Sheep hunters flock to Philadelphia

Friday, Feb. 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

But there was Ray Milligan, standing beneath the mounted head of a South African warthog, talking at length about the "varmint-hunting" vacations his company runs in the western United States. He pointed proudly to an old picture of himself standing in front of about 500 hanging coyotes, foxes, and raccoons - you know, varmints.

The Foundation for North American Wild Sheep shunned the traditional western sites for its annual convention this year and brought thousands of hunters flocking to this Northeastern port city.

"I think this is the wrong place," said Milligan, a former Pittsburgh native who now lives in New Mexico.

Philadelphia is not quite the hunting mecca that Reno, Nev. and San Antonio, Texas are, Milligan said Thursday.

But Matt Wolfe, director-elect of the Cody, Wyo.-based organization, was enthusiastic about bringing the gathering to the city known more for the brotherly love than ovine affection.

"Pennsylvania, in my opinion, is a very proud hunting state," Wolfe said. "We do have a lot of support from Pennsylvania hunters in general."

Wolfe hoped the 2,000 people registered for the four-day event at the Pennsylvania Convention Center would be joined by thousands of visitors from the area, eager to talk sheep with the cowboy hat and cowboy boot crowd.

The sheep on everyone's mind here were not the kind herded by a cute dog and sheared to make comfy wool sweaters. They were the four types of wild sheep - Dall, bighorn, stone and desert - living in the western mountains from Alaska to Mexico.

"The only way you can appreciate it is to be out there and see them. It's a majestic animal," said Ken Gerg, who was wearing a bolo tie with a gold ram's head fixed to its silver clasp.

The 60-year-old resident of Emporium, Cameron County wandered off among the hundreds of booths at the convention center.

The exhibits advertised trips to everywhere from Mongolia to Montana. Vendors sold high-powered rifles, wolf-head hats and windows decorated with a stained-glass sheep's head.

Hundreds of photos of smiling hunters posing over their prey - sheep, deer, impala, wildebeests - filled the huge room. Scores of mounted animal heads hung from exhibits' walls.

The stuffed bear in the back of the room was no cuddly bedroom companion. It was an 8-foot tall Kodiak standing over a deer it had just mauled. As an added touch of realism, stuffed crows pecked at the deer's carcass.

"I bet if you'd take that bear onto a corner you'd have a traffic jam," Wolfe said.

To Philadelphians outside the convention center, a grand slam equals an exciting day at Veterans Stadium. Inside it equals every sheep-hunter's dream - successfully hunting all four type's of sheep.

The gathering was not just about stalking prey.

It was also about partying.

A '50s sock hop hosted by Elvis impersonators Wednesday night was a big hit. And a horse-packing competition was on the schedule for Thursday night.

Entertaining auctions of donated artwork, hunting trips and hunting permits, planned for Friday and Saturday, were designed to raise about $1 million. That money was earmarked for conservation projects to protect wild sheep habitat, Wolfe said.

Many convention-goers dreamed of the week-long sheep-hunting expeditions that can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $19,000.

Warren Golden, 48, of Berkeley Springs, W.Va., sat sipping a drink, procrastinating from booking his first sheep-hunting trip scheduled for this August.

"Been wanting to do this ever since I was 12-years-old, and I've been reading about this in magazines," he said.