Jackie Murphy with a sweep of his right hand signed the horn of the aoudad rams he had carefully been evaluating, then shook his head in a negative manner. Using both hands he started far apart and narrowed them indicating short horns. I understood and started cautiously backing down the rocky slope we had ascended to get a better look at a bachelor herd of 10 rams.
After dropping off the rocky ridge, my Wildlife Systems guide said “From a distance they looked interesting, maybe holding a ram we might have be interested in. Initially their horns looked impressive, because their bodies are relatively small. They’ll weight around 200 pounds, but big mature rams will approach and exceed 300.”
“Fun stalk regardless. It’s been years since I’ve gotten that close to a group of aoudad rams.”
“We’ll head to the other side of this ridge and glass from there. During late winter through to summer aoudad rams tend to form bachelor herds totally separate from the ewes and lambs. Occasionally you’ll see a single ram but most of the time if you see one, there will be more close by,” added Jackie. “How long do you think their horns were?”
“Based on having hunted aoudad some in years past and working with them as a wildlife biologist, I’d say they were probably 26 to about 28-inches long.” I responded. Jackie nodded approvingly.
We walked back to our pickup and drove a couple of miles to another place from which we could glass the surrounding ridges. Along with aoudad we saw mule deer, whitetail and elk.
Aoudad or Barbary sheep were introduced into the rugged mountains of the Texas Trans Pecos, an extension of the Chihuahuan Desert, in the 1950’s. Obviously their kind liked the arid, rugged terrain. Perhaps through some genetic link it reminded them of their desert, mountainous homeland of northern Africa. They adapted and now claim much of the mountainous Texas Trans Pecos as home. Because they are legally considered as “exotics” they can be hunted year around, although a current Texas hunting license is required. I had arranged my hunt, which we filmed for an episode of “DSC’s Trailing the Hunter’s Moon” airing year around on Pursuit Channel, through Wildlife Systems which has access to the very best aoudad habitat and hunting quite possibly in the world.
Three days into my hunt, we had spotted, glassed and often stalked approaching 200 aoudad rams. The hunting was not unlike pursuing desert bighorn sheep, only there are many more aoudad than desert bighorns. Aoudad hunts are less expensive, but every bit as demanding, tough and enjoyable.
Last afternoon we followed a herd of 42 aoudad rams high onto a ridge, only to realize none exceeded 30-inches of horn length, my self-imposed minimum. I had taken numerous aoudad and this time I was looking for my office wall.
Driving the lowlands between mountains we spotted a ram looking at us. He was big of body, shiny on top and massive horns, indicating age. His color was a darker brown than younger rams and with longer mane and chaps, typical of old rams.
I slid out of the pickup, walked to the back door, grabbed my Ruger Number 1 chambered in 300 H&H Mag and loaded a Hornady 180 grain InterBond. Quickly, I got a solid rest, centered the crosshairs on his shoulder and pulled the trigger. Before I could reload, he was down!
It was dark before we finished taking photos, then packing out the meat, 32 ½ inch horns and cape of my 11-year old ram.
Photo credit: Larry Weishuhn Outdoors