Great story and great looking ram. Congratulations to all involved.

Awesome account of a great hunt!!! Thanks for sharing with us. Congrats to you, your daughter and to Robert as well. I've hunted with Robert in the past and will again, he's a good man! Well done sir.

Very cool account!

Awesome sheep!

GREAT account! Thanks for going to the trouble to post that!

congrats to everyone looks like a great hunt

Awesome! Great Ram and great trip. Very nice reading the whole adventure. Thats what its all about.
Congratulations!

how much do you think he weighed?

i have a question, and please don't take it as being negative, i'm just trying to undertand the logic/market for these sheep.


To me, they don't really look like a bighorn. They have mouflon tendancies but don't look like a mouflon either (Thompson temples bighorns look quite a bit more like a mouflon)


The push behind these sheep is that because a true bighorn sheep costs so much to hunt, most hunters never get the chance, these give a hunter a chance to kill a bighorn-esque sheep at a fraction of the cost. but since they don't really look like a bighorn at a 6/8'ths mix, how does that effect the desirability?


will a 7/8ths mix produce something that looks more like a true bighorn? Using Buffalo (bison) as an example, very few are genetically pure, most have domestic bovine DNA in them, but they still look like pure buffalo. will sheep be the same way?



I love to hunt sheep and I hope one day someone is able to produce a bighorn hybrid that looks almost identical to a bighorn.

For me personally I have been blessed with hunting North America Sheep. Except I lost my bighorn cape in a fire..... And I Never drew a desert permit. As my taxidermist said who mounts all my sheep. It's a beautiful ram. Can't add much more than that. Just wanted to share. Some will like some will not, and that's OK.

txtrophy85,

Remember that these are Desert Bighorn hybrids not Rocky Mountain Bighorn hybrids

This picture is of a Desert Bighorn




The picture below is the ram that SheepHunter killed.



I see a pretty close resemblance. While some of the rams in the original poster's posts do have a "Mouflon" look, I think the ram SheepHunter killed looks more like a Desert Bighorn.

I agree it is a beautiful sheep.....just doesn't resemble a bighorn imo


How many of these bighorn/mouflon hybrids are in existence ?

Tony,

I was mistaken, I thought these were Rocky Mountain crosses.

Still, the mane throws me off

That's the part (the mane) that they are trying to breed out. If you Goggle "Bighorn Hybrids" you will see that there are many ranches that have crosses. The one SheepHunter killed is probably one of the better looking rams that I have seen (maybe the best given it's a Desert Bighorn hybrid).

I agree on the mane. The color however is not black like other hybrid rams. I am hopeful like you the 7/8's plus will get closer. However that will be another 10 years before mature rams are available. The ranch owner has a number of ewes being bred back to pure desert..... Lord willing I may still be around .....but just in case.

Note: The rough hair on the back of neck was shedding and pulled off easily The taxidermist brushed it off and will not be on the mount.

I've never killed a sheep of any kind but I've seen several groups of Rocky Mountain Bighorn up close and personal while Elk hunting out west! Incredible animals to see in person but I've never had the desire or the means to hunt one. That being said I really love the look of these rams and I'm glad you decided to share the story and the photos with us. Baker

First off there is allot of Hybrids out there these days.

We are the only ones with evidence of the puriety of their herd.

I have never seen a bighorn cross that has comes close to looking like these. The pictures do not do them justice they have all the signs of Bighorn. ( there is a few that need to be culled out)

With all this being said they are Desert Bighorn/ Hybrids. ( Yes I said Rcky Mt Bighorn we did not want to let that out of the bag yet)

Everyone in the U.S. That has some hybrids are Rocky Mt bighorn crosses.

We are the only ones with Desert Bighorn crosses.

Txtrophy85 / everyone is entitled to their opinions you are the only one that says no resemblance. You must understand mixing something with a European Mouflon is tough because the mouflon traits are so strong genetically it almost always shows through.

We are obviously doing something right I have been talking with orvis,wild sheep foundation about stuff in the future.
The next batch we will have 15/16 basically as close as pure as we can get. Those Rams very well might be accepted as Desert Bighorns for both groups and not be so susceptible to diseases. 😉

I have hunted North American Sheep as you know. As soon as I saw the ram on the hoof it looked like a compact Desert Bighorn. I never said they were exact in every detail but there are no other rams hybrid breading program out there with " evidence of the purity of their herd." and I've looked.

There are ranches selling Pure Transcaspian which are 5/8...6/8 , Pure mouflon 4/8, 5/8 etc.... based on a guess.

As I said I was cautious on the claims. Now I have no doubt. I know they are not pure but I do now know this Ranch has a first class hybrid program working toward better and better, If you want a beautiful unique ram there are a few more out there that may even look closer. This ram turned my crank.

Thanks Kimber 1911

just a couple more enhanced memory pictures


Everyone can draw their own conclusions. Right, wrong, plus, minus.... that is up to you. I am not selling a hunt just sharing my experiences and my opinions. I enjoyed the experience and like I said 95% on the hunt is the memories we create. In closing my taxidermist mounts sheep from all over the world. He was impressed with the beauty of the ram.Just another opinion.
Final stop for a pedestal mount

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the post and those who sent a positive PM.

Again, I wasn't knocking the sheep, he is very good looking. I was just stating because of the presence of the mane it throws the look off, at least for me.

What is the body size of these sheep? It looks to be around 130-150lbs ish based on the pics.


Do you have any guesses as to what a 15/16th hybrid would look like? One would assume that nearly all the mouflon traits would be bred out at that point. I'm curious as to what that sheep would look like

Texastrophy85

All I can say is the mane blends better than the pictures appear. There are so many more features to compare when you are actually holding one. To answer your question ....They will only get better.


Even the appearance of a white saddle patch which appears on the original post pictures is not white. It is a brownish gray running closer to the desert color. The front end is running darker but underneath the overall colors are starting to turn the corner.

Weight guess...175. They are tall and long.