Bighorn MT Unlimited Area planning question

[Badger6]

When hunting in area 300 of MT for Bighorn sheep, how does a tag owning hunter know if the quota has been met and the area is closed?

[salukipv1]

not certain, but believe you have to call every morning...

[turkeyward]

Badger:
They close the season on a 48 hour's notice. You can stay on top the mountain and find out every day. They announce the quota every day on the local radio stations at a certain time every day. Just find out from the regional game and fish office the ways you can find out. You can also trek down to the trailhead every day and see if it is posted. So with the 48 hours notice you get the first three days for sure without having to worry. Then you must check every 2 days (48 hours).
Nearly every quick season was 4 days. Rarely the season will not tag out. The year I took mine the quota was four and only two of us killed rams. I checked a few years later and the quota was still 4 and they killed like 18 before they got the season closed. So it really can depend on the year. I can't remember which side of the road was 300 and 301. I have hunted both and saw lots of sheep. It a tough hunt bud. You need to come ready to give 100% for days to get it to work. I would suggest to go to the toughest place to get to in your area. Look in the trees more than the open. Hunt at timberline and focus just inside the timber. Pay attention to places near rocky outcroppings and especially near scree slides and high mountain saddles for escape routes. If you find a high mountain spring in the trees and lots of sheep sign nearby -- key on that spring if it's hot and dry.
I also suggest not trophy hunting. If you see a legal ram it is a trophy for the area -- pound him. A Montana unlimited bighorn ram is one of the toughest hunts in the world. Yes I said the world. They are in some very inhospitable places. easily compare with any other hunt under 14,000 ft elevation. By the way, bighorn sheep meat is fantastic don't spare any and don't share any.

[Badger6]

Thank you both for the replies and help.

I'll be sure to close the loop with you after this season and let you know we did.

All the best!

[Badger6]

Originally Posted by Badger6

Thank you both for the replies and help.

I'll be sure to close the loop with you after this season and let you know we did.

All the best!

Hello Everyone,
This is an update - we saw lots of sheep in our area, but never spotted a legal ram that we knew was in our AO.

The hunt was pretty incredible nonetheless, however it did end on a bad note. We called in to MT FWP Department after hiking to within mobile phone coverage at 12:30PM MT on Friday- a woman at FWP Dept told me that area 300 "closes at 12:30PM on Saturday." I repeated her words back to her to insure I had the right info - then yesterday evening, a friend sent us the MT FWP website link that said the season closed SUNDAY instead of Saturday. So we lost a day of hunting due to MT FWP's bad info.

Many thanks for everyone's advice on how to make this a safe and successful hunt. Especially, the teams we bumped into in the zone. We sincerely appreciated their kindest. We're banking the experience of this hunt and looking forward to a legal ram the next time we win a tag. It was a mind bending experience.

BTW - I could use some help on one item - If anyone knows of the successful "30 something year old,tatoo'ed bad_ss hunting team of locals (one of which just had a son born), that got a ram inside the first 48 hours", please let them know I found one of their wool skull caps that they left behind in the area. I have a feeling it is lucky cap and one of them might want it back. I'd be happy to mail it.

Badger6