Rackmastr
03-21-2012, 08:23 PM
Hey Guys,
Just a quick note and some pics as I just got home today and have to be at work tomorrow morning. I just spent the last 4 days hunting West Texas for Aoudad along the Mexican border in the Quitman Mountains east of El Paso. What a COOL experience and a true sheep hunt in some very rough mountains.
We camped about 200 yards from the Rio Grande and had a major Border Patrol presence seen every day. In the mountains away from the river there was a LOT of sign of Illegal immigrants (water bottles empty, clothing, shoes, cans, etc). It was a neat experience being right there and seeing the trails, talking about the treks that some people must make to try to get into the USA, etc.
There were 4 of us who went and we all shot sheep. I was lucky to shoot mine on the 3rd day and we had to really work to find some sheep in the hills. The ranch is 18,000 acres and is not fenced and is very rough terrain. We covered a lot of the mountains but obviously didnt see it all. I had a chance at my ram at 360 yards and being day 3 I thought I had better take him. He's about 26" long which is a good representative of the Aoudad I think. Later that night Chad shot a 30" ram that we had to find the next morning and he is a true cranker sheep. We hunted extremely hard for 4 solid days and all of us agreed that this was a very similar hunt to any sheep hunt we'd been on in the past. Chad has guided 3 Desert sheep hunts and said this was exactly the same and was equally as tough and enjoyable.
We ended up with some very weird weather which made things tough. It hadnt rained since October and we had about 7 hours of rain through the night one night. We thought we'd have major flooding but were lucky to have it calm down on us. A big dust storm the night before made it tough to see the hills and then snow in the hills of Mexico was really crazy to see. Yesterday morning we had snow and ice up top when we were looking for Chads ram.
What an awesome trip!!!
Will post some more details and pics up in a bit....got some sweet video too but just trying to get organized tonight!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3190868.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3170778.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3190823.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3190802.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3190829.jpg
Just a quick note and some pics as I just got home today and have to be at work tomorrow morning. I just spent the last 4 days hunting West Texas for Aoudad along the Mexican border in the Quitman Mountains east of El Paso. What a COOL experience and a true sheep hunt in some very rough mountains.
We camped about 200 yards from the Rio Grande and had a major Border Patrol presence seen every day. In the mountains away from the river there was a LOT of sign of Illegal immigrants (water bottles empty, clothing, shoes, cans, etc). It was a neat experience being right there and seeing the trails, talking about the treks that some people must make to try to get into the USA, etc.
There were 4 of us who went and we all shot sheep. I was lucky to shoot mine on the 3rd day and we had to really work to find some sheep in the hills. The ranch is 18,000 acres and is not fenced and is very rough terrain. We covered a lot of the mountains but obviously didnt see it all. I had a chance at my ram at 360 yards and being day 3 I thought I had better take him. He's about 26" long which is a good representative of the Aoudad I think. Later that night Chad shot a 30" ram that we had to find the next morning and he is a true cranker sheep. We hunted extremely hard for 4 solid days and all of us agreed that this was a very similar hunt to any sheep hunt we'd been on in the past. Chad has guided 3 Desert sheep hunts and said this was exactly the same and was equally as tough and enjoyable.
We ended up with some very weird weather which made things tough. It hadnt rained since October and we had about 7 hours of rain through the night one night. We thought we'd have major flooding but were lucky to have it calm down on us. A big dust storm the night before made it tough to see the hills and then snow in the hills of Mexico was really crazy to see. Yesterday morning we had snow and ice up top when we were looking for Chads ram.
What an awesome trip!!!
Will post some more details and pics up in a bit....got some sweet video too but just trying to get organized tonight!
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3190868.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3170778.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3190823.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3190802.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a297/Rackmastr/P3190829.jpg