Helicopter Aoudad hunting in Tx

[375Fox]

In some cases but for the most part this relates to the far west Texas ranches. These are big unfenced properties for the most part. The aoudad have taken over prime big horn habitat and the state is trying to build the sheep herd out there. Most sheep and goats carry upper respiratory viruses that big horn die from. This is the dilemma. Helicopter gunning has been going in for some time hence my curiosity as to why a new law is needed. And of course I have a solution! Privatize the big horn and there will be 10,000 of them in Texas in no time. The landowners will kill the aoudad in favor of the more lucrative sheep.

That would be really interesting to see the results if they were to be privatized. It’s crazy to think desert sheep in Mexico may become the least expensive north American sheep to hunt and in some cases now are. I’d just hope there are some additional regulations over other exotics to keep the genetics pure if they ever were to be privatized. Some exotic practices in Texas really bother me like crossing scimitar and gemsbok or elk and red stag whether intentional or not. I’d hate to see something similar with a species like desert bighorns. They lose their conservation value at that point.

 

[Flbt]

I get that but you also at some point have to make it worthwhile.

If you want to charge $1,000 - $1,500 a weekend with lodging in a nice lodge, cooked meals by a chef, transpo, access, and shooting a couple or as many hogs, that makes some sense.

Charging that same price to just sit in a blind with no accommodations, no thanks.

It is a matter of personal optics I suppose.

Thats the thing I don’t know where the really high $ hog hunting is at.
Around me the highest cost just hog hunt are the night hunting guys.
And they supply all equipment in there price.
Any thing over that at least where I know is loge type hunting not just the stand.
If he still in business there a guy that offers meat hog hunting as low as 50$
Since everything has gone up in the last few years I don’t know now. The only reason I knew about it he had a add in every hog hunter magazine.

Me and the people side of me want them gone.
I let them every one I trusted to come in and hunt them trap them. Just to get them out of my hay.
I think the places side of me and I got a little over 500 of them in a year and 1/2. Well the rest went some where else . One might come through time to time. But you don’t see 50 in a field at one time any more.

But who knows how long it will be until they over populat then move back

I get that but you also at some point have to make it worthwhile.

If you want to charge $1,000 - $1,500 a weekend with lodging in a nice lodge, cooked meals by a chef, transpo, access, and shooting a couple or as many hogs, that makes some sense.

Charging that same price to just sit in a blind with no accommodations, no thanks.

It is a matter of personal optics I suppose.

Oh one other thing.
I have seen hog hunting offed as a corporate retreat.
And I think the people paying big money to hunt. Might not really be hunters there just trying it.
Giving the hunt as a gift or prize.
And never have hunted a hog before
Tv and magazine to some extent seem to play up the dangers of hog hunting.
Now by no means am I saying it’s not some what dangerous. But there a big difference in dog/knife hunting and sitting in a blind.

And I am not judge any one because there pest. But some shoots look more like blooding than anything close to a hunt. And some will pay for that.

But being a fl native family for generations I dont understand the big price of a gator hunt.
Or the big draw to it. But a lot of people do.

 

[Flbt]

That would be really interesting to see the results if they were to be privatized. It’s crazy to think desert sheep in Mexico may become the least expensive north American sheep to hunt and in some cases now are. I’d just hope there are some additional regulations over other exotics to keep the genetics pure if they ever were to be privatized. Some exotic practices in Texas really bother me like crossing scimitar and gemsbok or elk and red stag whether intentional or not. I’d hate to see something similar with a species like desert bighorns. They lose their conservation value at that point.

The crossing I think is becoming a management tool. And possibly just natural
I have heard of mule/whitetail crosses where they over lap.
Then the grizzly/ poller that was in the news.

Then at least with fl. We have brought in mountain lion’s to breed with the panthers.
I think once you breed the original to the subspecies that you lose the subspecies.
But Fwc doing it on purpose.
I have heard there a complete different cat in action than either one of the parents.
Idk

 

[375Fox]

The crossing I think is becoming a management tool. And possibly just natural
I have heard of mule/whitetail crosses where they over lap.
Then the grizzly/ poller that was in the news.

Then at least with fl. We have brought in mountain lion’s to breed with the panthers.
I think once you breed the original to the subspecies that you lose the subspecies.
But Fwc doing it on purpose.
I have heard there a complete different cat in action than either one of the parents.
Idk

Florida panthers never would have been geographically isolated from other mountain lions until 200 years ago. I don’t see any issue bringing in mountain lions from the west to improve genetic diversity in that case. The population unfortunately got too small. Whitetail/Mule deer hybrids would be a natural occurrence. However some of the exotics in Texas are crossbred for economic reasons. Cheaper to buy a male of one and females of other and sell them closer to the price of the more expensive species. Species that would never have overlapping ranges in the wild. There was a case shown here where someone smuggled Argali genetics from Central Asia to breed with sheep on a ranch. That’s the type situation with private ownership of desert sheep that would concern me.

 

[Flbt]

Florida panthers never would have been geographically isolated from other mountain lions until 200 years ago. I don’t see any issue bringing in mountain lions from the west to improve genetic diversity in that case. The population unfortunately got too small. Whitetail/Mule deer hybrids would be a natural occurrence. However some of the exotics in Texas are crossbred for economic reasons. Cheaper to buy a male of one and females of other and sell them closer to the price of the more expensive species. Species that would never have overlapping ranges in the wild. There was a case shown here where someone smuggled Argali genetics from Central Asia to breed with sheep on a ranch. That’s the type situation with private ownership of desert sheep that would concern me.

I understand crossing just for money could be a problem.

With our cats they calmed it’s a different animal
Like they have done with fox squirrel
And bear

Supposedly there are more differences in the cats.
But the squirrel and bear have to have a blood test to tell them apart.

I look at it like cows if I have brangus cows and cross them with a pure angus bull
The calf’s are no longer brangus.

 

[Muskox]

It is not a true mountain hunt. It can be. If you have a place where you can backpack in.

I have been driven with a side by side to the top of 97% of the shooting locations we found Aoudad near Marfa.

Stayed in a ranch house, had electricity. Nothing like a mountain hunt.

 

[Flbt]

It is not a true mountain hunt. It can be. If you have a place where you can backpack in.

I have been driven with a side by side to the top of 97% of the shooting locations we found Aoudad near Marfa.

Stayed in a ranch house, had electricity. Nothing like a mountain hunt.

Well would the outfit have let you stay in a tent and do the hunt on foot?

 

[375Fox]

It is not a true mountain hunt. It can be. If you have a place where you can backpack in.

I have been driven with a side by side to the top of 97% of the shooting locations we found Aoudad near Marfa.

Stayed in a ranch house, had electricity. Nothing like a mountain hunt.

If staying at a ranch house and having electricity cancels out a hunt as a mountain hunt then there are a long list of hunts that are not mountain hunts. All Spanish ibex, all chamois in Europe, desert sheep in Mexico, many New Zealand tahr and chamois hunts getting dropped off with helicopter. It’s not a wilderness backpack hunt but it is a mountain hunt.

 

[pilar]

Yes but the problem is the state controls the big horn tags. If you can shoot a hundred trophy aoudad annually are you going to get rid of them hoping in 10 years maybe the state will reward you for your efforts in protecting and growing big horn? No. I detest aoudad but the state leaves most ranchers no choice.

Back when I was younger and living part time in fort Davis & north of van horn
I would see bighorn up in the Delaware mountains, that whole place we shot every aoudad we saw, rams , ewes, lambs, and then everyone saw the money they could make off aoudad , now no more BHS and the muledeer numbers are going down
Don’t see as many pronghorn everywhere.
Kirt & skip can pocket some decent money on aoudad hunts, the state had never issued them a single permit ever in the past

Like goat , the young ewes and kids are good cooked Mexico style on a buried spit
( but who has one of those in a back yard)

 

[dchum]

Yes but the problem is the state controls the big horn tags. If you can shoot a hundred trophy aoudad annually are you going to get rid of them hoping in 10 years maybe the state will reward you for your efforts in protecting and growing big horn? No. I detest aoudad but the state leaves most ranchers no choice.

This is it right here.

That explains it.