Since I'm heading back to Rockin' G at the end of next month, I figured I better finish this thing. Thanks for your patience
@gizmo!
DAY 2 - Friday, April 12th, 2019
A sleepless night with a stomach bug wasn’t the way I wanted to start the hunt, so I let the guys know that I needed a few hours to shake this thing. As I dozed off, the guys headed out. Jason hooked up with Bruce in pursuit of a European boar, and Chris left with Erik, Justin and Carrie to have a look at some buffalo. As for me, I tossed and turned until about 10 AM while whatever the heck I caught from my kid the day before worked its way out of my system.
The crew came back around lunchtime. The guys were excited about the terrain on the ranch and the variety of animals Erik had on the property. Although Chris and Erik easily found the buffalo, they were unable to get close enough for a shot. The big buffalo – Geronimo – was on alert. As it turns out, buffalo don't always just stand there and wait to be shot! As for Jason, he saw several animals but didn't get a shot at a good Euro boar.
I declined to eat anything for lunch but was feeling good enough to head out in the afternoon with Carrie and Justin to look for aoudad. It was cool out, and high clouds were streaming in from the west. The temperature was hovering around 50 degrees – about 20 degrees below average for Turkey Texas at this time of year – and plenty of animals were moving. It was perfect hunting weather, and the excitement of getting outside in beautiful country helped me to ignore my gurgling intestines.
For those of you who haven’t been to Rockin’ G, @gizmo’s ranch is set in the Texas Panhandle right at the edge of the Llano Estacado, one of the largest tablelands in North America. Here, the elevation drops sharply from around 3000 feet above sea level to below 2000 feet. Numerous canyons and orange gullies are choked with juniper, cactus and plenty of brush. It’s rugged country, and there ae are lots of places for animals to hide.
I wanted to hunt mostly on foot, so three of us covered about 5 miles as the afternoon progressed finding aoudad, and then having them slip away. We got within striking distance of what I thought were a few shootable animals, but Justin simply shook his head no. There would be better opportunities.
By about 4:30, I had resigned myself to the idea that I wouldn’t be taking an animal today. I was fine with that – the light and easy conversation with Justin and Carrie, the beauty of the land, and the joy in seeing a lot of animals resulted in what I already considered to be massively successful day on the panhandle. Then, as we were working our way along a finger of land, Justin caught some movement coming out of the gullies. As we froze, several good sheep came into view. “That’s the one,” Justin said, “third one in the back.” He quickly set up the sticks as Carrie got the camera ready.
I dropped the crosshairs on his shoulder. It wasn’t a long shot – maybe 120 yards. Should be an easy and fast kill. As the crack of my .300 Win Mag echoed across the terrain, I was shocked to see the aoudad continue his climb out of the canyon. “Did I miss him?” I asked Justin. He confirmed I didn’t and held me back from taking another shot, as he figured we’d let him pull himself out of the ravine to a place would be able to reach him easier.
We moved in closer in case a follow-up shot was needed. As I watched that animal climb up and out of the ravine, I was sure I missed him. There was no way he could have taken 180 grains from a .300 Win Mag and just shrugged it off. Before coming to Rockin’ G, Erik had told me aoudad were tough, but this was ridiculous! Once he was up on the edge of the ravine, Justin told me to put another one in him. That dropped him for good. When we reached him, I could see that he was a beautiful animal. And, he was hit right above the shoulder on that first shot, which confirmed to me that aoudad sheep are that tough! We took some pictures and sent the him back to the ranch for processing.
Feeling elated with the hunt, we went out in search of Chris and Erik to see how the buffalo was coming. We hadn’t heard any other shots, and we reached them with not much daylight left and no buffalo down. Chris was hunting with a .45-70 with open sights, so they needed to get close. But after a full day, the buffalo were having none of it. We learned that every time Chris and Erik got in range of Chris’s lever action, Geronimo would lead the group and they would quickly move off.
Jason had the same luck with European boar. Whereas I saw several within close range but had no intention of hunting one, he and Bruce saw them all from a long distance out when they were his main quarry. Funny how that works!
As the sun set, we all headed back to the ranch for a fantastic dinner. I was still a little under the weather, so I hit the sack early while Jason and Chris went out for some nocturnal feral pigs. Overall, it was a fantastic day.
Stay tuned for Day 3 when the weather moves in …