AustinL
Member
This past weekend me and my dad went down to our family ranch (960 acres) to see if the whitetail were chasing and maybe get a line on a mulie buck before the mule deer opener. I spent Saturday morning and evening perched on a bluff overlooking a winding creek bottom that feeds into the double mountian fork of the brazos river. It is a beautiful spot that normally sees a lot of movement but this weekend the weather was just too warm and movement was minimal with only a few does and young bucks were seen. Sunday morning I switched gears and moved back to a ridge on the backside of the property which has awesome views of some deep rugged canyons and a giant flood plane on the other side of the river on the neighboring ranch.
The morning was slow with very little deer activity and not a single mule deer buck has turned up so I moved down the ridge and set up to glass the next canyon over after alittle glassing with no luck turning up a buck I set my binoculars down to stretch out and enjoy the morning sun when movement caught my eye on a steep finger that jutted out to the river below me and about 175 yards out. I quickly got my binoculars on it and discovered it to be a large aoudad ram. A side note here these aoudad are free ranging with a very limited population of extremely wild sheep with the ability to go wherever there will takes them. In fact this is the first ram I have personally seen in the 7 years we have owned the property. The ram worked up the ridge to a narrow shelf where he proceeded so scan his entire surroundings. I was watching and waiting passing up several good shots due to concerns of being able to recover the ram in his current location. I thought the ram would continue up the ridge to a larger flat that would make recovery much easier but to my dismay he bedded right on that shelf and was obviously in for the long haul.
After carefully studying the ridge I felt that recovery would be possible as long as I could anchor the ram in his bed. I rolled up my jacket and got in a prone position and waited on the ram to give me a shot that I knew would keep him in his bed. The next thing I remember was the ram giving me she shot I was looking for and the rapport of the rifle and the solid thump of the bullet finding its mark. The scope settled and there lay my ram.
Sure enough it was not as difficult as I thought it might be to reach him and we were able to move him a short distance to where we could cape and quarter him. The trip back off that ridge was much more difficult than I imagined with out the proper pack but we got the job done.
The rams horns were 30 1/2" long with 12" bases. Now if I can just figure out how to post pics from my phone
The morning was slow with very little deer activity and not a single mule deer buck has turned up so I moved down the ridge and set up to glass the next canyon over after alittle glassing with no luck turning up a buck I set my binoculars down to stretch out and enjoy the morning sun when movement caught my eye on a steep finger that jutted out to the river below me and about 175 yards out. I quickly got my binoculars on it and discovered it to be a large aoudad ram. A side note here these aoudad are free ranging with a very limited population of extremely wild sheep with the ability to go wherever there will takes them. In fact this is the first ram I have personally seen in the 7 years we have owned the property. The ram worked up the ridge to a narrow shelf where he proceeded so scan his entire surroundings. I was watching and waiting passing up several good shots due to concerns of being able to recover the ram in his current location. I thought the ram would continue up the ridge to a larger flat that would make recovery much easier but to my dismay he bedded right on that shelf and was obviously in for the long haul.
After carefully studying the ridge I felt that recovery would be possible as long as I could anchor the ram in his bed. I rolled up my jacket and got in a prone position and waited on the ram to give me a shot that I knew would keep him in his bed. The next thing I remember was the ram giving me she shot I was looking for and the rapport of the rifle and the solid thump of the bullet finding its mark. The scope settled and there lay my ram.
Sure enough it was not as difficult as I thought it might be to reach him and we were able to move him a short distance to where we could cape and quarter him. The trip back off that ridge was much more difficult than I imagined with out the proper pack but we got the job done.
The rams horns were 30 1/2" long with 12" bases. Now if I can just figure out how to post pics from my phone
