Audad

[TexasDoc]

Hey,USMC now do you see whyI love my job as a Biologist,you get paid to hunt and be in the great outdoors.


I love my work,I wish yall could come out with me sometime,you would never want to go back to the Office again.



TexasDoc

[USMC-Mustang]

I hear ya. I'm halfway towards retirement so I'll be looking for a job like that when I'm done here.

[jdickey]

;DHey doc... why don't you just rub it in a little more, then kick us when we're down!

I'm used to it though... SIC EM BEARS!

[TexasDoc]

Dog gone,I knew I forgot something the SALT,I forgot the Salt to rub in the wound.


they you go JDickey


TexasDoc

[ICMCumin]

USMC-Mustang said:

I took a nice Ram off of a ranch between Alpine and Ft Davis the same ranch I shot my lion.
Dave

Hey USMC - how long a shot did you take on your Aoudad? Any photos of the lion? Man that is truly a Texas double!

[USMC-Mustang]

Believe it or not, the lion was a longer shot than the aoudad was, and at night. The Aoudad was in the middle of some mule deer, I thought that was odd.
He was going to shoot it and leave it lay, I guess the landowner wants them thinned out. I told him I'd like to shoot him and he let me. What a treat.

The lion, however, had been picking off this guys goats. So we went into his goat pasture ( 7-8 sections) looking for it. He (the wildlife manager) came across some nice Tom prints/sign and the goats were acting different so we knew he was in the area. We drove through the area painting the mountain sides with red-lense spot lights out either side of the pick up. I was suprised how easily it picks up a set of eyes. He had a set of eyes on his side so he shut down the pick up and I opened the door and set the rifle up over the top of the pickup and once I had the eyes in my scope he hit it with the big white light. I saw right away it was a cat, it was just laying there licking it's paws, so I took my time and squeezed off a shot. I lost sight of the exact spot with the recoil and we didn't see anymore movement. He gave me a mag light and a glock and sent me up the mountain after it while he painted the area with the white light. Talk about a heart-pounding experience, it took me a good 30 minutes to find it because I was walking so dang slow. It turned out to be a good size female, 71" long, maybe a hundred lbs and I hit her right behind the ear. The shot was just under 200 yards and uphill at about a 25-30 degree angle. I was using his 22-250 so I was a little nervous shooting an "unknown" gun, but man did it shoot nice. He had another 22-250 that he was using also, both scopes are 6-18 50mm Leupolds. I was dissapointed it wasn't the Tom, but we did see another set of eyes in the distance that we guessed was the Tom, but he was boogying out of the area. He's killed 6 so far this year, and shot 3 more that got away from him. I'm gonna hook up with him over Christmas while I'm on leave and hopefully I'll have another story to post on here.





Anyway, back to the Aoudad, it has 13" bases, 28" length, 28" width. Over 30" is considered big, so mine was about average I guess. He had one of the thickest necks according to the taxidermist. I'd been trying to find a place to get a good Aoudad, but I didn't have 3K to spend. I'm glad I knew this guy, because I didn't have to pay anything.

Where and when did they turn loose the first Aoudad in this part of the country?

Dave

[Bobcat]

Aoudad were first released in the wild in New Mexico in 1950 and in Texas in 1957. They estimate the population in Texas at around 20,000 currently.

Bob

[ICMCumin]

Mustang - good story - bet the old heart was pumping when you were walking out into the dark looking for a downed lion!

If your buddy needs some real help in getting rid of some more aoudad's (not to mention lions!) , he's come to the right board! ;D ;D ;D