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Bozeman, Montana. September 3, 2025. The Wild Sheep Foundation has again partnered with Montana-based MTNTOUGH for another TOUGH SHEEP workout for the upcoming 2026 Sheep Show® in Reno. TOUGH SHEEP is a physical workout event for anyone looking to test their conditioning or add to their fitness routine that best simulates the rigors of a sheep hunt.

The Wild Sheep Foundation, in partnership with the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society, just concluded a raffle for the Arizona Game & Fish Department. The result was a new record set for an Arizona sheep tag raffle. Through the generosity and commitment to wild sheep conservation, $357,900 was raised for the chance to be drawn for an Arizona Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep tag.

Dan Gates with Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management is on the frontlines of a ballot box biology battle in Colorado and the hits just keep on coming. Now it’s a push to restructure how wildlife is managed “or not” by establishing a new replacement to Colorado Parks & Wildlife.

WSF was a proud supporter of the Boone and Crockett Club’s previous Big Game Awards and is pleased to be back sponsoring this latest celebration of big game hunting and conservation. The Club’s records program is a living reminder of what excellence in nature looks like when aided by conservation-minded sportsmen. These fine specimens, and the Fair Chase hunters who were fortunate enough to have taken them, should be celebrated.

There are far more aoudad (Barbary sheep) west of the Pecos River in Texas than there are desert bighorn sheep on the planet.  With some estimates citing as high as 80,000 to 100,000 aoudad, the North African import has not only taken a foothold in the region but is in the process of displacing native wildlife along the way. The most critically affected species is the desert bighorn sheep.

The Wyoming Governor's Big Game License Coalition finalized its 2025 project funding by allocating $1.5+ million for Wyoming wildlife conservation projects with monies raised by auctioning special big game tags in 2024 and 2025. A total of 73 projects that benefit the Coalition’s five priority big game species will be funded.

The Boone and Crockett Club announced today that the Wild Sheep Foundation is the presenting sponsor of the 32nd Annual Big Game Awards banquet that will be held in Springfield, Missouri on July 25, 2025. The 32nd Big Game Awards recognizes the most impressive heads, horns, and antlers accepted into the Boone and Crockett Club’s record book over the past three years and is a celebration of Fair Chase hunting and conservation of North American big game. 

A mature aoudad ram is an impressive animal. With thick, sweeping horns, a sandy-brown coat, and a long mane that runs down the chest and legs, aoudad are prized by many hunters. But there is more to aoudad than meets the eye, as these animals create a gigantic ecological footprint across the desert Southwest and beyond. 

During the recent Sheep Show® in Reno, NV, The Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) and Mongolia Wildlife Association (MWA) signed a landmark agreement where WSF would supply the horn plugs, drill bits, and training to the MWA. The MWA will implement horn plugging per their MOU with the Ministry. This collaboration marked an important step in conservation, focusing on implementing horn-plugging for the legal harvest of argali, the largest wild sheep and a prized game animal for international hunters.

With hunting being such a big part of my life growing up, there has always been the excitement of big game draw day. I woke early in spring of 2024 to see if I had drawn any tags. I passed the word UNSUCCESSFUL a few times and then launched out of bed when I saw SUCCESSFUL in green beside bighorn sheep. After 17 years, I had finally drawn an Oregon ram tag. I immediately called my dad, mom, and brother to tell them the great news, knowing they would be as excited as me.

The mountain will tell me,” says legendary sheep hunter Rex Baker. Rex is a decade my senior. Recently, he confided to me that the mountain was starting to whisper, hadn’t yet blocked his trail. Couple years ago, Alan Sackman decided it would be fun to take one more FNAWS…in his 80s. He set to work and accomplished his goal. Early this year, I sat next to Dr. Gerald Warnock at the Weatherby banquet. He was excited that he was headed to Mexico for a desert ram. At our Sheep Show I talked to his outfitter, Bo Morgan. Yes, Jerry Warnock took a fine ram.

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.