Aoudad Hunt

[PoorHunter]

Texas Hunt, My Aoudad hunt
We met our rancher on the highway at a lil general store and followed him to the ranch, This ranch was bought by him just recently, Used to be the Old Poker 777 Ranch.

It's 3pm and really hot today, muggy after the storms last night.
Again completely different terrain, Lots & lots of Live oak , huge open fields, tall grass and cactus everywhere
intermittent mesquite brush.
The rancher gave us the rundown, he said we were looking for an Aoudad traveling alone, he had 2 on the ranch that were superior, and he said any that you see with a herd or in a small group will not be the big ones, Also he said in the tall grass, you will be right on top of them before you know it. If we glass close we should see just 2 lil arches of horn sticking above the grass.

I swear we weren’t 5 minutes into the hunt when an aoudad jumped up in front of us out of the grass and was gone before you could say there's one... Rancher looked at me and said that was the big one... I just stunned said, guess I missed out , wasn't ready for that, This wasn't gonna happen again, I racked in the round put the safety on and put the 4th in the clip, brought down the scope and we were off again.
10 minutes latter, there from the oaks to our right one running, then two more behind him, Rancher said back 2 were mouflon, first one was aoudad, he got his bino's up and said That's the same Aoudad we seen before Get on him quick. I got the gun up, as he was in the scope he stopped and spun completely around, I quickly asked how far
The rancher just had the first syllable out of his mouth I heard a ONE……, and I seen his legs hinge and he was about to launch into hyper drive.. BOOMMMM…………."hundred and Seventy Yards"
I Had shot in his mid sentence, I had to shoot, wasn't going to loose out twice in a row, he was leaving, I knew I was zeroed at 200 so when I heard a one not a two, No adjustment needed. Trigger time.
I had dropped him where he stood, his legs just folded and it was over, wow I was pumped up.

Rancher said the Aoudad spun to take on the Mouflon closing behind him, , he never knew we were there, and was on his way back to the trees & Tangle w/the ram

Wow what a shot he said, I wasn't even ready for it !,
Man what a beautiful animal these aoudad are, a Main of hair on his back, long chest main to his knees, Chaps main on his knees
Hunt seemed to go quick, but when the opportunity is there ya better be ready to answer the door, Rancher said 90 percent of these hunts go for hours before ya see a nice shooter.

What a great 2 days we have had so far.

So much more than I expected form this trip already.

[Craig E.]

A big, mature aoudad is at the top of my list of exotics to take down! One like that would definitely suffice! Congrats!

[PoorHunter]

Thanks
He has 12" Bases & was 28", I have seen picts of them measurin 38", but I am thrilled with mine..