I have heard over the past 5 years that the sheep populations have dropped. Locals confirmed that. I met a few serious outdoorsman, including some sheep fanatics.
I drew a unit 22 tag that lets me hunt unit 5 starting 10/1, all other rifle hunters start 9/1 and archery 2 weeks earlier.
#1 Lots of grizzly bears. Lots. I have hunted AK solo fly in 3x, all 3x harvesting and packing meat alone, sometimes for days (moose). I do not carry my rifle packing meat. I am not bragging but simply making it clear I respect griz but do not fear them. Hunting near Cody, near Buffalo reservoir a couple years ago we saw a lot of griz. I was tenting spooning a loaded shotgun.
I was actually nervous on this trip I saw so many bears. It got the point where I climbed into a spot I saw sheep and spotted a griz feeding on moths heading towards me. I decided to hold my ground and not back down if needed so I could hunt sheep and not have to leave AGAIN.
During my trip I found lots of ewes & lambs. Rams: one day packed in I saw 3 rams walking across a mnt top a 6 hour hike away. I spotted to immature banana rams one day that I could get to. I spotted a group of 3 sheep, for 5 minutes crossing a distant but accessible, ridge for 5 minutes 2 morning. I spotted 1 ram in cliffs I could not get to. That was it.
It was tough and other sheep hunters were seeing even less. In fact I think the 3 sheep hunters I talked to had seen 0 rams. Some hard core, horseback elk hunters (also die hard sheep hunters) spotted a few rams, some the same ones I spotted.
I am home now and planning to go back the last week of October.
It was a difficult hunt to do on foot. Guided hunters in the wilderness all tagged out FYI
I have one heck of a good story I might share here later............
