there's so many of them that the government flies in the area with a helicopter
and mows them down I've got a nine inch hand span it doesn't come close they're an invasive
species they were introduced into Texas in the 1900s
then they got loose in 1950 the problem with the aoudad is it competes same
habitat as they desert bighorn sheep
[spanish]
the federales yeah the federales down there yeah negotiating
just another day in Texas hunting aoudad
I've had a lot of people that have told me that oh you can eat aoudad it's horrible it's tough it's the worst flavor
you'll ever taste on any wild game I want to test it out I'm kind of curious
I brought some backstrap home I don't really want to flavor this up or do
anything too dramatic with it I want to throw a little steak rub on here a
little bit of salt and throw it on the grill so I don't cover up any taste and
I just want to see what aoudad tastes like okay we're gonna let that sit for a
little bit
I'm just getting ready to do some scouting here in a few minutes it's gonna be fun mate
I've known Steve-o for probably six or seven years and at ATA this year
he's like hey brah I got this ranch we can go hunt aoudad on and I was like sweet
okay I'm in he got me in touch with Cuatro who lives down there in West Texas
it's it's it's all about the b but I got some natural camo
it's called brown-skinned mate
before you know it
plane tickets were booked and we were headed to Texas for aoudad
now the cool thing
about this hunt was it's a private ranch it's a cattle ranch and they don't
really allow hunting and they have a ton of aoudad and they want to eradicate
them they're an invasive species they're introduced into Texas in the 1900s as a
zoo animal or captive animal and and they got loose in 1950 somewhere in the
50s and then they started hunting in 1960 so they've been around a long time
they've really spread down into West Texas and farther western New Mexico to
ultimately the problem with the aoudad or the Barbary sheep is it competes same
habitat as the desert bighorn sheep and a lot of places especially in Texas
they're trying to reintroduce the desert bighorn and these Barbary sheep are in
the same places that they would introduce the desert bighorn it's so
direct competition and so kind of the state as a whole is you can kill as many
aoudad that you want to kill we're gonna do some eradication on some aoudad with bows
well we found some aoudad on the hill here looks like seven of them two or three
decent ones and probably yeah five smaller ones just kinda watching them and seeing what their program is
they're kinda just side hilling moving across the mountain
kinda keeping a 30,000 foot level here just keep watching them for a little bit and we'll try to get closer.
so if we run across from javelina Steve-o was like brah
go shoot those javelina so he hopped on the camera and I got behind the bow
[grunting noises]
going down right there bro
yep yep he's down
double whamma slammer with Steve-o all the way from Hawaii double javelina
in Texas stalking getting spikes in our feet
trying to stalk with this in my feet
ow look at that
that's why I brought my boots
that's a big one
I've killed three javelina in Arizona one in Mexico and two in Texas first time to
Texas been here about four hours
that's a boar
big teeth we had a fast start today we're looking at aoudad all of a sudden some
javelina cross the road and if you know me or if you hunt with me you know I'm a
sucker for javelina and Steve-o was gracious gracious enough to let me shoot
so guess whose turn it is now all the man behind the camera
gave him the old slippa-roosky shot the first one with a Nightfall two and a half inch cut and
just dropped him huge hole in him second one ran around double lunged him
done just like that pretty cool now down here in the southern portion of Texas
the limits two and it's open year-round so I've been to Texas for a total of
about six hours today and limited out for the year on javelina doesn't get any
better than that younger boars not really worn down too
much see there how their their molars aren't really ground down they're pretty
sharp let's keep going they adventure begins let's keep going and let's go hunt some aoudad
[laughs]
little lamb just shook off
ouch
yeah it's like kiava in Hawaii
well we were moving down this road
and I saw a body I was like doh aoduad
we glassed this hill and there's like 40, 50 of them
mostly lambs and ewes
but they're jumping and running around on those rocks
and you can hear em just doing there thing up there
it's pretty cool to watch
so that's our mama and baby epicenter
of population around here so we'll just keep looking
and hunt em tomorrow and the next day
and see what we can find for big rams and anything that gets in front of us
we're not we don't discriminate we're equal
opportunity bow hunters
this isn't gonna take very long I got this pretty hot I think it said that's
at 350 so we're gonna do a few minutes on the one side a few minutes on the
other side so it's just pink in the middle this way we like it on wild game
one thing you don't want to do is overcook wild game
well we're just covering country and glassing and found some aoudad up on this yeah
actually right up I'm that peak behind us right in there
in the shade so we're just gonna kind of keep track of them and watch them for a
bit here and see what they do and plan a stalk
well two groups spotted now this group up
here is lambs and ewes a couple rams in there and they're moving hard it's about
9:30 10 o'clock and they're just head and round in the shade side of the hill
watch em a little bit see where they settle and then we're going for it
alright let's gear up huh
good luck guys
Cuatro's gonna watch from down here keep an eye on this other group
this is our first stalk on aoudads so Steve-o gets first shot I got my bow with me
you never know what's gonna happen some
what you hear is true about em
they're super keen or super wary they're always looking around always watching
and it's a waiting game I mean if you catch them in the cliffs or some steep
stuff where you can use the terrain to get close to them I mean that's that's
your best bet
the only place you're gonna find some
shade is where the yucca tree is look how small it is I have to make myself
look skinny
the wind is good too
all right it's not too soft pretty hard right there let it set for a second take a look
it's a coarser fiber meat oh yeah look
at that they like cooked up really light color
down the hatch
it's soft but it is chewy I can see why guys say aw it's so tough it's kinda tough
good flavor it's not gamey just slightly chewy
this down here is a little more rare
yeah that's good just gotta keep it rare I would say it's probably on the bottom
of the list for big-game animals that I've had
so we made our first stalk I'm
filming Steve-o and the wind is just ripping it's ridiculous it's probably 40
mile an hour wind but we knew it was good we could get close cover wind and I
don't know what happened but it was kind of a blown stalk they saw us the rams ran
around the cliffs and Steve-o had already committed he was down over the
edge and at this point I was like okay blown stalk I'm gonna run and loop
around and try to cut him off it's kind of now or never you have a few seconds
so I run around got lucky they came by me I shoot my first aoudad so pretty
cool unfortunately it was off-camera
it's a young ram can only get bigger from here I guess but it was a tough hunt
these things are really smart so I'll take him for sure
get him off this cliff day one aoudad down
we're struggling we spook the first couple herds and then they're off the
property this place is only 9,000 acres we don't have access to the surrounding
branches super handy to have onXhunt in a situation like that whether it's
public or in our case completely private super handy so we didn't get in trouble
found some aoudad this morning caught a glimpse of them up on this same
hill up where is it right there
saw a few just right up on the edge of
that hill where they were the first day so they finally moved back in there for
you know four days later after we spooked them so we're gonna have a play
today which is good so we're just gonna kind of watch them and see where they go
and see if we can just keep a beat on them and maybe let him settle in for the
morning and lay down and then we'll go make a stalk nice to have at least a 15
mile an hour wind cause that slope has lots of loose rock and it's pretty noisy so
a lot of factors involved
the backside is like a sheer face too they're on the back so getting up there near the
sky line we're gonna I need some of that wind luckily it's today it's changing it came
out of the south/southwest the other day was going this way and the wind was
wrapping around right off that top so I think we have a better chance today
it came down to the end of the hunt I said Steve-o I really want you to get an aoudad
we only have a couple days left let's bust out the rifle and it's kind of
against both of our religions Steve-o's hardcore bow hunter I'm a hardcore bow
bow hunter but he was like all right for some footage we'll get some kills with
the 6-5 Creedmoor
I see at least 20 yeah
they're on the road
well we're hiking up here when we look down below
then there's friggin aoudad coming up below us now they're running
we're sitting on this bluff and these aoudad come to us from the back door and
they they weren't even the aoudad that we were stalking in the first place
they might go around that peak and stay in the other side in the shade
yeah no kidding that'd be our luck
we can just wait em out though
I was like Steve-o we're in a golden spot dude let's just
sit here and these suckers are gonna come up to us
if China invaded us I'd want Steve-o in my platoon because the guy can
work a rifle
yeah whenever you are got em
I'm reading two thirty
reload you hit him hard
there you go you hit him he's down
did this first one finally go down
this one yeah he fell down I don't see him
you can tell that a guy knows a rifle when before the recoil and
the sound of the shot echoing is over before that's over he's sending another one
in the chamber awesome job buddy
the wind is kind of
strong right there so I just added just just a hair pass his spine and down
right there that's close it's like 220 right there
yeah this Savage is
accurate so you put it right there it's going there
yeah that's a good one
I got a 9 inch hand span it doesn't even come close
hardcore bow guys but we're on this place to do some eradication so Steve-o
behind the trigger pretty good ambush spot up there made a
couple good shots couldn't have really played out any better so
no they actually worked
their way toward us from about a mile away so you it's just about
being patient it took us forever by the time we they came to us we were pretty
much well done roasted yeah I just got browner Dan got redder yeah exactly
gonna make the rancher happy and we had a lot of fun doing it so you just can't plan this
stuff out can you no you know we're not sitting
behind a feeder you know we're not sitting about water hole we are hiking
our butts off in almost 100 degree weather yeah takes some effort but okay we're
gonna cut some meat off these stinky old buggers and pack them down to the truck
and go find some more or take the rest of the day off maybe who knows
let's jump in the swimming pool oh that's what we need to do
we're going swimming we're going swimming
what am I thinking
we put our work in for the day I'm done let's go jump in the pool
and chill I miss the ocean we're far from the ocean I miss the ocean this is
as good as we're gonna get for our ocean in the middle of Texas yeah yeah beyond
the grid baby appreciate it Steve-o Aloha gang
here you go, oh, shoot that was over the hat Steve-o
dude we're gonna be rich look what I found that just looks like a
basic rock that looks like a turd brah I found diamonds we're gonna be rich
geode action that's cool
Wow we'll be rich