TXAoudadKlr
Well-Known Member
Well gentlemen, I made a trip west to my ranch in Del rio,Tx with my buddy Jake. We departed around 8:30 Thursday morning and arrived at the property around 3:10pm. We unpacked the truck and at 4:15 we went out to my new tower blind that over looks a 1000lb protein feeder 215 yards away. That evening we didn't see much other than 7wt. half way through the hunt I was starring at the fawn tube and could swear I was seeing day light. After the hunt we walked down and confirmed my thoughts between the aoudad, white tail and the 10-12 domestic farm goat the burned through all the feed we had put in the feeder two weeks ago approx 900lbs.
Friday mornings hunt for me was very slow as I was hunting a different location than Jake who had seen 9 wt during the morning with 4 walking within 10 yards of him. After the morning hunt, we went to town and bought feed knowing that aoudad are eating machines and love protein feed 1100lbs later the feeder was good to go. After lunch and a nap we both went to our separate spots with Jake returning back to the tower stand. At approx 6:50pm I heard Jake shoot, moments later I turned my radio and waited to hear from him. He came on the radio saying he had shot. my first question was how big followed by how many showed up he replied just the one a ~23inches. I told him to hang tight and I'll be on my way in 30 as I was still hunting. after I was done I met up with him and we went down to the feeder and did a search no blood or hair were found we did a short body search which yielded nothing as it turns out it was a clean miss and jake said that I took him far to long to get back on target and said that he may have pulled it.
Saturday morning was slow again for me only seeing two young bucks growing their horns Jake saw good deer numbers again along with the farm goat that seemed to have settled in on the property. while hanging out at camp I decided to shoot my socom a little I found a rock at 400 dialed 40moa and 3moa for a right to left wind and sent the first shot I'm sure I flinched the second shot I sent I was able to see it impact about 1.5 moa high and a minute left so I was happy with that. Later I wanted to check the staus of the protein feeders on phase 3 the main property 1 was empty the other that had feed in it had been damaged by the aoudad and dumped the 700lbs that was in it on the ground to say I was ****ed just wouldn't cover it.
Saturday evening'shunt was cut short due to weather. We decided to salvage the day and went to town to see Jurassic world...**** good movie Btw. That night it rained its butt off all the way up till 3am.
Sunday morning same story for me slow...again...no aoudad...again. Jake was seeing good activity and stayed were he was hunting. he claimed the night he saw that aoudad it went like this. Deer, goats, aoudad. He had seen deer followed by goats he waited till noon to have me come pick him up. After lunch and a nap we both headed back out. This time I thought I'd try my luck at a different spot. At around 6:55 I thought I heard what I thought was a gunshot but dismissed it as the wide had whipped at the same time but turned my radio on just in case. A minute later Jake came over the radio with a DRT. So I packed up and made my way to the truck. I drove around 1/4 mile when jake said he had 4 more show up to the left on a canyon so I told him if you have a shot to take it and that I'll hang back. I returned to camp and waited for his call as for where he was hunting is half mile down and a the road from camp. He called saying he shot and to come on with it.
He had the one down at the feeder and then he had the other take a good hit and could see a huge blood spot on him. we went down it the canyon to begin the search. We got on the blood trail which was well crime sceneish doesn't cover it. we trailed him down into the canyon then up and around following a blood trail even a blind man could see. We trailed for over 300 yards we stopped and jake says well it just stops I took a few steps forward to look around when it broke from behind a cedar bush 10yards away I slammed around from my 458 into the ribs then as he was going straight away into the hip anchoring it when Jake fired around into its neck flipping it and ultimately killing it. To say that was a rush was an understatement. As it turned out that was the aoudad Jake had missed a few days prior. After high-fives and pictures we field dressed it and began very long drag back towards the road that runs through the property. After that we picked up the smaller one at the protein feeder and made our way back to camp to get them put in the ice box.
Overall **** good weekend even though I was again absent a kill I got to use my 458 the way I had intended for it when I bought it a close encounter gun.
I was very happy for my buddy the bigger of the two aoudad he had killed was the biggest he has shot so far. I told him next time were going a ram that's no less than 28inches. for we've seen some big one's on the cameras
Friday mornings hunt for me was very slow as I was hunting a different location than Jake who had seen 9 wt during the morning with 4 walking within 10 yards of him. After the morning hunt, we went to town and bought feed knowing that aoudad are eating machines and love protein feed 1100lbs later the feeder was good to go. After lunch and a nap we both went to our separate spots with Jake returning back to the tower stand. At approx 6:50pm I heard Jake shoot, moments later I turned my radio and waited to hear from him. He came on the radio saying he had shot. my first question was how big followed by how many showed up he replied just the one a ~23inches. I told him to hang tight and I'll be on my way in 30 as I was still hunting. after I was done I met up with him and we went down to the feeder and did a search no blood or hair were found we did a short body search which yielded nothing as it turns out it was a clean miss and jake said that I took him far to long to get back on target and said that he may have pulled it.
Saturday morning was slow again for me only seeing two young bucks growing their horns Jake saw good deer numbers again along with the farm goat that seemed to have settled in on the property. while hanging out at camp I decided to shoot my socom a little I found a rock at 400 dialed 40moa and 3moa for a right to left wind and sent the first shot I'm sure I flinched the second shot I sent I was able to see it impact about 1.5 moa high and a minute left so I was happy with that. Later I wanted to check the staus of the protein feeders on phase 3 the main property 1 was empty the other that had feed in it had been damaged by the aoudad and dumped the 700lbs that was in it on the ground to say I was ****ed just wouldn't cover it.
Saturday evening'shunt was cut short due to weather. We decided to salvage the day and went to town to see Jurassic world...**** good movie Btw. That night it rained its butt off all the way up till 3am.
Sunday morning same story for me slow...again...no aoudad...again. Jake was seeing good activity and stayed were he was hunting. he claimed the night he saw that aoudad it went like this. Deer, goats, aoudad. He had seen deer followed by goats he waited till noon to have me come pick him up. After lunch and a nap we both headed back out. This time I thought I'd try my luck at a different spot. At around 6:55 I thought I heard what I thought was a gunshot but dismissed it as the wide had whipped at the same time but turned my radio on just in case. A minute later Jake came over the radio with a DRT. So I packed up and made my way to the truck. I drove around 1/4 mile when jake said he had 4 more show up to the left on a canyon so I told him if you have a shot to take it and that I'll hang back. I returned to camp and waited for his call as for where he was hunting is half mile down and a the road from camp. He called saying he shot and to come on with it.
He had the one down at the feeder and then he had the other take a good hit and could see a huge blood spot on him. we went down it the canyon to begin the search. We got on the blood trail which was well crime sceneish doesn't cover it. we trailed him down into the canyon then up and around following a blood trail even a blind man could see. We trailed for over 300 yards we stopped and jake says well it just stops I took a few steps forward to look around when it broke from behind a cedar bush 10yards away I slammed around from my 458 into the ribs then as he was going straight away into the hip anchoring it when Jake fired around into its neck flipping it and ultimately killing it. To say that was a rush was an understatement. As it turned out that was the aoudad Jake had missed a few days prior. After high-fives and pictures we field dressed it and began very long drag back towards the road that runs through the property. After that we picked up the smaller one at the protein feeder and made our way back to camp to get them put in the ice box.
Overall **** good weekend even though I was again absent a kill I got to use my 458 the way I had intended for it when I bought it a close encounter gun.
I was very happy for my buddy the bigger of the two aoudad he had killed was the biggest he has shot so far. I told him next time were going a ram that's no less than 28inches. for we've seen some big one's on the cameras
