Fly-in Alaskan sheep hunt offers high success and lots of sheep

We consider this one of the finest Dall sheep hunts available. Comparable to the better hunts in the Northwest Territories or the Yukon Territory in quality, this hunt produces excellent full-curl rams, mostly in the 36 to 38-inch category, at a lower cost. That's because our Alaskan outfitter does not have to pay off a debt of a million dollars or more to pay off a concession as is the case with most Canadian outfits, which have been changing hands for millions of dollars in the past few years.

This outfit operates iis the only one operating in three adjoining areas totaling more than 3,000 square miles in the Nutzotin Mountains, including a portion of the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Preserve about 300 miles northeast of Anchorage. This hunt is in such remote country that you won't compete with residents for your ram. The outfitter flies you into the country, where you will hike for the ram haunts.

I've hunted this area about six years ago and saw more than 35 rams the first day and half a dozen the next day before I shot my 36-incher. This is ideal Dall sheep country with beautiful grassy slopes, lots of high elevation plateaus and passes and plenty of rugged escape cover.

You can add grizzly or moose in season. The grizzlies are beautiful mountain grizzlies that are usually 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 foot square, but an eight-footer was taken in 2007.

Hunters stay in cabins or large bomb shelter tents at main camp. In good weather the outfitter can fly you and your guide in a tundra-tire-equipped plane to the top of the mountain right in the middle of sheep country, where you can spike camp and hunt down to the rams.

Hunts.Net customer Ray Bridge of Utah, right, hunted three days to get his 38-incher with 14-inch bases.

He and his brother both fly and guide in their area and both live at the base camp year-round with their families. They grew up with their father running this operation. He picks you up at a tiny village, then drives on a graded and graveled road across four creeks to a lodge, where he and his brother and their wives and their mother live. If you want to take your wife on this trip, she can stay in the lodge while you're out hunting. Be advised that they use outhouses and have no indoor plumbing in this remote location.

We have had excellent success with this outfitter. All our customers so far have killed rams and highly recommend this outfit.

You'll hunt the north side of the Wrangells and the north side of the Nutzotin Mountains, such as Cooper Pass and the headwaters of the Jacksina Glacier to the south. The Wrangells are mostly rolling, and the north side is shale. The Nutzotin is shale. The area totals about 84 miles by 40 miles and lies about 300 miles north of Anchorage. The outfitter's family, brothers family and Mom all live here year round.

The area boasts 12 cabins as well as spike camps, including two on a plateau at about 6,000 feet. Some of the spike camps feature bomb shelter tents with cots and heaters.

Almost all rams taken on this hunt are full curl rams with horns measuring 34 to 39 inches long. Very few are 40 inchers. A friend of mine took a 40-incher here. Most hunters in the past have tagged out in three to four days, but some hunt as many as seven or eight before killing their ram. Bases average 13".-- Rich LaRocco

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Hunts.Net customer Steve Bridge of Utah took his 36-incher on the first day.