California State Record!
Wild Sheep
190 5/8" green!
Congratulations, Jason Hairston and to Jake Franklin, Jason's guide who had spotted this ram last year!
Orpcopia's is my guess.
Let me contact Jake to confirm.
How cool is it that Jason's son was with him!
Must’ve been an auction tag. 23 more days until season opens. Not that I’m counting.
Open Zone Auction Tag.
$235,000, which blew away the old record of $170,000. He bought it at last January's Sheep Show.
That'll potentially be the P&Y world record... thanks for sharing. Ed F
I doubt it's an archery ram.
Wonder what kind of tip a guide gets for a potential World Record Ram.....
Probably a good one. The best tip is the experience itself though. Plus it’s never bad for business to guide a hunter to a ram of that caliber.
Congratulations to all on a magnificent ram.
WOW what a Ram!
Thanks for sharing him with us Kyle
Good luck, Robb
$235,000.00. Wow, must be nice!!
Wow what a beautiful ram. I believe Jason is the founder/owner of Kuiu right?
Jason is the founder of Kuiu and one of the original founders of Sitka. Congrats on a beautiful animal! I believe his wife actually bought him the tag if I remember right. Kyle may know the story. Amazing ram!
Jason got the big ram he was after. Good for him!
Awesome ram! Would really have been cool if he had shot it with a bow, tho!
That ram with a bow would have surpassed Tony Loop’s 2015 ram from Arizona...
I certainly would have given it everything I had to get that ram with my longbow...
Jason and his wife were back in DC for the inauguration when the tag was auctioned at The Sheep show. She was doing the bidding on the phone..
Jake and Brendan Burns were in the room and handling the bid for her.
The NY Times was at the show and wrote a great article on the bidding and the importance of fundraising tags.
See the link for the article.
Thanks Kyle! I knew there was a cool story behind how the tag was purchased.
What a ram, congrats to the hunter. The sons smile is the best part of that picture though!
Congratulations to the hunter. As a Californian, I appreciate him putting up $235K to support conservation in the state. Of course, most of that money came from me, or at least that's what my wife thinks I have spent on Sitka and Kuiu gear over the last couple years.
Congrats to Jason and Jake....incredible!
Ed, are you confirming that it was an archery kill?!
Mark
Just confirmed: Rifle kill.
I just assumed... my bad... Ed F
Looks like it might be a new world record Nelsoni!
Ed,
Don't assume anything on bowsite...
Either way.....incredible ram for sure!!!
Congrats!!!
Mark
I've asked Jake to send me a side view photo if he has one, which I'm sure he does. I'll post it when I get it.
It's pretty interesting that this ram appears not to be broomed, nor even to have any chips and dings on his headgear. That's pretty unusual for a mature desert BHS, esp. for one of this magnitude.
Good thing Busbice didn’t win that auction.
Side View.
This gives a much clearer picture of the ram. He is broomed a little and his horns are definitely beat up
Jason has some awesome photos of the ram in the field and otherwise on his Instagram if you are on that social media platform.
Beautiful ram, regardless of how it was killed, awesome for conservation, but holy sneakers, over a quarter mill??!!
I could be the wealthiest dude in the world and I don’t think I could do that.
I guess it’s a major business write off for expenses.
^^^^ Exactly what he said.
Congrats to him. I wonder if other hunters were going to hunt that ram when the season opens?
"It's pretty interesting that this ram appears not to be broomed, nor even to have any chips and dings on his headgear. That's pretty unusual for a mature desert BHS, esp. for one of this magnitude."
Coming from California, maybe he was one of those pacifist girly men?
GREAT ram!!! Congrats to the guide, hunter and conservation. Hopefully California puts the auction tag $$$$$ back into conservation and desert sheep.
Kurt,
The money absolutely will go back into not just conservation, but Wild Mountain Sheep conservation. That will add tags down the road for ALL hunters.
When the Harmon bill passed a number of years ago as a result of our efforts, it created the DFW Big Game Advisory Committee to oversee these monies and other funds so as to insure conservation projects were the ONLY place where those dollars were spent.
I chair that committee, which includes not only CA WSF, but also RMEF, the California Deer Association, the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep and the Mule Deer Association, along with a few other sportsman's supported NGO's.
Prior to the passage of the Harmon bill, dollars that were supposed to go for wildlife conservation were oftentimes being spent on things which had nothing to do with wildlife conservation.
Since then, however, not a DIME has been spent for anything other than the conservation of California's wildlife.
Great to hear that the money goes where it should. Thanks
Me, too!
That wasn't the way it used to be. But once they saw they were being watched and we started demanding accountability, they changed their tune in a hurry.
So awesome that the proceeds from those tags go back for conservation! Happy for Jason to have been successful enough in business to be able to put that kind of contribution towards conservation!
Tavis,
Brendan and Jake were sitting not far from me. I knew they had a phone bidder and after they'd won the bid, I walked over and asked Jake who their bidder was.
When he said, "Jason Hairston," my immediate response was, "Damn. I knew KUIU was doing well, but I didn't know they were doing THAT well!" LOL
He definitely got a worthy trophy! Happy for him and his boy!
Awesome ram! It's good this money actually goes back to wildlife. Sounds like the opposite of how the Utah Expo/auction tag money gets allocated.
Nice in deed! Actually GREAT! my best, Paul
Congrats to the hunter. It would be great to have a guide like that, for sure.
so it's pretty much a 235k donation to wildlife conservation and you get to hunt. I can support that all day.
omg that thing is one of the most impressive animals ive ever seen!
"so it's pretty much a 235k donation to wildlife conservation and you get to hunt. I can support that all day."
Same here.
Some folks bitch about these tags and claim they take a tag out of the general draw.
That's hopelessly uniformed thinking.
What they really do is add tags down the road for the general draw, because almost all of the work on behalf of BHS that is over and above 'usual, reasonable and customary' is paid for by the money raised by the sale of these tags. In fact, many states wouldn't even have the funds to do 'usual, reasonable and customary' wild sheep conservation projects if it weren't for the money they get from the sale of these tags.
Very cool. Good for Jason!
I'd like to think that with all the money towards sheep tags like this, in the future more opportunity will be available for more hunters to sheep hunt. If I had the money, I'd spend it absolutely
Gorgeous ram
stealthycat,
That's the whole idea.
And it does just that!
WOW, That's all I can say!!!!!
This needed to be brought up again. What a ram!
RIP Jason
Michael
