Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Aoudad hunting

Has anyone hunted on the John P. Boershig Marfa ranch in west Texas? A buddy and I are looking for a spring hunt for something new. Just trying to do my due diligence.

I hope you get one! We have them on our deer lease. They rate right up there with hogs.

Don't know anything about that ranch but it is a beautiful area. I would not schedule your hunt too late, after March it starts getting pretty hot, you could do all your walking early and late but later in the spring even the afternoons don't cool off.

Bring good well broken in boots. I like to wear pants with a double front layer or cotton bird hunting pants for thorn protection. If I know I am going to be in the brush I wear snake boots for thorn and snake protection. Leather gloves are good too as your hands can get really torn up by the cat claw and other thorns. If you are doing a lot of glassing a piece of foam or one of those turkey hunting pads might be nice. Wear the biggest hat that doesn't interfere with glassing or shooting. Bring a canteen or hydration pack and lots of sunscreen. Bring tweezers or hemostats and I take arnica and icthamamil for thorns and sore hands.

You should schedule some extra time to do some sight seeing in Big Bend, if you want to stay in the Chisos Basin book early.. Be careful as the hospitals in the area are at or near maximum capacity, they are airlifting people to Midland/Odessa and other locations.

You should see lots of Dads and have a chance to get a pretty good one. Decide what you are willing to hold out for, me I would shoot anything 30" or over.

I've hunted them a few different places in W TX. I've never heard of that particular outfitter, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Fully guided hunts out there are around $5k, give or take. I would be extremely skeptical of anything allot cheaper. I would google them and see what pops up. If there's something bad, it won't be hard to find. References are always good but they aren't going to give you any that hunters left pissed off. You might look at Wildlife Systems and see what they have available. I'm no expert but feel free to pm any questions.

We had them as well on the ranch I hunted north of Van Horn for close to 30 years. It got to be that I hunted them harder than I hunted the mulies. The TPWD biologist for the area lived on the ranch just south of us and she said kill every one of them you see. They eat all of the vegetation literally down to the ground, so I did my best oblige her. I was always after one we nicknamed Casper. He was every bit of 36" around the curl and was the cagiest animal I've ever hunted. Never did kill him.

Me and some buddies are actually in the process of booking an aoudad hunt through an outfitter in west Texas. He has recommended to us an early Fall hunt during the 1st couple of weeks in October for good results. He claims they averaged 32” animals this past season and they’ve had a 100% opportunity for the past 10yrs I think. He says he can only remember 2 guys not getting an animal in those past 10yrs. We are booking a couple years in advance though ... we just like saving our spot early and planning our trips in advance. I’m excited for the opportunity!

I've not been to that ranch but some of the reviews on other websites make it seem to be very hit or miss in that the ranch is down in the flats and doesn't have so much of a resident population as it does auodad migrating through it.

Kellywk
Would you mind giving me the names of the other websites where you read the bad reviews. I am getting ready to mail them a deposit check but would like to check the info you are talking about.
I talked to one of the guides for some time and came away rather impressed but you never know. Talking to the lady that handles the bookings I learned they are filling up and booking well into 22. She said a large percentage of their hunters are repeat customers and we had to take our third choice of dates which will Jan. of 22.
Thanks for your reply.
Baldguy

Never saw the attraction of taking an audad. Ugly and you can’t eat em.

I shoot them because they scare the deer away.

Quien Sabe?



But I enjoy hunting them as they are elusive,



you never know when they may show up. It might be a day, a week or a month.



They make a decent mount



I typically take a ewe



or a juvenile ram yearly.



I have my processor mix the meat with pork and do snack sticks, summer sausage (traditional, jalapeno cheese) breakfast sausage, (Jimmy Dean, Maple, Andoule and Bohemian), green onion/pepper jack smoked links, and boudin, out of the aforementioned ewes and juvenile rams.



Anywho, it works for me.

YMMV

Ya!

GWB

geedubya, what rifle is in the first pic?

It is a Blaser R93, 9.3 x 62 barrel.

ya!


GWB

A nice free ranging ram! Taken with a 6.5-284 140gr Accubond @ 408yds. DRT!

Sakohunter do you know what your ram measures? Trying to learn how to size these animals for my upcoming hunt.

My old Ram measured a little over 30”. Huge bases. Excellent hunt for sure!

Nice! who did the taxidermy on that ram?

A friend of a friend in college station, TX. He does just superb work. I’m guessing he’s done some work for many of the big shots here in TX.

Looks like a fun hunt to me.

I like them on a wall pedestal. I’d like to have a few on the wall but they take up more space than you would think