Haines Junction man unlucky in rare sheep hunt

A Yukon man who had won a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hunt for a Dall sheep in the territory's Kluanemountain range came back empty-handed, despite being surrounded by dozens of sheep.

Richard Clark of Haines Junction won last year's lottery by the Yukon government for one sheep hunting permit in the former Kluane Game Sanctuary, which is home to hundreds of trophy-sized Dall sheep.

Clark's name was drawn from 315 Yukon hunters vying for the sole permit, whichfetchesupwards of $315,000 USat a private big-gamehuntingauction.

When Clark embarked on the hunt this past fall the retired teacher took two friends, Wolf Reidl and Dan Drummond, with him as guides.

"Wolf and Dan are some of the best sheep hunters around, and yup, they definitely got me in sheep country and we saw lots of sheep," Clark told CBC News in an interview.

"There was lots of sheep, lots of sheep."

'Not much of a sheep hunter'

But Clark said he missed twice over the several days that he was in the area.

"I'm shooting off a cliff, straight down, he's about 60 yards away," Clark said of his second miss, after his guides had put him within a stone's throw of a trophy-sized ram.

"I thought I had been practicing but terrible, terrible shooting. So I'm afraid I'm not much of a sheep hunter."

It marks the first time since the exclusive permits began being issued that a winning hunter came back with no sheep.

Clark said he still enjoyed the experience thoroughly and plans to enter again in this year's government sheep permit lottery.

But Reidl, one of his hunting companions, wondered if Clark should be allowed to enter the lottery again.

"I'm not sure what the rules are on that, but there's a lot of very, very keen sheep hunters out there who, if he was drawn again, would probably come over and strangle him," Reidl said with a chuckle.

Environment Department officials say Clark is eligible to enter the lottery, but note that his chances ofwinning are about 300 to 1.

Only two Dall sheep hunting permits are issued per year for the Kluane Game Sanctuary.

The other permit was auctioned off last winter at a big-game hunting convention in Reno, Nevada, where an American hunter successfully bid $105,000 US for it. Thenext convention is slated for Feb. 3-6.