Hunting desert bighorns in canyon country

gundog2 · May 15, 2024

I drew a desert bighorn sheep hunt for the Dirty Devil unit of Utah. By all accounts, I have read that it is rugged country and it can be a tough hunt. There seems to be some pretty good information available on the UDWR website about the locations (canyons) where the sheep can be found. My big question is how do people hunt these animals? Are you trying to approach sheep from the top of the canyons or from the bottom? Seems like it would be impossible to go from top to bottom in many areas judging by the size of the cliffs, and the distances required to shoot from the top of the canyons would also be prohibitive. I have read that it is mainly a glassing game, which makes sense considering the low density of sheep, so I would assume this means glassing from high points and then trying to figure out how to get there. It looks like there are some 4x4 trails that cover the flatter high country, but very few trails in the canyons. There are no obvious trails in many of the canyons.

hunt30 · May 15, 2024

Fun hunt, but not an easy one. In my opinion, some of the country that the sheep and habit on that unit isn’t really huntable. Other times your glass up sheep that are 4 miles away, but it will take you 30 miles on an ATV to get to where you can hike to them from. Sometimes you’ll run into sheep and really random places. I’ve only ever hunted the dirty devil from the top down.

Here’s a couple of photos from the Dirty Devil to get you excited. For reference, the Canyon in the picture shown is almost 2000 feet from rim to bottom.

yoteduster · May 15, 2024

I would say that gundog has his work cut out for him

littlebighorn · May 18, 2024

The Dirty Devil is a very tough hunt. Not lots of sheep and rugged tough to access country, as has been mentioned. It's incredible beautiful desert country and I've helped on lots of hunts in that unit. My take is if you hope to be successful, you will need to plan to hunt at least a couple of weeks at different times of the season.
I've never hunted them from the bottom and always been on top looking into the canyons but as also been mentioned, much of the unit is inaccessible.
It's a great hunt, but it is really a HUNT!
Congratulations.

littlebighorn · May 18, 2024

I will also add, you may want to make a trip right away to learn roads and country. When it gets warmer, the desert gnats get bad and make it almost impossible to glass.

gundog2 · May 18, 2024

littlebighorn said:
I will also add, you may want to make a trip right away to learn roads and country. When it gets warmer, the desert gnats get bad and make it almost impossible to glass.

Probably going there on the 24th.

littlebighorn · May 18, 2024

Good plan gundog2
When my son had that tag it took us multiple trips to learn the country, but it was an amazing adventure. Keep us posted.

LIK2HNT · May 18, 2024

From the above photos I would make sure you bring your climbing gear. Or line up a few people that climb. Looks like retrieval will include rappelling down to the ram.
Wish you luck and please keep us posted.

treedagain · May 18, 2024

LIK2HNT said:
From the above photos I would make sure you bring your climbing gear. Or line up a few people that climb. Looks like retrieval will include rappelling down to the ram.
Wish you luck and please keep us posted.

I have found on my sheep hunts that at least the rams I found were not in the nasty country. I could see somebody making a bad shot and have them bail into it. But what do I know? My UT ram was a leap away from a 1000 cliff

treedagain · May 18, 2024

PleaseDear · May 19, 2024

Maybe deerlove has reach out to you by now.

Robb

wweaver79 · May 19, 2024

Those pics really look like you will find yourself saying, big ram right over there couple miles away, now what. Looks like a fun adventure for sure.

littlebighorn · Jun 9, 2024

Any updates on scouting trips gundog2?

Horniac · Jun 10, 2024

Congrats on the tag gundog2!

I am assuming you saw this video on YouTube but if not here is the link;

Horniac

yoteduster · Jun 10, 2024

^^^^^^^^^ Wow what a tough hunt and one dedicated hunter... Lots of memories and some disappointment in this hunt

fullcry · Jun 10, 2024

I would add.Maybe the hardest part is once you finally find a Ram and shoot you can’t get it back. So make sure when he goes down,you can get to him…

gundog2 · Jul 3, 2024

littlebighorn said:
Any updates on scouting trips gundog2?

I have only been there once over Memorial Day weekend. We did not have time to check out very many places. Getting from one “point” to the next takes much longer than I might have expected and some of the two-track roads ultimately become impassable for my Tundra. We did not see any sheep, but I gained some appreciation for what I am up against. I am afraid to go there now in the middle of the summer.

Deerlove · Jul 3, 2024

I would take ATVs as well not just one in case you get in a pinch.

Deerlove · Jul 3, 2024

I've only been down there on two hunts but I'll look at my notes

littlebighorn · Jul 4, 2024

gundog2 said:
I have only been there once over Memorial Day weekend. We did not have time to check out very many places. Getting from one “point” to the next takes much longer than I might have expected and some of the two-track roads ultimately become impassable for my Tundra. We did not see any sheep, but I gained some appreciation for what I am up against. I am afraid to go there now in the middle of the summer.

Deerlove is right. You really need an ATV to get to many of the glassing points we go to, and then we often hike to some further out. Summer scouting could help you learn roads and country, but sheep will be shaded up and hard to find. Good glass and sitting in one spot for hours is our routine for that country.
Thanks for the update and keep us posted.