Hunter from Lincoln bags bighorn at Fort Robinson

Brent Bollwitt’s first trip to Fort Robinson State Park was unforgettable.

Bollwitt, who lives in Lincoln, shot a bighorn sheep Tuesday near the northwest Nebraska park under a special permit won in a drawing. The full-curl ram was about 9 years old.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission wildlife division staffers from Alliance guided Bollwitt. The hunting party observed 15 to 20 Rocky Mountain bighorns.

There is no general hunting season for bighorns, but Game and Parks often allows one auction and one lottery permit annually to raise revenue for the bighorn program. Proceeds have nearly reached $700,000.

Bighorn sheep are regaining a foothold in Nebraska. They were reintroduced to the state in 1981. About 275 bighorns now live in the Pine Ridge and Wildcat Hills in Nebraska’s Panhandle. Fifteen bighorn rams have been harvested in Nebraska during the past 11 years.

No special bighorn sheep season is scheduled for 2010 because of a decline in the number of younger rams in the population.

Bollwitt is a Nebraska Air Guard sergeant who works as a crew chief on KC-135 tanker aircraft. A native of Broken Bow, Neb., he has hunted since childhood. He hunts deer during Nebraska’s December muzzleloader season.

Bollwitt won the hunt when his name was drawn in August from among 1,547 Nebraskans who paid $25 each for the chance. Bollwitt has entered the lottery four or five times as a way to contribute to the bighorn program.

Bollwitt’s bighorn was the second taken this year. John Marsh, a Kansas hunter, took an 11-year-old ram Dec. 1 near Fort Robinson. The net green score on the Marsh ram is 178 7/8. The Bollwitt ram is about 175.

Contact the writer:

444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com

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