Unit 074 (Salmon River Range, Ella Dee Mountain and the Badlands)

Ella Dee Mountain, the Badlands and Little Devil's Table

NDOW's sheet puts most of Unit 074's Rocky Mountain bighorn in three places. The first is Ella Dee Mountain. The second is the Badlands, in the Salmon Falls Creek drainage. The third is the Black Mountain and Little Devil's Table area. Together they hold the majority of the unit's sheep, and the biologist calls them the three main concentration areas to scout before the season.

Water through August and September

Bighorn here are generally tied to water during August and September. Water in the unit ranges from perennial streams down to small springs, and NDOW's advice is to start with a map that shows those sources along with the more rugged terrain. A good first idea of where to look comes from putting those two things together: water close to steep, broken country.

The unit sits in the Salmon River Range. GNIS names Ellen D Mountain, Cold Springs Mountain, Black Mountain, Grassy Mountain and Bear Mountain among the summits inside the line. The sheet doesn't send hunters to any peak other than the ones in its three concentration areas, so keep your scouting on Ella Dee Mountain, the Badlands and the Black Mountain country.

The ground NDOW draws for this tag

A bighorn sheep tag for this group is good in unit 074, about 360 square miles measured on NDOW's own boundary, in Elko County. The one named range inside the line is Salmon River Range. The highest named points are Ellen D Mountain (8,629 ft), Cold Springs Mountain (8,093 ft) and Black Mountain (7,850 ft), and the lowest named ground sits near 5,382 feet. We don't print a land-status split for Nevada groups, because the figures we held didn't come from BLM's surface-management data; check BLM's current map for private parcels before you cross a fence or a cattle guard. GNIS names 9 springs inside it, Hillside Spring, Bear Spring, Upper Maggie Spring and Twin Ledge Spring among them.

Good access on BLM ground

Getting around Unit 074 isn't the hard part. Most of the land is public, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, and NDOW describes hunter access as good. Named roads include US 93, Oneil Basin Road and O'Neil Hubbard Road. The sheet adds nothing more on routes, so use a current BLM map to plan how you'll reach each of the three concentration areas.

Look over as many rams as you can

The biologist's advice centers on patience. Scout all three main concentration areas before the season, because many of the mature rams are solitary, and a ram on its own is easy to miss on a single trip. Then take your time. NDOW suggests looking over as many animals as possible before you settle on a particular ram.

The water pattern helps with that. Since bighorn here are generally near water in August and September, scouting trips in those months let you check water in all three areas and build a list of rams to compare. Jackpot is the nearest town in our data; the sheet doesn't describe services or camping for this unit.

No 2025 draw on this group

NDOW's 2025 Big Game Hunt Data lists no bighorn sheep tag drawn for unit 074. NDOW still publishes a Hunt Information Sheet for the group, which is what the advice above comes from, so check the current year's regulations for whether a hunt is offered before you apply. Nothing on this page should be read as a season or a quota for this year.

Roads in and the nearest towns

The longest named roads through the group are Oneil Basin Road, US 93 and O'Neil Hubbard Road. Our road inventory counts roughly 9 miles of pavement, 24 of gravel and 80 of high-clearance or four-wheel-drive track. The nearest towns are Jackpot (15 mi), Hollister (40 mi) and Wells (50 mi), measured from the centre of the closest unit in the group.