USA: Hunt Report Rockin' G Ranch, Texas, USA, Aoudad, Bison & Pigs Hunt

Welllllll I’ve done pretty dang good on the minimal drinking thing since the 4th of July so we’ll see how long it takes for that to go out the window.
 
Lmao. Getting you two to ruffle some feathers was not very hard lol.

Looking forward to the report. And if it means anything to you guys. This all has got me looking at your site and coming up with ways to justify another hunt this year lol.
 
Annual Rockin-G-Ranch dovefest! Hope a report will be posted!
 
C’mon Chago we’d love to have you down for a hunt! I can promise you a experience you won’t soon forget! Obviously Gizmo and I like to talk trash and hunt hard. And yes Ridgewalker there will be a report......of what can be shared lol. Dovefest is always good for a lot of laughs and stories.
 
Lmao. Getting you two to ruffle some feathers was not very hard lol.

Looking forward to the report. And if it means anything to you guys. This all has got me looking at your site and coming up with ways to justify another hunt this year lol.
We would love the opportunity to have you down!
All of us are always looking for a reason to give each other grief. We’re pretty ruthless with each other.
 
Always fun to hunt Rockin G with Erik
Was that really George Strait?
Check Yes or No
..................FWB
 
Tooooo fuunnyyy! Dove opener at the Rockin-G!
 
Since I'm heading back to Rockin' G at the end of next month, I figured I better finish this thing. Thanks for your patience @gizmo!


DAY 2 - Friday, April 12th, 2019

A sleepless night with a stomach bug wasn’t the way I wanted to start the hunt, so I let the guys know that I needed a few hours to shake this thing. As I dozed off, the guys headed out. Jason hooked up with Bruce in pursuit of a European boar, and Chris left with Erik, Justin and Carrie to have a look at some buffalo. As for me, I tossed and turned until about 10 AM while whatever the heck I caught from my kid the day before worked its way out of my system.

The crew came back around lunchtime. The guys were excited about the terrain on the ranch and the variety of animals Erik had on the property. Although Chris and Erik easily found the buffalo, they were unable to get close enough for a shot. The big buffalo – Geronimo – was on alert. As it turns out, buffalo don't always just stand there and wait to be shot! As for Jason, he saw several animals but didn't get a shot at a good Euro boar.

I declined to eat anything for lunch but was feeling good enough to head out in the afternoon with Carrie and Justin to look for aoudad. It was cool out, and high clouds were streaming in from the west. The temperature was hovering around 50 degrees – about 20 degrees below average for Turkey Texas at this time of year – and plenty of animals were moving. It was perfect hunting weather, and the excitement of getting outside in beautiful country helped me to ignore my gurgling intestines.

For those of you who haven’t been to Rockin’ G, @gizmo’s ranch is set in the Texas Panhandle right at the edge of the Llano Estacado, one of the largest tablelands in North America. Here, the elevation drops sharply from around 3000 feet above sea level to below 2000 feet. Numerous canyons and orange gullies are choked with juniper, cactus and plenty of brush. It’s rugged country, and there ae are lots of places for animals to hide.

I wanted to hunt mostly on foot, so three of us covered about 5 miles as the afternoon progressed finding aoudad, and then having them slip away. We got within striking distance of what I thought were a few shootable animals, but Justin simply shook his head no. There would be better opportunities.

By about 4:30, I had resigned myself to the idea that I wouldn’t be taking an animal today. I was fine with that – the light and easy conversation with Justin and Carrie, the beauty of the land, and the joy in seeing a lot of animals resulted in what I already considered to be massively successful day on the panhandle. Then, as we were working our way along a finger of land, Justin caught some movement coming out of the gullies. As we froze, several good sheep came into view. “That’s the one,” Justin said, “third one in the back.” He quickly set up the sticks as Carrie got the camera ready.

I dropped the crosshairs on his shoulder. It wasn’t a long shot – maybe 120 yards. Should be an easy and fast kill. As the crack of my .300 Win Mag echoed across the terrain, I was shocked to see the aoudad continue his climb out of the canyon. “Did I miss him?” I asked Justin. He confirmed I didn’t and held me back from taking another shot, as he figured we’d let him pull himself out of the ravine to a place would be able to reach him easier.

We moved in closer in case a follow-up shot was needed. As I watched that animal climb up and out of the ravine, I was sure I missed him. There was no way he could have taken 180 grains from a .300 Win Mag and just shrugged it off. Before coming to Rockin’ G, Erik had told me aoudad were tough, but this was ridiculous! Once he was up on the edge of the ravine, Justin told me to put another one in him. That dropped him for good. When we reached him, I could see that he was a beautiful animal. And, he was hit right above the shoulder on that first shot, which confirmed to me that aoudad sheep are that tough! We took some pictures and sent the him back to the ranch for processing.

Feeling elated with the hunt, we went out in search of Chris and Erik to see how the buffalo was coming. We hadn’t heard any other shots, and we reached them with not much daylight left and no buffalo down. Chris was hunting with a .45-70 with open sights, so they needed to get close. But after a full day, the buffalo were having none of it. We learned that every time Chris and Erik got in range of Chris’s lever action, Geronimo would lead the group and they would quickly move off.

Jason had the same luck with European boar. Whereas I saw several within close range but had no intention of hunting one, he and Bruce saw them all from a long distance out when they were his main quarry. Funny how that works!

As the sun set, we all headed back to the ranch for a fantastic dinner. I was still a little under the weather, so I hit the sack early while Jason and Chris went out for some nocturnal feral pigs. Overall, it was a fantastic day.

Stay tuned for Day 3 when the weather moves in …

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Oh yes a fine aoudad indeed!
 
The head on that thing weighed about 1000 pounds. No mere mortal could lift it.
 
Erik has tons of fine animals in his high fenced area, but the low fence has tons of trophy native game too. A wonderful place to spend time!
 
Nice aoudad congrats!
 
DAY 3 – Buffalo

There’s an old saying around the country that if you don’t like the weather, wait a few hours. That may nowhere be truer than the Texas Panhandle. During the days leading up to our time at Rockin’ G, the high temperature hovered in the low 80’s. On the day before we arrived at Erik’s, the mercury in Turkey, Texas topped out at a scorching 93 degrees. It cooled down a bit after our arrival, and by our first day of hunting, the temperature only reached 55 degrees.

After perfect temperatures the previous day, we awoke to heavy rain and temperatures in the 30’s. With sideways rain lashing our window, Erik made the decision to hold back on a morning hunt. As I write this, a look at the historical weather data in Turkey showed that it rained well over an inch that day, although it seemed like much more. The highs barely made it out of the 30’s.

One of the great things about hunting is the comradery built between hunters. It’s been that way since early man was painting hunting stories on the walls of caves, and we weren’t the first or the last to be delayed a bit by weather. While we waited for the storm to pass, we enjoyed a huge breakfast cooked up by Chaz while Justin, Erik and Bruce shared many stories about their respective careers in law enforcement. To all the cops out there – you guys have the patience of JOB!

We were also joined during our hunt by Carrie, who saw more game earlier and faster than nearly anyone, and Melonie, a French photojournalist who was working on a book about hunting from Cameroon to Texas and beyond. All in all, despite the rain we had a great morning with good people.

The downpour had diminished to a drizzle by lunchtime. My friend Chris came specifically to fill his coolers full of buffalo meat, so he and Erik headed out looking to get a clean shot on a cow. Jason and Bruce resumed their search of a European boar, and Carrie, Justin and I decided to take look around and see what kind of animals Erik had running around out there.

Rockin’ G is home to numerous exotics, and we had a great afternoon both driving (and at times, hauling the UTV out of the mud) and trekking around the high fence area. There, we saw spectacular Fallow Deer, Axis Deer, Red Stag, Mouflon and several other species.

I may have been most impressed by Erik’s herd of Scimitar Oryx. A native of Africa, by the 1970’s, about 95% of the world’s population was found in Chad. But as that nation descended into civil war, the oryx were slaughtered by poachers and competing armies. By 1988, the Scimitar Oryx was considered extinct in the wild. But not in Texas. In recent years, populations in the Lonestar State reached 11,000 thanks to hunters. Rockin’ G has been part of that conservation success story, and it was very cool to have had the opportunity see these amazing animals up close.

By mid-afternoon, Justin, Carrie and I caught a glimpse of a very impressive blackbuck. I first saw him about 500 yards off, and in a flash, he was gone. Apparently, this particular blackbuck was especially crafty, and Justin shared with me several stories about how that little antelope had eluded hunter after hunter. “Let’s see if we can find him again,” I told Justin. We searched for that blackbuck for awhile, I didn’t get a look at him again. Maybe tomorrow, I figured.

Not long after the blackbuck gave us the slip, we heard a gunshot. Shortly later, news came across the radio was that Chris had taken his buffalo – the first taken on that property in Texas in perhaps 130 years. Erik understandably was moved. As a conservationist and a student of local history, it was a big deal for him to see this animal harvested on his ranch.

Once the buffalo was down, the guys at Rockin’ G began processing the animal. Temperatures were still in the 30’s, so we had no worries about the meat spoiling as the work of carving up the animal took several hours. Erik did most of the heavy lifting, while we were content to sit back, drink some beer, and feast on the buffalo heart prepared by Chaz.

Dinner and several more drinks followed. And then a few more drinks. The details of the rest of the night (fortunately for all involved) are a bit hazy, but I will share that I had more laughs than I can count and some great conversation. I went to sleep with a huge smile on my face and was looking forward to one more day at Rockin’ G.

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