tahrhunternz

Im a 20 year old Professional Hunting Guide in New Zealand and plan to come to Montana in 2016 to hunt the Bighorn Sheep Unlimited units solo (nobody over here is mad enough to come into grizzly country with me). I am about to apply for my licence and tag but would like to talk to somebody who has hunted them recently or knows anything about them and would be willing to offer some advice, opinions and helpful tips, there may just be something in it for you if you're ever in NZ

hillbillyhunter1

From the extremely limited info I have, I hear that because those units are under an extremely low quota system, many times there are hunters (or guides waiting to take hunters) actually hanging out with legal rams weeks before the season starts......just waiting to pull the trigger.....so, pre-season scouting, under that circumstance, seems more important than ever. I hope you're able to get more info here...wish I could offer more.

tahrhunternz

Thanks for that mate, i plan to be in the unit scouting 2 - 2 1/2 weeks before the season starts to try and boost my chances of finding a legal ram for opening day. i figured if im going to travel to the other side of the world to hunt them i may as well put in alot of scouting. From what i have read it can be all go on opening day with the quotas being filled almost immediately?

buffybr

I hunted those units for a number of years in the 80s and 90s. I had horses then, so getting into the back country in those units wasn't too bad. The units that I hunted were 300, 302, 303, and 500.

My most successful hunts were in unit 302 where I killed 3 rams. Unfortunately that is a draw unit now.

I hunted unit 303 a couple of years, but didn't get into any rams. I think that I didn't go deep enough into the unit, and one hunt ended when I killed a 340" 6x6 bull elk.

I killed one ram in unit 500, but it was late in the season, and the rams had moved down closer to their winter range. I hunted that unit early another year and saw sign, but no sheep. I must have been close, as I saw blood on the trail from a ram that a hunter that Atcheson from Butte had guided to.

My last unlimited hunt was in unit 300 in the late 90s. I saw a good ram the day before the season opened, then at daylight opening morning, the basin where I had seen the ram was a zoo full of other hunters, camps, guided hunters on horseback, and Yellowstone Park rangers. I got close enough to young rams and ewes that I could hear them chewing, but I never saw the big ram again. I did however see some big rams over the line, inside Yellowstone park, but with all of the people there, they stayed in the Park.

Tahrhunter, who do you guide for in NZ? I had a great hunt there in 2014 with Gary Herbert.

tahrhunternz

Thats all awesome information to know! Thank you! I guide for a company called Stravon Safaris, we are only about 30mins north of Gary Herberts lodge. Did you get some nice animals? How does the hunting in montana compare to nz?

buffybr

I got some great animals hunting with Gary Herbert. After the hunt, my girlfriend and I rented a car and spent the next two weeks driving around your beautiful island.

I've evidently maxed out the number of pictures allowed in my albums here, so I don't have any of my NZ animal pics posted. My Montana Album does have a few pics of some of the animals that I have hunted here.

Montana hunting is completely different from New Zealand. There are no high fence hunting operations here, No use of helicopters, and no game farms. All of the game animals belong to the state, and you need specific licenses from the state to hunt each specie. The licenses for some animals, like Sheep, Moose, and Goat are only available through a drawing. Chances of being drawn in the better units are less than 1 in 200. I have been unsuccessful in the Mountain Goat drawings for the past 37 years.

tahrhunternz

I hope everyone was hospitable! Its a great place to live and everything is so close in the grand scheme of things.

Just had a look at your photos and WOW!! what fantastic animals you have harvested. Your rams are magnificent! One looks as if its nearly full curl.

What about the difference in terrain to say tahr country? All of my personal hunting that i do here is backpack and free range, so i am no stranger to walking for miles and miles up near vertical mountains in knee deep snow. Apart from the occasional culling mission i rarely hunt on the safari parks and use helicopters unless im guiding. 37 years?!?! Does montana not have a preference point system? I plan to hunt the unlimited units for exactly that reason, that it can take far too long to draw although my chances of harvesting a legal ram are greatly diminished.

buffybr

Yes, everyone that we met in NZ was very hospitable.

My longest bighorn ram wasn't the oldest, but his right horn is an inch or two over full curl.

Both Montana and New Zealand has STEEP country. I killed my rams in country that wasn't as steep as where I killed my tahr, and definitely not as steep as where I killed my chamois. Where I killed my mountain goat was as steep as anywhere I hunted in NZ.

I drew my last goat tag in 1978. I've applied unsuccessfully every year since. Montana has a "bonus point" system that they started about 14 years ago. You get a bonus point every year that you don't draw a species. Then your name gets put into the drawing the number of times that you have bonus points. A few years ago they started "squaring" your bonus points.

So next year I'll have 15 bonus points for each sheep, moose, and goats. That means my name will be put into the drawing 225 times in each of those drawings. But so will the thousands of other guys that also have 15 bonus points. I'll have 225 chances of being drawn, but the total names in the drawing will also have gone up from about 6,000 to over 1 million.

chinarider

its good you will be putting in a lot of pre season scouting for sheep.
keep in mind that there will be a lot of local to montana also out there before first light on the opening day.it will be a real cluster and your odds that you get to a nice ram before anyone else will be low .

if you do well hiking up for tahr you will do just fine climbing hills over here. i had a friend from nz come over this last elk/deer season and he did just fine and got use to the thinner air pretty fast
we were after elk from 7000-8500. take you time and you should adjust to it just fine but it does shut some guys down pretty fast .
what are your dates you plan to be here in mt ?
if you are planning on doing any other hunting while here like elk/deer
i am sure i could help point you in a few areas that have both
also be handy with those longer shots if it come up . this kiwi in my elk camp had never shot past 400yrds before and on opening day i put him on a group of elk and 1 very nice 6x6 bull at 578 yrds
and he passed on it and just took pix for about 10 min before they went on there way.

tahrhunternz

Chamois do like to live in some funny places! I hunt not that far from where Gary Herbert hunts tahr so pretty familiar with that country.

Sounds like a pretty intense draw system! I suppose it's one of those things you've got to be in to win though. Best of luck for drawing!!!