“This afternoon we should head to the back country, up in the hills and do some spying. If we see an old ram we’ll go after him, however I’d really like to make it a scouting trip. By now, the older rams have formed bachelor herds, between two to five rams, living in the highest and most rugged canyons and slopes. Heading to the high country, we should see sixty or more varieties of game, from native whitetails to other big game, from all over the world. I’m sure you’ll recognize numerous species, you may have even hunted a few in their native lands. Many of the species we have here on the OX Ranch can no longer be hunted in their indigenous lands,” commented Jason Molitor, manager of the expansive OX Ranch, north-west of Uvalde, in the lower Texas Hill Country.

“We’ll drive to the areas where we should find red sheep, then get out and glass. We’ll hunt mostly on foot. Are you ready for some serious walking?” I nodded an affirmative.

When I had initially set up my red sheep hunt on the OX Ranch Jason had told me, “I want to do this like a real sheep hunt and go after them on foot”, I liked how he thought. As we chatted on the phone, I re-told stories about hunting on other ranches, with rough and rugged mountains, in the southern part of Texas Hill Country for red sheep. Over the 17 days I spent hunting, I had only ever seen one small group of rams, which gave me the slip but I still enjoyed my time hunting.

A walk, crawl, spot and stalk hunt sounded perfect but I was a little concerned, as normally I stay in ‘hunting’ shape, however I had slipped a bit. Three weeks prior to my hunt on the OX Ranch, I had gall bladder surgery, which had taken a bit out of me, literally. I wasn’t sure how much walking I could really do, but still I wanted to give it a go.

We headed to the north-east corner of 18,000-acre property, in one of the ranch’s jeeps, alternately driving and glassing. We saw a variety of game including axis and fallow deer, blackbuck antelope, Asian buffalo, lots of red lechwe, barasinga and Père David’s deer, impala, gemsbok, scimitar horned oryx, the list went on and on… Once we got into the back country we saw less game, due in part to the rugged and rocky terrain. “I’ve got a spot I want to glass, where three canyons come together,” said my guide.

We were almost to the point where Jason wanted to scan, when we happened to glance at a shelf below us, to our left three big red sheep rams were walking and one was truly impressive. We stopped the vehicle, jumped out and took off at a fast pace to cut the distance between hunter and quarry. Initially the trio was about 800 yards away, obviously they had seen us but before we could get a hundred yards closer, they dropped into a brushy canyon.

After a brief discussion, Jason, Al Shacklett my cameraman and I decided to continue, hopefully we would find them again. We spent forty minutes glassing nooks and crannies, from the edge of the shelf but sadly we didn’t see those rams again.

Just before dark we stopped on a ridge to glass the valleys below. We soon spotted a small herd of ewes, lambs and two young rams but as we lost ‘camera light’, we decided to head back to camp. We were filming my hunt for an episode of “DSC’s Trailing the Hunter’ Moon” television show.

That night over a truly delicious meal, I explained to Jason one of the reasons for my fascination with red sheep. Years ago, about the time I graduated from Texas A&M University, I had signed up with a research project to travel to Iran, where red sheep originated. We had planned to conduct research on the species but also other species of wild sheep found in ‘old Persia’. Sadly the project fell through, when serious political troubles developed in Iran but part of that research trip would have included hunting a red sheep and subsequently I had wanted to take one ever since.

Satiated on prime rib, I excused myself and headed to my cabin, which was next to the West Prong of the Nueces River. The predawn bird serenades just outside my window awakened me, before the sun promised its appearance. Years ago, as a wildlife biologist I had been all over the ranches, which had become the present-day OX Ranch. Frankly, I had forgotten how much water there was in the area.

“We’ll head to the north-west corner this morning, there’s only one road in and one road out. Once we get to the top we’ll walk the ridges and glass,” Jason suggested. “We’ve not hunted those ridges and canyons for a while and the last time we did, there were several really good red sheep staying near the top of the tallest peak.”

The sun was just peaking over the horizon when we spotted a group of sheep, ewes and lambs and one almost shootable ram. We waited for them to feed over the crest, then crawled to the edge, to peak into the next canyon. “Larry, three rams at your three o’clock, just below the first rim, up from the bottom, bedded.” As I swung toward them, I caught sight of another ram about a half curl, with three ewes. I commented on what I had just seen, then concentrated on a better look at the three rams. One looked pretty good, after I had a good look, Jason suggested we move to our left to get a better angle on the biggest ram. “What’s your comfort level on a shot?”

“Shooting this Ruger FTW/SAAM Hunter .300 Win Mag loaded with Hornady Precision Hunter, 200-grain ELD-X as it is, I’ve shot quite a few rounds out to 800 yards and beyond at the FTW Ranch’s S.A.A.M. ranges. I know I can put my shot into less than a nine-inch circle at that distance. But I really want to get as close as possible for the camera, so essentially 200 yards or less is my desired distance,” I replied.

Taking advantage of the available cover, we cut the distance to the biggest ram to about 300 yards. As we spied, we could see he was long horned, massive and extremely handsome. “Larry, he’s about 26 to 28 inches on horn. Nice, even good but no doubt but we’ll have bigger rams if we can find them — it’s your call.”

Seventeen days invested in hunting red sheep, with a really nice ram below us, which we could get closer to, decisions, decisions. I shook my head… “You’re going to think I’m crazy but I’m going to pass on this ram.”

“Good, I really think we could do better. That ram is barely mature, I could count six distinct annual rings on his horns and I’d really like to see you take an older ram. Let’s see what else we can find,” said Jason. “Don’t forget we’re supposed to be at the Tank Barn at one o’clock for a tour. The OX Ranch has a fabulous collection of World War II military tanks, which visitors can drive and even shoot, as well as considerable other armament from the same period. Before I left the OX ranch, I had an opportunity to shoot some most interesting larger caliber military arms.

After touring the Tank Barn, I did a bit of automatic arms firing, before we headed to another area of the ranch. Jason wanted to show me some of the cedar control the ranch is doing; selectively removing cedars and leaving other trees and vegetation which do not pull as much water from the soil, to benefit the wildlife and habitat. The habitat work they’re doing on OX is impressive.

That afternoon we spotted more red sheep rams, including a couple of ‘almost shooters’, as well as a huge single ram, at a thousand yards distant that gave us the slip. Despite not pulling the trigger I was having a blast.

The next morning we spotted two rams on the side of a rocky canyon wall. Again closer examination suggested them to be ‘almost shooters’ lacking age, so we headed to camp for a late breakfast.

An hour later we were driving and stopping, frequently glassing distant ridges. The fourth time we stopped we spotted three rams, high on a ridge. One looked really good with very deep drooping horns, which went out and then turned back in toward the ram’s jaw, typical of true red sheep. He looked massive and gorgeous. “That’s one we should try for, but getting in range is not going to be easy. Where they are, they can see pretty well everything below them and there’s no way to get behind them. We could drop into the draw ahead of us and possibly cut the distance but right now they’re at about 700 yards.”

As Jason has been talking I had been grabbing my Ruger, pack and shooting sticks. Before leaving the jeep, I checked the range card Tim Fallon from the FTW/SAAM had prepared for me. Shooting Hornady ELD-X 200-gr, I made the appropriate turret adjustments to be dead on at 250 yards, which would also put me in the ram’s vitals closer and a bit beyond.

Staying in the draw, we cut the distance to 350 yards but then we had to get sneaky. Crawling mostly on hands and knees, which I might add was not that much fun on the sharp rocks, I finally got into a prone position at 250 yards distant of bedded rams. I could see the ram I desired but only his head, horns and upper neck. The rest of him was secreted behind a rock and I waited and waited for the rams to stand.

“Ants, we better move,” I heard Jason say in something louder than a stage whisper. I looked down at my elbow and saw a horde of fire ants crawling upwards, looking for a place to bite in unison. I almost jumped up but didn’t. I wiped the ants off my sleeve and crawled to my right behind another cedar, again positioning my pack so it formed a good prone rest.

“Ram on left just stood up” whispered Jason. I watched as my ram started to move. “Let him move to his left,” whispered Al “I want to get a bit more footage.” I waited for the ram to move and to give me a clear shot at his shoulder. A full minute later I heard Al say, “take him when you’re ready.”

I took a deep breath, let it all out and started applying pressure to the trigger. At the shot, the ram bolted to our left. I quickly bolted in a live round and put a second and then a third shot right over the running ram’s back. I heard Jason behind me say, “your first shot hit him hard, he shouldn’t go far.” As he spoke I chambered a fourth round. The ram stopped, I shot and my red sheep ram pitched forward off the ridge, into the rocks below.

I reloaded and watched the spot where my ram had gone down, no movement. A few moments later we started making our way up the steep, rocky slope. At the ram’s side, I was thrilled. “Larry he’s easily eight, if not nine years old and I think his horns will be about 30 inches, which is as good as true red sheep gets,” said Jason. He extended a congratulatory right hand, I accepted with thanks.

After taking care of filming and photos, we caped the ram. I removed the hindquarters, loins and other meat, popped it in a plastic bag and into my pack, before for the trek down the mountain, back to the jeep for the ride home.

That night over a glass of red to honor the red sheep, Jason and I talked about their whitetail deer program, as well as the excellent fishing to be had on the ranch.

Before leaving for home the next morning, I made arrangements to return to OX Ranch in the near future. Maybe next time to fish or possibly go after a mature whitetail or aoudad ram… I guess you’ll have to wait and see.

Photo Credit: Larry Weishuhn Outdoors