Alaska Dall Sheep Horns by Mt Range

[tkjwonta]

I've seen a couple references to the fact that there are differences in dall sheep horns and genetics across the various mountain ranges they inhabit.

Can anyone give a brief rundown of what those are, or a good reference for details about horn configurations? I'm looking to start contacting a few outfitters, but I don't want to waste anyone's time by looking into an area I'm not interested in.

I certainly wouldn't be too picky, but the horns that seem to grow out without much drop to them are not my favorite.

Or, am I over thinking this and I should just pick the area and outfitter that I want to hunt with and try to find a legal ram?

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[wantj43]

You might start by talking with the sheep research biologist in Fairbanks. He is currently conducting a sheep horn characteristics study. They are just now wrapping up the third season of horn data collection.
Joe

 

[AK Troutbum]

I've seen a couple references to the fact that there are differences in dall sheep horns and genetics across the various mountain ranges they inhabit.

Can anyone give a brief rundown of what those are, or a good reference for details about horn configurations? I'm looking to start contacting a few outfitters, but I don't want to waste anyone's time by looking into an area I'm not interested in.

I certainly wouldn't be too picky, but the horns that seem to grow out without much drop to them are not my favorite.

Or, am I over thinking this and I should just pick the area and outfitter that I want to hunt with and try to find a legal ram?

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

I don’t necessarily doubt this, and I’ve generally accepted it to be true, but I killed a sheep about 8 years ago in an area where we saw a fair number of rams similar to mine (horns that dropped down to the lower jaw line then came back up to either make full curl or not). I hunted this exact same area this year and also saw several full curls, and quite a few rams, but everything was a super tight curl, and nothing even came close to the lower jaw line. Lately (in the last decade or so), there have been some real bruisers coming out of the Brooks, but that hasn’t always been the norm.


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[BRWNBR]

I’ve seen wide flares of over 32” tip to tip on a handful of rams then. In the same valley tight narrow curls. I’ve never seen enough in the 20 years I’ve spent in the area I work to recognize a sheep from that area or not.

 

[kdspillman]

My hunting and scouting experience has been that two of the drawing areas, the Delta Control Use Area, and the Tok Management Area, produce very wide sheep. These sheep can be extremely difficult to judge as full curl because they go so far out and sometimes the horn just doesn't curl upwards.

The sheep I took this year and many I saw scouting were of this wide configuration. I passed on several big sheep because I couldn't saw they came up to produce that full curl. To put this in perspective, the horn length on the sheep that I took was over 40-inches, but not much over full-curl due to the width.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Certain parts of the Alaska range have the real wide flaring horns. Chugach rams tend to drop quite a bit.


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[wantj43]

Certain parts of the Alaska range have the real wide flaring horns. Chugach rams tend to drop quite a bit.


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W. Heimer and T. Smith authored a paper or bulletin in the mid-1970’s that described different Dall sheep horn characteristics by mountain range. I don’t know to what degree these findings may still apply.

 

[happycamper]

I don't have the figures in front of me but years ago I came upon a report compiled by AK Fish n Game. They had years of data on harvested rams horn lengths and mass. The data was specific to regions of the state and was correlated to the harvested rams age.
For instance the area where rams on average grew the longest horns per years of age was the TOK.
The area where the rams grew the heaviest horns on average, Chugach.
Second place in both of those categories went to rams from the Wrangells, now a Nat Park.

 

[wantj43]

I believe that report might have been the one authored by W. Heimer & T. Smith. Wayne is still active with sheep issue and may be able to respond to the question.

 

[wantj43]

Google "Ram Horn Growth and Population Quality". PDF available from ADF&G website.
Joe

 

[tkjwonta]

Thanks guys for the responses, that paper is very interesting. Still have lots of decisions to make, but I'm much better informed.

 

[jhm2023]

I've hunted the same drainage in the Brooks for 4 years and for the first 3 I never killed a sheep due to not being able to find one that was full curl. This year I upgraded to a swaro spotter and got on a band of six rams. 2 of the six were 10 years old but still didn't make full curl because of how deep the curl was below the jaw line. This tells me that deep non-full curl rams are the norm in this particular drainage. I've also known people to pull rams from a few drainages over that all have super tight curls that make full at 7 and 8 years old. I work a lot in the DCUA and have seen plenty of rams most all of them are very wide with less degree of curl compared to what I've seen in the brooks.