I hunt on a 3000 acre lease north of Vanderpool Texas. I've located my stand at the junction of two electic right of ways. I can look directly south for approx 1000 yds and east about 1750 yds. I have been on this lease since july of 2003. I go up once a month and fill my demand feeders and shoot hogs and take pictures. One afternoon in September '03, I was sitting in my stand looking down the eastern right of way when I saw something moving way off in the distance. The telephone poles are spaced about 250 yds apart according to my rangefinder. This movement was six telephone poles down the right of way or about 1,500 yds. What caught my eye was a group of Audad sheep walking west along the right of way. At 1500 yds. I could tell that one animal stood out as being darker and larger than the rest. I grabbed up my binoculars to take a better look. I don't know about you, but from time to time, when I see something that amazes me, I swear to myself. This was one of those occasions. The one audad was half again the size of the others dark and with good horns. Boy this really got my juices flowing. I watched them walk down one side of a hill, go out of sight for about 15 minutes the appear again about 800 yards. I said to myself, If they got within range I was going to bust this dude. However, they turned off the right of way about 600 yds away. Talk about a bummer. I hunted all of the 03 deer season, which in Texas runs from the first week of November to the first Sunday in January. I saw numerous groups of other Audad, but I never saw this bad boy again until August of 04. Once again I was sitting in my stand. It was a beautiful morning, and I was reading a book when I looked up and there was this same Audad with about thirty other audad 120 yards away at my feeder. Talk about buck fever. This guy was a monster compared to all the other sheep. I put my rifle up to shoot, but all the other sheep were milling around so close I could not get a shot. I watched through my scope and binoculars for what seemed like forever but was actually about fifteen minutes without being able to get a clear shot. By this time I had settled down a little bit and got to thinking that I was the only one in camp. There was no one else there to see my trophy or brag to. I decided that I would wait till deer season (3 months) in hope that I could take him when all my hunting buddies were there. Sure enough in the second week of November '04 I was sitting in another blind on the other side of the ranch at a place called "Atudad Point" when this ram appeared once more. This was now 14 months since I had seen him the first time. I decided that if I could get a clear shot, I would take him. Once again I had to wait approximatly 20 minutes for him to separate from the herd. He walked about 20 yds. from the main group. I was using my browning hi-wall in 30-06 and 180 gr. nosler partitions. I had been told how tough Audad were and this location was right on the side of a cliff. I decided to try to take out both shoulders. Anyway, I nailed him at about 120 yds. At the shot he took off running. He ran over the side of the hill and dissapeared. I waited abou 30 minutes to make sure he had time to lay down and bleed out. Turned out he only ran about 30 yds from where I shot him. As it was, he weighed 270 lbs., had 12-1/2" bases and 30" horns. Not the biggest in the world but sure a trophy to me.
GWB

Nice trophy and a cool hunt. I want to try and get one some day. Maybe this winter. Are those any good to eat?

That's cool, I envy you guys with all the exotics that you have running around.

That is a very nice auodad.

I find them to be pretty good eating.

Congratulations.

That's certainly a nice aoudad. Congratulations are definitely in order!

I've only taken one, and it wasn't anywhere in the same league as yours. But it was memorable as the hunt went down to the last rays of light on the last day of my hunt, and I was able to nail him with a 14" Contender in .257 JDJ.

Cooked slowly and in a way as to moisten to the meat, aoudad can make very good tablefare.

Geedubya,

Great pics and story. Do these roam wild or are they stocked/escaped?

Will you have him mounted?

Rgds,
FB

Kudu 56- I typically process and eat most of the game animals I shoot. However, I am not a great fan of sheep. The backstraps I marinate and grill or bake. Aoudad meat mixed with pork makes for good jalepeno cheese summer sausage or link sausage.

FallowBuck- Being as I am an unreconstructed Texas redneck, I am not a historian of non-native game in Texas. I would bet that a google search of "Aoudad Sheep" or "Aoudad Sheep in Texas" would shed some light on the subject. I have hunted for the last 8 years in the Kinney, Bandera, Kerr, Real and Uvalde county area of Texas. This area is part of what is called the Texas Hill County. It is semi-arid in climatic conditions. I believe that Aoudad sheep were introduced in this area as early as the late 1800's, with the bulk of the exotic animals stocked on game ranches since the 1950's. There are many game ranches in the Texas Hill Country. We get numerous small floods which take out fences. Consequently game animals escape and propagate. They seem to thrive in the area and roam where they want. They typically stay in the roughest and most remote hilly areas. They have excellent eyesight and are very wary. The 3000 acre ranch that this aoudad was taken on was a high fenced game ranch in the 1960's-1970's. After that owner died his widow did not have the ability to properly manage the ranch. Since the late 70's the fences have fallen into disrepair and it is no longer high fenced. Other types of sheep and goats have long since wandered off. However, even though it is now basically unfenced there remains a population of native whitetail deer, Blackbuck, Axis deer, fallow deer, sika deer, Aoudad Sheep, an occasional elk, abundant hogs, jevelina, coyotes and other varmints.

Also, yes I had this bad boy mounted






GWB

Geebubya,

Fantastic Sheep. Saying "I only shot a 30" Aoudad." is like saying, "I only shot a 150 class Whitetail."

I would not have had the restraint to wait for my buddies to come see him. I would have wacked him the first time he was in range.

Anytime you can get a 30" Aoudad, that is a spectacular Aoudad.

I love Aoudad.

Fallow Buck,

Most exotics in teh Hill Country of Texas are escapees from game ranches. I do not believe there was ever an intentional release of exotic game in the Hill country.

There were releases of Aoudad in the Panhandle and in far West Texas.

An Aoudad can survive anywhere. They are tough as nails, and mean too. Coyotes are afraid of Aoudad.

I can't remember where I read it, it may have been Texas Trophy Hunters, but the article stated that aoudad were introduced in Texas in the 1930s. If I remember correctly they were introduced in the vicinity of Palo Duro canyon then later in far West Texas.

I used to hunt aoudad on the Hart Ranch east of Van Horn. I loved to hunt them but hated to try to eat them. Tough as a boot. Grind it up and it was like eating bubble gum. I don't know whether the younger ones might have been better. I never shot a younger one.

Hi Guys,

Thnaks for the answers. I don;t know why but recently I have had a bit of a hankering to go hunting sheep type critters... Dunno why?!?!?

at the moment the Alpine Mouflon looks to be the most likely butI had never seen a picture of an Audad and they look quite cool too. I like the fact they are free ranging too.

Rgds,
FB

Fallow Buck,

The Aoudad is a magnificent creature. A big mature male can top 300 lbs, and can run up a cliff as fast as I can fall down one. They are tough as nails, no small caliber is recommended for these big goats.

They are exceptionally wary and can see forever. I have watched them through spotting scopes for hours and I am amazed at how they can pick up movement and danger.

They can hide in anything. They are difficult to hunt in their preferred terrain (rough canyons).

Horrible to eat though.

Three comments:

1. I've seen a big aoudad hit in the neck with a 7mm Mag get up and lead us on a two mile trek before we pinned him to the ground. (They are tough.)

2. I had the biggest aoudad ram I've ever seen stand in the open (light brush) between me and a jeep with other hunters from our camp. The jeep was about 300 yards from me. The ram was about 75 yards from it. I could not get their attention other than they waved at me as I waved and pointed at the ram. Back in camp for lunch I told them what they had missed. When they drove off the ram trotted on across behind them. (If they don't move, they are hard to see.)

3. I spooked two rams when I walked to the edge of a rimrock. They went down the mountain, got into their dog-trot, and they kept that pace up across the mesa until they were too small to see in my scope. (If you spook them you are going to have Hell catching up to them.)

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:
A big mature male can top 300 lbs, and can run up a cliff as fast as I can fall down one.

LOL!!!




Wendell,

It looks like we have a couple of options on the Stags next year now as a freinds Nephew has just started as a gamekeeper stalker in Scotland this year. He'll have stags like the other place we looked at but also more Roe deer to play about with!!

I'll keep you posted.

As for the Audad, they may not have the type of head (nice curled horns) of some of the other sheep but they sure look like fun to hunt. 300lbs is one hell of an sheep... Our Fallow are probably just over half that on the hoof...(at least the yearlings that we shoot, mature animals will be approaching 300lbs but hey, they are deer...)

What do you guyus usually use to take one of these fellas?

Rgds,
FB

Fallow,

Good news on the Stags. Looking forward to it.

For the Aoudad (or as my wife calls them Doo-dads) use a good .30 cal. Yes they will fall to 7mm mag and 270's, but a good 30-06 or better is a wise choice.

The Aoudad has been labled the "Poor man's Sheep hunt".

I agree with Wendell. I used a .270 wsm on mine and had a hell of a tracking job. Those things are tough!