Once Oregon’s most common wild sheep, California bighorns died off about 1915 despite last-ditch efforts to save them. Unregulated hunting, overgrazing by domestic livestock anddiseases, some of them carried by disease-resistant livestock, contributed to their demise. The last animals were reported in the Steens Mountains. Oregon began a recoveryprogram in 1954 with the release of 20 sheep from British Columbia into a 1,000-acre high-fenced part of Hart Mountain. Since then, additional transplants have resulted in herdsin many parts of their former range. Periodic counts indicate there are probably more than 4,300 California bighorns in the state. Officials have a goal of restoring healthyherds to all suitable habitat. There are three ways to get a tag: draw one through the annual permit computer lottery, win a state-conducted raffle or be the high bidder at anauction. Few tags are issued, so hunters enjoy relative solitude while hunting in the arid, open lands where sheep thrive. Rams are found mostly in steep, rugged, treelessterrain in the high desert and sometimes roam onto flats and foothills far from bluffs and rocky ridges. Though California bighorns don’t get as big as Rocky Mountain bighorns,exceptional rams are large enough to qualify for listing in the Boone and Crockett Club records. The club does not differentiate between California and Rocky Mountain bighornsheep.

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** Boone and Crockett classifies Rocky Mountain Bighorns and California Bighorns under the same classification. Units below may include Rocky Mountain Bighorns. Units listedbelow may not have a current hunt for this species. Units in this table are considered if any part of the unit is found within any part of the county.