Had the opportunity to go to the "Petting Zoo" last Thursday. We are not in the south zone, do not have an MLD permit and I don't do the special spike and doe season, so for me and my buds it was "closing" weekend!

I've been hunting with the same group of guys for the last 19 years and have not missed a closing weekend yet.

The deer and hoglets did not co-operate. In fact after 14 years of hunting the "Zoo" it seems that the hogs have totally gone nocturnal or have completely changed their range. I had traps set and feeders that the corn was not disturbed between Wednesday eve and Saturday morning. Un-figgin-believable.

Anywho, had the opportunity to put the smack-down on a Aoudad ewe. I hate going back to town empty-handed, so I nailed her.



Took me two hours to get her loaded and back to camp. I was already tuckered but what the hey!

I had brought one of the Menefee A2 Skinners that I had not taken the opportunity to destroy the collector value of. Figured this would be a good opportunity to do so!



so it was Tits Up, as the campfire and a beverage wuz callin'



caped her out in a jif (pix from the next mornin')

I luv it when I can let meat hang over-night. It was to be 32 degrees so I did just that!



As usual, the Menefee skinner worked well for caping, gutting and quartering!



makes for a pretty good cutter for a breakfast stogie to boot!

ya!


GWB

Looks like a nice weekend. I used some aoudad horn on a knife long time ago. Knob is good stuff.
Will the critter be good eating?

I was wondering the same thing. What do they taste like/comparable too?

Mark me down as curious about table fare as well. Have heard everything from great to dog won't eat it. Looks like it was cared for by Geedubya as carefully as possible, with a helluva nice, sharp blade.

I've not eaten it either, but my guess would be it tastes like chicken. Everything else except chicken seems to taste like chicken. I've never heard it said that chicken tastes like chicken.

Bill/O

My ATV is broke at the moment so I walk in the half mile to my stand that I call #5. The terrain is such that a side by side or jeep are to wide to go down the game path I use to access the stand.








I got there about 4 PM and shot the ewe around 5:15. I hustled up and snapped a couple pix, then I loaded my gear in the pack and traipsed back out to the car.

I recently messed up my lower back and it is giving me fits. My Polaris is like riding on a cloud. My son's Yamaha Big Bear is like rolling on square wheels. So I try to employ it as little as possible.

I had a trailer on my Ford Expedition loaded with oak for a fire I had scrounged earlier in the day. I took it back to camp, dumped it, loaded up the four wheeler, came back and crossed the two creeks and wash-outs on the way back to #5.

My Polaris is much easier to load a critter up on,



I put a strap around the head/horns and then raise/lodge it aginst the front tire. I'll clamber up on either the front or back rack. I'll wrap the strap around a stout piece of cedar and use my body weight like hiking out on a catamaran to pull the critter up on the platform. After that its easy peasy, lemon squeezy, just strap down and head back to camp.


However, the way my son's Yamaha is set up, its almost impossible to load a critter. Anywho, I could not load her like I normally do so I had to rig up a way to winch her up to where I could pull under and load over the front suspension.

By time I did all this and got back to camp to skin it was 7:30. I caped her out and got that done about 9 PM and dinner was ready.



I took a few minutes to enjoy that then it was back to work. Got her gutted and cleaned up by 10 PM. It was already down in the high thirties so I let her hang over night. If its above 45 degrees the carcass goes directly on ice in one of three 180 quart coolers I have loaded on my low-boy. It's rare that a critter is not on ice within two hours of the time it is dead meat. I make no bones about it, I'm a meat hunter, not a horn hunter. I do take pains to take care of my meat!

Then it was time to relax and enjoy the fire, a cigar and a beverage!



As to how Aoudad tastes, I typically have it processed into jalepeno cheese summer sausage and smoked link sausage. It is very tasty mixed 50-50 with pork.

ya!

GWB

quote:

It was closing weekend for rifle season in Texas.

???????

Umm, you sure about that???????

Might want to re-check your info.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

quote:

It was closing weekend for rifle season in Texas.

???????

Umm, you sure about that???????



Might want to re-check your info.

My bad.

Went back and rephrased my intro.



Let me know if my correction is inadequate.

ya!

GWB

Dang GW, I opened up this thread expecting something different. Good hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by Jerry Fisk:
Dang GW, I opened up this thread expecting something different. Good hunt.

Hope I did not disappoint,

BTW,

Did I ever tell you that "GW" stand for Guraranteed Wholsum!


ya!

GWB

Geedubya, great photos as usual. Don't mess with tobacco anymore, but trying to determine the cigar brand by what is visible of the ring -- a Finck product?

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Geedubya, great photos as usual. Don't mess with tobacco anymore, but trying to determine the cigar brand by what is visible of the ring -- a Finck product?

yes!

http://www.finckcigarcompany.c...tegory/texas_sweets/


That is a "Texas Sweet, China Grove" 50RG x 5"

Inexpensive
Easy draw
no major time commitment.
Suits my plebeian tastes!

GWB

Rats. Tempting, but I had better not. I was a three-pack-a-day man back in the day.

Bill/O

Seems like I was born prone to all the vices.

IIRC I was 6 yrs old first time I got busted for cipeing my grandpa's smokes.

I smoked Marlboro Red's from the time I was 19 to 24, except when I was drinking, then it was Pall Mall red unfiltered.

I bummed for a couple years and pulled up completely in 1977 and did not have a alcoholic beverage or a smoke for 20 years. In fact my kids never saw me take a drink or a smoke until they were out of high school.

I luv tobacco, but it does not luv me so I only enjoy in moderation. Luckily I have been able to do so.













































Something about being out in the middle of no-where, or coming back in after a morning hunt when its still quite cool out, nobody but me around, it's peaceful and still and I will be sitting by a fire with a fresh cup of coffee, and then I roll up a smoke. It just feels right. What can I say!







ya!



GWB

After umpteen years of smoking cigarettes,cigars + my favorite pipes,I quit. I would dearly LOVE a Balkan Sobranie cigarette but they are not available any more.A decent Cohiba would be appreciated by some but I am not tempting fate.:+ yes doI want it/them? Hell yes! I still have ALL my briars + Meershaum pipes + a sealed 1 lb. bag of Burley + Latakia mix.Why do I save them? I dinna ken.

Dang, Geedubya, were you a product photographer in a previous life? Beautiful compositions and exposures.
I took my turn in junior high on cigarettes that smelled like Doublemint gum, because they came from somebody's mom's purse.
Ordered my first pipe and tobacco from Herter's -- parents had no clue.
I once ordered a box of Seuerdieck Caballeros from a Tinder Box shop because I believed these were what Clint Eastwood smoked as the "Man with No Name."
A friend and I each bought a Cuban cigar from the Cuban pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver, B.C. They were so expensive that my buddy smoked his down to a nub with a toothpick.
My last dabble with tobacco came after an anthropologist friend gave me some Nicotiana quadrivalvis seeds -- the native tobacco of the West, cultivated by Native Americans. Lovely plant, with charming white flowers. I had to take a few puffs of the dried leaves, and while it was pretty strong stuff, I could certainly see the attraction!

.

quote:

Suits my plebeian tastes!

Based on your post, pictures, guns and EXTENSIVE collection of knives, the word 'plebeian' is not one that immediately springs to mind!?

Happy 2019 and congrats on the North African ewe goat!

Charlie

.

Bill,boy does that bring back memories. When I was a junior high kid we were stationed in Hampton,Va. My buddy + I would pool our funds + then buy a box of cigars,which we kept well hidden. On Friday nights the 2 of us would go down to the piers + watch the ocean,talk about inconsequential things,+ smoke our illicit cigars.That was a very good time in my memory + life.

Well, thanks to Geedubya's enabling influence, I ordered a five-pack of Texas Sweets and a cutter from Finck. I'll go easy on them, but will admit a very occasional cigar is a joy. Haven't had tobacco in the house in years.

Thanks GW!
That was a fun trip down photo-road with you, as usual.
Zeke