It started as just another normal Saturday. I decided to look at the weather for the rest of the day with it being almost seventy degrees and little to no wind. After running a few errands for the day I went over to my parents’ house and talked to my little brother about an issue he was having with an ar-10.

The past weekend he had gone out to our ranch to shoot a pig, he said he got there and within an hour a wild boar came up to the feeder. He proceeded to shoot the pig with his ar-10 and missed. I took the gun and went over to the shooting range and found very quickly that the scope wasn’t even on paper. The last time the gun was fired was back this summer. In a few shots I got the scope dialed in perfect, he wasn’t able to go hunt that evening.

I loaded up the gun and went out to the ranch by myself. The weather was absolutely perfect, no wind and just the right temperature.

After getting the gun from the gun case, I started the walk to the deer stand. Climbing in the stand and right away something caught my eye, looking over the east I saw two big Aoudads about seven hundred yards away off the edge of the plateau.

With a few hours of daylight left I kept my eye on those two Aoudads. Getting closer and closer to sunset all of a sudden, I saw one of the Aoudad rams coming down to the feeder slowly watching his movement.

As he approached the feeder, I scanned him in the scope and told myself he’s the one I have been after for years. He had stopped broadside with my heart racing. I told myself to breathe slowly then squeezed the trigger, boom then I saw the ram run off.

I thought I had missed, waiting ten minutes I went down to the feeder looking for a blood trail.

Seeing no blood trail, I looking around and in the distance, I saw horns.

This was it; I went over to the Aoudad carefully making sure he wasn’t injured. The amount of joy knowing I had finally got one was an unreal experience I can’t even explain.

I then began to realize it was just me there and little time before the sun would fade. I rushed to my pickup and drove over to the downed Aoudad knowing he was roughly two fifty plus; it was going to be a challenge for me to load the animal alone. Looking around for anything I could find, I was able to find three ratchet straps in my pickup. Slowly and surely, I worked the ratchet straps one by one and got the front legs and head onto the tailgate.

Using all the strength I had left in me I pulled him into the pickup relieved I got him loaded.

–@806guns

Riton ProStaffer since July 2020