Some pics from the last barbary sheep outing.  They're not native to the area (natural range is north africa), and I honestly don't know much about hunting them, but I'm willing to learn.  A friend and member here shot one earlier in the year and it piqued my interest.  Gotta give a shout out to him as I've never done a hunt like this and he provided a lot of good info and great glass on loan.

A bit of info on them from wiki...

The Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) is a species of caprid (goat-antelope) native to rocky mountains in North Africa. Six subspecies have been described. Although it is rare in its native North Africa, it has been introduced to North America, southern Europe, and elsewhere. It is also known as aoudad, waddan, arui, and arruis.  Barbary sheep have been introduced to southeastern Spain, the southwestern United States (Chinati Mountains on La Escalera Ranch, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Palo Duro Canyon, the Trans-Pecos, and other parts of Texas, New Mexico, and California), Niihau Island (Hawaii), Mexico, and some parts of Africa.

Who doesn't want to shoot a critter with "ammo" in its scientific name.

What we were looking for... (only pic not mine...)



Arrived on the mountain in the afternoon the first day.  Set up camp, did a short map recon, and headed out to find a spot to start glassing and see what we could find.  Hunting buddy in the pic.




Second spotting location of the weekend.  Saw this guy with the naked eye and watched him make short work of the mountain side in about 20 minutes.  Probably over 300 inches with nice whale tails curling out back.  Was making a hell of a racket walking though dead pines and scrub brush.  Shitty Iphone through the binos pic.





Spotted this mullie shortly after...smallish rack but was interesting to watch him mosey around and forage for something to eat...



In about 40 mins we had two sheep spotted down the draw on the other side of the canyon, just left of the bluff in the center of the picture. Lased them at 1420 yds...too far of a shot on a critter.  One big ram and another smaller sheep.  Tried moving closer.









About half way down the hill...lost the sheep.  One went left, the other right.  The vegetation was a lot taller than it looked from nearly a mile away, and they're like ghosts...



The bigger ram went right along the shelf half way up the cliff.  Wasn't going to have a shot there as it would likely proven impossible to safely recover the animal, and the vegetation got tall and thick a couple hundred meters to the right as you follow it along.  Could have easily bedded down in there and never be seen for the rest of the day.



Glassed for about 30 mins trying to relocate them and decided to move out onto the bluff.  Sheep were right down there when we first spotted them...





The .338LM taking a nap and giving my back a rest





My fat ass lost nearly 10lbs in 5 days.



View from the bottom.  The crest of the hill is where we were glassing from.  Was a miserable hike back out with a 20lbs rifle and 30 more lbs of pack.



Long walk back up...



Day three...glassing some more... Rode out a ridge on the quads as far as we could and walked in the rest of the way...







Beautiful but rugged country...



Storms rolling in...



Got back to camp and dinner cooked just in time to hide in the truck.  Camp was relatively exposed and on a ridge.  This is a screen shot from a video I took by hitting record on the phone and placing it on the dash.  Ended up wearing half of my mountain house meal when we had a strike within 100m of camp.  Blue glow and it sounded like a bomb went off.



No pics of the final three sheep we found on the last day.  Spotted at about a mile and a half away on the side of a cliff (just below where we first glassed from the day we arrived).  Found them about two hours before sunset and hauled ass to get to a position to shoot.  Parked the quads and dropped 1600' in elevation.  Dropped the packs in a draw and moved over the spur to where we could see the overhang they bedded down under.  Couldn't see them and they didn't move before it got dark.  Hiked back out and made a plan for the next day.  On the last morning we headed back down early but they had moved before we were in position.  Like I said...they're like ghosts.  Will get back to the mountains in a few weeks on my own as my buddy broke his leg last week.  Gonna have to be extra careful...almost put my hand on top of a mojave rattler climbing out of a canyon on the second day.  Hope y'all enjoy the pics.

Awesome pictures man!!  Looks like a great time.

Thanks for posting, great read & pictures!  I've been bitten by the Barbary bug, what an amazing animal to hunt, been chasing them in Sout West TX & NM.

Cool report. Thanks.

I'm trying to get out to west Texas for an Aoudad hunt this coming year.

No luck this weekend. Lots of this...  Still better than a day at work.

Had a shot and missed this past week. Got on 6 rams at 528yds. Discovered after I got home I grabbed 250's instead of 300's. Hit about a foot low. Until next time.

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5 sheep are visible in this picture and actually one small mule deer on the left as well.
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NM.

Thanks for sharing, looks like a great time regardless of getting skunked.

Awesome pics!!  Thanks for sharing!

Loaded up 100 rnds with Berger hybrid 300gr Elite Hunters and confirmed data yesterday. This will probably be my last sheep hunt of the year. If I miss this time then I just suck...

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Dialed in at 1k into a 5" group(high hit was using straight Ballistic AE dope prior to velocity correction). I fine tuned the dope in ballistic AE based on inputs from actual 500 and 1000yd elevation adjustments.

So to follow up...this was my last weekend available to go hunting before my tag expired. With the help of an experienced hunter and friend we were able to find a group, come up with a plan, and get into a shooting location this morning. Made the shot about an hour after sunrise and a miserable hike ensued to recover the animal. Hard earned and many thanks to a few folks who helped me make this happen this year. Took this ewe from 371 yds with a 300gr .338 Berger Elite Hunter. Through and through breaking the shoulder and taking the lungs with it. Ran all of 10 yds before she collapsed. Not a trophy, nor impressively long shot but it means a lot more as this is the first "real" hunting I've ever done (deer drives on the farm back east growing up). It's some terribly rough terrain and the shot was taken from a very uncomfortable position at about a 30 - 40* angle. Was a very rewarding day!

Pics aren't working well right now. I'll post more from photobhcket once I upload them tomorrow.

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Well done!  It's not the size of the headgear that determines if the animal is a trophy.  I'd consider your sheep to be a real trophy!

Thanks!  Some details...

My buddy (a member here) who is excellent at glassing came along on my last attempt before my tag expires at the end of May.  Next weekend is my sons birthday party so this was my last chance.  I haven't updated this thread on every trip out, but I missed a sheep back in January from 528 yds and thought THAT would be my last chance.  I was wrong, luckily.  We found sheep Friday night from the bottom a long way off.  Watched them until dusk and formulated a game plan.  Moved to the top, set up a quick camp, and racked out early.  Stepped off early on Saturday morning to move to a location to glass from above where we thought they would be.



Sheep spotted thanks to my buddy and his excellent glassing (I fall somewhere between Helen Keller and Ray Charles...)



First spotted near the draw in the left third of the picture...first large shelf down near the three large boulders...



Shot from here.  Slant range of 371 yds and at about a 35* downward angle.  I love the Sig Kilo 2000 (probably the only Sig product I'll ever love).  I started with the .338 Lapua TRG and I finished with it.  Never again after this last hunt.  I have a Tikka T3x I'm eyeing up in .300WM.  Half the weight will be welcomed next time...



Sheep down.  Hit a little high and behind the left shoulder and blew right through the right shoulder.  Bullet was a 300gr Berger Elite Hunter.  Entirely overkill for this application but put this ewe down lickety split.



Ate some Mountain House breakfast and then headed out to start the recovery. After one hell of a hike down a very steep drainage we managed to make it to the shelf the sheep expired on.  The delta in elevation was about 500 feet in that 371 yards.  It was a miserable hike to the sheep, and even a worse one back up.  Ate lunch where we dropped the rifle and emptied the packs and then began our 5+ mile hike back to the truck.  Well worth it...even for a smallish ewe.  This was over a half dozen 2-4 day weekend hunting trips in the making.







Looking from the kill site up the draw we came down (and back up)...



Downhill from the kill site.  There's some serious elevation change going on here...



I'm sore...still tired...and probably still dehydrated, but the cape and head are in the freezer for the taxidermist this week, and I spend this evening processing the meat.  Going to use the one good shoulder and two rumps as roasts.  The back straps are super tender and delicious.  The rest of the scrap will be used at a jerky attempt.

Great job man. That's some hardcore country. Thanks for the excellent report, too.

I've hunted some nasty terrain, but nothing like that. That's some pretty extreme country, looks like a fun challenge. Nice job, glad you were successful.

Thanks!  Went again in April and actually got another sheep within a quarter mile of the first. Shot was 510 yds on that one. Taxidermist was on point too...


Second sheep:


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When I think sheep I think once in a lifetime hunt, that's how it is up here. Sounds like it may be different down there?

I've had the privilege of going on a desert bighorn sheep hunt with my uncle who had the tag, it was a good time and something I may never get to experience again.

Not "once in a lifetime" but not easy. The BBY-300 tag only has a 32% success rate (last year at least).

Awesome post! Thanks for sharing and congrats!

Here's the first ewe...

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I guided this one.
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That's a big old ram!  Animals are limited where I was hunting these. Not many big rams out there anymore. Outside of that game unit we've found some big ones.

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