New Mexico Audad

[cgasner1]

It’s celebratory time I’ll check back with you guys in the morning we opened up the tequila and they have ribeyes and I seasoned up the loins

 

[JCS]

Congrats

 

[Valley1320]

Congrats! Beautiful ram can't beat that!

 

[BradA]

That’s awesome congratulations! I hope I draw a tag this next year.

 

[npaden]

Congrats! Looks like a good ram to me!

 

[fulldraw]

Nice looking ram, congrats!

 

[cgasner1]

Give a picture dump tonight and type up the ending of this tomorrow while I’m traveling home that’s 2 rams sitting in the fridge if a air bnb freezer is meat and fridge is capes

 

[SCliving Outdoors]

Great ram! Congrats! A New Mexico Aoudad Ram would be an awesome experience.

 

[cgasner1]

It’s been a busy couple days I’m back home in Montana now no thanks to Alaska air. They sure do just like moving flights around these days. So the herd we killed my ram out of had 45 sheep. The guide had a buddy who also guides for sheep but had this tag himself. They killed a ram on Friday morning out of a herd of 50. I believe that’s why we had such a hard time finding sheep since they were so bunched up. He told me Thursday night after we got back to camp that is the hardest he has ever hunted for a client. He said they either find them and kill a ram or the client shanks his tent. We did about 15 miles the day I killed mine and 2.5 of it was packing the ram out luckily we killed him closer to the truck on the loop we were making. My ram ended up going 29 3/4” and was over 12 years old. I love the way the hunt went it was exactly what I wanted. I just wish the herds had been more broke up so we would have possibly seen more sheep throughout the entire trip.

 

[cgasner1]

Having filled our tags a day early was great the guys capped the sheep out for us we helped them break camp down and just got to take our time getting back into Albuquerque. We grabbed an air bnb and got a good freezer on the meat and cooled capes in the fridge as you guys saw. We showed up early to play the make weight game with our luggage with the plan of checking 4 hours before the flight dropping off the uhaul and catching a Uber back. Well Alaska didn’t have anyone to check bags so idk why the offer a 4 hour early option. They also bumped our flights home so instead of being home at 7 I got home at midnight. The did the same stuff on the flight down and we almost missed getting our uhaul that night. Once we got everything to weight we tapped the meat cooler shut. When I came back from ak last year someone stole a back strap out of my meat boxes. Lesson learned on using standard issue duck tape. @Dsnow9 would appreciate this.

 

[cgasner1]

prior to killing my ram I had some huge doubts on if this was gonna happen. I had made my mind up earlier in the day that if I didn’t fill the tag I would rebook with these guys and be back when I drew again. I know these animals can be killed much easier in other places but after the grind we did I wanted a mature ram out of this area. I’ve heard guys say you will know if you’re a sheep hunter or not within a couple days of hunting sheep. I feel like this hunt left me with more questions than answers in that aspect. Here is a few more pics of the aftermath

 

[Flatbrimmer]

I’d never even heard of these animals before I joined HuntTalk. What a cool species and amazing pictures, beautiful habitat and a great write up. Thanks for taking time to write it up for everyone. For me, after a long day hunting it can be hard to wanna type it all up…
Big congrats! I can’t wait to see the finished mount in the future.

 

[Nick87]

Awesome thanks for taking us along.

 

[Werty]

Nice work! Great read

 

[cgasner1]

I’d never even heard of these animals before I joined HuntTalk. What a cool species and amazing pictures, beautiful habitat and a great write up. Thanks for taking time to write it up for everyone. For me, after a long day hunting it can be hard to wanna type it all up…
Big congrats! I can’t wait to see the finished mount in the future.

It took me a couple days to be able to finish it up I was pretty spent and busy getting everything in order to get home

 

[fishing4sanity]

We dropped down off and started hurrying about half way the guide picked up a horse shoe told me it would be lucky and stuffed it into my pack.

Déjà vu! For a second I thought I was reading about my hunt. After spotting the rams and closing the distance we picked up a horseshoe and the guide said it would be good luck, it was. Do these guys carry horseshoes and when you're not looking throw one out? Anyway, great report and awesome ram, thanks for taking us along. Congratulations!

 

[madtom]

Déjà vu! For a second I thought I was reading about my hunt. After spotting the rams and closing the distance we picked up a horseshoe and the guide said it would be good luck, it was. Do these guys carry horseshoes and when you're not looking throw one out? Anyway, great report and awesome ram, thanks for taking us along. Congratulations!

That’s funny. When my FIL and I did the hunt DIY in the same unit as the OP, we both found old horseshoes too. Must be a lot of them out there.

Interestingly, I kept mine in my pack and shot a small ram on the ninth day of hunting. My FIL left his behind and didn’t harvest… But to be fair, he let me shoot first.

 

[EYJONAS!]

They day started with the guide changing spots on us which personally even after seeing the ram yesterday I was all for. Funny thing is I was looking at the spot we hunted today on onX couple days ago and thought it looked good. So we hike up into this nasty hell hole and as soon as we get in guess what…..more elk. We spent most the day moving about a half mile to mile at a time glassing. Every time we stopped we would find more bulls. After putting down about 10 miles today it happened we spotted a good herd of sheep. They were about 2 miles off and we had about 90 min of daylight. Time to burn some serious boot leather and close the gap. We dropped down off and started hurrying about half way the guide picked up a horse shoe told me it would be lucky and stuffed it into my pack. About 40 min later we are rounding the bend in the bottom and I spot the tree we have for a marker. Almost to it is the herd of sheep coming across the hill. 732 yards way too far in this wind. I sneak about a 100 yards and get behind a knob and start running up the hill. When I run out of terrain I pull out the range finder 560 yards this is gonna have to work I find a rock to lay the rifle on. I hear from behind me the big ram is in the back. I’m busy messing with my ballistics ap and what not by the time I get on the gun he had moved up. I ask where he is as I’m scanning the herd. Ow never mind there is a tank standing on the hill. I ask if they are on it and send it. First shot I missed high still winded from my run. He moves about 30 yards across the hill while I reload and follow him in the scope the second shot is perfect I get him back in the scope just in time to see him stop rolling.

That is $*)Q!#@$ awesome man! Congrats to you. Happy you were able to get it done. I can't wait for my trip in 2025.

Thanks for sharing

 

[Westxhunter]

Looks like it was a great trip! I've got an OTC tag that's good through March. What caliber were you guys using?

 

[cgasner1]

Looks like it was a great trip! I've got an OTC tag that's good through March. What caliber were you guys using?

I used my 6.5 prc with a 156 Berger buddy used a 300 win with a 200 grain eldx my sheep was down before I got it back in the scope from the shot