Wyoming Offering More Bighorn Sheep Tags! – Would You Burn Points On A ¾ Curl Ram?

Wyoming Offering More Bighorn Sheep Tags! – Would You Burn Points On A ¾ Curl Ram?

By Jaden Bales

If you grew up in a small western town like me, then you might have run into a situation where all of the ladies in your class had been asked to prom already, and as a result, you usually brought dates from nearby towns to your tiny high school dance.

Young bighorn sheep males looking for love do the same thing. Except when they return to their hometown dance floor, they could be bringing back a deadly pneumonia that wipes out most of the herd.

It is on that premise that the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission recently approved new 3/4 curl or less bighorn sheep ram tags for two hunt areas in 2024.

These licenses specifically target young rams in herds with high ram populations. The way that the 3/4 curl definition is written, broomed horns are not acceptable, and the curl measurement is taken from the back of the eye. This will mean mature rams with broken horns will not be available on these licenses.

Against the backdrop of long odds for a bighorn sheep license anywhere, these licenses open up opportunities without increasing pressure on the mature ram age class. The type one license holders in Wyoming can still find a strong crop of older age-class rams to chase, and it may even lessen competition for their food resources, producing larger, old rams in the meantime.

If that seems impossible at first, it’s akin to trophy elk areas across the West offering spike hunting opportunities while also producing older age-class bulls. Think of Utah’s famed bull units and the big three in Oregon, for example. 

The 4 hunting licenses in the Ferris/Seminoe herd will hopefully redirect pressure away from the older animals available for the half-dozen ram tag holders while helping bring the male ratio down. This herd is at its objective and next door to the Sweetwater Rocks, where a big reintroduction effort is underway. Keeping these rams contained is important to showing livestock producers Wyoming can be trusted to keep their bighorn sheep from wandering into domestic sheep operations. 

Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation’s Katie Cheesbrough says of the hunt, “The Ferris-Seminoe herd is currently the healthiest herd in the state and will likely be the source herd for transplant should a Sweetwater rocks reintroduction happen. It’s important to keep this herd healthy so that it can be used for reintroduction and expansion in the future with these hunts.”

North on the west side of the Bighorn mountains, the Devil’s Canyon herd was hit with back-to-back disease outbreaks in two years with the last one in August of 2023 disproportionately affecting ewes in the herd. The remaining 32 rams counted in the unit outnumbered the ewes and lambs, setting up a perfect storm for them to start wandering and possibly bringing back yet another disease to the remaining ewes. Those 5 licenses will hopefully take out a few of those potential wanderers. 

You may be a nonresident thinking they might get out from under the weight of their Wyoming points that seem worthless at this stage of the game. I regret to inform you these licenses are only going to be offered to residents in 2024. The WGFD balances out the 90/10 split across all bighorn sheep licenses, and with two Super Tag bighorn sheep licenses going to nonresidents, there is a deficit of two tags from the nonresidents in this year’s draw. 

The Wyoming bighorn sheep drawing woes will continue for nonresidents to the Cowboy State. 

However, residents behind the curve may see these as an opportunity to take their first bighorn sheep before their legs give out and they cannot reach sheep country anymore. For folks like me, who are sitting nearly 70 years behind the top point holders at last year’s sheep license numbers, it’s yet to be seen whether these will offer a consistent low-point option or if the higher point holders who want to get out and hunt sheep will take these once-in-a-lifetime 3/4 curl tags and run. 

There were no publicly outspoken opponents to these hunts at the April 16th Wyoming Game and Fish Commission meeting, and Chapter 9 of the proposed regulations passed unanimously.