sheep hunt. Im not familiar with Shadow moumtain.

 

[UB270]

Stud Ram for sure. Congrats to the hunter !

 

[BATTLEBORN]

This Ram ended up Scoring 163 even.

 

[downsouth175]

Congrats on the ram! We killed a 9 year old ram in the unit next door on the 4th day of the hunt.