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Maddie Richards talks with Montana hunter Tristan Richter about landing an international sheep hunt through the <1 Club program. They cover the hunt itself, the people he met along the way, and how getting involved in the wild sheep community led to an experience he never expected.

What happens when a handful of raffle tickets collide with a little opportunity and a lot of good luck?  The answer: someone is kicked from the <1 Club! Ray Maack is one such someone. After winning an Alberta bighorn sheep hunt at the 2024 Sheep Show®, Ray drove from his home in Oregon to Alberta, Canada, where he battled harsh weather, steep mountains, and blisters, all for a shot at one magnificent rocky mountain bighorn. In typical sheep hunt fashion, this one came down to the wire. 

It’s not hard to kill sheep, it’s hard to find them. That’s what I had heard after I drew my first tag in Nevada for a California bighorn. The exact opposite turned out to be true. We saw sheep every day! Getting to them was the hard part. My son Henry was with me every day of the hunt and was next to me when we belly crawled about 200 yards to get within shooting range. We had passed on larger rams than the one I took, but I was just incredibly happy that I could take a once-in-a-lifetime California bighorn sheep.