Posted By: JDPoulsen
Another Great Hunt With Big Iron Ranch Adventures ... - 11/03/15 08:34 PM
Last weekend my son Frank and I went down to the beautiful Texas Hill Country west of Kerrville near Mountain Home TX. The plan was for me to try and shoot an Aoudad Ram and for Frank to shoot 3 or 4 WT does for the freezer. Friday afternoon we got to the ranch and met up with Rusty Kimbrell of Big Iron Ranch Adventures and his brother Jimmy. Frank and I hunted last year with Rusty and Jimmy on Rusty's S TX ranch in Zavalla County and each took a big 8 Pt WT. Friday evening we went and got in the blinds. Rusty and I did not see the Aoudads but saw lots of WT's and exotics. Frank and Jimmy saw lots of game but did not shoot anything. Friday night we ate dinner, sat out on the covered back porch and watched a thunderstorm move through the hills. Saturday morning, we went to the same stands and started seeing game. I saw some animals coming from the left towards the feeder out of a canyon and told Rusty, he looked and said those are Aoudads! He said there are some Ewe's a couple with good horns. He said I could shoot one or wait to see if a Ram might show up. I said let's wait a while. About five minutes later Rusty said here comes some Rams! There were 2 or 3 big Rams and they walked up and started feeding in the middle of all the Ewe's. I got down in position to shoot off my Caldwell Magnum Field Pod and looked through the scope. I could see a lot of bodies and horns going every direction. I told Rusty I was having trouble picking out one of the Rams to shoot. He said do you see the Ram that is turned broadside to the right of the feeder licking on the Salt Block. That was all I needed to hear, I put the cross hairs behind his shoulder and squeezed off a shot. I lost the sight picture with the recoil of my 25-06. I asked Rusty if I had hit him and he said I dropped him in his tracks! The Barnes 100 grain TTSX bullet did the job on my 240-250 lb Ram. He had 12" bases and 25" and 26" horns. I had been wanting an Aoudad Ram for 25 years and was really excited to finally get the job done. It was an exciting hunt! Frank killed three does Saturday and that night we had a Steak Dinner. The accommodations were first class. The plan did not include any WT bucks but we had seen a lot of good looking native Hill Country bucks. I am disabled and Frank helps me a lot every day so I decided to surprise him with a buck hunt as a reward for all of his hard work. Sunday morning I slept in and Rusty took Frank out to the stand. After an hour or so they decided to ride around the pasture in the UTV. They had not gone far when they saw a group of does off the road followed by a nice mature buck. Rusty glassed him and gave Frank the Ok and Frank fired one shot with his new Custom High Grade Winchester Model 70 Featherweight .270 dropping the buck in his tracks! I would like to thank Rusty and Jimmy and Frank for helping me make another dream come true, it was an Adventure!
