Hunt Report
Texas Exotics Hunting
I recently went exotics hunting in Texas with an incredible hunting lodge that Outdoors International set me up with and I stayed and hunted for two weeks. For most of the hunt I sat in a blind, but on this day, instead of sitting in a hide my guide (Teddy) and I decided to spot and stalk some rams. I was interested in a nice Texas Dall Ram or a Hawaiian Black Ram, and we believed both to be in the vicinity. We stalked around through the bush for about three miles until we realized we were on track with some decent sized rams nearby.
Near a clearing, I got under a bush and had only just sat down and disentangled my toe from out of my hat (long story) and got the gun sort of in position over one raised knee, while Teddy was coming in by the side about 10 yards away from where I was, the rams, without any warning at all, walked right up on us! Teddy froze like a statue, and I froze like a dead thing under a bush; a wonderful Black Hawaiian Ram was staring right at me, and I dared not move even half a milometer! And we stared and stared right at each other, the only movement from me was a heartbeat I was sure that ram could hear! This went on for minutes; Teddy hoped to get near me, as I am a true novice hunter, to guide me through the shot, but he had to stay totally frozen as he’d been spotted also. Eventually, after what seemed an eternity, the rams decided I must be something long dead and no problem at all. They turned and trotted only a couple of steps before my rifle went off and my Ram buckled and started to go down, however for fear that the animal might suffer even a minute I went to place another shot but the other darn rams got in the darn way for what seemed ages! (Teddy later tells me that was less than 10 seconds); I then placed an excellent shot and my ram went straight down, literally biting the dust; dead.
After congratulations of each other, Teddy and I took the Ram back to the lodge, and took these photos. I called my ram Tane (pro. “tarh-nay”). The other lady is Gwen, who runs the ranch with her husband Peter. I will be back to exotic hunt again. I want to hunt Scimitar oryx and aoudad, and Hawaii is on the list as well!
