One of my Texas outfitters just sent me this picture a few minutes ago of a beast of an Aoudad on his place. Enjoy.

back at ya'







We’ve been on this particular lease for seven seasons. I keep game cams out much of the time. Some of the other guys have said they have seen Aoudad up in the rocks, but I never have. In fact only one has been killed off our lease in seven years. So imagine my elation and surprise when I viewed these pix on the game cam. Four Aoudad at one of my remote spin cast feeders. This location is about ½ mile off the road. Four images of Aoudad on October 19th. It was October 31 when I veiwed the game cam pix. Was I jazzed. Hopefully they might still be in the area.


Friday night, Dec. 28th I sat in a stand that is another half mile back behind the feeder where the Aoudad had shown up. It was about 30 minutes before dark when, as luck would have it I saw them coming over the top of the hill directly across from the hilltop I was perched on. I watched them mosey down a ways. The big ‘un was in the lead. He walked out on an outcrop and turned broadside. I ranged him at 306 yds. My Sako carbine is loaded with 150 gr. Accubonds at +/- 2,750 FPS and as I’m a short range meat hunter, it was zeroed at a measly ½” high at 100 yds. Bummer, wrong rifle and wrong zero. What the heck. Seven years and no Aoudad. I decided to take the shot. I held about 6” over the top of his back, set the trigger and let fly. At that medium velocity and range it seemed like a couple seconds before I heard a solid “whop”. It looked like he hunched up and took off behind some juniper. I watched for about fifteen minutes. No movement. It was starting to get dark but I wasn’t about to wait till morning to start looking. Problem was, I had to go all the way down the hill, across a stream bed then climb a vertical incline lined with cedar, cactus and cats claw. To make matters worse, I was in shorts. Needless to say, by time I got near where I thought he might be it was almost dark. I had a flashlight, but no good reference point. By the time I got off the side of that mountain I looked like I’d been drug behind a truck. I looked for that dude off and on for two days. Aoudad meat ain’t the most tasty, but can be mixed with pork to make pretty fair jalepeno cheese salami. I didn’t mind not recovering the meat, but this guy was a stud puppy. I sure did want the head and horns. Would have made braggin’ rights for a good while.

Best

GWB

Those Aoudad are absolutely stunning. My favorite exotic to hunt in TX, hands down.

WOW!!!! Makes mine look like he needs to wipe the milk off his lip!

Ed

I'm partial to this one. I took this picture on my grandfathers ranch in TX many years ago

Wow!

This one isn't near as big as the ones in the previous pictures, but I didn't hesitate 1 minute to drop the hammer on him many years ago. He went just a bit less than 28 inches on both horns.

Drum, I remember that picture. What a stinkin hog!

Drum

didn't I mount that ram for Reed? I recall that ram coming to my shop back 8-9yrs ago.

Different aoudad but still damn big

Big pretty rams!
and fun to hunt.

Thanks for the support guys. This is a free range hunt in SW Texas. He has a few buddies that are about the same size (one bigger believe it or not) but this is not a guaranteed hunt...but they are out there. I suppose I could post the hunt in the offered hunt section or if someone is interested please feel free to PM me.

quote:

Originally posted by SilentT:
I suppose I could post the hunt in the offered hunt section or if someone is interested please feel free to PM me.

If this is a hunt offering you might want to just post it up in the other forum. I'd also post all of the details instead of a "PM me" or somebody will get on you about not following the rules

Gotcha. I didn't intend for it to be a hunt offering but it seems to be heading that way.

What town is it close to?
is this a high fenced area?
Are the feeders just for the Aoudad?
Are there other exotics ?
Thanks
Larry

Know nuttin about Texas exotic hunting but opinions vary a lot. Looking for the straight scoop.

Are there hunts that are not over bait and not inside 100 high fenced acres ? Too old and poor to go to Africa but would really like to hunt Oryx.

Experience, suggestions, costs, outfitters ?

thanks!

Because to the response to this hunt, I have posted a hunt offer. Please see:

http://forums.accuratereloadin...391073581#6391073581

Yes, it is free range. There are other properties around the area that do have exotics that can be hunted but this one is no fences.

quote:

Originally posted by artshaw:
Know nuttin about Texas exotic hunting but opinions vary a lot. Looking for the straight scoop.

Are there hunts that are not over bait and not inside 100 high fenced acres ? Too old and poor to go to Africa but would really like to hunt Oryx.

Experience, suggestions, costs, outfitters ?

thanks!

Not meanin' this to step on HFA's thread, but........


I don’t have a dog in this other than the fact that I do DIY hunts on low/no fenced ranches in Texas. I employ spin cast feeders and also use game cameras. In fact viewing critters on game cameras gets to be one of the highlights of going to my lease. I may have as many as a couple thousand pix over a months interval. Ususally mostly hogs, but have seen deer, wetbacks, buds hunting feeders, fox, coyote, turkey dove, squirrel, road runners etc.
Some folk seem to think that because there may be Spin cast game feeders that dispense corn a couple times a day that taking any animal, and a particular animal is like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s not.

First example. One of the leases I was on between 2002 and 2009 was a low fenced/no fenced ranch of some 3,000 acres. It was north of Vanderpool Texas. Surrounded by hundreds of miles of other low fenced ranches. Between 2002 and 2009 I kept several feeders and cameras operating year round. Here is a sequence of the only pictures of this buck ever taken. I never saw him in the flesh before or after. Never got him on camera again.







Now mind you I made/make a trip up at least once a month and stay 3 to 5 days at a time. Always check the game cams, always sit out and watch. Between the beginning of Bow season and the end of rifle season I’ll easily be in the field 30 days.

Now as to Aoudad in particular.

Like big old deer and boars, truly big Rams are few and far between. They don’t get big and old by being stupid. Aoudad seem to have almost telescopic sight. The best one I’ve taken took me over fourteen months to kill from the first time I laid eyes on him until I shot him. I saw him a total of three times. Twice the opportunity of a killing shot was not an option. I hunted the area that this Aoudad ranged during the period of two different fall seasons. So this would have given me at least 30 different occasions to see this fellow should he had come around. There were at least six spin cast feeders located on this end of the ranch. No one else ever reported seeing this Aoudad. The first time I saw him he was walking a power line easement about ¾ a mile away with a group of other sheep. He was a standout at that range to the naked eye. Second time he was topping a rise and was amongst a group of sheep and I could not get a shot. Third time was the charm. He was topping a rise, and was separated from the other sheep to the point I could get a shot and took it. Was he coming to a feeder, could be. He didn’t get the chance to make it there, though.







I’ve been on my current lease since 2005 IIRC. I keep between 2 and 4 game feeders going year round. This fall I had pictures of Aoudad (the sequence shown above) for the first time. I’ve not seen them there before. I have seen them four times since October, usually across the way topping a hill, but not at a feeder.

So, I’m not trying to discourage one from hunting free range Aoudad in Texas. But bear in mind, just because you saw a sequence of pix on this thread or others in the Outfitters thread and they were at a game feeder, don’t mean they’ll be tethered to a feeder leg waiting for you to shoot. Sure you could take a ewe, maybe a javalina or a couple 60 lb. porkers,some coyotes, but taking a trophy animal during a three day hunt on a large low fenced ranch in that area is no sure thing. That’s why they call it hunting, not shooting.

Best,

GWB

PS: if you come after May or before December, be sure to bring a change of sweat bands and some liquid refreshment.