caught what you said before the edit darcy.....and i say no way!  no question there are some guys out there that pass legals looking for something great, but a lot of guys just talk a good game.  one thing ive seen a bunch of on these hunting forums over the years is that anyone can talk a big, but only a handful can back it up.  ive seen a whack of guys claiming to be passing small rams, yet inevitably they show up with a pic of a squeaker.  i always offer a congrats, but i have a good memory of the stories they told.  usually its simply they cant find a legal, or even when they do they cant decide if its legal or not.  now if you arent sure, i am a firm believer in letting them walk, but to tell the world how you passed waiting for a hog is pure bovine feces. 

two in particular stand out.  one guy obviously couldnt tell and shot the very ram he passed the year before.  that ram gained about 3/4 of an inch in length and maybe 3 inches total score.  no doubt in my mind he would have shot it the year before if he was sure of legal.  another was a book ram.  heavy brooming made the legth pretty sketchy, but he was legal and someone else killed him.  both hunters claim to be passing little guys the whole time, but the truth seems obvious to me.....not all, but most guys just cant find them.

I guess nobody is finding them then. I know of at least 60 guys that hunt bighorns religiously and trust me if them guys decided to just tag rams the population would take a huge dent!

But anyways you nor I know exactly what gets turned down but id bet a ton of money that  harvest statistics would be alot higher if everyone that sees a legal ram in the fall pulled the trigger and with whats happening with the sheep hunting with the changes that deffinatly isnt needed!!!!!

SG

darcy, of course there are some guys passing small legal rams.  heck i even know a couple of guys that i believe, but before you edited, you said MOST guys.  thats where i say BS.  id bet good money that MOST guys shoot the first legal ram they see, whether its their first or tenth.  doesnt make it wrong.....if you want to kill a ram then kill one....and ill say congrats.  ijust dont believe for a second that anything but a small handful of guys actually do pass legal sheep.  heck i can name a couple even on this forum that have never killed a sheep, and if they ever do id lay 50 bucks on it that itll be a  squeaker.

 my all time favorite is a guy who has been asking me to hunt with him for years.  keeps telling me about all the full curls he passes in 400 waiting for a giant.  he does the same with whitetails.....always telling me about the hogs he lets walk waiting for a booner......yet his biggest deer might make 140. 

lets put it this way.  if there were 10 guys ready to go sheep hunting....just any random 10....and one of them was nube.....i know who id be betting money on to be first back to camp with a ram.  lets be honest....some guys who have hunted sheep for 20 years and never killed one are likely never going to.  not everyone has what it takes to kill a ram. 

oh, and about the guy in the original post....congrats to him.  coming up with the cash to make that happen is a tough thing for anyone.  to do it at such a young age does stand out for sure.

No problem Nube,   

32" 15 1/2" bases  at age 15 North Face of Indian Head Mountain upper Clearwater.


35 1/4" 15 1/2" bases at age 17   Shale pass in Forbiden Creek Between the Clearwater and Scalp creek.



Hey and ISB maybe I should have said "many"  instead of "most" but there are a high number of guys that buy a sheep tag that turn down rams every year. I myself know of alot and there will be alot more than just the ones I know of!!!!

Look at it this way if 17 guys( I could direct you to that many easy in a year) are turning rams down that have a ram or two already or are holding out for that special ram, decide to just shoot another ram that would increase Albertas annual overal harvest by 10%.  And I would put a years wages that of the 2000 guys buying tags each year there are a minimum of 80(im sure more over the whole province) that are turning a multiple ram down. If them guys all said heck with it and just shot a sheep that would alone increase our annual harvest over 50% and put the annual harvest 20-30 rams/yr higher than in the peak years in the mid 80's.
Right now they are talking about changes because of how the harvest is already. Can you imagin if every guy that saw a legal ram in a season pulled the trigger!!! I personaly would hate to see the results.
SG

And a big Congrats to Adam!

So you think out of 2000 plus tag holders less than a total of 200 are seeing legal rams in a fall? Cause if 168 shot rams in 2011 that leaves over 1800 tag holders that by what you say don't see  a legal sheep. I know a pile of sheep hunters and can figure out them numbers don't jive even a little bit.
By what you say around 7%(168 hunters) harvest sheep and less than 4%(<80 hunters)turn sheep down each year? So only less than 11% of hunters see a legal ram in a season? That is some really bad statistics and if so our sheep hunting is worse than what I thought!

Oh and even if each guy that harvested a ram had a second tag holder with him that you too took and said saw a ram plus say 50 ( you said less than 80)that turned down rams it still leaves the number of hunters seeing legal rams at well under 20%.

Just a question Justin. How many Years have you honestly been hunting sheep and how many days a year? I have a pretty good idea from our previous telephone conversations but just wanted to make sure.

Yep im sure some do hunt elk and sheep at the same time but with most of our biggest Sheep Zones on a very limited draw on elk im thinking them numbers will be low. Look at area such as the Red Deer River area. 12 Elk tags I beleive and the Clearwater(420), 5 elk tags with the South ram about the same! That roughly 30 elk hunters getting tags in some of the most hunted sheep country in Alberta. Right from the Ghost to Cadomin our Mountain zones have a very low amount of elk hunters in sheep country and these are the majority of our sheep man days areas so again ill disagree that the number that buy a sheep tag just to go elk hunting is of high amounts. The number just dont show that at all.

I was like a lot of others. Go out on Saturday's after the opener if I could go.  It took me 5 years to figure it out.  I have seen a few legals in huntable areas last year as I checked to see if I had figured it out or not. Why does this have to do with anything? To really 6-7 days as it ain't like running out 10 min from home hunting deer and elk.

5 years of hunting sundays. So Weekend warriors are successful then. Many many people hunt a few days here and a few days there( I hunted 3 days last fall and saw close to 30 head of rams with a couple legal ones right from my quad). This doesnt mean they have no clue. Our province is loaded with great hunters. And it doesnt take great hunters many days in the field or on these forums to learns a pile about sheep hunting. Sure there are always guys running around without any idea and probably never will have but them guys still get sheep! One of the biggest rams I saw dead was killed by a guy that had his first ever sheep tag for less than a day and rode his pedal bike inbehind the Yaha buildings and a ram walked out so he shot it, 190"+.

And what thread did I start?
And have you ever hunted sheep in Wilmore? 
Do you really believe all of those stats your pulling out of your arse?  Come on Darcy , you are smarter than that if you believe all of the sheep stats.  I bet your going to tell me next that all of the sheep kills are actually acurrate as well and that they all put an x on the exact location where they killed their rams?
This is getting rediculous man, your grabbing at straws here.  Game over you win.  For someone who talks about sheephunting so much I really wonder sometimes if you really know what is going on!