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How to Age Wild Sheep
Free resources to learn how to age wild sheep.
Why is it important to know how to age sheep?
Understanding how to age sheep is an essential skill for sheep hunters.
Properly aging wild sheep is one of the toughest and most important skills required to be a sheep hunter. With that in mind, it's critical that you continually practice and test your knowledge of aging sheep. When selecting a ram for harvest, the goal of a sheep hunter should be to harvest a mature ram that is well beyond their prime breeding years as it promotes a healthy sheep population for generations to come.
The true test of a sheep hunter is patience and sound judgement. You need to stay focused on seeking out a legal, mature ram and be willing to pass on younger, (sometimes legal), rams for the greater good of sheep conservation. It's common to take 6-8 years for a sheep hunter to harvest their first ram as they develop the skills and knowledge required to make that decision.
This website is not a replacement for your government hunting regulations. It is your responsibility to study the hunting regulations in your location to ensure you understand what is defined as a legal sheep to harvest. Consider the content on this website supporting materials to help you practice your skills of sheep aging.
Support Wild Sheep Conservation
The most impactful thing you can do to support wild sheep is to invest in organizations that directly advocate for our wildlife and habitat. It's very affordable to become a member and we also encourage you to volunteer with these organizations.
Wild Sheep Society of BC
Wild Sheep Foundation
Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance
Aging Sheep Free Resources
Take time to watch, read, and learn from the sheep aging resources below. Nothing beats time in the field, but these resources will support your learning and help you make better judgements. We suggest pausing videos or testing yourself on images within the guides to practice aging sheep.
Wild Sheep Harvest & Horn Aging Education
Bill Jex, British Columbia's Wild Sheep and Mtn Goat Specialist, provides technical advice on how to age wild sheep in the field in addition to additional harvest strategies around mountain sheep. Video hosted by Wild Sheep Society of BC.
Field Judging Wild Sheep
Clay Lancaster is a highly respected sheep outfitter and is considered to be an expert in field ageing mature rams. This video is brought to you by Wild Sheep Foundation.Disclaimer: The "crown" method is one tool in a sheep hunters toolkit for aging a ram. It should not be relied on as your sole method to determine legality or age of a ram as there are circumstances where it may not be effective.
Aging Sheep with the Crown Method
Clay Lancaster demonstrates the "crown" methodology of aging wild sheep and principles of being a conservation-minded sheep hunter. Published by the Wild Sheep Society of British Columbia.Disclaimer: The "crown" method is one tool in a sheep hunters toolkit for aging a ram. It should not be relied on as your sole method to determine legality or age of a ram as there are circumstances where it may not be effective.
Guide to Aging Mountain Sheep
A detailed guide on how to properly age wild sheep, understand horn growth, and the common challenges and factors that affect horn growth. This guide was published by Limoilou-Amelie Renaud, Marco Festa-Bianchet.
Dall Sheep - Guide to Judging Sheep Horns
Published by Alaska Department of Fish & Game. The purpose of this training manual is to provide consistency in methods/knowledge of aging Dall sheep using horn annuli and/or determining curl legality.
Dall Sheep - Full-Curl Identification Guide
Published by Alaska Department of Fish & Game, hosted on Wild Sheep Foundation website. There are very helpful visuals of Dall sheep included within this guide along with detailed writing on aging techniques and overall sheep hunting decision making skills.
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Send us a message if you have feedback, other sheep aging content to include here, or if you simply want to chat wild sheep.
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