Is a North American Sheep Slam on Your Bucket List?
Are you a dyed in the wool sheep hunter? Does sheep fever course through your veins? I know it does mine. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to harvest a great Dall Sheep and a nice Stone Sheep, as well as the opportunity to guide on a number of Desert, California and Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Hunts. In the process I got to watch as yet many a hunter fell victim to sheep fever. No matter how many opportunities I have to get into Sheep country and pursue these amazing creatures, I constantly find myself daydreaming about them and the spectacular places they call home.
I am not totally sure what it is about sheep hunting that gets so deep into the core of some hunters, is it the vast expanses, the awe inspiring scenery, the sheer difficulty and audacity of chasing them on their turf? Or is it simply the limited opportunities to hunt them or the primal feelings the sight of these animals in their native habitat draws out of us. Regardless of what it is that causes this fascination, the fact is sheep fever is a very real and life altering condition.
The challenge with sheep fever is that most of us have limited budgets, which means our opportunity to hunt sheep are limited by cost and our luck in the draws. However, with some planning and patience many of us can put ourselves in a position to complete a Slam. Here are some of the things that you can start doing now to make your sheep hunting dreams a reality:
- Start putting in for as many of the draws and raffles as you can afford to and stick with it. If you are diligent you will eventually pull a tag, on average it will take between 10-17 years to pull a tag depending on the state and the units you choose to apply for. So do your homework and honestly evaluate your expectations for what you want out of your hunt, the better the trophy quality the longer it will take to draw the tag.
- Play the raffles, in many states you actually have better odds of getting drawn in their raffle drawings than you do out of the normal draw pool, so set aside some money to put in for the different raffles as you never know when the hunting gods will smile on you.
- Set up a hunt savings program!!! I wish I would have done this back when I was young and single as I would have a pretty nice hunting budget these days. Look at setting up an investment account to build a long term hunting budget and make it a goal to put at least $100 a month into something like a mutual fund. For shorter term goals, you may want to just set up a savings account that is automatically transferring a certain amount each month until you reach your target amount.
- Book a hunt now for a couple of years down the road, nothing like firm commitment to force you to save money.
- Sell old gear to jump start your investment program.
- Win the lottery… ok just kidding, but for a sheep hunter how nice would that be?
Your dreams are only your dreams until you start to take action, then they become your objectives, and objectives are achievable with some planning and hard work. Feel free to contact me if you want help booking your dream hunt, or just need some help on developing a strategy to make your dream a reality.
Make sure to ask us about our sheep hunts.
Hunt Hard, Shoot Straight.
Shad