Awesome Aoudad with a Legend

 

It’s not common to get the drop on aoudad like this. Now, the hard part is sorting them out. That’s a very nice ram just right of center. There’s also a nice ram on the left, bedded and facing away.

By Craig Boddington
 

Auction tags are slightly predictable, because not everyone is able to bid. I’m not among those who can, doesn’t bother me because auction tags have put a lot of sheep on the mountain, and that’s all that matters. Raffle tags and hunts are completely unpredictable. Somebody with a three-quarter FNAWS, wanting that last ram, may stuff the ballot box like a…never mind. Or, statistics be damned, a raffle may be won by the holder of one lonely ticket.

During Sheep Week early in ‘24, one of the raffle items was a free-range aoudad, donated by Jim Breck Bean’s High West Outfitters. Good young outfitter, operating on a couple million acres in Far West Texas, one of America’s most sparsely populated and least-known regions. I started to write that me coming along on the hunt was an added incentive, backed off quickly. Lord knows I wouldn’t want to hunt with me, so why should anyone else? Doesn’t matter; the die was cast, and the winning ticket-holder would be like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: You don’t know what you’re going to get.

Well, maybe there wasn’t a collective gasp in the packed room when James Craig’s ticket was pulled. Gray Thornton was on the podium next to me and he chuckled. Veteran sheep hunter Jim Craig hails from Indiana. No wild sheep there, ever, but he got the sheep hunting bug young, starting with a Dall's ram in the Alaska Range in the early Seventies. Although Mr. Craig keeps a low profile, since then he’s taken far more North American rams than I can ever dream of. For those who know him—or know of him—he’s probably most famous for being attacked and severely mauled by a grizzly bear…while packing out a bighorn ram in southeastern BC.
 
That was sort of in the middle of his spectacular mountain hunting career. Severe damage, with long recovery and lingering issues. Didn’t stop him. He got back on the mountain as soon as he was able. Sooner than he should have. Many more sheep and goat hunts since, plus a few for big bears. I got a choice piece in this box of chocolates. There’d be great stories in this camp.
 

 
Mountains south of Marfa are characterized by steep rimrock cliffs; most glassing is either steeply uphill or down.

 
I looked forward to it for seven months, meeting up with Jim Creed and his wife, Lee Anne, in a grocery store parking lot in Marfa, Texas on a warm midday in early September. There to greet us was the High West Outfitters team, including our guide, Creed Cade. Creed is a Far West Texas native. Decades our junior, he knew his country and game, and we would need his expertise. While we were chatting (and sizing each other up), I learned, with surprise and delight, that Jim Craig, one of our most experienced American sheep hunters, had never taken an aoudad. Truth is, I’m kind of a nut about them, so this would be extra-special fun!
 

THE BARBARY “SHEEP”

 
Native to North Africa, the aoudad, Ammotragus lervia, also called Barbary sheep, isn’t really a sheep at all. Nor, technically, a goat. Rather, it’s a natural bridge between the two families. We mountain hunters don’t always dwell on such scientific niceties; we generally lump aoudad with sheep. Fine with me, the horns are definitely more sheep-like. However, I think the aoudad is probably closer to the goat family: Coarse hair like ibex, goat odor, goat calluses on knees.
 
Whichever, the aoudad is a big, blocky, impressive animal, and exceptionally tough (Regrettably, this also applies to the meat, chewy and strong, perhaps the only down I can give the aoudad as a game animal). Both males and females grow similar horns, curving up, out, around, and back down. This makes things tricky. Horns tend to be in relation to body size, and mature males are much larger than females, with commensurately longer and thicker horns. A lone aoudad can fool you, but only mature males grow that long silky neck ruff and luxurious chaps on forelegs. Like Old World goats, they are prolific and tend to gather in large herds.
 

 

Left/Top: Boddington with his aoudad from Chad, 2001. Aoudad grow larger in body and horn in Texas because, harsh as it is, there’s more food and water. Here, in Chad’s Ennedi Mountains, it may rain once in ten years. Right/Bottom: Neither as large in body nor horn as Jim Craig’s ram, Boddington’s ram was old, with horn wear. He used guide Creed Cade’s perfectly-dialed-in Exile 7mm PRC to make a fairly long shot.

Toughness is a needed attribute, because they come from some of the harshest country on Earth. At one time, they occupied a huge range in North Africa, all along the spine of the Atlas Mountains, on east to Egypt and Sudan, found in isolated ranges north and south of the Sahara Desert. In 2001, I hunted them in the Ennedi Mountains of Chad, near the Libyan border, where it may rain once in a decade. Although scarce, aoudad probably persist in limited numbers across much of their original range because it is so harsh. Aoudads are not currently hunted in Chad or Sudan, but Morocco has been open for a couple of years. South Africa and Spain also have free-range aoudads—I’ve hunted them there, too. However, free-range aoudad hunting in the mountains of Far West Texas is hard to beat.
 

THE AMERICAN AOUDAD

While I’ll never have Jim Craig’s experience with our native wild sheep, I do have some experience with aoudad. There are other free-range populations in the US, but Texas is the aoudad’s greatest stronghold. Aoudad were first introduced into Texas after WWII, initially in Llano and Kerr Counties. Almost impossible to fence, aoudad spread quickly by both natural increase and purposeful introduction. They are found on most Texas game ranches and have spread across the mountains and badlands of Far West Texas, from the Palo Duro Canyon in the panhandle south to the Big Bend country.
 
Far West Texas is harsh, but compared to North Africa, it’s still soft, fat country. The first aoudads released into Texas must have thought they’d found paradise. With better food and more water, our American aoudad is a bigger animal. Here, a big ram might exceed 300 pounds. Rowland Ward’s world African world record native range aoudad is 36.5 inches, an amazing ram anywhere. However, larger rams have been taken in Texas recently. Jim Breck Bean, our outfitter on James Craig’s hunt, has guided two aoudad rams over 39 inches. My buddy John Stucker, hunting with Hunter Ross’s Desert Safaris took a 37.5-inch ram in the Davis Mountains. His first aoudad on our first day, it remains the longest-horned ram I have seen.
 
In perspective, with age and horn mass, an aoudad with horns in the upper 20s is good. For many years, the Holy Grail for aoudad was to break 30 inches. Took me a couple “almost 30” rams to reach that magic mark. I think rams in that class are more common today. It still takes hard looking and luck. Amazingly, some Texas outfitters now average over 30.

Exactly how many Barbary sheep roam Texas isn’t known. 25,000 is a common estimate, wouldn’t surprise me if there were twice that many. We could all wish there were that many desert sheep, but that’s not possible. Aoudads thrive where true sheep cannot and resist diseases that periodically ravage our native sheep.

 
Me, I’m happy about that. Sheep hunters want to hunt sheep, but few of us can swing frequent hunts for our native sheep. With increased recognition, prices for free-range Texas aoudad hunts have increased but are still affordable and are wonderful hunts in magnificent country.
 

 

One of Boddington’s early Texas aoudads, taken in the Chinati Mountains in 1993. This is a great ram…but he’s not quite 30 inches. Aoudads are the devil to judge and finding that last inch or two or horn is tough.

The mountains in Far West Texas are real, medium elevation, but abrupt and steep with horrible footing and lots of thorny cacti. To me, the experience has much in common with hunting desert sheep with two big differences: A fraction the cost, and you’ll see more animals.
 
Since Texas aoudads can be hunted year-around, I’ve done most of my hunting in late winter and early spring. Not because that’s the best time, but because most other big-game seasons are closed. Consistently, outfitters tell me that Far West Texas aoudads rut in early fall. That September and October is the best time to find rams in bachelor groups, and the most likely time to find extra-big rams.
 

AN AOUDAD FOR JIM

That’s why Jim Breck Bean suggested his first aoudad hunt, starting on September 8. Likely to be hot, but this would be my first aoudad hunt scheduled at “the right time.” From Marfa, we convoyed south to a remote ranch 60 miles off the blacktop, 17 trackless miles north of the border. We got lucky on the weather. Middays were still in the 90s, dropping in late afternoon, light jackets in the morning. We arrived in early afternoon, stowed our gear, Jim checked his 26 Nosler, and we headed out to look for aoudad.

I guess I expected the hills to be crawling with them. Uh, no it’s not that easy. Arid country, low animal density. We covered a lot of ground, saw several mule deer, javelinas, and tons of blue quail. No aoudad.

 
Next morning, we left camp at daylight. Within an hour we were glassing a nice herd feeding down off a big ridge. This group, maybe 50, had rams with them, none mature. An hour later we glassed another group, slightly smaller. Same story, rams in the mix, none mature. We never saw a bachelor group, but there were rams of various ages in every herd. Perhaps a few days early this far south. Didn’t matter. We saw plenty, just needed one good ram…that we could get to.
 
In a hot midday we turned back toward camp. Creed stopped, glassed along a cliff rising above us, and made a marvelous spot. In deep shade on the rim, he picked up a bedded ram, just head and horns showing. Awesome ram, looking down at us from a thousand mostly-vertical yards. That ram might as well have been on the moon, no way we could get to him.
 
At three o’clock we were on a bigger herd, maybe 60, feeding down another steep north-south ridge, just above a sheer hundred-foot face. Déjà vu all over again: Also a thousand yards, several rams in this bunch. Except: One was clearly mature, bigger-bodied and darker than his buddies, thick mane and long chaps.
 
As they mixed and shifted, difficult to get a proper look at the horns. We didn’t try too hard. Heavy and long, this was the kind of ram we wanted. Not enough cover to go straight to them; the only option was to go north a few hundred yards, where brush and shallow cuts might offer an approach to the cliff, then sidehill back south. I kept my mouth shut, but I didn’t think they had much chance. Later, Creed said the same, but we weren’t seeing many rams, and this was a dandy. It would be a tough uphill climb and the sidehilling back would be murder. Jim Craig, 85 years young, didn’t hesitate.
 
We drove north over a little rise, aoudad still in sight, now 1200 yards. Creed and Jim geared up and headed out. Lee Anne and I stayed at the truck; no more cooks needed to spoil this broth. The last time I saw them, they dropped into a shallow swell 300 yards out. Two nervous hours passed, but I never picked them up again. Clearly, the cover was better than it looked.

In the second hour the wind started swirling, me hoping Jim and Creed were closing on them. Below the aoudad there was a narrow gap in the cliff, where an ancient avalanche had come down. Most stayed high, but several aoudads fed down through the gap, at one point just 900 yards from me. This just might work!
 

 
A group of aoudad feeding along a steep hillside. No country is too tough for aoudad!

 
Then I felt the wind swirl again. The closest aoudad spooked, back up into steep shelving above the cliff. They ran a few dozen yards, then milled briefly. This shift divided them into three groups, then they all started drifting south along the rim. Jim’s window was closing fast.
 
I’d picked out the big ram several times, but now I didn’t know where he was. I was watching the middle group when they all spooked again. Then I heard Jim’s shot and the thump of solid impact. I glassed frantically, hoping to see a ram tumbling. Nothing, but not all the aoudads left. Must be a ram down somewhere. Finally, I saw Jim and Creed rise from a gully and start back down toward me.
 
As planned, I found a ranch road between me and the cliff, met them there. The ram had been in the farthest group, Jim’s shot 370 yards. Looked good, but the ram had run around a corner above the cliff. We maneuvered that way and Creed spotted the ram, down, head still up…right on the edge of the cliff. From a knoll below the cliff, Jim made a brilliant finishing shot.

This story isn’t over, but a segue is necessary.

Big aoudad rams are as big as the largest Asian ibex, and just as tough. Post-mortem showed that Jim’s first shot was fine, quartering nicely through one shoulder. The 26 Nosler is fast and flat-shooting. However, I think the 6.5mms are marginal in bullet weight and frontal area for such big, tough animals, especially at distance.
 
Jim’s finishing shot, a hundred yards farther, was taken with Creed’s dialed-in 7mm PRC. We saw the impact, perfect. Instead of slumping over, the ram jumped up, ran uphill, then stumbled and started to roll. We hoped he would come off the cliff, easier to recover at the base. He rolled several times, then hung up on the last bush above the rim.
 

CLIFF-HANGER FINISH

Creed had been above that face before, knew it was possible but dangerous. Less than an hour of light, no way we were going to get to the ram before dark. Air cooling nicely, the safer and wiser part of valor was to leave him until morning. Then we could (maybe) go up there and skin him in place. Or, safer and wiser, Creed could roll him off the cliff.
 

 

Left/Top: Jim Craig’s ram was down right on the edge of a treacherous cliff. Guide Creed Cade climbed up to roll him off the face; that was the safest approach but worse than it looked from below. Right/Bottom: Yes, rolling Jim’s ram off the bluff risked horn breakage. Better than risking a fall. Fortunately, aoudad horns are as tough as the rest of the animal, with breakage uncommon. At the bottom, horns and cape were perfect.

 
Next morning we retraced our steps. Yes, Jim’s ram was still behind that one pesky bush. Fifty yards to the right, just above the face, another group of aoudads. With another older ram. Heavy, worn tips. Exactly what I was hoping for.
 
If we hustled up an arroyo—and were lucky—we might get a shot at this ram, but it wouldn’t be close. I’m liking the new 7 PRC, had just taken delivery on a 7 PRC from Flat Creek Precision. It was shooting wonderful groups, but it wasn’t yet verified at distance. Jim had proven that Creed’s 7 PRC, a custom job from Corey Raley’s Exile Arms, was dialed in. I didn’t hesitate. We bailed out and hustled.
 
This was a small group, multiple rams, just one mature, all balled up above the cliff. I have a lot of experience with aoudad, but it took me long seconds to sort out the right ram. Just 30 years old, Creed Cade already knows more about aoudad than I will learn. We worked it out, dialed the Leupold scope for 530 yards. When the ram was clear, I took a breath and pressed the trigger.
 
Like Jim’s, my ram ran uphill, faltered, and came rolling back down. We were pulling for him as he neared the edge, delighted when he came off the face and thumped in the brush below. We didn’t want two rams up there!
 

 
Jim Craig and Boddington with Jim’s amazing ram: Huge in body, amazing neck ruff and chaps, long, heavy horns. In Texas today, bigger rams are possible…but only with a lot of luck.

 
I made my way toward my ram while Creed climbed up a gap in the face, then worked his way to Jim’s ram. As he struggled along the treacherous rim, I realized Father Time was speaking. Neither Jim nor I had any business up there. Humiliating, but I’m glad we didn’t try. Jim’s ram landed at the base of the cliff south of my ram. We had this brief fantasy we’d drag them together for pictures. Not likely. Up there, steeper than it looked, and the footing was awful. Creed met me at my ram, then Jim met us at his ram. Both of us did a lot of crawling and falling.
 

Jim Craig and guide Creed Cade coming up out of a canyon, packing Jim’s fantastic ram

Mine was as we’d judged, a nice old ram with tip wear, 29 inches. Jim’s was something else. Creed’s whoop echoed when he reached him. In body, one of those burly, outsized aoudad rams that disguise horn length. Exceptional 13.5-inch bases, carrying mass all through. 36.5 inches on both horns. Second-longest aoudad ram I have personally seen. In the next six months, High West Outfitters will take some 200 aoudad rams. Although they’ve broken the free-range world record twice with 39-inch rams, Jim Craig’s ram, taken on the first hunt, could be the best ram of the season. Not bad for a first aoudad…at 85 years young.
 

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Originally published in the Winter 2024-2025 issue of Wild Sheep. Not a member yet? Join today.