Updated: 2026
View April 2026 Magazine for Tables


This past year, I believe I had my most meaningful and memorable hunt ever. Don’t get me wrong; every hunt that I have been on means a lot to me, but there is something about pursuing a dream for twenty-plus years—spending countless days in the mountains, challenging myself physically and mentally, finding new friendships, and watching with excitement as friends filled their own unlimited sheep tags—before finally filling my own tag and bringing that dream to fruition.

I started hunting Montana’s unlimited sheep units in 2001. Some years, I spent as many as fifteen days in a unit, while in other years I spent only a few. I believe a lot of luck and the many years spent learning this country allowed me to finally punch my own tag during a hunt that I had pursued longer and desired more than any other I have ever embarked on.

As a young man back in 1999, I moved from Fernley, Nevada to Missoula, Montana to become a firefighter and to capitalize on the hunting opportunities that Montana has to offer. As someone new to the area, I did everything I could to educate myself about hunting in Montana. While in a Barnes & Noble bookstore, I found a book by Duncan Gilchrist called Montana Land of Giant Rams Volume 3. It was from this book that I first learned about Montana unlimited sheep units. Little did I know that this book would change my life forever.

After reading the book a couple times cover to cover, I realized Duncan only lived about thirty minutes from my house. After a phone call to introduce myself and visiting over lunch the next week, Dunc and I became friends. Before he passed away a couple of years later, he gave me his maps of the unlimited areas and helped me plan my first unlimited sheep hunt in 2001.

Fast forward to 2025, and I had one of the busiest guiding and hunting schedules I have had in a long time. August found me in Alaska guiding a couple of Dall sheep hunters. After watching clients take two great rams and knowing I had a limited window of time to hunt before heading back to Alaska to guide caribou, I was itching to get back to Montana for my unlimited sheep hunt. I went into my hunt with my good friend Shane Bailey, who also had a tag. Due to our busy schedules, we found ourselves running late and leaving the trailhead on September 14. Unable to get in early, we decided to hit all of our favorite glassing points to see if we could turn up a legal ram. At midday, I was able to glass up a ram bedded under a tree, and after watching him for a while, we were able to turn up five rams. We decided that Shane would stay and watch the rams while I went to look over some more country. After glassing the rest of the day, I made my way back to Shane as it got dark. He said that the rams had fed up over the mountain. We decided to make camp there and then hunt our way in the direction the rams went in the morning.

After breaking camp in the dark, we headed in the direction the rams had disappeared in. A short while into the hike, Shane spotted the rams moving into a timbered basin. After a long, hard hike, we found ourselves in the basin where we had last glassed the sheep. We dropped our packs and made our way to a glassing spot that would give us a good look at the basin. After picking apart the timbered basin, we found a ram and moved to a better vantage point where we were able to see all five rams. The biggest ram was the highest up the mountain, and I quickly got set up for the shot. There I was, lying prone with my scope on a legal ram at 283 yards, and, as I watched that ram feed, I had a slideshow of the last twenty-plus years of unlimited sheep hunting memories going through my mind. I thought of all the rams I had watched and the great times I had experienced in the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains of Montana, and I really hesitated to take the shot. It was like those twenty years—what felt like a lifetime pursuit—had culminated in that moment, and it would all be over when I pulled the trigger. Strange as it sounds, I really had a tough time reconciling the fact that pulling the trigger would mean that the chase was over and that I would have accomplished the one hunt that had captured so much of my time and effort.

The silence was broken and my thoughts interrupted when Shane asked if I was going to shoot the ram. I told him I was not sure and was still trying to make up my mind. The longer I thought about it, the more I wanted to harvest the ram. I honestly have never been calmer when I pulled the trigger; the shot was true and the ram was down. It was one of the most surreal moments I have ever experienced while hunting. Once we knew the ram was dead, we made a quick trip back to our packs as a rainstorm barreled down on us. After the storm passed, we made our way to the ram and met up with three other unlimited sheep hunters. After taking care of the ram, we packed it all the way back out to the trailhead.

It is hard to believe that I will not be in there this year with an unlimited sheep tag in my pocket. Luckily for me, my youngest son, Colter, wants to experience the unlimited sheep hunt, and I am really excited for September 15, 2026. Sometimes it is hard to put a story into words, but if you want to hear more about my unlimited sheep hunt, I would encourage you to listen to episode 258 of the Built to Hunt Podcast where Austin Atkinson and I talk about everything that went into the harvest of my unlimited ram in 2025.

For Montana' Unlimited Bighorn Sheep Harvest data, view our April 2026 E-Mag.

Montana has five units that they manage for unlimited bighorn sheep hunting opportunities. Both residents and non-residents may apply for a bighorn sheep license by May 1 and go sheep hunting in the fall. To hunt rams in the unlimited areas, non-resident hunters must pay $1,250 and resident hunters must pay $125. If you harvest a ram in an unlimited area you have to report your harvest within twenty-four hours, but you have seventy-two hours to get your ram checked in. The harvest success rate is very low, and once the quota has been reached, the season will close twenty-four hours later. On average, ten rams are killed every year. The 2% harvest success rate may scare most people, but those success rates are a lot higher than the odds of actually drawing a sheep tag anywhere in the West. If you take a ram in Montana, you must wait seven years before you can hunt sheep there again.

New for 2026, they have changed the way you purchase your tag. You are no longer allowed to purchase your tag online or at a vendor. All unlimited bighorn sheep tags will have to be applied for through the draw. You will apply for one of the five unlimited sheep areas and will be awarded the tag after the draw is complete. You will then purchase your tag from Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. This change also closes the loophole where you were able to purchase your unlimited sheep tag and then purchase a Montana sheep point later in July. Going forward, unlimited sheep hunters will no longer be able to purchase a point for sheep. That said, applying through the draw for the unlimited units will not take away any sheep bonus points that you currently have.

These unlimited sheep hunts take place in some of the roughest country in Montana. All of these units can be found just north of Yellowstone Park. In addition to the remote country, you’ll be dealing with grizzly bears and plenty of other sheep hunters. These hunts are tough and not for everyone. Every year, there are plenty of new sheep hunters who show up and are completely overwhelmed by how big this country really is, and a number of them will head home after just a few days of hunting close to the trailheads. Others make it deep into the unit only to be run off the mountain by a big September snowstorm that covers the country in a foot or more of snow. The best advice I can give an unlimited sheep hunter is to be prepared for everything; every year is going to be different.

There is nowhere else I would rather be than high in the Beartooth Mountains in the middle of September hunting sheep. The area making up the unlimited units is truly a special place. I am often asked if the unlimited hunts are worth it. My answer is that it is really up to the hunter and what they are willing to put into the hunt. I believe hunters who stay with it and spend ten days a year in the unit will typically glass up a legal ram within five years. With the increasing price for guaranteed sheep hunts and the terrible odds for actually drawing a tag, this will be the only way a lot of hunters ever get the chance to hunt bighorn sheep.

Good luck to all who are hunting the unlimited units this year! If you have questions on the unlimited areas, give me a call and we can discuss your options.