My First Texas Ram Hunt...

[charliemopic]

My brother 'Lou' lives in Arkansas and for the past 39 years (he's 59 y.o.) has been an avid deer, bird and boar hunter, shooter, handloader and gun collector. 'I' on the other hand have been shooting for just 3yrs. but I shoot regularly and outdoors only. I have never hunted anything. Once I did shoot and kill a black bird with my air rifle. The .17 pellet penetrated the little bird right thru the breast, the bird flopped on his back, kicked a few times and died. I felt very bad for several days.
Next month, March, 2006 Lou will go on his first private property-guided type hunt somewhere in east Texas to hunt ram, the ones with the long curled horns. My association with ram is only what I've seen on TV climbing some really tuff terrain.
I've done a THR search on Texas ram but nothing came up.
March 2007 I will be 50 y.o. and will go on the Texas ram hunt with my brother who will provide the rifle and guidance which would by then be his 2nd TX. ram hunt.
Have any of you ever hunt ram in Texas?
I'm interested in your experiences, comments and things to consider.
Thanks
Angelo

 

[Rembrandt]

Game ranch rams are not the same as the "Grand Slam" mountain variety (Desert, Big Horn, Stone, and Dall). You will be hunting sheep that are more like the barnyard versions in size....these will be Mouflan, Hawaiian Black, Rambo, and Corsican. My experience was the more you paid the more curl you get on horns. Have a Corsican hanging in the trophy room, nice ram but not the same as what's in the mountains.

Here's where we hunted, Thompson Temple Ranch....check their website.

http://www.thompsontemple.texaswildlife.net/

 

[MCgunner]

I've been on high fence ranches where the exotics are tame as pets. I don't figure that's really "hunting". To me, it's pretty much picking out the mount you want, shooting it, and paying the man. But, they're all different. Hopefully yours will be better than what I've seen. I hunt meat hogs occasionally on a high fence ranch south of San Antonio. The hog hunting is good and I'm just shooting small ones for the grill.

 

[T.R.]

Mouflon sheep: native to the Greek Isles. Typified by heart shaped horns, pale back patch, and short tail.

Corsican sheep: a hybrid of mouflon and something else(hey I'm not a zoologist) Typified by curly cue horns and long black chest hairs, often called its mane.

Texas dall: A white hybrid with curly cue horns

Black Hawaiiian: A black hybrid version of Texas dall

Auodad: (pronounced awe dad) actually a goat, native to Atlas Mts of Morrocco. Often called Barbary sheep. These are big ones who often weigh well over 200 lbs.

Texas Ibex: A cross between Nubian ibex and Catalina (Spanish) goat. Typified by very long and impressive horns.

I also suggest contacting Thompson Temple as he wrote the ram scoring standards for SCI and Records of Exotics. He really knows a lot more about these species and what to look for in a trophy.
TR