Texas aoudad after the flood

[S-3 ranch]

Well ,as some people know Texas had some major issues with floods over the 4th July, so we decided to go check the fence and road up in the creek canyon , before the cattle found a washed out spot.
We made it through some pretty rough patches, when we heard some noise going up the opposite side of the creek, my buddy said”” that’s a nice ram over there! “” I said “ it is but how are we going to fetch him ?”
He says “ just shoot him quick “ , when he hit the next open spot , about 200-240 yards away he stopped and got a .270 win 130gr Norma oryx, staggered off the rock dead as a hammer . My buddy was kind enough to make the slippery trek across and up and down the canyon, while I went to patch up the fence with a 1/2 cattle panel and some wire , he cut the head off and made it back to the top where I could pick him up , big thanks to frank for making that treacherous trip in and out of that gorge!
Nasty bast was 29 & 30 5/8 per each side , should make a nice boiled out skull mount for the feed room

P.S
Any chance someone can tell me how many age rings ( if that how you age them?)

 

[easttex]

Aoudad can be really tough to age, depending on their rubbing tendencies. I think this ram is nine, but I will not defend it "to the death".

 

[StupidLightweight]

That is a nice ram. I can see it being 9 years old.

 

[Short Track]

I had good luck too using a .270 with ELD-X. 1 shot kills.

 

[Ramem7mm]

Nice ram

 

[S-3 ranch]

I had good luck too using a .270 with ELD-X. 1 shot kills.

I’m switching to 140gr siarra tgk in sig elite
Just to check them out
But I’m hesitant about them being too explosive on heavy stuff like big sheep and elk

 

[BigredRusch]

I’m confused, do people not eat Aoudad?


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[thinhorn_AK]

I’m confused, do people not eat Aoudad?


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Not really

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I’m confused, do people not eat Aoudad?


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Depends on where you are at, legality and mentality. No offense but some folks in Texas trash talk lots of game and say "X" isn't any good when others know that is either an incomplete truth or just false outright. It seems like if it isn't a marbled steak from a cow its not worth carrying about to some of them. Yes that is sterotyping and I apologize to those that don't fit the narrative.

Take hogs for example, some state categorically they are trash and yet others pick the right animals and preparations to make great meals with.

Plenty of people eat aoudad and depending on which state it came from you legally have to. NM they are a game animal and its illegal to just take the head. Smaller / younger aoudad are absolutely edible. I will acknowledge that very old rams though do get extremely tough/chewy even when ground up or cooked in a manner that tenderizes.

I shot a smaller ram in NM that ate fine. I shot a ram like the above in TX at dusk on a cliff and we opted to leave it overnight in the winter and get to it in the AM, that one I cut off the backstraps and made jerky from them cause I didn't know how the rest held up overnight near the guts. I'm sure it would have been a tough steak but it made perfectly fine jerky. On that same hunt some small ewes were shot and ate just fine.

Not really

Depends on state requirements and mentality of the shooter.

 

[JGRaider]

I've shot/culled over 100 aoudad. Big rams suck, period. Only edible thing is young ram/ewe made into sausage.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Depends on where you are at, legality and mentality. No offense but some folks in Texas trash talk lots of game and say "X" isn't any good when others know that is either an incomplete truth or just false outright. It seems like if it isn't a marbled steak from a cow its not worth carrying about to some of them. Yes that is sterotyping and I apologize to those that don't fit the narrative.

Take hogs for example, some state categorically they are trash and yet others pick the right animals and preparations to make great meals with.

Plenty of people eat aoudad and depending on which state it came from you legally have to. NM they are a game animal and its illegal to just take the head. Smaller / younger aoudad are absolutely edible. I will acknowledge that very old rams though do get extremely tough/chewy even when ground up or cooked in a manner that tenderizes.

I shot a smaller ram in NM that ate fine. I shot a ram like the above in TX at dusk on a cliff and we opted to leave it overnight in the winter and get to it in the AM, that one I cut off the backstraps and made jerky from them cause I didn't know how the rest held up overnight near the guts. I'm sure it would have been a tough steak but it made perfectly fine jerky. On that same hunt some small ewes were shot and ate just fine.

Depends on state requirements and mentality of the shooter.

Stop trying to sound smart. Almost nobody eats them. Nobody is going to Texas to shoot small edible rams, perhaps New Mexico but that is such a small portion of aoudad taken that my answer of “not really” still stands 100%.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Stop trying to sound smart. Almost nobody eats them. Nobody is going to Texas to shoot small edible rams, perhaps New Mexico but that is such a small portion of aoudad taken that my answer of “not really” still stands 100%.

Bad day today? I didn't disagree that many don't eat them, yes "not really" stands. The "not really" is mostly to do with the requirements of the state (most are shot where the state doesn't require it, agreed) and mentality of the shooter. I do wonder how many that go to Texas to shoot a big ram actually shoot a big ram.

They get a bad rap like hogs, some is merited (truly big rams, we've all agreed on that) and some isn't. I even said above I only took the back straps off a ram like the OP photo in TX but I've also eaten smaller rams/ewes and they were fine.

I was mostly responding with the wordy part above the reply to you assuming the person asking was truly curious.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Bad day today? I didn't disagree that many don't eat them, yes "not really" stands. The "not really" is mostly to do with the requirements of the state (most are shot where the state doesn't require it, agreed) and mentality of the shooter. I do wonder how many that go to Texas to shoot a big ram actually shoot a big ram.

They get a bad rap like hogs, some is merited (truly big rams, we've all agreed on that) and some isn't. I even said above I only took the back straps off a ram like the OP photo in TX but I've also eaten smaller rams/ewes and they were fine.

I was mostly responding with the wordy part above the reply to you assuming the person asking was truly

I guess it depends on what you mean by “big” ram. Most outfitters aren’t interested in shooting smaller ones at least in my experience. They definetly aren’t all 35” rams but I’d be surprised if an outfitter was letting people shoot them under 30” or so.

Heck of a guy wanted a small sheep, they would probably let you shoot a ewe for a few hundred dollars. When I was down I. Texas last March, we passed on smaller rams for a few days before I shot a 31” ram with great mass. The trip I went on before, we also held out for a few days before my dad shot his 34” ram.

I’m headed back in 2027 and I’ll be looking for a larger one if possible but won’t shoot anything under 32”

Edit to add: I have seen posts on the Facebook aoudad groups advertising high fence rams for like 300.00, in the pictures they were small rams. I have no way of knowing how many people do those hunts vs. the actual free range hunts available. I’ve never done a high fence hunt.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I guess it depends on what you mean by “big” ram. Most outfitters aren’t interested in shooting smaller ones at least in my experience. They definetly aren’t all 35” rams but I’d be surprised if an outfitter was letting people shoot them under 30” or so.

Heck of a guy wanted a small sheep, they would probably let you shoot a ewe for a few hundred dollars. When I was down I. Texas last March, we passed on smaller rams for a few days before I shot a 31” ram with great mass. The trip I went on before, we also held out for a few days before my dad shot his 34” ram.

I’m headed back in 2027 and I’ll be looking for a larger one if possible but won’t shoot anything under 32”

No idea where the cutoff is for them getting truly tough but I'd certainly lean towards just taking the head if it was legal to do so on anything near or over 30".

If you know of a ranch that will allow access to shoot ewe's for a few hundred PM me (seriously). They're fun to hunt I'd definitely take a trip down to TX to hunt ewes in the winter if it was cheap. I've only hunted TX once, the rest was in NM OTC so smaller rams/ewes weren't off the table (pun intended) and you had to take the meat regardless.

You mentioned percentage of aoudads shot earlier in reference to NM was low, I would tend to guess the percentage of them shot with outfitters, esp. 30+" rams, is also probably low if we're being honest. Culling probably kills the most?

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

These ones were my hunting partner (good cook and does like mutton), top one (26" iirc) was fine but he gave up on the bottom one (35" iirc) eventually, said even the ground meat was really springy when chewing.

 

[cbeard64]

The only folks who eat aoudad are:

1) those who don’t know any better or
2) those who have to say they eat them because they are in the media.

Everyone else knows they are not worth the trouble.

 

[realunlucky]

I don't eat coyotes so maybe I'm just being a hypocrite that leaving it lay just rubs me the wrong way.

 

[Short Track]

I ate the back straps. They were perfectly fine. In fact, I'm sorry I didn't take the inner filets.

 

[ACHILLES]

Having it all made into dry sausage with a heavy pork mix, and whatever peppers and seasoning you want is the easy button with Audad. I’ve cooked steaks before off an old rams back straps and the flavor was good it was just tough, but we cooked them right after they were cut off. I bet if I could have salted and marinated them a week or two before cooking they would have been good and tender.
It’s like most things, you need to try it and form your own opinion. Almost all I know don’t eat aoudad though.

 

[TBarron]

Had a my ram made into different types of sausage and about years worth of tamales. Tamales were damn good.


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