Season opener , No deer BUT..............

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

It has become a tradition that I spend the opening weekend of our whitetail season with my buddy at his ranch. And this year we did it again and probably hunted harder than we ever had but the hunting was tough with east winds. We never have east winds and all our set-ups don't fair well in east winds but we just did the best we could. The hunting for me was very slow seemed every move I made every animal had me outsmarted. I had several WT doe offer spitting distance shots but with not many deer on the ranch we don't shoot a whitetail unless he is a brute. The ranch is full of exotics and hogs and way outnumber the whitetails many times over. We never saw a good whitetail all weekend but ( did see one toad of a 10pt but half his rack was broke off ) anyway we did see the Aoudad were rutting. So what's a guy to do , we started hunting them. We would see them feeding on the grass along the two tracks and field edges close to the rough country. The rams were fighting and trying to kill each other and running the girls around only problem was we had no stands set-up where they were. But I did have my Shaggie long coat with me so after a few days of watching I had a plan....

[Chad Orde]

Bring it Sam            

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

And as I have said in the past this is a low fence free range property , and in some places it ain't  even got a fence. The place is as beautiful as any ranch I have ever hunted and full of all kinds of critters and I am lucky enough for the owner to be one of my best friends. Ok like I said my plan was formed at about mid night and part of my plan called for my other bow ( Bear TD ) have been shooting a 64in GreenStripe as my go-to bow. So I got out my old GoldStripe 90s era Bear TD that is a 60in bow and has a dull finish , cause this is going to get close and personal on the ground. So it's now about 2:30am and my gear is in order and shooting well so I'm now off to sleep with a 5am wake-up call.....
 Believe it or not I'm up soon as the alarm sounds and ready for the hunt. My buddy said I was crazy for staying up so late but we thought the plan was sound and he dropped me off and wished me luck. The plan was very simple put on the ghillie and find a bush to sit in front of where we were seeing the Aoudad. I had one of the real low to the ground turkey seats ( note to self get a different seat ) found me a nice little tree and settled in. It is still way before light and I could hear critters around and as soon as the suns up I can see Axis deer and some whitetails and heard some hogs fighting off down in a creek.....

[Ryan Sanpei]

Sounds like an awesome place to hunt!!!!

I'm tuned in!!!

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

 
 

[Ryan Sanpei]

Sick Ambush!!!    

[Car54]

Nice pics

[DesertDude]

Very cool

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

With no cover around just my little tree and a few bushes I was settled in for the east wind. The low stool is great but it ain't very comfortable for sitting on for 4 hours when you can't move a muscle. Ok about 7:30 I see a female Aoudad headed my way with a small ram right behind her and before I know it they are 10yds away and have no clue I'm anywhere around , they both turn and look back and I look with them and here comes a nice ram. And he comes in and the small guy heads off so now the ewe and the big guy are standing in front of me at 12yds looking the other way. I'm already at full draw holding for about 5sec now when I think shoot moron , could not believe it was happening. I was just in awe here is a big ol ram with long beard and full chaps with a wide set of heavy horns right in front of me on the ground and I'm at full draw. So I let fly and the arrow hits home and I know he is done for so I think that was a short hunt. But no sooner as he was gone here comes the small ram back and another ewe and they hang around a while then a small WT buck is back and in the area then axis , what I'm get at is I was pinned down for hours. And that little stool with no back and down so low ain't good on this old back I was pretty stove-up when I was finally able to get up.....

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

Wasn't easy but I got a few pics...
 
Small ram and ewe after I shot....
 
Small buck....
 
My ugly mug right after I shot....

[KyStickbow]

Congrats Sam!

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

Ok I hit him with a scary sharp very old Zwickey Delta mounted on an arrow a friend gave me a few years ago. Felix gets on location and I give him the story and we follow a very profuse blood trail about 200yds down in the nastiest canyon on the property and find him stone dead. In only the few hours he had been down a bobcat had started on him but did not get much eating done as we spooked him off ( I saw 3 bobcat on this trip ). Pics were taken and had to cut him up on site as there was no getting him out of this place. We feasted on fresh backstrap until we almost popped that night , Aoudad is very good table fair and I have never understood why many say otherwise.......
 He is my fourth Aoudad I have taken with my recurve and the best so far and hopefully not the last. Now back home and will be hitting my old deer hunting spots for a whitetail or a hog or both....

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

 
 

Congrats,

Bisch

[Danny Rowan]

That is a nice Aoudad Sam, congratulations.

[Crittergetter]

Way to go Sam! That's awesome!

[trad_bowhunter1965]

Sam that awesome!!!!!

[Ryan Sanpei]

Awesome!!! What a beautiful animal!!!

Best of luck with the whitetails and hogs!!!

[South MS Bowhunter]

He's a beauty, congrats Sam!

[Pheonixarcher]

Congrats! Sounds like a great hunt! I'd love to get me an Aoudad.