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Record Book Mouflon - Free Range

Posted By: justbreezin

Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 04:55 PM

What started out as an annual whitetail hunt in Terrell County, south of Sheffield, TX, ended up being a record book mouflon harvest. We were on a low fenced 40,000 acre ranch.

While glassing the many canyons and mountains of this ranch, my brother and I spotted this mouflon ram on the top of a mountain approximately 1500 yards away. Staring right at us. Pic below is through my spotting scope on 48 power. We watched him through our binoculars and spotting scope for about 30 minutes and decided to make a stalk on him. The deer hunting was unusually slow, pre rut conditions, poor weather. So, we decided what the heck. We knew it was a monster ram and we thought it would be fun to try and stalk him, knowing how wild and elusive they are.

Little by little, we cut the distance down. At 600 yards, we decided to sit down and watch him closer. We watched him finally bed down behind a rock, but were fearful of other eyes that might be on us. We thought he was alone, but we knew that a herd of ewes watching us could ruin it. We finally kept moving, stopping behind what seemed like every tree to check on him. We finally made it to with 210 yards. I layed on the ground, gun and bipod ready, and waited. I told my brother to move 30 yards to the left and do the same, in hopes of having a different angle on him for when he did stand up. After about 30 minutes, he did stand up. My brother had a shot, took it, and dropped him with his .270.

We finally made it up to the top of the mountain and took pictures, attached is one, and started to cape him out. We got back to camp, knowing we had a good one, took some measurements. We measured 3 different times, all within ¼ inch of each other. So, we think we have a Gold record book SCI mouflon ram on our hands. All in all, the stalk and pursuit of this wild free range animal was something that I will always remember.





Posted By: SATX

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 05:08 PM

Nice!

I have always wanted to take a Mouflon.

Posted By: JakeinTX

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 05:55 PM

Very Cool!!!

Posted By: Txnrog

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 06:42 PM

Great ram. Not a mouflon, but great ram regardless. He may make the mouflon-type category though.

Posted By: AllAboutExotics

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 07:00 PM

Great story! Congrats to you and your brother on the ram!

Posted By: heathe

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 07:27 PM

great looking ram and one heck of a story good job.

Posted By: justbreezin

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 07:35 PM

Originally Posted By: Txnrog
Great ram. Not a mouflon, but great ram regardless. He may make the mouflon-type category though.


What would you classify it as then?

Posted By: Otto

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 07:44 PM

Great Job. Congratulations,

Posted By: Eland Slayer

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 08:12 PM

Originally Posted By: Txnrog
Great ram. Not a mouflon, but great ram regardless. He may make the mouflon-type category though.


+1....

His horns look like a Mouflon....but his body definitely looks like a Corsican.

Posted By: justbreezin

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 08:18 PM

He has the white patch indicative of a Mouflon. The pictures were taken from an iphone in hazy weather on the top of a mountain, so that might explain it.

Posted By: justbreezin

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 08:20 PM

But I will go by the SCI Master scorer and game warden who both said, "nice mouflon".

Posted By: Txnrog

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 08:51 PM

justbreezin' It's a great trophy regardless of the species. Seriously, I am not trying to take anything away from it, or argue.

I just look at alot of these sheep, and when it makes about a $1000 difference in price, you learn pretty quickly. Easiest way to tell is on the animal you got are the black lines going from the front of horns to the mouth with the white blaze going all the way to between the horns - that's classic corsican. Mouflon have white around the nose and mouth, but it stops well below the eyes. Color is also too tan for this time of year. Base color on a mouflon in winter coat is a rust brown with quite a bit more black. Mouflon also have a white belly and leg stockings, which are noticable enough that they would show up in your first picture.

Posted By: justbreezin

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/12/11 08:53 PM

Trust me. It is a mouflon.

Posted By: Trozacky

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 12:40 AM

popcorn

Posted By: WyoHunter

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 01:02 AM

Nice ram! Congrats to your brother!

Posted By: Raypo

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 01:57 AM

Good job... Great wright up

Posted By: Rickey Hunt

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 02:11 AM

Congrats on a great trophy! Nobody is trying to take away from the ram. Many years ago I killed a mouflon type ram that was very wild and had many characterestics of a pure mouflon, but never the less my ram was not pure. Txnrog and others including myself have raised pure mouflons for many years. I myself for over 20 years. Again your ram is nice, but he does not have the color of a pure mouflon.

Posted By: Lonnie Paul Walker Jr.

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 02:53 AM

We raise pure mouflons aswell, an like many have said, great ram. An hard for any of us to really see, but I would tell you he is a cross for sure.

Posted By: bu2herndog

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 02:57 AM

Great ram, congrats.

Posted By: TxAg

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 03:26 AM

Nice sheep, sounds like a great stalk.

Posted By: highlonesome1

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 04:11 AM

Xellent hunt. Congrats.

Posted By: ParkCountyElkDestroyer

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/13/11 05:34 AM

That's awesome congrats to you and your brother!

Posted By: TMc

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/14/11 01:32 AM

Talk about a spot & stalk! From 1500 yds to 210, great job and a magnificent animal. Very cool that you and your brother could share that experience. Congrats on a job well done.

Posted By: txshntr

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/14/11 01:37 AM

Great story and Congrats. Sounds like a heck of a hunt with a great ending up

Posted By: 349south

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/18/11 05:25 AM

Good times justbreezin.
When this sheep herd was introduced to the ranch, back in the 70s, they were called Mouflan. They've remained on the ranch, unmanaged aside from the occasional Ram kill like this one, for going on 40 years.
Now, the American Kennel Club may disagree, but anyone who would pay thousands of dollars more for the same bone on a sheep with the proper face coloring, deserves to lose that money.
Anyone can shoot a bighorn with a price tag in its ear.
Very few people get a chance to hunt one the way Justbreezin did.
FACT

Posted By: 8pointdrop

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/18/11 11:24 PM

You could call it what you want I think its sweet.

Posted By: riceman

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/19/11 06:52 PM

Originally Posted By: 349south
Good times justbreezin.
When this sheep herd was introduced to the ranch, back in the 70s, they were called Mouflan. They've remained on the ranch, unmanaged aside from the occasional Ram kill like this one, for going on 40 years.
Now, the American Kennel Club may disagree, but anyone who would pay thousands of dollars more for the same bone on a sheep with the proper face coloring, deserves to lose that money.
Anyone can shoot a bighorn with a price tag in its ear.
Very few people get a chance to hunt one the way Justbreezin did.
FACT


Couldn't agree more with 349south!

A mouflon like this one is the working man's BIG HORN SHEEP. I hope to have an encounter like this one day. Cross bred or not. That bone looks mouflon enough for me! Then again, I don't breed the things...

Posted By: txtrophy85

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/19/11 09:40 PM

Originally Posted By: justbreezin
But I will go by the SCI Master scorer and game warden who both said, "nice mouflon".


i am curious to see what it will score as. I know ROE makes you submit a high quality picture with each mouflon submittal.

this is a pure blooded mouflon. notice to differnece in color



its a great ram either way, sheep hunting is exciting

Posted By: WoodsonsFinest

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/21/11 05:49 PM

Thats a damn nice Ram...if I do say so myself. I agree with 349South. What skills are needed shooting price tag animals out of a pen?

Posted By: Txnrog

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/21/11 05:55 PM

Originally Posted By: WoodsonsFinest
Thats a damn nice Ram...if I do say so myself. I agree with 349South. What skills are needed shooting price tag animals out of a pen?


Who said anything about a pure bred mouflon having to come from a pen? There's a pretty strong herd of pure bred mouflon free ranging north of leakey. Like I said before, it's a great trophy. Only point of correction folks made on here earlier is that it's not a mouflon.

Posted By: Hogfather

Re: Record Book Mouflon - Free Range - 12/21/11 07:48 PM

Excellent ram, I would love to take one free range!!!

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