Backcountry - Fort St John

Backcountry - Fort St John HELPING YOU ENJOY THE GREAT OUTDOORS

This is how the biologist aged the Idaho bighorn that Trec shared with us. Trec showed us in green where the biologist c...
06/07/2026

This is how the biologist aged the Idaho bighorn that Trec shared with us. Trec showed us in green where the biologist counted annuli, shows in red where a false is, and then showed in yellow where a possible ring sits. The biologist said it was 8.5, with a possible 9.5

Typically a false ring will only show well on 1 side, and won't go all the way around the horn. This ram displayed the possible annuli well on both sides, with the ring showing all the way around the horn. Trec also said that if you considered this a ring, it would line up with a really short growing season and bad winter year, which could suggest it is a real ring, despite it not following the standard growth pattern on the ram.

All of this being said, if you are ever glassing a ram we would still encourage you to consider the growth pattern of the ram, and on the mountain we would not have counted this as a true ring. We would've called this ram 8.5 on the will, but that "yellow" ring really can make a guy start to wonder.

What do you think? Could it be a ring, or no chance? What things do you think could " tell us the truth"? X-ray the horn?

Backcountry welcomes the newest addition to our lineup, Yeti 🫈. Now in stock and ready for your next adventure 🏕️
06/06/2026

Backcountry welcomes the newest addition to our lineup, Yeti 🫈. Now in stock and ready for your next adventure 🏕️

This little series of quizzes is the pretty neat. Being up in northern BC, close to stone sheep country, and we are gett...
06/05/2026

This little series of quizzes is the pretty neat. Being up in northern BC, close to stone sheep country, and we are getting folks all the way down Idaho who are participating in our quizzes.

Trec was kind enough to reach out and share this bighorn ram he harvested and shared a handful of great pictures to judge off of. So, how old do you think this ram is? I suspect there will be lots of discussion around 1 certain annuli

As mentioned earlier and by a couple commenters, this mount is a great way for Mike to display his uncles ram from the l...
05/31/2026

As mentioned earlier and by a couple commenters, this mount is a great way for Mike to display his uncles ram from the late 70s

This ram seems to have people fairly divided on age, with about 50% calling him 10 and 50% calling him 9.

We say he is 9, and when looking at both sides of this ram, we only see consistency that gets us to 9 years old. But this is a learning page, and discussion is the best path to learning. So if you disagree on him being 9 please show us on both side where the additional growth rings are.

Don’t forget, it’s always important to look at the growth pattern on a ram, and if ever a ring is in question, take a look at both sides. False rings often only present on 1 side.

Mike was kind enough to help us out with this weeks ram quiz by sharing a ram his uncle harvested back in the late 70s. ...
05/29/2026

Mike was kind enough to help us out with this weeks ram quiz by sharing a ram his uncle harvested back in the late 70s.

This ram has a couple faint rings, but these up close pictures give us a great look at how old he is.

While we all admire how cool the pack mount is that Mike put together, take a minute to tell us how old you think this ram is.

This weeks ram checked all the boxes, a perfect example of a ram that is well over the nose, with good and consistent gr...
05/24/2026

This weeks ram checked all the boxes, a perfect example of a ram that is well over the nose, with good and consistent growth patterns to leave a person feeling confident on their decision to pull the trigger.

This beautiful ram was 38.5” on his long side, 36 .75” on the short side, with 13 3/4” bases, and 9 years old.

Brandon shared with us that this ram was the lead ram of the band, although he was younger than the other ram shot.

Show Brandon some love here and see if we can convince him to share a double header picture for a future aging quiz!

Almost forgot to put up this weeks pop quiz!This ram was sent in to us by Brandon. Make sure to show some appreciation t...
05/22/2026

Almost forgot to put up this weeks pop quiz!

This ram was sent in to us by Brandon. Make sure to show some appreciation to him or helping us keep these quizzes going.

You all know the drill. How long is this ram, how heavy are his bases? How much is broomed off on his short side? And most importantly, how old is he?

Beautiful ram Brandon, congratulations!

Another thanks to Garred for sharing this ram they took off the mountain over 4 decades ago in October. I bet the gear w...
05/17/2026

Another thanks to Garred for sharing this ram they took off the mountain over 4 decades ago in October. I bet the gear was quite different, and it’d be fun to hear about it if you have time to share what you remember Garred.

This ram is the oldest we’ve posted yet, with a CI’d age of 12 years old. This ram is easy to call 11, and with the way the rings are stacking up and with the amount of hair a ram has that late in the season, there is 1 hiding that is hard for us to see in person. Tipping out at over 41” and being way over the nose, this ram would get any hunter excited, and would be a no brainer easy ram to “call legal”

Note, these pictures have some green lines on the inside of the horn. If you look at them you can see that each time a new year of growth starts, the horn changes the angle of growth. This is a handy thing to look at when up close and personal with the sheep, but it’s is practically impossible to use in the field.

Did you guess right on this ram? Are you planning to find a ram like him this fall?

If you have a ram you’d be willing share with us, please feel free to message us with some pictures and a story about him.

These weekly posts have been all about being fun, showing off some sheep, and helping people to learn how to age sheep p...
05/15/2026

These weekly posts have been all about being fun, showing off some sheep, and helping people to learn how to age sheep properly. This week is no different, but sometimes it’s easier to decide a ram is a shooter.

Garred reached out and shared some pictures of this wicked ram that they hunted over 40 years ago. He was young at the time, and they had gotten 3 sheep that October ( Garred please correct me if I’m getting details wrong ) and this wasn’t even the biggest ram!

However, Garred shared some details that are really interesting about this ram, and can help people determine the age of a sheep in the hills. Much like looking at an old dog, old sheep will get a big belly, a sway back, and other physical features that come with age. So always look at the entire animal, not just his horns. This ram also had a broken jaw that had healed at one time. It’s amazing what these rams can endure.

So let us know how old you think this ram is, how long do you think his long side is? Small hint, as mentioned this is an October ram, so there might be a ring or two hiding in the hair

They don’t get much prettier than this, and most could agree Garrett will have a hard time finding a prettier ram to get...
05/10/2026

They don’t get much prettier than this, and most could agree Garrett will have a hard time finding a prettier ram to get in his scope.

This ram tipped out at 39 1/4” on his long side, with 13 1/4” bases and is 9.5 years old. A dark caped ram like this is something dreams are made of, and most all of us would be pumped to see a ram like this on the mountain.

Blue lines show his actual annuli, while red lines false rings that could catch people off guard

If you’re getting back in sheep country this year, good luck and send pictures Garrett!

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V1J1A8

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