Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game My West Texas Aoudad Hunt Pics

Hey Guys,

Just a quick note and some pics as I just got home today and have to be at work tomorrow morning. I just spent the last 4 days hunting West Texas for Aoudad along the Mexican border in the Quitman Mountains east of El Paso. What a COOL experience and a true sheep hunt in some very rough mountains.

We camped about 200 yards from the Rio Grande and had a major Border Patrol presence seen every day. In the mountains away from the river there was a LOT of sign of Illegal immigrants (water bottles empty, clothing, shoes, cans, etc). It was a neat experience being right there and seeing the trails, talking about the treks that some people must make to try to get into the USA, etc.

There were 4 of us who went and we all shot sheep. I was lucky to shoot mine on the 3rd day and we had to really work to find some sheep in the hills. The ranch is 18,000 acres and is not fenced and is very rough terrain. We covered a lot of the mountains but obviously didnt see it all. I had a chance at my ram at 360 yards and being day 3 I thought I had better take him. He's about 26" long which is a good representative of the Aoudad I think. Later that night Chad shot a 30" ram that we had to find the next morning and he is a true cranker sheep. We hunted extremely hard for 4 solid days and all of us agreed that this was a very similar hunt to any sheep hunt we'd been on in the past. Chad has guided 3 Desert sheep hunts and said this was exactly the same and was equally as tough and enjoyable.

We ended up with some very weird weather which made things tough. It hadnt rained since October and we had about 7 hours of rain through the night one night. We thought we'd have major flooding but were lucky to have it calm down on us. A big dust storm the night before made it tough to see the hills and then snow in the hills of Mexico was really crazy to see. Yesterday morning we had snow and ice up top when we were looking for Chads ram.

What an awesome trip!!!

Will post some more details and pics up in a bit....got some sweet video too but just trying to get organized tonight!

Big thanks to mulie_mike for the great trip!!! Also thanks to Toby for the tips and comments pre-trip and to everyone else who helped make this happen!!

Nice!! Congratulations!

I should say, this will NOT be my last trip to Texas for one of these critters!!!

I'd love to get back down there and bring my wife possibly and look for a big 30" plus ram for her sometime.

The addiction of that south stuff could be fun. I've got a Coues deer in Arizona on my mind now as well!!

Very cool. What rifle and bullet?

Congrats. I think I'd like to do that someday.

Another sheep infected addict!!! Congrats!

It's a whole different hunt than most people imagine. Congrats, and nice long shot. Glad you had so much fun.

First off, congrats on the awesome experience and fine trophy. Seriously that is a lovely animal that you ought to be very proud to display. I just LOVE the sound of these hunts and ya'll are REALLY tempting me...



Second, I must ask, how dare you come on this board leaving out such central details ??

Haha sorry guys....I knew I was missing something!!

Rem Model 7 semi-custom, 7mm SAUM, 160gr Accubond

Thanks for all the nice comments guys. I truly appreciate it and this animal definetly will hold a valuable spot on my wall for the memories!

Wow, beautiful place and trophy. I seriously NEED to do that someday.

Guys this was one of the toughest hunts I have ever done. I want to thank you all for coming out and sticking it out. The hunting was on the slow side due to the weather.

Day 1- 85 degrees with 50 to 60mph winds by the end of the day the dust was so thick you couldn't see the mountains.

Day 2- Cloudy, windy, and temps dropping. Middle of the night it rained for more than 5 hours straight (hadn't rained in months).

Day 3- Cold, wind, and snow.

Day 4- Cold, snow, and of course more wind.

We gave it our all and put in a lot of time glassing. The end result was still a good one.

Congrats on the fine animal and hunt.

Sure looks like a blast! It's on my list.

One of the great things about these hunts is the time of year, after all the other fall hunts are done this adventure can be had. Neat....

Really great pictures and congrats on a fine trophy. Never even really knew about these critters as something you could hunt until I got on the campfire - now I might need one:)

Thanks for posting!!

Looks like y'all culled a few nannies. Cool!

Congratulations! Looks like a fun hunt!

The way everyone's bundled up except for the guy on the left, I'm wondering...

Did you make him pack all the critters out?

Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

Great pictures...looks like you had fun.



I'm thinking he's from Canadia. That would explain alot....



Congrats Rack!