By: Ben Stevens, TTHA Member
I had been researching aoudad hunts for a few months when my mother-in-law texted me about a drawing for a free hunt at Spike-S-Ranch in my wife’s hometown of Mertzon. The drawing would benefit the Irion County Shooting team, which was more than enough reason for me to buy a ticket. The first-place winner would have the opportunity to choose between a blackbuck or an aoudad hunt, which instantly got me excited. I remember her getting me a ticket and letting me know the drawing would be held the day after my birthday, Aug. 31. On the day of the drawing, my wife and I would happen to be in Mertzon for Labor Day.
My father-in-law and I were watching the live Facebook video for the drawing, when lo and behold, the first name they drew out of the bucket was mine. We looked at each other in disbelief and the anxiousness immediately turned into excitement. I had never won a hunt—and it happened the day after my birthday. I finally got my opportunity to go after an aoudad.
I found out the hunt would happen within the next month. It was time for me to go into preparation mode. The weeks seemed like years and the days seemed like months leading up to the hunt in Mertzon for my aoudad, but the day had finally come. Everything was prepped and ready. It was just up to me to capitalize on this lifetime opportunity.
We finally reached Mertzon after four hours driving through the off and on pouring rain. The people who own and run the ranch are family friends of my wife’s parents, so they met us in Mertzon to drive out there with us. Pulling up to the house we all got out said hi to one another and were greeted by Junior and Sylvia Carrillo. Junior told me he would guide me on the hunt and if we get my rifle sighted in quickly we would have about an hour or so of hunting we could do that evening.
I was surprised because the hunt wouldn’t begin until the next day. We hurried to unload all our luggage into the lodge. Upon entering the lodge, I met Sterling Abbott who also guided at the ranch. He was one of my wife’s old teachers from school.
I quickly took out my 6.5 Creedmoor and went to the range to ensure the gun was sighted in, so we could begin the hunt. When I got to the range I met Scooter Scott, the owner of Spike-S-Ranch. I got my rifle set up and fired one shot at the 100-yard target and was dead center 2 inches high, exactly where I needed to be. It was time to hit the stand.
Sylvia, Junior and I jumped into the truck to head to the tallest stand on the property. We pulled the truck up right next to the blind, got out and climbed in. Junior and I talked while waiting for the elusive aoudad to work their way up the ridge to us. The stand overlooked two feeders with a large sloping ridge covered in cedar bushes to the left of it.
Junior told me the aoudad would slowly make their way down the ridge to the feeder, stopping very often to scout the area for danger. If they were unsure about anything or spotted something, they would not come off that hill. As we sat in the blind, the clouds continued to roll in, bringing intermittent showers and falling temperatures. I knew we were about to have some action at the stand.
Appearing out of nowhere, a few axis does worked their way out of the cedars to the feeders. After watching them for about 15 minutes, I noticed some movement in the brush line to the right side of the feeder. I looked through my pair of binoculars and saw an aoudad. I asked Junior if he was a shooter and he said, “Oh yes he is!”
This aoudad was all by himself, meaning he was forced out of the herd by the younger rams. His horns were heavy and swooped out past his body before they began to curl. His chaps were beyond impressive, showing how much of a mature ram he was. This was the old aoudad ram I had been waiting for.
The ancient warrior took about 20 minutes to go 30 yards, meticulous with each step, stopping every 5 yards to scout for danger. He looked most majestic as I watched his chaps blow in the rainy breeze. He finally worked his way to the feeder, but stood facing me, allowing me no shot. Junior said to relax and breath because the aoudad wasn’t going anywhere.
He finally worked his way into a broadside position. Boom! The aoudad barely flinched but I could tell he was hit. He slowly walked behind a clump of trees where Junior and I thought he would lie down and expire.
To our disbelief, he began walking past the trees so Junior said to shoot him again. The second shot dropped him in his tracks, but he got up, turned away and went back into the cedars. Junior was very confident in both shots and said, “Don’t worry, we got him.”
I texted everyone about my amazing, old trophy aoudad. The rain started to pick up after 15 minutes, so Junior and I decided to get down and look for blood. We found the spot where he fell and saw just a small amount of blood. The blood trail was almost nonexistent, so we followed his tracks into the cedars.
Once in the cedars, it was impossible to follow the tracks due to the amount of aoudad in the area. It looked like a highway of tracks. My heart was sinking. The rain began to pick up once everyone from the lodge came out to help search.
We were finding some blood, but we had two things against us: the rain and the coming nightfall. As the sky darkened the rain was picking up and we had pretty much lost all sign of blood. We decided to mark the last spot of blood and return in the morning to look some more.
I woke up the next morning and told myself we would find that aoudad. Junior arrived about 6 a.m. and told me we would go try to find some axis does this morning and then go find the ram again. We saw plenty of animals during the morning hunt but no axis does within range. After the hunt, we went by the lodge to pick up my wife and her parents to help us search for the aoudad.
We quickly found the spot where we located the last sign of blood the previous day. But the rain had washed all signs of blood away and had too many tracks to follow. We did not know the direction he went. We formed a line and just worked our way towards direction where we thought he went.
After two hours of searching, everyone began to get a little discouraged, but Scooter found a pile of blood where the aoudad had bedded, and it was fresh. Over the next hour, we found three more beds where the old ram had lain down but had gotten back up. About every 10 minutes we would find another bed where the old ram had been but saw no blood between the beds which had us all confused. But my wife and mother-in-law said they saw one aoudad limping about 75 yards in the brush in front of us.
Quickly we all organized around one side of the brush as I began to work my way into it to hopefully get a shot at the ram. As I worked my way through the brush I heard some crashing and then Junior yelled, “Ben, come here. I see him!” I raised my gun overhead and began high stepping through the thick brush to get closer and finish off the ram. I got to within 50 yards of the beast and fired one last shot.
He was done, and I let out one of the biggest yells I could, letting everyone know he was down. I finally put my hands on this trophy aoudad. Junior and I give each other a massive hug, my wife came running over giving me a big kiss and high fives were happening everywhere.
During this hunt I went through every emotion a hunter could possibly go through, but I wouldn’t change how that hunt went for anything in the world. To me, hunting is about not just shooting an animal, but the story that goes with it and the people you meet along the way. I made some lifelong friends that weekend and they gave me a hunt along with the hospitality I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
