Larry L. Altimus has been hunting sheep annually since he took his first record book bighorn in Montana's unlimited area in September of 1969. Robert Anderson's highly acclaimed book Great Rams and Great Ram Hunters accounts many of Altimus' rams. He says "Few sheep hunters have hunted harder or against greater odds than Larry Altimus". Thirty Eight years of mostly backpack hunting have produced several record book rams for Altimus.
He and his wife Stephanie operate Altimus Adventures Guide Service in ten western states. Their hunts are booked exclusively by clients who obtain their tags through the drawing system. Their policy is a one on one hunt with the emphasis on quality. Usually they will hire an assistant guide to accompany them with the one hunter.
Stephanie and Larry are highly accomplished alpine hunters. Both have completed the Grand Slam of North American Wild Sheep-Stephanie was only the 41st lady to accomplish this feat. Larry has harvested the last legally taken grizzly bear in the Lower 48 states in the spring of 1991. He has also taken all 10 big game species of Montana. This has been done by less than a half dozen people.
 
Please click here to jump down to our Texas Desert Sheep Hunting section.

 


Altimus Adventures Guide Service is a licensed guide service in nine states and Larry L. and Stephanie Altimus along with Bo Morgan have been guiding together for over 25 years. Each hunt is personally guided and you are never given a sub-guide. If you want experience, honesty, and integrity consider sharing your next adventure with Altimus Adventures.

Below are the results of a very successful and exciting 2008 season.

 


Rex Baker
TX Desert Bighorn
172 4/8 B&C
March 2008

Brooks Case
NM Oryx (broken horn hunt)
February 2008

Bo Morgan
WY Moose
October 2008

Alex Dousias
OR Ca Bighorn
September 2008

Jeffrey Shoaf
TX Desert Bighorn
167 5/8 B&C
March 2008

Bo Morgan
UT Antelope
81 5/8 B&C
September 2008

John Clader
WY Bighorn
October 2008

Mike Runyan
MT Bighorn
193 4/8 B&C
November 2008

Larry Altimus
BC Stone Sheep
Dale Drinkall - outfitter
October 2008

Mark Nuessle
TX Desert Bighorn
170 4/8 B&C
February 2008

Jeffrey Shoaf
NM Oryx
February 2008

James Brogan
AZ Desert Bighorn
December 2008

 


Below are the results from our 2007 season.

 


Altimus
S TX Desert Bighorn
184 3/8 State Record
2007

Hernandez and Hobbs
Oryx
February 2007

Murray
TX Desert Grand Slam Ram
March 2007

Baker
TX Desert Grand Slam Ram
176 1/8
2007

Griffiths
CA Desert Grand Slam Ram
September 2007

Kevwitch
WY Antelope
October 2007

Larry Altimus
MT Mountain Goat (60th Goat Kill)
2007

Stephanie Altimus
S WY Moose
161 5/8 B&C
October 2007

Barry (80 yrs old)
TX Desert Grand Slam Ram
2007

Altimus
S UT Desert Bighorn (3rd Desert)
2007

Bergeron
AZ Elk
345 7/8 B&C
December 2007

Davis
AZ Desert Bighorn
December 2007

Hampton
TX Desert Bighorn
2007

 


Below are the results from our 2006 season.

 


Stephanie Altimus
Texas Aoudad
28 1/2"
January 2006

Terry Scott
NM Oryx - 36"
January 2006


Brenda Wiley
NM Oryx - 37 1/2"
January 2006


David Bedgood
37" Oryx with son Joel and Grandson David
     


Jim Yance
Texas Desert Bighorn
35 4/8" x 14 2/8"
166 7/8 B&C
May 2006

 

Stephanie Altimus
Yukon Fannin Ram - 37"
August 2006


David McGriffert
Wyoming Bighorn - 9 1/2 yrs old
Grand Slam
Only hunter to date (besides Stephanie Altimus)
to have taken 3 of his 4 sheep with Larry Altimus
as guide. September 2006.


Loren Kohnen
Wyoming Bighorn 9 1/2 yrs old
Grand Slam Ram
September 2006

Jay Wrobliske
Montana Mountain Goat - 9"
October 2006

Aaron Neilson
Montana Moose
50" wide - 161 5/8 B&C
November 2006


Will McNamara
Montana Bighorn
9 1/2 yr old ram
179 5/8 B&C
November 2006


Patrick Clark and (dad) Jim Clark
Montana Bighorn
179 4/8 B&C
November 2006

Loucas Tserkezezis
Arizona Desert Bighorn
7 1/2 yr old ram
December 2006


Stephanie Altimus
Texas Desert Bighorn
Official B&C 184 0/8
NEW TEXAS STATE RECORD

Taken January 8, 2007

     

 


Texas Desert Sheep Hunting

Altimus Adventures Outfitting and Guiding Service offers superb quality hunts for Desert Bighorn Sheep in the state of Texas, where permits are obtained through private landowners. There is no drawing for these permits.

In August the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department conducts a helicopter survey on various private ranches for desert bighorn. These ranches are extremely large (35,000-200,000 acres) with miles of very rugged desert sheep country in the mountain ranges of the Sierra Diablo, Beach, and Baylor mountains. They are located north of Van Horn Texas 120 miles east of El Paso. The result of the survey in 2007 counted 868 desert bighorns! If the Department feels the population within that property will warrant the harvest of a desert bighorn ram they will give the landowner a permit to hunt bighorn on their property. Most properties will be offered one permit, but in some instances, multiple tags are awarded.

The landowner in turn can do with their sheep permit as they wish. They can hunt it themselves, give it away, throw it away, or sell it. With the demand for quality desert sheep, most of course will sell their permits.

Since 2000 there have generally been about 6-14 permits annually. In 2002 Altimus Adventures was asked to guide their first TX desert sheep hunt and have continued to do so each year, harvesting 19 rams through March of 2009. Altimus Adventures is the primary source for Texas Desert Sheep hunts. They have established trusting relationships with all the various landowners and most tags are allocated to Altimus even before they are issued by TX P & W. They obtain 5-6 tags each year and demand for those is very high with most tags spoken for 1-2 years in advance.

The cost of the permits are of course set by the landowner and Altimus Adventures charges their normal guiding fee in addition to the landowner permit. As of 2008 most landowners were charging $60,000 to $65,000 for their permit and the Altimus Adventures Guide fee is $9500. This is for 2 guides for one hunter and includes all meals, accommodations, transportation, and field care of your trophy.

One major advantage of this hunt over a state draw tag in other states, is Texas Parks and Wildlife allows a ten day hunting period, which can be taken anytime within a one year period. Altimus generally likes to hunt the months of Nov thru March, because of cooler temperatures and more sightings due to greater activity. Altimus has also made arrangements with all the landowners to schedule the hunt into two five day periods allowing for greater flexibility due to weather conditions such as severe wind and/or rain.

The ram quality from these hunts is outstanding as can be seen from the photographs. A hunter always has the option to look over several quality rams before deciding on the trophy he wishes to pursue. Altimus has never taken a ram scoring less than 160 and most are mid to high 160’s. The largest ram taken by Altimus Adventures was by Stephanie Altimus when she took the Texas state record with a ram scoring a whopping 184 0/8 B&C. As of March 2009, 7 of the 19 rams taken by Altimus have scored over 170 (surpassing B&C minimum of 168) which is an amazing percentage!

If you think a Texas desert sheep hunt is something you would be interested in, give Larry Altimus a call to secure your tag. A small deposit is required to hold your hunt, and as previously mentioned, the waiting period on a hunt may be a year or two.

If you would like more information please email or call Larry at altimus@vtc.net or 520-826-1032.


Trophies Taken in 2009

 


Mike Kemery
Texas Desert Bighorn
172 1/8 B&C gross
January 2009


Jim Coffrini
Texas Desert Bighorn
169 1/8 B&C
March 2009


Joe Glover
Texas Desert Bighorn
166 0/8 B&C
March 2009


Bill Lauer
Texas Desert Bighorn
170 0/8 B&C
March 2009


Larry Mauriello
Texas Desert Bighorn
162 4/8 B&C
March 2009


Trophies Taken in 2008

 


Jeffrey Shoaf
Texas Desert Bighorn
2008


Mark Nuessle
Texas Desert Bighorn
2008


Rex Baker
Texas Desert Bighorn
2008


Trophies Taken in 2007

 


Stephanie Altimus
Texas Desert Bighorn
2007


Mark Murray
Texas Desert Bighorn
2007


Jerry Baker
Texas Desert Bighorn
2007


Charles Barry
Texas Desert Bighorn
2007


Mark Hampton
Texas Desert Bighorn
2007


Trophies Taken in 2006 and Earlier

 


David McGiffert
Texas Desert Bighorn
2005


Jim Yance
Texas Desert Bighorn
35 4/8" x 14 2/8"
166 7/8 B&C
May 2006


Loren Kohnen
Texas Desert Bighorn
34 1/2" x 14 1/4"
163 0/8 B&C
November 2004


Bo Morgan
Texas Desert Bighorn
33 1/2" x 15 5/8"
168 1/8 B&C
2004


Dan Smith III
Texas Desert Bighorn
2002


Dan Smith III
Texas Desert Bighorn
2003

 

All information contained herein ©2003
HUNTER APPLICATION SERVICE