Winter Rams

An aoudad ram pauses on the edge of rough country in the Texas Panhandle.

The good thing about hunting in Texas is the season never ends. The bad thing about hunting in Texas is the season never ends!

Weary from a long deer season, I shifted gears to off-season opportunities. It was February and I was glassing rugged canyon country in the Panhandle. The red-rock mesas were covered in a blanket of icy snow. Icicles clung to the spines of short prickly pear pads. With the air temperature at 20 and the windchill at 10, I stayed behind bushy cedars and boulders while I glassed, avoiding the bite of the north wind. I was hunting near Amarillo, but it felt like I was at the North Pole.

Plotting a path down a narrow game trail halfway down the canyon rim below me were three aoudad rams. Each ram’s crescent-shaped horns were long with heavy bases. The rams plucked twigs off a mountain mahogany bush as I dialed them up in my tripodmounted spotting scope. There was one problem. The three amigos were just across a boundary line that I could not hunt. I respect my neighbor’s boundaries, so instead of making a play on the rams I just watched. Venison stew and fresh sourdough bread were waiting on the stove at camp, so I eventually retreated to the warm fireplace at ranch headquarters. The afternoon forecast promised sunny skies and warmer temperatures. Maybe I could find a ram on fair ground after lunch?

Off-season options

What’s a guy to do when deer season is over? In Texas, you have many options. Feral hogs are open year-round. Focus winter efforts near wheat fields or corn feeders. Nilgai antelope are challenging hunted spot-and-stalk on the coast. Bring enough gun, as these are big, tough targets. Other common exotics like blackbuck and axis are fun. The hide of a blackbuck male will be coal black in the winter months. Axis can be hunted in the rut from May until July. But if

Brandon with a heavy-horned, 33-inch aoudad ram he shot in the Texas Panhandle in 2012. Gear included an HS Precision rifle chambered in .270 Win. with a Leupold scope.

you want adventure in scenic landscapes and like big horns, free-ranging aoudad are the game to hunt. Winter weather in the desert can be pleasant one day and an ice storm the next, so pack accordingly.

Aoudad hunting is excellent in the Trans-Pecos and the Panhandle. Hunting out west, you will see more aoudad and hunt larger ranches. Out west, ranches are measured in sections, not acres. Seeing herds of 50 or more aoudad is possible. In the Panhandle, the landscape is a little easier for hiking and you will probably see fewer aoudad. However, top-end rams are about the same size in both locations. My biggest-ever ram from the Trans-Pecos measured 35x34 inches. My biggest-ever ram from the Panhandle was also 35x34 inches. Both regions harbor good numbers of trophy-sized 30- to 33-inch rams. My taxidermist agrees the capes are better on Panhandle rams. The hides are more colorful, and the chaps and leggings have thicker hair.

Gear for this assignment includes quality optics, good boots and a straight-shooting, light to midweight rifle. A pair of 10X40 binoculars is first. Aoudad hunting is played mostly with your eyes, so invest in the best you can afford. Top names like Zeiss, Leica and Swarovski come to mind. Brands like Nikon, Leupold and Sig Sauer offer good glass at a reduced price. The last few years I’ve used a Sig Sauer Kilo3000BDX 10X42mm binocular/rangefinder for aoudad hunting. This unit combines the binocular with range-finding capabilities. If your binoculars do not include a rangefinder, a pocket-sized unit that includes decline and incline readings is worth packing. Most shots at aoudad in rough country are at steep angles, usually downward, where distances can be deceiving. Use the rangefinder, don’t guess! For a long hike in the rocks, choose a lightweight spotting scope stuffed in a daypack. My go-to lightweight model is a Nikon Fieldscope ED50 13-30X50mm spotting scope. It weighs about one pound. It’s brighter and clearer than the $700 price tag would indicate.

Once you spot the ram you want, your feet will get you there. I like thin merino wool socks and boots that lace up above the ankle. Stiff, but not too stiff works best in the rocks. Soles with either air bob tread or Vibram grip best. A couple of my favorite brands include Danner and Crispi.

When I guide aoudad hunters, I recommend they bring whatever gun they are most comfortable shooting for deersized game. A big ram can weigh 300-350 pounds on-the-hoof, and they’re tough animals, but with a well-placed shot, I don’t see the need for shooting too much gun. A bolt action rifle in calibers like .270 Win, .270 WSM, .30-06 and .300 WSM are a few of my favorites. That said, I’ve seen large rams taken down cleanly with a single bullet from smaller calibers like .243 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor and a .25-06 Rem. Shot placement, through the ribs, with a bullet designed for deep penetration is more important than the caliber. Top that gun with a simple 3-10X40mm scope with a simple duplex crosshair and practice. Scopes with extra dots and crosshairs usually just confuse hunters more than they help at crunch time. Most shots at rams are under 300 yards. In 10 years of guiding aoudad hunters in rough country, the longest shot we’ve ever taken was 350 yards. Most rams on my hunts are shot at under 100 yards.

There’s a difference in hunting aoudad in winter versus early fall. While aoudad can breed year-round, the rut peaks in September and October. Even though temperatures can top 100 degrees in the early season, this is my preferred time to look for a big ram. I see more mature rams during this two-month window of time than at any other time of the year. The sweet smell of an ewe in heat brings old rams out of their hiding places. During winter months, like December through March, most of the breeding is over and a lot of times you find rams in bachelor herds. And even though this is the desert, weather conditions can vary from short sleeve to

Daniel Arias with the hard-won ram taken on a cold day in February and mentioned in the article. Daniel used a .30-06 for the shot.

a winter blizzard. It’s no hunt for softies that prefer lounging at the country club bar, so cowboy up for a real hunt.

After the storm

Most of the snow was melted by the afternoon, but it was still cold. The chilly air felt good while hiking through the scenic badlands of Palo Duro Canyon. My hunter, Daniel Arias, followed closely behind as we traversed mesas and dropped into small canyons where I’d seen aoudad in the past. We found lots of pea-sized droppings, tracks and old rubs on mesquite trees, but no aoudad. Mule deer does pogo-sticked away from us at every bend in the canyon. A covey of bobwhite quail exploded at our feet in a grass-filled ravine, but we found no rams.

It was late in the afternoon when I spied a small herd about half a mile away. Cedars blocked a clear view of all the sandcolored animals, but at least one looked blocky in size. I could see chaps blowing in the wind and thought I saw enough horn to warrant a closer look. Daniel and I dropped into the small canyon to cut the gap on the distant herd.

We fought through the jungle-thick cedars at the bottom until we were scaling the rocky slope on the opposite side of the canyon. I was glad I packed leather gloves to grab yuccas and cedar stumps to pull myself up the rock wall. With the wind in our faces, we peaked over the ridge. Barely 150 yards away were six aoudad. Through the 10X glass, I could see one was worth taking. I recognized his long chaps and broomed left side as a mature ram I’d seen in that area months earlier. “That’s your aoudad,” I said to my partner in a whisper. Once I gave Daniel the nod, he wasted no time setting up for the shot. His .30-06 barked, aoudad scattered, but one stumbled and dropped.

Daniel was happy with his first-ever aoudad ram. We put on some tough miles over the course of three days and certainly felt like our efforts were rewarded. With the musky scent of aoudad on my gloves, I was already daydreaming about warmer days and gobbling turkeys in the spring. Afterall, in a place like Texas, the next hunt is never that far away.