Sheep Fever co-hosts Keith and Gray visit with WSF Chairman, Charlie Kelly (AZ) and COO Corey Mason (TX) about the Foundation’s raffling of the 2025-26 Arizona Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Raffle tag, auctions tags, conservation funding, and where the money goes.

Sometimes celebrated, sometimes hated on, auction tags do get a lot of attention. Some cry for more raffle opportunities to be “fair”, while others want to see max dollars raised for wild sheep, which translates to more wild sheep on the mountain and more opportunity for all forms of tags. Regardless, WSF has a mission committed to doing everything in its power for the wild sheep resource. This time, it’s marketing and selling a raffle tag where every dollar raised from the tag goes back to the state.

The raffle ends June 30th. The winner will have from August 15 2025 to August 14, 2026, to find their ram.

Tickets are $50 each at this link:

https://wildsheep.fanthem.io/give/sheep/online-raffles/bhs?referralCode=sheepfever

Launched in 2015 with financial support from WSF and others, the Wild Harvest Initiative sought to calculate, for the first time, the total amount in pounds or tons of healthy, wild protein humanely harvested by sportsmen every year in the US and Canada. Keith caught up with Conservation Visions President and CEO Shane Mahoney to go over the numbers documented thus far and most importantly, how this data is being used to generate a broader public understanding and appreciation for sustainable use hunting. The sheer tonnage of wild protein consumed as meals and shared by hunters every year is staggering. It really puts into perspective the value of conservation and healthy ecosystems as nature’s pantry, as it has been for a millennium. People may not hunt or agree on hunting’s modern relevance, but no one can dismiss food as nonessential.

Artist, film producer, television host, outdoor communicator, ambassador, hunter, conservationist, father are just a few descriptives of Montana native Jason Matzinger. In this episode Jason and Gray cover a broad range of topics from Jason’s roots, what makes him tick, outdoor media, where it came from, where it is going, and its benefits and burdens. Jason is the real deal and this episode covers topics coast to coast including the status of the outdoor industry. We also learn there is one descriptive that Jason does not consider himself to be…an “influencer.” Find out why.

We’re already looking forward to Part II.

Tough to choose, but here is a Best of Sheep Fever 2024 special episode. Actually, our listeners choose for us by most popular downloads.

A lot of ground covered by some pretty seasoned folks in sheep hunting, conservation’s history and future, wild sheep biology, predator management, shooting technology and marksmanship, to name a few.

· Episode 40: Wild Sheep & Predators - Kevin Hurley, Kurt Alt, Tom Lohuis, and Eric Rominger (02:00)

· Episode 46: Shooting Tech and the Era of Marksmanship - John Snow (28:19)

· Episode 50: WSF Ambassador Talk Sheep Show - Jana Waller (52:08)

· Episode 63: What Next for Conservation - Shane Mahoney (1:08:03)

You’ll like this one.

Often consumed to celebrate victory, sometimes even survival, but just as often to mourn defeat, whiskey and wild sheep do go together. Such was the vision of founder Robert Gertsner when he conceived of wild sheep inspired distilled adult beverages now known as Full Curl Brand’s. Rob is a successful entrepreneur and a passionate and equally successful sheep hunter. A bowhunter, his coveted offerings of bourbon, rye, gin, and vodka match his pension for doing it the right way even if that is not the easy one.

Sheep Fever co-host Gray Thornton and Rob discuss how the brand started, sheep and mountain hunting, the liquor business, the Sheep Show, partnerships and how Rob pays it forward by donating a portion of every bottle sold to fund wild sheep conservation.

Pour yourself a glass, grab a fine cigar, relax, make no apologies, and sit back and enjoy this episode.

Admittedly, hunters are gear junkies. When it comes to our knives, as we learned from MKC founder and CEO Josh Smith, it runs deeper than that. Grandpa’s knife can be Dad’s knife; can then be our knife as a rite of passage.

Sheep Fever sat down with Josh and a true American brand success story to discuss his humble beginning as a Montana boy knifemaker at age 15 to becoming the youngest Master Knifemaker in the country as certified by the Knifemaker’s Guild, onto becoming one of the most successful startup knife companies in a very crowded field.

His story and his philosophy about cutting tools, his team, and what goes into each MKC blade is an interesting journey into tradecraft for the hunter, and now the ranch, the kitchen, and who knows what next.

The timing couldn’t be better. WSF has secured a limited number of their famous Blackfoot 2.0 knives for our current Life Member promotion giveaway. Like all MKC knives, if you blink, they’re gone.

Full details at this link https://www.wildsheepfoundation.org/life-summitlife

Post Sheep Show, Sheep Fever co-host Keith Balfourd and WSF’s Director of
Publications and Awards, Julie Tripp reconnect with Dustin Diefenderfer of Mtn. Tough
Fitness Labs to walk, or limp back through the first TOUGH SHEEP workout that took
place at the Show.

The TOUGH SHEEP workout was conceived by Dustin and his team to engage
mountain fitness enthusiasts. The event aimed to not only welcome participants to the
Sheep Show but also to provide a calendar event for their workout goals, create
opportunities for in-person connections beyond their private workout spaces, contribute
directly to wild sheep conservation efforts, and offer a chance to win a Dall's sheep
hunt. The event raised $50,000 for wild sheep.

It was a lot to unpack, but with the maximum of 500 registrants on the books, 428
making it to Reno and starting and all completing the workout, TOUGH SHEEP was a
huge success and all the buzz of the 2025 Sheep Show. Plans are in play for an even
bigger and better event for 2026.

In Part II of our Spotlight on BC, Kyle, Scott, and Gray weigh into the status of wild sheep and wildlife in the province, and the status of wildlife conservation and management given Ministry, staff, and other recent political changes. The trio of CEOs discuss the prospects for restoring the grizzly bear hunt, other wildlife challenges, dollars to the resource vs. impact to the resource and social license issues effecting conservationists ability to fund our efforts.