Free-range Texas Aoudad, Whitetail, Axis, Black Buck, Elk, Sika-Game Pictues

because of some people, this place is becoming less and less appealing. you hunt over a feeder? that's not hunting. you use a trail camera, that's not hunting. you put in food plots? that's not hunting. there are fences? that's not fair. still have that open invitation to any of you prefessional hunters from out west to come and hunt here in illinois. will drop you off in the shawnee national forest, and you can tell everyone when you're done, in either the 3 day or 4 day shotgun season, how you did with that spot and stalk method which according to you, is the only way to hunt.

you enlightened yet?
If that was a dig on me then you are definitely misreading what I said.
 
The audads look like an awsome animal,id like to get one for the wall.Do they jump fences or go under? If they do jump fences how high of a fence can they jump?Why the cattle panels around the feeders? Are the exotics feral?Id love to have a black buck mount also.Really would like to hunt some exotics in texas but I would want a fair chase hunt unguided even if it was on private land.Not in to the whole whitetail hunting as I have shot plenty of them around here. 4,500acres dosnt seem like much land to hunt in texas. Im not bashing just wondering about some of the questions I asked.I once went to Iowa to check out a pig hunting operation.Wanted a pig mount for the wall real bad and thought it would be the cheapest route to go being it was only 2 hours from home.when I got there the ranchers took us out to show us around and once the animals heard the desil tractor they came running towards it.Just could not bring myself to shoot a pig there even if it was just for a cool looking mount and some pork.
 
The audads look like an awsome animal,id like to get one for the wall.Do they jump fences or go under? If they do jump fences how high of a fence can they jump?Why the cattle panels around the feeders? Are the exotics feral?Id love to have a black buck mount also.Really would like to hunt some exotics in texas but I would want a fair chase hunt unguided even if it was on private land.Not in to the whole whitetail hunting as I have shot plenty of them around here. 4,500acres dosnt seem like much land to hunt in texas. Im not bashing just wondering about some of the questions I asked.I once went to Iowa to check out a pig hunting operation.Wanted a pig mount for the wall real bad and thought it would be the cheapest route to go being it was only 2 hours from home.when I got there the ranchers took us out to show us around and once the animals heard the desil tractor they came running towards it.Just could not bring myself to shoot a pig there even if it was just for a cool looking mount and some pork.

I have no relation to Mr. Cow Creek Ranch trying to sell his hunts, but I can answer most of those questions.

Aoudad can jump a pretty high fence. Probably pretty similar to a deer. I would guess 5 or 6 feet wouldn't be a problem for them.

The cattle panels are around feeders to keep the hogs out. Hogs are a nuisance and will tear up just about anything. No one wants to pay $ for protein feed for pigs.

Most of the exotics out in west Texas are feral. At some point they escaped from a high fenced operation, but the fallow deer for sure seem to be a breeding free range poplulation. Same with the elk. For many of the property owners out there they can make more money from selling hunts on their property than they can from grazing cattle on it so it is in their best interest to keep a viable population going. All of the exotics can be shot on sight anytime day or night as long as you have the landowners permission. What keeps them from being exterminated is their value to the landowner.

You can hunt Aoudad (Barbary Sheep) on public land in New Mexico and the tag isn't hard to draw but the season is late January to early March and that is a bad time of the year for me at work so I doubt I will ever be able to hunt them there. In New Mexico with the NMGF managing the resource, a 26"+ ram is a trophy. In Texas with the landowners managing the resource, they would encourage you not to shoot a 26" ram as it still has a few years of potential. They generally manage for trophy quality and a 30"+ ram is about what most guys would expect to get a shot at. Not sure what they would charge to shoot a ewe, or if they really do a big study on carrying capacity to know if they are overpopulated or not. The feeders do allow for them to go over carrying capacity of the land as it is pretty much just dirt and rocks otherwise. Some of the larger ranches don't have feeders but most of the smaller ones (less than 10,000 acres) do.

There are lots of places to hunt pigs, but not sure you are going to find many places that don't use feeders if they are selling hog hunts. Deer are pretty good at avoiding the feeders during hunting season, but hunting season for pigs is 24/7/365 and they are pigs so some corn on the ground is typically too much for them to resist. I've shot well over 2 dozen pigs in the last 5 years on my place and right off the top of my head can only think of 6 that weren't shot at a feeder.

I've never seen a pig come running to a tractor around my place. They are pretty skittish. I would be too if I could be shot on sight day or night year round.
 
You guys done yet?

Bambi was right. It is what you make of it. If it is not your style, then don't do it. Pretty simple.

I really don't care how people hunt. I do care when people start telling me how I should hunt.

Sorry to interject. Just amazed that this thread continues so far down this path.
 
npaden, Good post. Back in the early 50's my Father was in the Air Force working as a Mechanic and a group of them got together for a Deer Hunt. He said even back then the ranchers charged a Fee. But to back up what npaden was talking about, Daddy said the rancher said "you can either shoot a Deer or a Cow". So yes given the terrain and times a ranch does depend on sometimes selling Hunts. Nothing to really get your panties in a wad over, I have seen several of the Heroes of this site go to Texas and they really had a good time and came back with alot of meat. Would they do this on a regular basis and pass on one of their other hunts, no I don't think they would. John
 
More fingernail polish HCR....soothes the mob.

Good info npaden & well said bambi. My cam has the pigs almost completely nocturnal.
 
You guys done yet?

Bambi was right. It is what you make of it. If it is not your style, then don't do it. Pretty simple.

I really don't care how people hunt. I do care when people start telling me how I should hunt.

Sorry to interject. Just amazed that this thread continues so far down this path.

Agreed. If you want to be an elitist snob, you don't have to share that with the rest of us.

Even National Forest ground has fences through and around it.
 
Agreed. If you want to be an elitist snob, you don't have to share that with the rest of us.

Even National Forest ground has fences through and around it.


Wow!! JLS that was a great thought. Thank You! John
 
I think everyone thinks I was saying a few things I never said. That plus a few poorly thought out responses and everyone is offended.

For the the record. I am merely saying, I feel sorry for the people with the mentality that hunting 4,500-100,000 acres of land is "big" or "special" or whatever when the west has soooo many acres of federal land that we all own. So go enjoy that instead.

I never complained about feeders,fencing,cams,baits,brunettes,helicopters or hand grenades.
Just for the record!
 
We need Greenhorn to jump in here - where the hell is he? Cannot believe this thread got to 6 pages.
 
Wow this thread has some legs. Started off by taking a few shots at a guy trying to get some free advertising for paid ranch hunts on a DIY website, and now we are questioning how guys should be hunting. You gotta play with the cards you are dealt, and if that is how it has to be to get outdoors and put some meat in the freezor than so be it.

I remember being young back in Western Nebraska and watching guys stand at the end of corn fields when the combines fired up, waiting to shoot the first whitetail that ran out the back of the corn field, doe or buck or whatever came out.....and if you do the math, deer opener was usually after the corn harvest there. Then again I remember having "deer steak and eggs" for breakfast, with deer hamburgers for lunch and deer sausage for dinner until the sugar beat crop checks cleared the bank. Hunting with my Dad back then was us driving the farm roads and only shooting deer that we could drive the truck up to. That is how it was done back then, and just that type of hunting back then got me exposed to harvesting animals and living off the meat. We had a "bunker pit/blind" (no other way to say it) on the Platte River for goose/duck hunting. Had a full stove in it for making breakfast and to heat it, and card table for the guys who weren't hunting to play cards. It could be a 10 degree day on the river, and you were hunting geese in a t-shirt and jeans out of the blind it was so warm in there. Not exactly what you would call roughing it, but was again me out in the outdoors with my Dad and uncles and having a great time doing it. If the "Texas Style" of hunting is what you have access to, especially when trying to get your kids exposed to the outdoors and hunting, than we should never look down at that, and encourage people for passing on the tradition. I know I have a hog hunt in my future with my 3 sons when they get old enough to do it, and gonna be down south somewhere, so they can have a fun hunt and I can have some bacon in the freezor. I will write that check with a smile on my face, as long as those 3 boys have a big smile on theirs. They will also be back in Western Nebraska each fall, tripping over small 3 and 4 pt bucks with me behind them "I don't know, he is oftly far from the road, you sure you want to take him"........as you trip over deer every 100 yards in the sandhills back there. They will also have a pack on during September heading up to timberline as soon as they can start getting Colorado Tags. Its a combination of hunting experiences that will help pass on our passion and tradition in the outdoors to the next generation, regardless how/when those experiences happen, just as long as they do.

With all that being said, I am still going to enjoy taking a few shots at guys who are "just trying to show a few pictures" (on a forum that promotes DIY hunters) that has a link to the price sheet of the ranch they are promoting :)
 
You beat me to it Mtnlion. He just won't give up. Jess, if your intention was to show some trail can pics, than open a new profile with no HCC info. Post your best pics, and leave all solicitations out of it. That is what you are arguing about, that you are not advertising. If you had done that originally, no one would of likely had anything to say.
 
I think everyone thinks I was saying a few things I never said. That plus a few poorly thought out responses and everyone is offended.

For the the record. I am merely saying, I feel sorry for the people with the mentality that hunting 4,500-100,000 acres of land is "big" or "special" or whatever when the west has soooo many acres of federal land that we all own. So go enjoy that instead.

I never complained about feeders,fencing,cams,baits,brunettes,helicopters or hand grenades.
Just for the record!

really? maybe you should enlighten yourself as to what each state has? maybe then you will finally realize to some, that 4500 acres is a lot of land. doubt it. here's some help for you.

http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/291-federal-lands-in-the-us

click on the map. it will give you the numbers. and FYI, will be waiting on the check you'll send us mentally challenged who don't see the point in spending hundreds to thousands of dollars for a trip out west to kill a something.
 
You beat me to it Mtnlion. He just won't give up. Jess, if your intention was to show some trail can pics, than open a new profile with no HCC info. Post your best pics, and leave all solicitations out of it. That is what you are arguing about, that you are not advertising. If you had done that originally, no one would of likely had anything to say.

someone is showing they are new here.:D
 

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