By Heath Payne
In 2017, a buddy of mine called me and asked if I wanted to go on a whitetail hunt in West Texas for $1,500 that he found on Craigslist. Knowing this part of Texas isn’t known for its big whitetails, I hesitantly agreed to go for the adventure. I soon realized it had some amazing free-range aoudad. The ranch foreman told me they have only shot a couple aoudad in the past six years and there are some giants.
I asked if I could hunt the aoudad instead of the whitetail I’d paid to hunt, and he agreed. He sent me to the northern most rugged part of the 8,500-acre ranch where very few people ever get to hunt and turned me loose. I ended up not finding the giant I was hoping for on that trip, but I saw many and came home with some great memories and a new place to hunt. I knew I’d be back with my son. This place was like magic. I had never experienced a piece of land with so much history and historical significance, caves, and artifacts, etc.
Returning to the ranch
In late December 2020, the ranch foreman called to ask if I still wanted to come hunt. We had tried to put something together the year before, but timing didn’t work out. I moved a couple things around and planned a spur of moment, end of the year trip. I called my 12-year-old son, Tripp, to tell him he’s getting to go to the ranch I had told him so many stories about.
Tripp is obsessed with arrowheads and artifacts and this ranch is artifact heaven. There are dozens of Indian caves and many sites with pictographs, and mummies have even been found in some of the caves. Tripp was more excited about the exploring than he was about the hunting.
We set off towards Comstock, on what turned out to be some of the worst weather of the year for Texas. We arrived at the ranch around 11 a.m. to a Texas blizzard on New Year’s Eve 2020. We got our stuff unpacked and we headed off in the direction of one of the caves the ranch foreman had shown me three years earlier. I knew this cave was sometimes the bedding area for the aoudad.
Bad weather, good prospects
The weather was nasty. The wind was blowing more than 20 mph, with a combo of sleet and snow. Tripp was so anxious to see the cave. I knew there was a good chance in this weather the aoudad might be in or near this cave or one of the many others in the area, sheltering from this weather.
As we made are way down the hill towards the cliffs above the Pecos River, we came across a herd of around 30 aoudad bedded just above the caves. They were hunkered down between two rises that protected them from the heavy winds. These animals live in some nasty terrain that sometimes makes a retrieval impossible, so we could not have been luckier to find them in this location. We dropped to our knees to stay out of view and glassed the herd.
I could only see the herd ram and knew immediately he was a shooter. He was already looking in our direction, so we got on our bellies in the snow and prepared for a shot. On our knees we could see him but when we lay down to shoot, he was out of view because we were too low. We tried to crawl to a higher position to have a shot, but they were nervous and started up the hill to escape.
Moment of truth
Tripp is no stranger to this type of hunting. He’s very calm. He held his position and followed the big ram through his scope as he led his herd up the ridge. Because their only way out was to go up, it gave us a better shot as the animals moved up the ridge.
As most animals do when fleeing, the aoudad stopped and looked back at us one more time before disappearing over the ridge. That glance back at us was all it took. Tripp squeezed his Fierce 6.5/284. In the excitement, I didn’t see the ram drop, but I did hear the whop.
I asked Tripp if he thought he was steady and had a solid hit. He said, “Dad, I dropped him right there. I’m looking at him.” Not too many adults, much less kids, can keep the animal in the scope after a shot, but this kid is cool under pressure. His eyes never left the scope. He watched the bullet hit and watched the animal drop in his tracks. Thank Jesus he did, because the ram was in the best possible spot for Dad to do the recovery.
We made the 200-yard hike over to the ram and took a ton of pictures. Because we never made it to the cave my kid asked, “Dad, can we go to the cave first before we clean him and drag to the truck?” We were cold and wet, so I said it was a good idea. We could warm up in the cave while Tripp explored. The views from this cave are once in a lifetime.
Visiting the past, enjoying the present
You can see why the Indians lived here 4,500 years ago. The smoke stains still mark the walls where they cooked their meals. The clams and mussels they ate still lay on the floor right where the shucked them thousands of years ago. Knots from sandals they made, and many of their tools for grinding seeds and fleshing animals still lay there like there were going to return at any minute.
Their painting and drawings on the walls tell the stories of their times for us to find over 4,000 years later. For that brief moment, we felt like we were living amongst them. What an experience! And don’t ever think you have to spend $5,000 for an awesome adventure. This all started from a $1,500 Craigslist ad.
At 47 years old, I’ve never shot an aoudad. My kid has surpassed me with many of his kills and that’s just fine with me. I get more pleasure out of guiding him and teaching him the things my dad taught me. I hope he continues to outdo me, and I pray I can keep up with him another 10 to 15 years.
Thanks for being my kid, buddy. Your little inquisitive spirit drives me.
