An Affordable Bighorn

By Denny L. Vasquez

This was the last day of our combination whitetail and exotic ram hunting trip and we were up earlier than usual because we had to be in Kerrville, Texas by 6:30 A.M.. The whitetail part of our hunting trip had taken two days longer than we had planned and now we were down to just one day in which we could pursue a new type of game animal.

My brother Steve had planned to drive out from Houston to meet us at a cafe in town two days ago, he would complete our ram hunting our quartet. But as in all fair chase hunting situations nothing is guaranteed. So we had to rearrange our schedule with our exotic outfitter and change our ram hunt to only one day. I called Steve and told him to meet us at the cafe at the appointed time

We have been hunting whitetail, hogs, elk, pronghorns, etc. for most of our lives, but none of us had ever hunted any of the exotic or introduced species that are now available here in North America. This little adventure was to be a first for all of us and would prove to be both enjoyable and educational. For those of you who do not know what “exotic” hunting is, let me try and explain.

I was first introduced to “exotic” hunting, as it currently exists here in North America, at several of the hunting and fishing shows that we have here in Houston each year. Since that time I have been researching the exotic hunting industry and the various animals that are being offered on these hunts. To define the term “exotic” we have to go to Webster who defines it as, “Introduced from another country; not native to the place where found; strikingly or excitingly different or unusual.” This is a perfect description of the various exotic game animals that are available for hunting in North America today, especially when they are compared to most of the “native” game animals found on this continent.

These exotic game animals are the offspring of animals that have been introduced into this continent in areas where they are a non-native species. They come from Europe, Africa, Asia, India and other parts of the Americas. Examples of this are the sika deer and red sheep from Asia, the fallow deer and Mouflon rams from Europe, the axis or Chital deer, Nilgai and blackbuck antelopes from India. Also included in this grouping are most of the non-dangerous African game animals, such as the gazelle, sable antelope, wildebeest, Gemsbok, eland, aoudad rams, kudu and nyala. Exotics may even include Rocky Mountain elk on a Michigan or south Texas brush country ranch as they are no longer native game animals to the areas mentioned.

During the early part of this century concerned sportsmen and conservationist led the way in the efforts to save several of these non-native species from the brink of extinction by introducing specimens into large ranches in the south Texas brush country. An example of this is the blackbuck antelope which was all but extinct in it’s native range before several south Texas ranchers purchased some of these animals, brought them to Texas and turned them loose on their ranches in the 1930’s. After years of a successful controlled breeding program, these animals not only survived, but had grown in such numbers that in 1971 these same conservationist were able to start a restocking program to ship them back to their homeland on the Indian sub-continent. Today, these animals have expanded their range to include much of the central Texas hill country and other isolated areas of North America where they have also been introduced. The herd in Texas alone is over 25,000, more than are left in their original homeland. Other examples of these successes are the addax, nilgai, axis deer, sika deer, Pierre David Deer; the list goes on and is quite impressive.

Due to the success of these conservation efforts, many of these species are now available in huntable numbers in North America, on some of the better managed ranches. The kinds of species that are available on a particular ranch depends upon which animals the rancher has an interest in and what the year round climate conditions are of the ranch in question. There again, blackbuck are perfect example of a species that is susceptible to weather conditions. They can not thrive in harsh northern winter conditions, as they will freeze to death without adequate protection from the freezing temperatures. On the other hand the various Corsican rams are almost immune to extremes in harsh weather conditions. They are at home in the snow or the desert sands.

Not only do these animals make an attractive trophy, they can also be quite a challenge, especially for the blackpowder, pistol and bow hunter, when hunted in a fair chase situation. “A fair chase situation, isn’t all hunting fair chase?”, you might ask. Well, as in many aspects of life, the answer is not a simple yes or no. Most authorities today will define fair chase hunting as a hunting situation in which the game animal has the opportunity to avoid the hunter by entering into adequate cover in order to avoid detection and then making good it’s escape unhindered.

Unfortunately, as in most forms of business, the hunting outfitter business contains a few unscrupulous individuals who are only out to make a dollar the easiest way possible. So, as with all of our big game hunting, it is imperative that you check into the background and hunting philosophy of any exotic hunting outfitter before spending your hard earned dollars.

One of the “schemes” that is currently popluar is the coupon or T-shirt hunt, and it is anything but fair chase.

The outfitter is usually promoting the, “buy my T-shirt for $15.00 and receive a coupon for a free hunt worth $250.00” scheme. This is another version of the old come on ploy. To many first time exotic hunters this seems like a really good offer as the animals to be hunted are usually Corsican, Mouflon, Texas Dall, Black Hawaiian, or Four-horned rams or Catalina goats. The impressive trophy mounts that the outfitter has on display only acts to intrigue your interest further.

However, when the hunters arrive on the ranch they are driven through an area in which they will see “trophy” quality animals of the species mentioned on the coupon. Then, after being impressed with these “record book” animals, they are driven to an area in which the coupon animals are located. Most of the coupon animals will usually be young immature or cull specimens with unimpressive horns, have broken horns or other trophy disqualifying defects. At this point the guide or salesman, because that is what they really are, will offer the hunters a chance to upgrade their “hunt” for an additional fee.

However, this is still not really a hunt as these animals are usually being held in a small enclosure, without the opportunity to escape or avoid the hunter as there is little or no ground cover. I have even been given a tour of a 100 acre “hunting pasture” that had recently been a cotton field and hadn’t even grown a single weed yet. This proud “hunting outfitter” was offering me the chance at a “record book” Mouflon ram. As with any form of hunting, any time an outfitter guarantees you a particular animal, an animal of a particular trophy size or makes any other such impossible claims, be wary. This will usually not be a fair chase hunting situation.

For the resourceful hunter, there are several sources that can be checked to determine if an outfitter is ethical and what kind of hunting situation he provides. The local game warden in the area in which the outfitter provides hunts is usually the first person that I contact. The second is the local law enforcement agency while the third is the local district attorney. And of course, you should always check every reference that the outfitter provides of previous clients. Ask for some who did not have a successful hunt to be included on the list. You can learn a lot from these previous clients if you will only listen to their comments. Then you can determine if the types of hunts that the outfitter provides are what you are looking for.

One of the main reasons that I considered exotic hunting in the first place is the cost of a trip to some of the locations in which these animals can be hunted in their native environments, if that is still allowed, the permit fees involved in bringing these trophies home and the hassles that are inherent with traveling to another country. Costs of this nature have driven a hunt in the animlas home range out of the reach of all but a few members of the hunting fraternity.

Exotic hunts here in the North America usually start in the $500-600 range for a Corsican ram and go as high as $12,000.00 or more for one of the rarer species. With this much leeway in the range of prices there is an animal and a hunting situation within range of almost everyone. If you spend your money and efforts wisely, you can take several species for the cost of a hunt for a single animal in Africa or Asia.

For this hunt we had chosen to hunt members of the Corsican sheep family. These interesting animals are a hybrid cross between the European Mouflon sheep family, that are native to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia as well as southern Europe, and Barbados and domestic sheep from here in the US. Some specimens even have several full curls to their horns which resemble those horns found on the domesticated Merino sheep. These animals not only make impressive looking trophies, but when they are wild and hunted in a true fair chase environment, can make a very exciting time of it.

Due to this interbreeding of so many different breeds of sheep over such a long period of time, you can never quite be sure of what you will run across on any given Corsican ram hunt. I have even heard of a rancher introducing Stone Sheep from Britsh Columbia into his Corsican herd in an attempt to improve the trophy quality of the animals on his ranch. Since I prefer the look of the Bighorn sheep, and not the multiple curls of the domesticated Merino’s horns, I planned on looking for an animal whose horns met this description.

The coloration of these animals is just as varied as their horns. There are those that are pure white and are called Texas Dall or Snow Whites. Some are coal black and are called Black Hawaiians. Then there are those that are caramel colored with a yellowish-orange or golden tinge. During our hunt we would even see some that had a white saddle on a burnt red back, much like a pure Mouflon. However, the average animal is usually a dark yellowish orange color with a black underside. Most of the mature rams will also sport a nice black-gray neck mane or beard that will make their body size appear to be much bigger than they really are. The color of the sheep found on any given ranch is entirely dependent upon the parent stock and how far into the cross breeding process they are. It is also possible to find a hybrid that has features resembling those of a pure Mouflon or Barbados.

There are two record keeping systems which track exotic trophies. They are the Trophy Game Records of the World system that is maintained by the Exotic Wildlife Association of Ingram, TX and the Safari Club International. The EWA’s Trophy Game Records of the World record keeping system recognizes each color phase of the Corsicans as a seperate catagory while the SCI system considers all of the Corsicans as feral sheep and records all of them in one category of their record book.

I prefer the TGRW system that is based on measuring the volumetric displacement of the mass of an animal’s horns or antlers. This method does not consider symmetry when scoring an animal, rather it gives the animal full credit for what it has grown. The only time that the measurement of the spread of an animal’s horns or antlers comes in to play would be when there is a tie in the scores of two different animals. Consequently, two trained TGRW tropaeologists can score an animal the same even though the measuring is done several years apart.

Hunting exotic rams is a lot different than hunting deer or elk. It isn’t necessary that you have to be on a stand at day break. So we met my brother Steve at a local cafe for a hearty breakfast at 6:30A.M.. Then after a brief orientation into the world of exotic hunting, and Corsican hunting in particular, we loaded our gear into our guide’s truck and proceeded out to the ranch that we would be hunting.

The gray, overcast sky let loose with a drizzling rain as we left town and entered the countryside. As it slowly turned to fog, our guide cautioned that we would have to be careful if we had these conditions at the ranch because this kind of weather can spell trouble for hunters in the rocky hill country of Texas. Really heavy rains have been known to cause flash floods which can catch the careless hunter unawares. If you end up on the wrong side of a flooding river, it can be a long trip home while you are trying to find a high water bridge, which are somewhat scarce in this country. But about ten miles out of Ingram the rain stopped, and though we didn’t have clear skies, at least it wasn’t raining. The rain would have made the hunting conditions miserable. Especially since the high temperature for the day was only going to be in the mid-thirties. It was bad enough that we would be climbing over rocks covered with a thin layer of ice from the earlier rains.

The topography in this area of Texas is very hilly with canyons ranging from 50 feet to over 150 feet in depth. Some of these canyons have gently sloping sides that resemble a gentle valley, while others have cliff like sides that can make foot travel very difficult, especially under the icy conditions that we expected to be experiencing. There are rocks, ranging in size from that of pebbles to car size boulders, strewn haphazardly over the countryside that can make walking an attention getting chore in even the best weather conditions. Several kinds of cactus and prairie grasses are interspersed among the mesquite trees, scrub oak, cedar and other brush that cover the area. Throughout this area there are many small hill country streams whose crystal clear water runs over their rocky bottoms after bubbling up from an underground spring. Overall, this is one of the most picturesque areas of the state. And the frost and ice that was left from the previous nights dew fall and rains only added to the beauty of the scene as the sunlight was reflected back to us in the various colors of the spectrum.

To add an extra element of challenge to my hunt, I had decided to use my .50 caliber custom made percussion J & S Hawken blackpowder replica plains rifle. The hunting load that I have developed for this rifle consists of a Speer .495 round ball over a .10 Ox-Yoke Original Wonder pre-lubed patch that is seated over 85 grains of Pyrodex RS. Since this load has accounted for several whitetails over the years I felt comfortable in using it here. After all, the average weight for one of these sheep is in the 100-150 pound class and most Texas hill country whitetails are in this same weight class.

We all had high hopes for an opportunity to take decent rams and were somewhat disappointed by the first few animals that we came across. But our guide stated that exotic hunting was like any other kind of big game hunting. Only the young and immature or sick animals would be easy to spot. The older, wiser animals would be as hard to hunt as a trophy bull elk or whitetail buck. He asked that we not make any judgements until after the hunt was over.

Our guide proceeded to drive us around the ranch in his 4 x 4 truck trying to locate the herds of sheep. This is called safari style hunting here in Texas. The object of this hunting method is to drive around until you spot the game animals that you are hunting. Then you dismount from the vehicle and stalk the animal on foot. This allows you to cover more territory and view more game than just sitting in a blind or over a baited station. It is similar to the hunting methods that I have used several times in Canada while in pursuit of black bear. You drive the forest roads and glass the hillside clearings in an attempt to find the “right” bear. However, like all methods of hunting, each has it’s own place and time that it is the best method suited to the situation.

We drew straws to see who would shoot first, and as luck would have it, I was number 4. When it was finally my turn to shoot, we had spotted a group of nice rams and ewes that were about 300 yards off the road. The herd was at the head of one of the steep sided canyons, near the top of a large hill, that are prominent features on this part of the ranch. After several suggestions from my hunting companions, including one about scaling the cliffs and taking them by surprise, it was decided that our outfitter and I would try a stalk up a draw that would take us around the other side of an adjacent hill. From there we would attempt to locate a spot on the second hilltop that would afford us cover and a good rest from which to shoot. Because of the narrowness of the canyon at that point, it appeared that we should be able to get within 100 yards of the herd.

As it turned out, after a one and a half mile walk, we were able to crawl within about 50 to 75 yards of the rams before we ran out of cover. At that point we stopped behind a small mesquite bush and glassed the herd. In this group there were several Corsicans of the various color phases of black, Mouflon like, white to caramel and yellowish orange. There were also several four-horned sheep, merino sheep and Catalina goats in this herd. After a few minutes of glassing I spotted a Texas Dall with a light creme colored body and a dark caramel colored beard. Our guide estimated that his horns would be in the 25 to 30 inch class. Though not a monster, his horns did have the bighorn sheep look that I wanted.

I checked to make sure that I still had a cap on my nipple and that my load had not shaken loose during the stalk. Then after slowly rising to a sitting position, I rested my rifle on a branch of the mesquite bush. As I took aim at the ram I had picked out my guide put his hand on my shoulder and whispered that I needed to hold up on my shot. One of the other rams had moved in behind the one that I intended to shoot. After several agonizing minutes the object of my attention moved off to the side by himself.

He now stood outlined in white against the background of a dark green cedar tree as he nibbled on some succulent weed. After we checked to insure that no other animals were in the way, I once again took aim and fired. As the smoke from my shot drifted across our field of view, my guide stood up in order to see over the bluish gray cloud that the Pyrodex had created. As it turns out he stood up just in time to see my ram fall. After we were sure that my ram was down for the count, he turned to congratulate me.

The other members of my hunting group caught up with us as we made our way around to the other hill top to where my ram lay. Though he would not qualify for the record books, I was not to be disappointed as he did have the bighorn look that I wanted. He had 28 1/4 and 28 1/2 inch curls that had a slight flare to the unbroomed tips of his translucent, white horns with 9 3/4 inch bases. The only blemish that he had was a scar on his forehead that was indicative of the fact that he had been fighting over the ewes.

On the way out of the ranch I spotted a nice yellowish orange ram, with a heavy black beard, up on a ledge that hung off the side of a canyon. He appeared to be slightly larger than my snow white. Steve made the comment that his coloration would make a nice contrast to my white when they were both hanging on my den wall. That was all the arm twisting that I needed.

After another long stalk, in the rapidly fading light of a hill country winter evening, I was able to get into position for a shot at him from above, before adding him to my creme colored ram. His wide flaring full curl horns had bases of 10 7/8 inches and were 29 1/2 and 28 7/8 inches long. One of his tips had been broomed off about an inch with the last 4 to 6 inches of his horns starting to flare into a second curl.

As far as the meat of these animals goes, there isn’t a lot to them. We averaged about 40 pounds of usable meat from each ram. To quote Tommy Thompson from the 1982 edition of the Trophy Game Records of the World, “As far as table fare, sheep is mutton, and is best bar-b-qued and eaten while hot, or seasoned and fried in thin strips. It also makes good sausage when mixed with pork.”

After loading all of our animals into the back of our guide’s truck it was time to congratulate each other on a good day’s hunt. Though we had been forced to sacrifice somewhat on the trophy quality of our animals, due to the one day time restraint, we had each had a fun hunt and had taken good specimens of the species in a true fair chase fashion. Since it was now about 6:15 p.m. we headed back to town and a six hour drive home.

By Denny L. Vasquez