Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Mouflon-Corsican ram

My son in law killed this ram in Rocksprings yesterday. I didn’t know they would interbreed. Anyone else seen that???

Killed it with a 270 WSM

Nice looking ram, really like those spiral horns. How do they eat?

About like a piece of leather boot.

Nice!!

Rocksprings has species unknown to man with all the brought in stuff...

A guy named Thompson Temple been breeding Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep with Mouflon sheep on his ranch near Camp Wood, TX. Nice looking animals. I took my grandson there on his first hunt and saw the results, which are pretty impressive.

Mouflon/Bighorn Hybrid

Ram Hunts

They have interbred for as long as I have known them.

A ram might be boot leather, but good mutton off them is really good as long as the meat is hot. Let it get cold and the grease is a bit weird.

I'd take that meat over a quite a bit of other.

We were sent out one night to get a sheep for the gals at the house had screwed up and ran out of meat for the hunters. They were beyond excellent cooks and to me the sheep was going to be better than the beef had been. Thunderstorms and all, all we could find, no sheep, but blackbuck does... boy did we get chewed out when we got back that night. Never mind we had driven for a couple hours looking..

They did ok with the blackbuck, covered it over with bell peppers enough... dang that sheep would have been outstanding.

I can’t get horned up about these “hunts”...Yes, they’re a beautiful animal.

But, unless things have changed in the last 25 years when I made a mistake going along on a Mouflon hunt in West Texas where I was told we’d be hunting them. Turned out to be 2600 acres of fenced flown in pets to shoot. Wasn’t hunting to me...

Educate me...Is it still the same game of drive around, see them, jump out, shoot one, take hero pics, and head back to the lodge?

😎

Out here we have Mouflon and Feral Sheep crosses. (Ovis Musimon x Ovis Aries). The mouflon were purposely crossed with the ferals in the hope that the hybrids would have less destructive browsing habits. I don't think that worked out as planned. What do you believe that mouflon is crossed with?

I think that Mouflon crosses are common enough that there are folk that are claiming that there are very few pure mouflon in the world and were challenging the record books as a result.

If you have it ground with beef suet and turned into sausage, my dog would eat it!

He hunts out of a stand, was pig hunting when ram came up.

They have some nice Aoudads on that place also. Dall, Jacobs, Mouflon, Corsican, Axis too.

Same here. I have hunted Mouflon ( at least as pure as you can find these days) and they were good game to hunt, spooky as hell.

These other "rams" that Ive seen in Texas are by far the stupidest animals ever, with the "four horned" variety taking the cake.

Aoudad are great game, these semi-domestic versions...not so much.

Looks like that ram has allot of Barbado in him to me. That is a domestic breed that will cross breed with any sheep species it can. With less ranchers running sheep in that area more of these Barbado crosses are around now. The ranchers used to kill every one they could to keep them from cross breeding their good sheep. Allot of people mistake a Barbado for a Mouflon. They are better to eat than Aoudad in my opinion.

They don’t excite me much, I kill every aoudad I see, bastards scare off the deer.

Very good practice. We kill every one we can. They breed like rats and way out compete the native game. Worthless freaking varmints as far as I am concerned.

Quien Sabe?


GWB

Sausage is best use of Aoudad in my opinion. The small ewes and lambs are allot better to eat than the rams.

10/4
Ewes are what I take for meat!









ya!


GWB

Geedub...we had sausage made out of both these rams and it was unbelievably good!




Thanks mainly to you letting me try yours a few years ago!

FWIW this is more Mouflon than anything...

I killed this bastard a couple of years ago.

I tend to favor larger diameter bullets of heavier weight.

I've taken Aoudad with 338 RUM, 7Mag, 30-06 Springfield and 26 Nosler.


I did lose one that I was using a 308 Win.,150 gr. Accubond. However the shot was 300 yds. plus.








We had been on this particular lease for seven seasons. I keep game cams out much of the time. Some of the other guys have said they have seen Aoudad up in the rocks, but I never had. In fact only one had been killed off this lease in seven years. So imagine my elation and surprise when I viewed these pix on the game cam. Four Aoudad at one of my remote spin cast feeders. This location is about ½ mile off the road. Four images of Aoudad on October 19th. It was October 31 when I veiwed the game cam pix. Was I jazzed. Hopefully they might still be in the area.


Fast forward a year plus. It was Friday night, Dec. 28th I sat in a stand that is another half mile back behind the feeder where the Aoudad had shown up. It was about 30 minutes before dark when, as luck would have it I saw them coming over the top of the hill directly across from the hilltop I was perched on. I watched them mosey down a ways. The big ‘un was in the lead. He walked out on an outcrop and turned broadside. I ranged him at 306 yds. My Sako carbine is loaded with 150 gr. Accubonds at +/- 2,750 FPS and as I’m a short range meat hunter, it was zeroed at a measly ½” high at 100 yds. Bummer, wrong rifle and wrong zero. What the heck. Seven years and no Aoudad. I decided to take the shot. I held about 6” over the top of his back, set the trigger and let fly. At that medium velocity and range it seemed like a couple seconds before I heard a solid “whop”. It looked like he hunched up and took off behind some juniper. I watched for about fifteen minutes. No movement. It was starting to get dark but I wasn’t about to wait till morning to start looking. Problem was, I had to go all the way down the hill, across a stream bed then climb a vertical incline lined with cedar, cactus and cats claw. To make matters worse, I was in shorts. Needless to say, by time I got near where I thought he might be it was almost dark. I had a flashlight, but no good reference point. By the time I got off the side of that mountain I looked like I’d been drug behind a truck. I looked for that dude off and on for two days. Aoudad meat ain’t the most tasty, but can be mixed with pork to make pretty fair jalepeno cheese salami. I didn’t mind not recovering the meat, but this guy was a stud puppy. I sure did want the head and horns. Would have made braggin’ rights for a good while. I ended up looking for his skull off and on for months. Never a trace.


Over the last couple years I've had a troup of aoudad visiting the "canopy" on a very infrequent basis. The stand is perched on the side of a hill. I can see down into two valleys. I've not laid eyes on this guy as he only comes in from time to time. Don't know if I see him in the flesh whether I will try to take him, or just shoot him with my camera. He too is a stud!





can't tell from this angle whether this is the same ram, but he ain't too shabby!



If nothing else its a kick in the pants to sit out there and to contemplate!


ya!



GWB

A pure bred sheep is a rarity.

I thought a corsican was a cross between a mouflon and a red sheep. Is that incorrect? If that is correct, unless they were a sterile hybrid why couldn't a corsican breed with a mouflon, and have a 3/4 mouflon, 1/4 red sheep as a result?

I've never hunted Tejas, but the Mouflon I killed in Spain was as wild and spooky as any deer or elk I have killed in the US. I thought it was a great hunt.

GW,
You have a picture of that Cat’s Claw?

https://rangeplants.tamu.edu/plant/catclaw-acacia/



I do believe the two tree like bushes on the left are cats claw as well as the small weedy shrub in the middle and in the right rear of this photo



to the left of the cactus in this photo


https://rangeplants.tamu.edu/plant/catclaw-acacia/

Its nasty stuff, no way you can get by it without getting hooked or if in short sleeves, shredded.

ya!

GWB

Thanks. In all my time spent in the Hill Country, reckon Ive never paid any attention.

Bubba,

Remeber the Johnny Horton song about the battle of New Orleans.......

Well they ran through the briars and the ran through the brambles and they ran through places that a rabbit couldn't go.

Well I tend to do that, sometimes on hands and knees looking for blood. Let me tell you, when it comes to cat's claw, I guarantee you I tend to pay attention, 'specially in the summer if i have on shorts and no shirt. I'll be bleeding from a dozen or more different scratches and scrapes, and the thing about that stuff, is it don't matter if you back up, go forward or turn sideways, you're hooked!

ya!


GWB

I'd say it would be difficult to find a pure bred Mouflon in the USA. I'm not saying they don't exist, but be very careful. FWIW I agree with the earlier poster and say that is more Corsican that anything. Watch some videos of the Mouflon being hunting on their natural turf and they have very different color and horns from that sheep. It's still a nice ram no matter how you slice it.

Nice ram. I hate those damn things. We've had them all over our lease in west Texas. We killed 26 in one weekend. Now I gotta get rid of a bunch of Spanish goats. I've attached pics of some I killed.

Used to shoot quite a few rams years ago. Thought I might post a few pictures of some of the rams I took years ago when I had the opportunity. The leases I'm on now do not have any sheep/goats other than Aoudad,other than an occasional 'wander-thru"



Corsican taken with bow


New Zealand Ram taken with bow


Black Hawaiian taken w/ 270 winchester



Texas Dall, taken with S&W model 29 in 44 mag


and one more...........


Although I hunt with a bow and pistol, I am basically a rifle looney at heart. However, I do have one trophy hanging on the wall that wasn’t brought down by a bow or firearm. It actually was killed by a Goodyear Wrangler tire mounted on my ford f350.



Wool sheep taken with 315/70 R16 Goodyear Wrangler AT,Ruger Blackhawk in 41 mag and Poulan chainsaw!!!


I was hunting in Rocksprings, Texas at the time. Some years earlier, one of my brothers married the prize daughter of a family of "yellow dog democrats" who happened to all be union hands and avid deer hunters (one of the daughters, not the sons). The patriarch of the clan wanted to get my brother on the lease so his grandsons could grow up hunting deer. His sons did not want my brother on the lease, as my brothers’ main focus is making money, not working to improve the lease or hunting, was a Southern Baptist and to make matters worse, voted Republican. Consequently the “pappa” and the sons were at loggerheads

However, in time they figured out a solution to the problem. They called me, and the oldest son sez Gdub, this is your B-I-L Richard. I replied, Richard, I think my brother is your B-I-L, not me. Well Richard says, well I guess that's true, but he said that Pappa insisted that he is not going to have any grandson of his grow up not deer hunting. They had tried to convince Pappa that they could go with the lazy, money making and tenderfoot attributes in regards to my brother, but they really did not want a republican on their lease. So Richard informs me they were thinking about inviting me on their lease. However, they wanted me to know up front it wasn't because they liked me. Rather they knew that I loved to hunt and knew that I was well acquainted with Senor Manual Labor. So, they told me if I would carry my “lazy azz” brother, he and I could both be on their lease. Funny, they never asked me how I voted. LOL. I've been hunting with them since 1999. My brother got off one year later. Each year they remind me that they still don't like me but they put up with me because I bring the steaks, cigars and Patron.

Anywho opening weekend of the 1999 deer season in the Texas hill country was a washout. I don’t remember how many inches it rained but the trip that normally takes six hours took fifteen hours. We started out at six AM and after taking numerous detours and fording several rivers and streams arrived at nine PM. We sure could have used an air boat or hovercraft that day. It rained so hard that weekend in the Texas hill country that deer hunters were being pulled out of trees with helicopters.

Well, I hunted that whole weekend in the rain and cold with no success. On the way out I saw a group of Aoudad sheep going straight up the side of a hill. I stopped my truck and grabbed my rifle. An easy 200 yard shot at a running target (yeah). As it was cold, wet and rainy, I had the defroster/heater on in my truck, and when I took the rifle out to shoot, of course the scope lens totally fogged up. So, no shot on the Aoudad.

Needless to say I was pissed. I had traveled 350 miles over the course of 15 hours, to get to the lease, gone through water up to my driver’s side window in my new F350. Then I had hunted in the rain and cold for three days and finally when I had the opportunity to take a shot at game, my scope fogged up. Well I threw the rifle back in the truck and took off and was cussing like a sailor. I hadn’t gone up the hill a quarter mile when I felt a bump like I had run over something. As my windshield was still fogged up, I hadn’t seen what had run in front of my truck. I got out and looked back down the hill. I had run over a double curl ram. He was lying there gasping and most likely dying as he had been run over by a 9600 lb truck. However, I hate to see any critter suffer, so I pulled out my Ruger new model Blackhawk in 41 mag. and finished him off, then drug him off to the side of the road.

I went back to the truck to get in when a thought struck me. I’d hunted hard for three days and I wasn’t in any mood to go back empty handed. Since he was such a nice ram I decided that I would have him mounted. I backed the truck up and tried to load him up. However I was by myself and he was heavier than I could lift . As it was getting late, I didn’t want to take the time to cape him out. Well that’s where the chainsaw came in. I grabbed my saw and went to work. Well within two shakes of the proverbial sheep's tale I had him cut in half and loaded in the truck. The ram in the picture above is the only animal I have on my wall that was killed by a truck rather than a pistol, rifle or bow. He was a nasty wool sheep, so I had my taxidermist use a Mouflon cape to spruce him up a bit. One of these days I am going to add a backboard and an engraved plate with a piece of tire tread stating that he was killed by a Goodyear Wrangler A/T tire.

I have a good friend from Ireland that has a saying that “ a lie well told will serve as good as the truth anyday”. But if I’m lyin,I’m dyin.

ya!
GWB

We have lots of sorry assed Aoudads, I shoot everyone I see.

I thought that was a Peruvian Ibex???

Dunno if you got a huntin ranch but they seem to fetch a pretty good price.. If love to kill one.

One of these days I'll learn how to post pics correctly.

It’s fun to kill exotic game if you don’t have to pay a fortune to do it.

Dub that is a beauty and looks to be a Corsican/Mouflon cross. But on some ranches the sheep are so mixed up it is hard to tell.

Ain't that the truth? When I started hunting with an Outfitter for exotics,1995, I made an inquiry to Thompson Temples bunch. Got a "coupon" for a ram for $150. I went with a friend, got a ram ( Corsican/Mouflon cross) and disgusted with how they ran the business. won't go into detail, but sought out another fellow, Dan Moody and he had access to ranches with more acres, more game, and better prices. I paid something like $300 for ewes of Blackbuck & axis. $800 for bucks of either, no matter how big! It was very affordable as I went to Texas on business and to see family a couple times a year then. It gave me "an excuse" to take the meat ( Axis & Blackbuck, etc, no rams!) to my folks.

There were a lot to choose from before we started thinning them out. It used to be an every day thing for them to just camp out under my feeder. Now they don't seem to bother it as much. I can hear them bawling on the lease next door all the time. One guy on that lease complained about them ruining his season and he didn't want to shoot them during deer season. I told him to let me know when he wasn't going to be out there and I'd go in and wear them out for him. He didn't like that idea either.

I love hunting them actually. They don't hang around very long when they see you.

even better if you don't have to pay at all!

ya!


GWB

I do have to pay a lease fee, but I've got year round access so it's a pretty good deal.

Our lease is year around also, I kill more damn pigs than anything else. I really enjoy trapping them. I need to build another round pen and gate.

I miss living in Texas!

We had a pig explosion last year. I'm not sure if it was all of the rain pushed them out of the creek beds or what, but my gawd, we had the pigs. My fiance killed 4 with two going over 300 lbs. and I killed 6 with my largest going over 300. All of the pigs she killed were single boars. I killed 3 at one stand in about 30 minutes. I'd killed one and then the feeder went off and they came back within 10 minutes. Killed another and they came back AGAIN! That's the first time they've done that on this lease. Killed the third one and watched a huge sounder run off to my left with at least 20 of the football size piglets. I've decided I need something full auto.

I hunt western Val Verde and Terrell County. Most of the ranchers to the south of us near Pumpville had no idea there were hogs in the area. They thought I meant javelinas. Until I showed them some pictures.

You need a big round pen to trap a bunch of them. Shooting a few will never kill them out.

I bet you don’t miss the heat.!!!

Believe me, I've thought about it! The problem is I live 247 miles one way from the lease and I'm only out there about one weekend every 3 months. I haven't been out since the last of February this year.

I keep my feeders going year round, I set traps when I go out there.

We feed year round as well. In fact, I'm headed out there the last weekend of this month. I've thought about getting a trap or two and setting them up and not arming them until I'm there. I may have to try it because it's getting ridiculous.

Don't know about their heritage, but the "Mouflons"I see occasionally on the driven-hunt videos I watch seem to run at least as fast as all the other stuff. Seems a bit odd to see curly-horned rams running through hardwood forest. Must be pricey because it's seldom one is seen in the game pile they always show at the end.

I see that I responded to this thread back in June....here is the Iberian Mouflon I had mentioned. I thought it was a great hunt, and on par with the average deer or antelope hunt, or even elk for that matter, other than not needing to hike so far.

Tiny,that's a beautiful sweater on that ram.I think I 've asked about taxi work before,but did you tan that or anything?

He's being shoulder mounted. I'm not big into mounts, as 99% of my antlers and horns are hanging in the barn but I felt this guy was fun enough to hunt, with a nice enough coat to mount.

Should make for an incredible mount,post it up when he's done..

It will be a great looking mount!

Have guns will travel!!!! if anyone needs someone to come and get rid a few of these of their places in Texas, Me and my 5 year old sharp shooter would make the drive and relive the place of some lol