Last year after Brian and I did not draw any MT special hunting permits, an email from Tru Flight Adventures came in. It was advertising a TX trophy aoudad hunt. Being a bit butt hurt that we drew nothing at home we decided that we would book this hunt and fulfill a bucket list hunt. February finally came and we had our flights booked, room, and rental pickup reserved. We landed in San Antonio on Sunday afternoon and got everything collected and checked in. We were scheduled to meet our friend Erin, the owner of Tru Flight Adventures and Giving Back TV, but he didn’t come in until about midnight. So, Brian and I headed out to take in a bit of San Antonio with some good Mexican food and some nightlife downtown. Always fun to check out the local food and drinks.
Headed to camp.
The next morning we hooked up with Erin, got some great Mexican breakfast, (we don’t have food like that up north) and procured our TX exotic hunting permits. Then a 2.5 hr drive down to the ranch near Del Rio. This gave us time to discuss filming of this hunt for an episode of Giving Back TV that hopefully will air this fall. As well as just catch up on everything else. Here we met our guide, Josh, who got us settled into our “South Texas Hilton”, as he called it. Basically, a nice older single wide trailer house set up with nice amenities in the middle of a 4K acre ranch. Turns out the Lonesome Dove movie was shot here on the lake. The fire pit and picnic area are still there from the movie. We meant to take some pics there and just lost track of time and forgot to do it. Been so long since I watched it, but this is where the guy got attacked by the snakes in the water. Going to have to watch it again becaise I don’t remember. Interesting piece of trivia just the same.
Getting the rifles set up.
After getting everything settled, we had some time to do a bit of touring on the ranch and an evening hunt. Brian and I got our Weatherby MKV’s ready and we headed out. Shout out to the guys at Weatherby for setting us up with a couple of their new rifles chambered in the new 6.5 Wby RPM. My Mark V Hunter was loaded with the 115g Power Hammer and Brian’s Mark V Back Country was loaded with the 134g Power Hammer. We topped both rifles with Athlon Aries ETR 3-18×50 scopes with Talley rings. By the way I think this is about the perfect normal to long range hunting scope.
First night hunt.
We split up and Erin and I made our way to a dry creek bed that has water just below ground, resulting in green grass on the surface. This spot is known to be frequented by a bunch of different animals, including the aoudad that we were after. Brian and Josh headed out to another area of the ranch to see what they could see. Shortly after Erin and I got setup in a good spot that we could see as much of the opening as possible, for hunting and filming while trying to keep hidden, some whitetail does, and fawns came into the clearing. Now we were somewhat pinned down and had to be careful not to get spotted or heard by them for fear that if they spooked, they would also spook anything else that could be in the thick brush surrounding the clearing. Sure enough, about a half hour later a group of ewes and lambs dropped down into the clearing. I have to say the little lambs were very cute. They couldn’t have been more than a week old. There was no ram, but I carefully eased myself onto my rifle set up on my backpack for prone shooting, in hopes that a ram might join the group. Sure enough, there was a ram with the group. He waited about 10 min for the ewes to show him all was safe, then dropped down into the clearing and went right into the middle of the cluster of ewes and lambs. We were after trophy aoudad here, so two things needed to happen. I needed to be clear that he was big enough and he needed to clear the group so that I could get a clean shot without risk of hitting one of the ewes or lambs. For the next, what seemed like forever, about 20 min, Erin and I discussed whether he was big enough. We could only get quick glimpses of him, trying to judge his size as he moved in and out of clear view from the rest of the herd. This discussion is all on camera so it will be interesting to see how that all comes through the editing. We finally decided that he was bigger than the shoulder mount on the wall in the South Texas Hilton. The mounted ram was a 28″ ram and the beginning of what is considered a trophy ram. OK, first criteria met. Now we need him to clear for an open shot. This took forever! Probably another 5-10 min. Finally, he steps clear with a good broadside shot. I centered the shoulder in the cross hair and sent the 115g Power Hammer down range. The Power Hammer hit its mark and the ram went straight down. Hammered! The rest of the herd took off on the dead run along with the 5 does and their fawns. Holy cow! About 2hrs after setting up for my first evening, and I punched a bucket list item that just a few years ago I didn’t think would ever happen.
Brian’s turn.
Well, that was easy! Now we just must get Brian’s ram. That night with some good food and celebration over my ram, we made a plan for the morning. We planned to hunt a brushy draw that runs up from the clearing that I Hammered my ram in. We get there at first light and spotted a bunch of aoudad, scattered along the far side of the draw. They were about 600y out and no way to get a good stable rest that would be high enough to clear the brush for a shot that long. We made a plan to use the contour of the land to work in closer for a shot. Son of a gun if they didn’t just feed away from us faster than we could close ground. Three miles later we were back at the buggy all scratched up and starting to get hot in the Texas sun. It hit 93 deg that afternoon! That is tough on MT boys that just left a snowstorm and temps were plummeting to below zero. That evening we decided to set Brian up in the same clearing with the Josh and Erin in hopes that history would repeat itself. I went and sat in a stand in hopes that a predator or a hog would show itself. Well, nothing great. I saw a few ewes and lambs where I was, and they saw 1 old ewe. Hmmm, maybe this isn’t quite as easy as I made it look! Went back to the Hilton and had another great dinner and made a morning plan. There was a cold front coming in that night so we figured it might cool down and have the animals moving better the next day.
Hunt ruined by uninvited guests.
Got up the next morning and it was 33 deg and spitting a fine mist with wind. Wow! 93 deg to 33 deg in about 12 hrs! We bundled up with pretty much everything we brought for clothes and headed back out to the draw that we had seen so many the morning before. Well, we were not finding anything, and the MT boys were cold! So, Erin, Brian and I climbed into an elevated blind that was overlooking another draw in the opposite direction from the draw that we intended to hunt. Josh was out doing some hiking over the next ridge to see if he could find that herd. We started to see a few aoudad from the two man blind the three of us were huddled in, but they seemed nervous and didn’t hang around long. Josh got back and he thought maybe the unusual cold, rain, and wind had them upset. Just about that time we spotted a big ram down in this other draw. We were making a plan on how to move in on them when the ram and several ewes blew out of there. We didn’t think there was any way it could have been us, but figured somehow we or the weather messed it up. Then suddenly, we caught a glimpse of some people. They were illegal aliens sneaking up through our hunting spot! Josh was used to this, but we sure weren’t! We ran down and headed them off to catch up to them. We caught them and made them sit on the ground and take their shoes off until the border patrol showed up to take them. Crazy stuff! It is going on all the time there. Really an unfortunate situation that shouldn’t be. I’ll leave it at that.
Brian gets another chance.
After all the commotion settled, we headed to the clearing where I shot my ram. From there we hiked up the riverbed, hoping to find the sheep down low hiding from the wind. We got into them, probably within about 50 yards. We could only hear them as it was very thick with brush. We wound up hiking about a 5-mile loop taking us back to where we had started the morning. We were doing some glassing there and the other 3 guys snuck over the edge to look down into the draw. I stayed at the elevated blind to glass from there. I spotted some sheep down in the draw that they were looking into. Turns out they couldn’t see them from their vantage point. I got to the guys and let them know, so we planned to move on them the same as we did the first morning. I decided to stay behind. It is hard enough to sneak with 3 people let alone 4. They headed in the direction of the few sheep we could see, and I stayed in the elevated blind to watch. As they were closing distance, I spotted a big ram in the thick brush. I ranged the ram and them and determined they were about 250 yards away from him. I was really hoping that they would notice him, but I wasn’t sure. I could only see about a half dozen sheep from my elevated position, turns out there was about forty below the line of sight. They did wind up spotting the big ram and had to crawl about a hundred yards to try and get to a spot that was clear enough to get a shot. They got to about 100y from the big ram and still no shot through the brush. The only way they could get a shot was for Brian to use Josh’s shoulder as a rest. They couldn’t stand up to use the shooting pod, they would have been busted for sure. You all know this is a tough way to shoot. Your wiggles and his wiggles, compounded by kneeling in the rocks for a long time waiting for the ram to give a shot. Boom! I hear the shot but couldn’t really see what was going on. I watched a pile of sheep head up the hill and over the other side. Spotting a very big ram leaving with them. Hmmm. I hiked over to them to see what happened. Just as I got to them the ram had stood up. The ram had gone down right after the shot looking like it was one and done. He was facing us with his head in front of his chest, so no shot there. Then he turned just a bit and Brian stuck one on the point of the shoulder. The ram went about 30 feet down the hill and was done. Turns out the first shot was a bit back on the quartering too shot and did not hit lungs. Really a testament to the Power Hammer imparting enough shock, on a very tough animal, to cause it to just lay down without traveling. After all that, Brian winds up Hammering a stud 33″ ram.
This was a great hunt and a great experience. If any of you are interested in a Texas audad hunt or anything else in TX. Give Erin a shout at his email.
Erin Throckmorton
