Texas Sheep Hunt
The hunt was on a ranch in the Texas "Hill Country". It's pretty
brushy there and for Texas the land is surprisingly vertical. The
ranch is 640 acres, but if it were stretched out flat it could be
almost double that. The land really would be good for nothing
beside hunting. The gent that owns the ranch is a very religious
fellow who prays with the hunters before and after the hunt (very
surprising, but
extremely nice and refreshing to see). He buys the animals and
brings them into the ranch. He sorts them for quality and then
prices them accordingly. The base price for a bottom tier animal
is $190. From there they go up with prices of $290, $350, $500,
and $650. On the higher priced animals he puts ear tags on them
with a different color tag that corresponds to each price. That
way as you are are scoping the animals to can see right away how much
each will cost you. Actually a reasonably clever system.
This ranch mainly has sheep and goats on it. He has Corsicans
sheep, Dall sheep, Painted desert sheep, Catalina goats, Rambulle (sp?)
sheep, Aoudads, Mouflon, Black Hawaiian, 4 Horned Sheep, and probably a
couple other types that I have forgotten about. He has another
ranch with all kinds of Africa and American exotics. He feeds the
critters daily, so they get pretty used to coming into the feed spots
(this is Texas we're talking about). He also has stands, or
blinds, set up close to the feeding spots (again, this is Texas we are
talking about). So if you just want to go there and shoot
something, you will not have a problem. But like most animals,
the bigger and older ones tend to be a little more wise and wary.
So if you are looking for a particular type of critter or a really nice
one it could take a bit of hunting to find one. The Aoudads and
Mouflon never came in while we were there. The hunt will be what
you make of it.
The hunt runs from Friday noon through Sunday noon. Friday is
kind of a free style day. You can go wherever you want and hunt
whatever you want, whether you want to sit in a stand or walk the
hills. On Saturday and Sunday he puts the hunters in stands where
you sit to wait for the critters. You can't walk the whole ranch
those days because you could spook some other hunter's critter or maybe
get shot by another hunter (once again, this is Texas we are talking
about). He also has a section of the ranch that is really really
steep and rocky that doesn't have any blinds. So you can work
that area on Saturday and Sunday if you want to. This area
also has Javelinas and feral pigs which are free to shoot. So
basically, it's up to the hunter as to how easy or hard the hunt will
be - the more rare or the higher the quality animal, the harder the
hunt. He has a couple of bunk houses on the ranch that you sleep
in. One was a mobile home with 12 bunks in it and the other is an
A-Frame with probably 8 or so. Acceptable, but considering the
number of hunters that come through they are are not totally
pristine. The trailer was where we stayed and it had heat,
electricity, a flush toilet, and running water.
I wanted to hunt with my Sharps, but wasn't able to figure out a way to
legally get the black powder ammo
down to New Mexico. If I had driven like I had originally
intended it
wouldn't have been a problem. Or I could have sent the Shiloh
&
ammo with my brother-in-law who passed through about a month earlier,
but I didn't think of that in time either. So after looking
through
the gun cabinet, I finally decided to use my old 1898 Springfield
that's chambered for .30 U.S. Army (30-40 Krag in today speak). I
didn't have any reloads, so the morning I was to fly down I was pulling
bullets from some bad reloads so I could make enough good ones. I
was
using 220 grain round nose bullets at hopefully 2,000 fps to duplicate
the original loading, so the barrel sights would be regulated. I
was
able to get 40 rounds completed to take with me. Packing the gun,
having it inspected at the airport, locking it up, and sending it off
was nerve wracking. I was sure that is was going to be lost,
destroyed, damaged, absconded with, etc. But it popped out of the
carousel safe and sound at El Paso. It's a good old gun, with a
few
exceptions. First is that in an attempt to sporterize it a
previous
owner had cut back the stock about eight inches or so. Looks
silly to
me. One of these days I'll find another original stock and try to
piece it back together to make it full length again. Secondly,
the gun
has really been run hard and put up wet. When I got the gun the
bore
was completely black, no shine or glimmer at all, obviously not
been properly cared for. Following the advice on a website a few
years
back I started working on it to clean it up. It is by no means
sparkling yet, but I have gotten it to where there is a bit of shine in
the bore. It'll be a long term project. I'm glad I selected
it to
go along with me.
So down to the hunt itself. The brothers-in-law and I bought this
hunt for my father-in-law as a present for his seventieth
birthday. I basically went so I could go on a hunt with
him. I have never had the desire to hunt sheep/goats or to trophy
hunt. So for my part, I decided that if I were to shoot anything
at all it would just be a basic price animal. No use spending
anymore than necessary when I didn't want a trophy anyway.
When we got there I was amazed by the number of animals (maybe I
shouldn't have been, but I was). After throwing our gear on the
bunks we went out and started watching a group of critters not too far
from the trailer. It was a mixed group of Corsican, Dall, 4-Horn,
and Catalina sheep. The group was also mixed as to the quality,
with some basic and some $290 sized ones. There was one really
nice Corsican with heavy horns and just slightly over one full curl,
but with no ear tag. When he turned his head we saw why. He
had broken off part of his left horn, presumably fighting over the
girlies. Since that made him un-trophy quality he was priced in
the lowest range. The break was fairly recent as there was still
a little blood stain on the end of the horn. The group with this
ram moved away after a little bit. After that another group came
down a little off to the right. It was mainly Corsicans, and
had one really nice ram in it. The group moved off fairly
quickly, but my father-in-law decided that he would like to take that
ram. So we went back and got the rifles and he settled down in a
shooting stand to wait his choice out.
While were were waiting for the father-in-law's pick to come back
the original group kept milling around the area about 120 yards
out. I started thinking about the broken horned ram. Just
about everything I have is old, broken, and worn out. This comes
from my dad who grew up on a little farm during the Great
Depression. Once they bought something they used it 'til it
broke, fixed it back up, used it some more, and then some more 'til
they used it up. So I usually end up with older things that have
been
around the block a few times (my Shiloh rifle being about the only
exception). I was thinking how this old gent had probably been
the king of the roost for quite a while, and fought a battle or two
over the ladies. He just seemed to be fit with me. Then my
brother-in-law started telling me that he was a nice ram, with the
exception of the broken horn. I didn't care about that though.
It just kind of jumped into my mind that I would pick this guy. I
settled down into a good sitting position to take a shot at the
ram. I was going to use the barrel peep sight set at the 100 yard
setting. Unfortunately barrel peeps are really small, block out a
lot of your view, and are about a foot or so away from your eye.
It makes them tough to use on anything but a stationary target.
While I was figuring all this out the group of critters started
quartering towards us along a brushy trail. I kept shifting
positions, but with the difficulty of the sights and the brief glimpses
through the brush I couldn't get a shot off. The trail came in
front and below us, then off to the right for a ways, then it made a
right 90 degree turn and passed off our right. As the animals got
closer I think that they got wind that something was up because they
started moving faster. Luckily the path they were following made
that 90 degree turn, so I was able to get up and get to a position
somewhat in front of them. I folded the sight staff down so that
I could use the open battle sight. I found a spot that gave me a
view of 5 to 10 yards of the path with a shot perpendicular to their
line of travel. I knew that mine was second to the last in the
group so I got the rifle up to my shoulder, shooting from a standing
position. When he finally came through the opening he was moving
at a mid-trot about thirty yards or so away. I aimed at his front
leg area and broke the shot. He went down immediately, but then
got back up. Not want him to suffer longer than necessary I shot
again and this time he stayed down.
When I went down to him I could see he was truly a fine old ram.
His horns had nice thick bases and even the good one was kind of beat
up. He was old enough that he had lots of gray around his muzzle
and on his face. On the top of his head behind the horns there
were several spots where he had rubbed all the hair off of his
head. Actually seeing him down on the ground made me kind of
sad. It looked like my first shot went a little farther back than
what I had intended. Either I didn't lead him enough or I
subconsciously gravitated to center mass (like they taught at a recent
pistol course I had attended). Anyway the second
shot kept him down and did the job. Shortly after seeing him I
decided that I would have to get him mounted. I couldn't bear
having him just end up as just a picture in a photo album, he was just
too majestic. I pray that the Lord doesn't think that I wasted
him.
A while after I got mine down my father-in-law got his with a scoped
.30-06 shooting Nosler Partitions, followed shortly thereafter by my
brother-in-law with his scoped .270 also using Partitions and a friend
shooting a scoped hyper-speed 6mm Remington. There were
differences in the wound channels and drop times, but the old
Springfield did as good as the new hi-tech stuff. I also think
that I saw Teddy smiling.
Anyhoo, that was the hunt. Actually you'd probably have to call
it more of a harvest than a hunt, but it was enjoyable.