If we had to give an Ovis nickname to Alan Means, it would have to be “Mister Stone Sheep.” This man has taken eighteen different Stone sheep hunts in his lifetime. Taking his first Stone ram in 1984, he has seven total Stone sheep. When you think about only seven rams and eighteen different hunts, one might question what is going on. However, Alan has come home many times empty handed. This was done by choice. He had determined that if it was not a huge trophy ram, he would keep hunting until the end of the hunt or until he found a big one. Being selective has been a succesful strategy for Alan as he took a huge ram in 2009 that scored 173 2/8 Boone & Crockett and 174 SCI. That ram won the top Diamond Award at our 2010 convention and gave Alan a 700 Club score of 723 for his four largest North American rams.

It was in 1985 that Alan completed Grand Slam #471. A short time later, in 1988 he completed yet a second Grand Slam. Besides the seven Stone sheep, Alan has four Dalls, four bighorns and two desert rams. He is one of less than a handful of people who have all four rams that qualify for the Boone and Crockett record book. Alan has also done a lot of international sheep hunting besides his extensive career in North America. He completed his Ovis World Slam of twelve more than twenty years ago, in 1990. He went on to reach the Ovis World Slam Super 20 in 1999. Included in all of those international sheep are six different argalis. He took the mighty Altay argali in 1987, a Gobi in Mongolia in 1989, a Karaganda from Kazakhstan in 1990, and a Marco Polo in 1991. More recently, he took another Gobi and a Hangay in 2006. Also of special note within Alan’s Ovis Super 20 is that he has all five of the huntable snow sheep from Russia, and he has both a Himalayan blue sheep from Nepal he took in 1989 and the Chinese blue sheep from 1996. As for the urials, he has four of those as well, including the Transcaspian, Afghan, Punjab and Blanford.

Alan Means has been a member of GSCO for well over twenty years. He has been diligent all those years in sending photos, reports, and documentation as he took each trophy. Many have been able to read about him many times in both our Grand Slam and Ovis publications. He was sharing his hunts with others in this way long before the Ovis was even conceived. He is known by his peers as a man of highest ethical standards. He has been a dedicated conservationist, supporting many organizations, and of course has been a great supporter of GSCO.