Who's ready for a story.......
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EYJONAS!
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Tuesday: Day 1.
We're on another level of excitement and anticipation. A few cups of coffee and a couple breakfast burritos we loaded up the side by side and headed out. Neither of us knowing how far or what to expect on the ride. Let me tell you.... it took forever it seemed. Like 2hrs it's a long way to the spot and we needed to drop some Mexican Brick weed off along the way. Which I'm assuming is why we never got above 10mph on the way in. I'm assuming this is somewhat normal for outfitters or people to do. This is literally the only green form of grass we saw the entire week.
Our first Texas sunrise is a sight to see, it was already hot out and it wasn't even 830 am. Dead calm, loud and crunchy. Basically the most ideal sheep conditions you could hope for. We begin our hike into our first glassing point.
We get in and all setup and begin to pick apart this hillside in front of us. I immediately figure out that everything is trying to poke, stab, grab, or shank you as you're navigating this county. I think I sat on 2 cactus before I even got my glass out. Less than 10 minutes into the morning I pickup our first sheep of the trip and he's a no brainer ram. Long beard, great horns, old warrior face. Just everything you could hope for and I'm sitting there thinking. WTF, this is really how quick this is gonna go down? 10 minutes in on the first morning of a 4 day hunt. I've learned over the years that when you get opportunities like this you just gotta take em. You don't know what will happen or what else you'll encounter. We confirm with Diego and he says that this sheep is easily an unquestionable shooter. I agree and decide I'm gonna take this ram. So, we begin to make the move with Diego hanging back we close the distance from 1300 yards to 550 and get setup.
We're on another level of excitement and anticipation. A few cups of coffee and a couple breakfast burritos we loaded up the side by side and headed out. Neither of us knowing how far or what to expect on the ride. Let me tell you.... it took forever it seemed. Like 2hrs it's a long way to the spot and we needed to drop some Mexican Brick weed off along the way. Which I'm assuming is why we never got above 10mph on the way in. I'm assuming this is somewhat normal for outfitters or people to do. This is literally the only green form of grass we saw the entire week.
Our first Texas sunrise is a sight to see, it was already hot out and it wasn't even 830 am. Dead calm, loud and crunchy. Basically the most ideal sheep conditions you could hope for. We begin our hike into our first glassing point.
We get in and all setup and begin to pick apart this hillside in front of us. I immediately figure out that everything is trying to poke, stab, grab, or shank you as you're navigating this county. I think I sat on 2 cactus before I even got my glass out. Less than 10 minutes into the morning I pickup our first sheep of the trip and he's a no brainer ram. Long beard, great horns, old warrior face. Just everything you could hope for and I'm sitting there thinking. WTF, this is really how quick this is gonna go down? 10 minutes in on the first morning of a 4 day hunt. I've learned over the years that when you get opportunities like this you just gotta take em. You don't know what will happen or what else you'll encounter. We confirm with Diego and he says that this sheep is easily an unquestionable shooter. I agree and decide I'm gonna take this ram. So, we begin to make the move with Diego hanging back we close the distance from 1300 yards to 550 and get setup.
EYJONAS!
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As we're coming into position a lot is going into my mind. What is this ram? What are we really looking at? How many are we gonna see? Is this normal or not? Should I even consider shooting? This is literally the only Aoudad I've ever even seen in my life in person. I get it into my mind that this is what I came down for and that I would be ecstatic with a sheep of this caliber.
We climb up to the ridge top that we wanted to get into position on. We spot the ram beded and confirm he's a legit no brainer ram.
So at 523 yards I get ready, solid rest and take a couple practice shots on him. He's beded right now so I am waiting for him to stand up. About 10 minutes of laying there he stands up.....
Cole calls the yardage 525. No wind, same elevation as us. He sets up to video the shot through his scope. I look over at him and say here we go...... safety off. Boom.....
I miss. Over a foot high and 2 feet left. I am in shock, not that I'm some regular sniper that shoots 500 with his eyes closed but I literally had just checked my rifle less than 12 hrs beforehand. I practice shooting out too 700 (just cause) it helps give be confidence for scenarios for 300-500 yard shots.
I reload he calls the distance, the ram runs 30 yards and stops again. 515 Cole calls, I send another one.
Miss
One foot high and two feet left. I pull up off the scope and think to myself, what in the actual #*^@#* just happened. I honestly can't believe this. I watch the ram walk off never to be seen again. I'm just sick to my stomach at this point and begin to really experience total loss of confidence in myself and we're only 25 minutes into this hunt.
We climb up to the ridge top that we wanted to get into position on. We spot the ram beded and confirm he's a legit no brainer ram.
So at 523 yards I get ready, solid rest and take a couple practice shots on him. He's beded right now so I am waiting for him to stand up. About 10 minutes of laying there he stands up.....
Cole calls the yardage 525. No wind, same elevation as us. He sets up to video the shot through his scope. I look over at him and say here we go...... safety off. Boom.....
I miss. Over a foot high and 2 feet left. I am in shock, not that I'm some regular sniper that shoots 500 with his eyes closed but I literally had just checked my rifle less than 12 hrs beforehand. I practice shooting out too 700 (just cause) it helps give be confidence for scenarios for 300-500 yard shots.
I reload he calls the distance, the ram runs 30 yards and stops again. 515 Cole calls, I send another one.
Miss
One foot high and two feet left. I pull up off the scope and think to myself, what in the actual #*^@#* just happened. I honestly can't believe this. I watch the ram walk off never to be seen again. I'm just sick to my stomach at this point and begin to really experience total loss of confidence in myself and we're only 25 minutes into this hunt.
BAKPAKR
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Must be a Montana thing.Occasionally I have called situations " a real goat screw"...never really thought about the origin.
Hem
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Quite possible. Plenty of crazies.Must be a Montana thing.
EYJONAS!
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We walk back to Diego, I'm flooded with emotions not upset but just really wondering what the hell was that. Did my gun get dropped, bumped, kicked? I sure never saw anything like that happen. I inform Diego I need to shoot this rifle again because something is wrong.
We find a perfect target scenario. A rock slab with a 6in diameter birthmark on it for shooting as a target. 330 yards away I get setup and ready to go. I shoot a 3 shot group and literally everything is perfect all three shots are basically touching and hit in the center portion of the target.
I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong or what could've happened and the only thing I can figure is I just whiffed.
After this we continue to hunt the rest of the day out, it's hot AF, like 85 degrees and for this north country kid.... that's too hot to hunt. Apparently we weren't the only ones that didn't like the heat because we never saw a single sheep or animal the entire rest of the day. Not 1 living thing.
On the way home 1.5 hours in the side by side on a dark and dusty dirt road that runs along the Rio. A lot of thoughts are going through my mind. We're greeted by Ryan when we get back to camp with a hot meal and cold beers. After a cigar and shower it's bedtime. Excited for day 2.
We find a perfect target scenario. A rock slab with a 6in diameter birthmark on it for shooting as a target. 330 yards away I get setup and ready to go. I shoot a 3 shot group and literally everything is perfect all three shots are basically touching and hit in the center portion of the target.
I'm still trying to figure out what I did wrong or what could've happened and the only thing I can figure is I just whiffed.
After this we continue to hunt the rest of the day out, it's hot AF, like 85 degrees and for this north country kid.... that's too hot to hunt. Apparently we weren't the only ones that didn't like the heat because we never saw a single sheep or animal the entire rest of the day. Not 1 living thing.
On the way home 1.5 hours in the side by side on a dark and dusty dirt road that runs along the Rio. A lot of thoughts are going through my mind. We're greeted by Ryan when we get back to camp with a hot meal and cold beers. After a cigar and shower it's bedtime. Excited for day 2.
Last edited:
Hem
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I felt bad for the dog.
And, of course, any witnesses.
noharleyyet
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EYJONAS!
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Wednesday, Day 2:
Cole and I had a real talk that morning. We are both well aware of slow days in the field. We felt like something had to be different. With not seeing anything besides the 1 ram the first day we had high hopes for the future ahead. This morning is different, the conditions were different. It's windy af, dust storms going on all around us. Temps are cooler and immediately we're looking at each other going. Well this great, not ideal right out of the gate to start the day. We were proved wrong though.
Immediately we find sheep, a band of 17 rams and this was just the beginning. They're a long ways off maybe 4 miles or so. We decide to get out and hike at em. Getting to about 1 mile or so we hunker down in some rocks. It's flat ripping out side 40mph or better and just constant. We do our best to size up the sheep with what we have and are about 1 hour of watching them we determine that none of these sheep we're interested in shooting just yet. There are 2 rams in the bunch that late in the hunt we said we'd shoot but neither were like the ram i had missed.
We decide to back out and keep looking and covering the ranch we're hunting. This place is around 40k acres if I'm not mistaken and it's all wild and vast landscape throughout it. We were starting to figure out that the south and west faces were not the places the sheep were going to be. So we'd pick apart the ranch and focus soley on North and East faces glassing the cactus patches and trying to locate sheep. After the big group we found 4 other ok to decent sheep but neither of us were content on harvesting one of them. After watching those ones for a couple hours and a little ridge top siesta we moved to a glassing point towards the end of the day that proved to be a great decision because immediately we find a group of 50 sheep that has 2 absolute smoker rams in it.
To late to make a move on them we watch them and decide that we would be right back here in the morning to make a move on them.
The sun sets and we're now 50% of the way through the hunt with a great opportunity ahead of us. Moral is pretty high in sheep camp after the second day.
Cole and I had a real talk that morning. We are both well aware of slow days in the field. We felt like something had to be different. With not seeing anything besides the 1 ram the first day we had high hopes for the future ahead. This morning is different, the conditions were different. It's windy af, dust storms going on all around us. Temps are cooler and immediately we're looking at each other going. Well this great, not ideal right out of the gate to start the day. We were proved wrong though.
Immediately we find sheep, a band of 17 rams and this was just the beginning. They're a long ways off maybe 4 miles or so. We decide to get out and hike at em. Getting to about 1 mile or so we hunker down in some rocks. It's flat ripping out side 40mph or better and just constant. We do our best to size up the sheep with what we have and are about 1 hour of watching them we determine that none of these sheep we're interested in shooting just yet. There are 2 rams in the bunch that late in the hunt we said we'd shoot but neither were like the ram i had missed.
We decide to back out and keep looking and covering the ranch we're hunting. This place is around 40k acres if I'm not mistaken and it's all wild and vast landscape throughout it. We were starting to figure out that the south and west faces were not the places the sheep were going to be. So we'd pick apart the ranch and focus soley on North and East faces glassing the cactus patches and trying to locate sheep. After the big group we found 4 other ok to decent sheep but neither of us were content on harvesting one of them. After watching those ones for a couple hours and a little ridge top siesta we moved to a glassing point towards the end of the day that proved to be a great decision because immediately we find a group of 50 sheep that has 2 absolute smoker rams in it.
To late to make a move on them we watch them and decide that we would be right back here in the morning to make a move on them.
The sun sets and we're now 50% of the way through the hunt with a great opportunity ahead of us. Moral is pretty high in sheep camp after the second day.
BigHornRam
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I have a nephew named Cole that did a Auodad hunt recently in place that looked just like this. I was starting to think what are the odds, then noticed your friend Cole is from Montana. My nephew is from Wisconsin. He had a great hunt too!
EYJONAS!
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Day 3, Thursday.
Cole and I are in full blown assassin mode. Our plan is to go back to the ridge where we found the sheep the night before. Which is 2 hours from camp in the side by side. Today is going to be our best weather day of the week. Light winds, overcast and a little cooler. We get all the way over through the ranch and around to the backside and get to the glassing point by daylight.
Immediately we locate the sheep and both rams right where we left them the night before. They were in a perfect location. We have a bit of a long walk across a flat and approach to get up to a shooting perch which was about 1200ft up from the bottom. It almost seemed like a slam dunk. I'm not sure why I had this level of confidence going into these situations. I thought this was gonna be over in like 2 hrs. Little did I know what was about to transpire.....
Cole and I are in full blown assassin mode. Our plan is to go back to the ridge where we found the sheep the night before. Which is 2 hours from camp in the side by side. Today is going to be our best weather day of the week. Light winds, overcast and a little cooler. We get all the way over through the ranch and around to the backside and get to the glassing point by daylight.
Immediately we locate the sheep and both rams right where we left them the night before. They were in a perfect location. We have a bit of a long walk across a flat and approach to get up to a shooting perch which was about 1200ft up from the bottom. It almost seemed like a slam dunk. I'm not sure why I had this level of confidence going into these situations. I thought this was gonna be over in like 2 hrs. Little did I know what was about to transpire.....
Nick87
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C'mon Jonas...
EYJONAS!
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We make our trek across the desert floor. I'm amazed by the landscape and vegetation that lives there. Everything tries to grab, poke and prod you. I've been stabbed by more cactus this week than in my entire life. One of the craziest things is that this is the major food source of these critters.
As we approach the range we notice the Aoudad funneling off of the face, going across the rim to the right and they drop over the top into a saddle. Unsure of what lies along the other side we press on.
Once to the top we quickly find out that these 50 sheep have disappeared. The other side is miles of sheer 200ft cliffs. We're looking over every 100 yards down below and finally we locate the sheep. 300 yards below us in the valley floor. We make a game plan to get to a point of rocks where we think we can shoot from only to find out that once we got there we couldn't find them again. Scratching our heads and now 4 hours into this trek we try to relocate the sheep. Upon us moving up and down this ridge top we come into some extreme migrant activity. We find kids clothes, backpacks, caves with food stashes, water bottles everywhere. It was erie to say the least. One many times our radios would pickup what could only be described as questionable activity happening somewhere close to us. Very energetic and almost frantic Spanish conversations of yelling back and forth. My buddy knows a little Spanish and he could pickup words like "up top up top to the right to the right." So we're sitting there trying to kill these rams and all of this commotion is going on the radios. Very unsettling feeling being up there and seeing first hand what these people are doing and going through to try and get into the country.
Now back to the sheep, we find them again. The whole herd is literally 60 yards straight below us. They know something is up but can't figure it out. We get into position, Cole is on the gun I'm gonna shoot second if an opportunity comes on the second ram. One by one they pop up next to us down on the ridge 45 yards away. Ewe, ewe, small ram, big ram. Immediately Cole shoulders his rifle. The sheep catch our movement and blow up. Jumping down these cliffs in a flash one by one running away down into the canyon. All of this work and it literally blew up in our faces by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We watched them run off onto the other side of the mountain and down the canyon. We sit there and gather ourselves. Bed the sheep down and devise a plan of how in the actual hell we're gonna climb down and go after them. After some water and a couple granola bars we make our move.
The sheep are now on the ridge right above Coles back pack in the last picture. I'll post more later I just got home and am spending time with the family.
As we approach the range we notice the Aoudad funneling off of the face, going across the rim to the right and they drop over the top into a saddle. Unsure of what lies along the other side we press on.
Once to the top we quickly find out that these 50 sheep have disappeared. The other side is miles of sheer 200ft cliffs. We're looking over every 100 yards down below and finally we locate the sheep. 300 yards below us in the valley floor. We make a game plan to get to a point of rocks where we think we can shoot from only to find out that once we got there we couldn't find them again. Scratching our heads and now 4 hours into this trek we try to relocate the sheep. Upon us moving up and down this ridge top we come into some extreme migrant activity. We find kids clothes, backpacks, caves with food stashes, water bottles everywhere. It was erie to say the least. One many times our radios would pickup what could only be described as questionable activity happening somewhere close to us. Very energetic and almost frantic Spanish conversations of yelling back and forth. My buddy knows a little Spanish and he could pickup words like "up top up top to the right to the right." So we're sitting there trying to kill these rams and all of this commotion is going on the radios. Very unsettling feeling being up there and seeing first hand what these people are doing and going through to try and get into the country.
Now back to the sheep, we find them again. The whole herd is literally 60 yards straight below us. They know something is up but can't figure it out. We get into position, Cole is on the gun I'm gonna shoot second if an opportunity comes on the second ram. One by one they pop up next to us down on the ridge 45 yards away. Ewe, ewe, small ram, big ram. Immediately Cole shoulders his rifle. The sheep catch our movement and blow up. Jumping down these cliffs in a flash one by one running away down into the canyon. All of this work and it literally blew up in our faces by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We watched them run off onto the other side of the mountain and down the canyon. We sit there and gather ourselves. Bed the sheep down and devise a plan of how in the actual hell we're gonna climb down and go after them. After some water and a couple granola bars we make our move.
The sheep are now on the ridge right above Coles back pack in the last picture. I'll post more later I just got home and am spending time with the family.
