USA: Aoudad & Mouflon Hunt At Rockin G Ranch

gizmo

Sponsor
Since 2015
AH ambassador
Reviews
2
Joined
Jun 26, 2014
Messages
7,519
Reaction score
13,186
Location
Texas
Website
www.rockinggranch.com
Deals & offers
97
Media
1,785
Articles
6
Hunting reports
Africa
6
USA/Canada
8
Europe
1
Member of
NRA, DSC, SCI, Exotic Wildlife Association, Texas Taxidermy Association Life Member, National Taxidermy Association, TTHA,DUCKS UNLIMITED
Hunted
Namibia-Khomas Highlands, Romania, South Africa- Kalahari , Eastern Cape, USA, Fished Brazil, Mexico, USA
At the request of @flatwater bill i am posting this for him. He emailed the hunt report to me so I could post it as he was having difficulty getting it to load here on AH

6430559C-3370-4360-BE0E-4CAF29DC2333.jpeg


AOUDAD HUNT WITH GIZMO
I had a good hunt with Gizmo a few months back. I was after aoudad and it went like this:
Jeff and I, with wives in tow, drove two days from Idaho to Turkey, Texas. Turkey, Texas, home to the late country star Bob Wills, inventor of “Country Swing”, and the small town nearest to the current and famous hunter Erik, aka Gizmo and The Rocking G ranch. Turkey is far from Idaho. Far from everything, really. Two all-day grinds in a cramped pickup truck in fact. Jeff, able only to get 7 days off, allowing 2 days driving each way, and three days for hunting made for a tight schedule. The long trip was made pleasant by good company, but Jeff’s taste in music and mine could not be any more different. Don’t like country, never did. We drove forever, and

Page 2
somewhere past the Spice Mines of Kessel, we arrived at The Rockin G Ranch. None too soon. I had heard every song written about good dogs that died and slutty girls that went bad.
We received a gracious and genuine welcome from Erik, and on the eve of our arrival, he treated us to dinner at the historic Turkey Hotel. A real landmark from 1927, with lots of pics of Bob Wills on the walls. As a musician and music lover all my life, I truly enjoyed the atmosphere and the dinner company. I don’t know what I expected of Turkey: banjo music or the Village People, maybe. But we were pleasantly surprised, a nice little town, and we really hit it off well with everyone.
Gizmo has two parts to his ranch; a high fenced area and an open area. Jeff and I hunted aoudad and mouflon respectively on the high fence and pigs on the low fenced open area. I have had a little experience high fence hunting: once a bow hunt in the Limpopo, and once a spear hunt for hogs closer to home. Both were great. But a rifle hunt? We didn’t want it to be too easy; like Harvey Weinstein and a casting couch. It was not.
Erik guided me, Bruce guided Jeff. I killed my aoudad on the last day of the hunt. Lucky really. I’m sure it would have escaped lesser men.
Chaz did the cooking and I was skeptical of a man as a cook. Both Jeff’s wife and mine are excellent cooks, and very discerning. But after a day or so, they were asking Chaz about his recipes and writing them down. That is the true compliment. He is a first rate cook and a nice man as well.
Erik had told me that there were four predators on the high fenced portion. Four that he wanted shot: 3 bobcats and a coyote. Eating the black buck fawns you see. On day two I saw a cat running across a draw, and shot it. It was promptly joined by two more cats, and I managed to bag an additional one. I expected a congratulatory slap on the back. “Thanks for saving my herd, Bill.” Or, “nice shooting”. But no. Instead of congrats, he

Page 3
said, “wow, Bill. Not many guys have the deep pockets to shoot one snow leopard, let alone two!” Damn. A fleeting thought of two $25,000 snow
leopard trophy fees crossed my mind; I felt a great disturbance in The Force....a second mortgage, back to work after retirement, selling my Barry Manilow 8 track collection. He was teasing of course. They were bobcats. A cruel joke after an expert marksman has just saved the black buck herd. Erik was not done with me yet, however.
We returned to the cabin, had a cool one, and Erik took care of the cats. Chaz was in a corner showing the ladies a new cross-stitch, while Jeff and Bruce were telling about their good fortune with the mouflon. Absorbing lead like a nilgai, Jeff managed to finally put one down with his 300 ultra mag. Any story worth telling is worth embellishing I suppose. Afterward, they had killed some heavy-duty hogs on the open area.
On day three, while glassing, the sole coyote appeared and ran up a draw behind us. He stopped a couple of hundred yards up...looking back.....committing suicide out of loneliness I suspect. At the shot, a well concealed aoudad further up the brushy draw stood to look. And so we had located them, when I thought they might escape us on the last day.
After a lengthy and slow stalk, five rams stood up. I made a fair shot on the largest, but decided to give him a couple more as the group wound around the scrub junipers up the draw. After the gun battle Erik asked me, “do you just hate aoudad, or what?” No, I replied, why? “Because you just shot two”, he claimed. “I thought maybe you were going to flatten them all”. After the snow leopard joke, I thought this was in jest. But no again! I had indeed bagged two rams. Recovering quickly, I assured Gizmo that I had a two-fer in mind from the outset. Double mount, diorama said I. May have failed to mention it. No seasoned veteran would accidentally shoot a second ram.
I used an 8X57 Mauser in a JP Sauer bolt rifle. Sellier and Bellot factory 196 grainers. Despite 50 years of experience hand loading, I was unable to improve upon the accuracy or power of these loads. I could have improved upon the bullet a bit though. My large aoudad ram weighed 292 pounds. I

Page 4
also took my 45-70 Ruger single shot. But the howling West Texas wind gave my 405 grain cast loads an impressive wind drift that could have
proved dangerous to bystanders, so it was not used. It would have been fine for a water hole blind, but my hunt was spot and stalk. A large slow bullet gives the wind a lot of sail area to work on, and a lot of time to work on it.
The remainder of the trip was uneventful. Two 700 mile days brought us home. More dogs went bad, and slutty girls died.
Rockin G Ranch is not Africa. Turkey is not Windhoek. Doesn’t claim to be. High fenced hunting is not for everyone. But it is not too easy. Large but lightly hunted open properties can be much easier to hunt. Aoudad here know the game and play it well. And the Rockin G has enough topography and brush to provide good escape cover.
Jeff summarized it best, “I had a blast”.....me too! Maybe you can’t make it to Africa this year, maybe your wallet won’t stand another flight to New Zealand. Or, maybe like me, you are after the elusive snow leopard, and just plain hate aoudad. Either way, you can always hunt Texas.
While there are a lot of Turkeys in Texas....small towns and nearby large ranches that are available for paid hunting, Erik has made the Rockin G into a special place. Give him a call and see what he has to offer.
Flatwater Bill

8BF88596-7134-40E3-8F86-57EDA5546B47.jpeg
ACEBAF9A-7B3D-42DA-B09A-34C29AEE5192.jpeg
18B0708F-3AD9-44B6-8006-E0EEC50723FF.jpeg
6D5133F7-37F5-4C42-AB95-6FBD57F230E0.jpeg
7B75F9A5-ACFD-4DB6-AB89-7E7A83F44F20.jpeg
DE522C36-77C0-4D80-8098-30B662847A33.jpeg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
And thank you Bill. I truly look forward to hunting with y’all again.
 
Thanks, Erik..................................Bill
 
The Village People! LMAO!!! Those are two gorgeous Aoudad. Congrats. Great place that Rockin G!!!
 
Excellent write up Flatwater Bill! Thanks for uploading the report Erik. Any pictures of the “snow leopards”?
Those are some fine looking aoudads! Wish I had a little wall space to put a standing shoulder mount. They look great!
 
Looks like a great time! Erik, I really am going to have to come hunt some of your sheep one of these days.
 
Great report. I keep hearing good things about Eric. Good looking trophies. Good thing it was 2 Auodads and not 2 snow leopards!! Good shooting. Congrats
Bruce
 
I heard about that double. Congrats!

Rocking G Ranch is truly a special place and loads of fun.
 
Congrats FB. This looked like a great hunt. Thinking of booking an Audad hunt for my nephews graduation present.
Gizmo please pm me a pricelist when you have a chance.
 
Great piece of writing!
 
Thanks guys, I LMAO at that story! Lots of places for critters to hide on the ranch, it isn’t a slam dunk on anything there besides the way you are treated while you are there. The Rockin G is truly a great place, just not sure about the owner yet!:sneaky:
 
Nice set of Bookends!
Great tale!
 
Looks like a great time! Erik, I really am going to have to come hunt some of your sheep one of these days.
That would be wonderful

Congrats FB. This looked like a great hunt. Thinking of booking an Audad hunt for my nephews graduation present.
Gizmo please pm me a pricelist when you have a chance.
Sure will and thank you.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
53,616
Messages
1,131,220
Members
92,672
Latest member
LuciaWains
 

 

 

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

Impact shots from the last hunt

Early morning Impala hunt, previous link was wrong video

Headshot on jackal this morning

Mature Eland Bull taken in Tanzania, at 100 yards, with 375 H&H, 300gr, Federal Premium Expanding bullet.

20231012_145809~2.jpg
 
Top