Colorado Statewide Bighorn Sheep Tag
Wild Sheep
Contributors to this thread:
Dinkshooter@work's Link
We’re up and running on our 2015 Colorado Bighorn sheep and Mountain goat raffle sales. Follow the link to purchase tickets. The drawing is April 18, 2015 at our annual banquet.
We also offer raffles for a Colorado Pronghorn tag(great odds), optics and a couple of cool rifles as well. Something for everyone in the family.
Again like last year, buy early and buy often!
http://www.bighornsheep.org/raffle.htm
great raffle...
Is there any limit on the total number of tickets sold?
No limit on the total but max of 25 per person. Typically they sell 2500-3000 total tickets per year so you can figure it will stay about that range.
Sandbrew
Just curious... Has a non-resident ever won? If so, I am buying :-)
In 2013 the raffle sheep winner was a NR. There has been several NR winners over the years.
2006 Raffle winner was from CA and bought 25 tickets.
2004 Sheep raffle was from NC bought 2.
I think there are about 20/80 non res to resident total ticket purchases.
Sandbrew
I figured Sandbrew would have those statistics tattooed somewhere on his person;)
I got my fingers crossed! This is better than the 500 million powerball lotto in my opinion
I lifted a few folds and found that in 1992 the winner was from Oregon and the 1993 winner was from Texas. ;-)
Sandbrew
How much are the tickets?
Ummm, Ermine, we need to have a talk.....
You win that and I'll be your advisor. We'll hunt every Governor's tag for every species until we die and still have a few hundred mil left over to leave behind for our new super-model wives. We'll buy a great ranch where we can hunt elk, muleys and bears and pronghorns in-between our other awesome hunts.
We'll be livin' la vida loca, my friend!!
Lone Eagle
The tickets for the tags and guns are $25 each and the optics tickets are $20 each.
I bought some tickets last year. I will have to again this year. Hopefully this is the year.
Anyone like hairy goats? Win the tag and get to hunt them late when they look like Cousin Itt.
So us non residents can hunt in ANY Rocky unit? Not just the ones we are restricted to normally?
Wow, those draw odds are better than drawing in my home state for a sheep tag. I might have to buy one.
Lou- yea that sounds pretty amazing to me! Just need to win the lotto now! Ha
Shrewski
Yes a NR can hunt in any open unit including the ones not normally open to NR.
In addition, you don't have to pay the $2000 to the state for the tag!
That is even more appealing. Love to try a LATE rut hunt to contrast it to my August S12 experience. The tag has gone up a bit since 2007. I've not been putting in in CO since I had my chance. I'll have to make buying my raffle tickets a habit rather than just an occasional purchase.
Where would you guys go for a November hunt. I'm guessing some units lose their sheep when they drop down to winter range?
Lou- yea that sounds pretty amazing to me! Just need to win the lotto now! Ha
I'm in for goat. Wife said I could pick 1,she also said goat.
I buy RMBS raffle tickets every year and, if I don't win, so what. I am supporting a great organization!
On my first visit to the Banquet last year I was looking at all of the little buckets where you would drop your tickets and saw the one for the Weatherby MK5 in .338 Lapua was almost full I only dropped one ticket. Guess what I took it home. It is the best banquet I have been to and a really good fund raiser. The org is legit. I will be back and buying tickets for the hunts and the custom rifles made by Kevin Weaver. He makes some of the best rifles out there. I know him and he is a solid upstanding gunsmith that will only make quality rifles and turns down lesser work. Bob.
Sandbrew's Link
Shrewski- Hunting late season after normal sheep and mt goat seasons close (on Oct 31) in the Colorado is not for the faint of heart. Sometimes there are more sheep and bigger rams to be found up high during the rut. When I drew the 2008 Colorado raffle tag I hunted from Aug 2 - Nov 20 before killing my rut crazed ram at nearly 13000 feet. My hunt was documented here on Bowsite in the linked thread even though it ended up being a rifle kill. In soem units it's easier to fidn sheep in others they are exclusively on private land with no or high $$$$ access.
Dink is right you don't have to pay a license fee and Non Residents can hunt any unit once it is open until Dec 31. You do need to follow method of take rules and closure days ie week days only for some units mt goat mostly and 1 sheep unit.
Sandbrew
PS for huntingbob - I shot my raffle ram with a 300 WSM custom made by Kevin Weaver. That gun is absolutely incredible. Kevin makes the finest rifles at any cost. I wanted one so badly and I was sick of buying raffle tickets so I dropped off a $1000 deposit in March on a year long waiting list. Then I won the sheep tag in April Kevin had my gun to me in June. Bad news I had to find the rest of the cash.....fast.
Totally understand the late season difficulties--did NOT think they would still be so high. I only got to 13,300' in S12 and there are spots there I would not want to go when they were snow covered.
OK--one final question...until I win :-)
You can hopscotch units? You don't have to pick and stay in one unit the entire time?
Thanks for all the info and thanks for all the work you do for the sheep.
Up high the wind blows the snow off but is hard to stand upright and walk. I was one of the first to kill a late season ram as high as I did. Many of the previous raffle/auction hunters killed their rams later but much lower.
Raffle winners and auction buyers can hunt any open unit. The list is in the latest sheep and mt goat brochure All you need to do is contact the local CPW officer so they know where you are when they get a call about after season hunters. Winners get a big packet from the CPW listing all the rules and contact # for each region.
Good luck!
I concentrated on 2 main hunt units later in the year knowing big rams would be there. I sat on one ram for nearly 3 days waiting for him to move off private land and he never did.
I am in for the sheep and goat raffles.
Appreciate the awesome work the RMBS volunteers do all year long, every year.
Has the same person ever won the sheep and the goat the same year? :-)
No but I understand that once a guy won a raffle tag, and then got drawn for the same species in the regular draw. If that happens, you're allowed to keep both tags!
yes you can hopscotch I had the goat tag in 2005 hunted 4 units before I killed my billy . some units you can not hunt weekends so i would move to a unit i could hunt on saturday and sunday
CO Oak's Link
Harvest stats were posted yesterday, and I see that 39% of archery ram hunters were successful last year. Not too bad. I'll bet the odds go up with 5 months to spend trying.
Tickets are available online for a couple more weeks.
will somebody be selling tickets for sheep and goat at CBA banquet??
bownutco
Tickets will not be available for sheep and goat at the CBA banquet.
Thanks for the heads-up and link Dinkshooter! I bought a few tickets to donate to the cause...
Horniac
I received my tickets in the mail. Thank you
Yep, a bunch of little stubs showed up in the mail. One day I'd like to attend in person and help a little more. Thanks RMBS.
What are the season dates? My schedule is getting pretty full.
5 month long season. August-December
As Ermine said, you may hunt for 5 months on this license. It is good in any open unit from the day the regular season starts in a unit until December 31. With some archery seasons beginning in early August there is plenty of time to spend in the field, including the rut.
Went and looked for sheep this weekend. Found some.
Looks like Waterton Canyon.
Gonna get a few more tickets before the Banquet but I can see my self hunting so close to home I can only dream of it. More tickets for the two Weaver Rifles too. Good luck to all. One of us have to win!
And the winners are:
Swarovski Optics #1 - Brian Tucker, Colorado
Swarovski Optics #2 - Lloyd Blackwood, North Carolina
Weaver .270WSM - Chris Weller, Colorado
CO Statewide Pronghorn - Brent Fassett, Colorado
CO Statewide Mountain Goat - Bill Wagner, Colorado
CO Statewide Bighorn Sheep - Joe Vander Poel, California
Thank you to everyone who threw their name in the hats. It was a very successful year. The Weaver 7mm winner will be drawn on June 27. Hopefully online ticket sales will be open again shortly.
It is interesting to note that in the top post there were questions about NRs winning the tags. Four of the 6 winners last night were from online ticket orders. And 2 are NRs! Including the big dog tag.