Based on this thread, I'll fill in the details:
http://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2648818
I started applying for the "Exotic" category back in the mid- to late-90's. After I got a few PP's under my belt, I started applying only at Caprock Canyons, since I wanted an aoudad, figuring I would have increased odds due to my PP's. Several years ago, they opened up Palo Duro as well. And then they recently changed things around so that you could apply at multiple locations within the same category (Antlerless, Exotic, etc.), so I started applying at both locations.
Well, it's no secret that the TPWD god's had it in for me, since it took me 17 years to draw a buck hunt on Matador in 2012. So this year, I finally got drawn on the 2nd draw (a new thing they started doing the last couple of years) for the aoudad hunt, with somewhere between 18-20 PP's.
Poor man's bighorn for sure. People draw Rocky Mountain bighorn with fewer PP's out west every year. :/
Anyway, I was just pumped to be able to hunt a bonafide area of the Comancheria (I recommend reading "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne). They ranged all over, but the Palo Duro was their citadel. I've done a ton of searching trying to find the exact location of the Battle of Palo Duro, but nothing I can find in the public domain will pinpoint it. I even asked the State Park employees upon check-in, and they refused to disclose the location, even though it is apparently under state control now, rather than private land. I'd love to just walk though it, feel the ghosts, and to be in an area that is full of history and marked a major turning point, if not a little known chapter (outside of TX), of U.S. history. I want to see it out of sheer respect, so I understand why they keep it a secret. Still, I'd like to visit it at some point, along with the horse kill site in Tule Canyon.
Hunt started Wednesday morning and they turned us loose around 11 a.m. after orientation. I did my research, downloaded topos, and expected it to be a bit worse that Lake Meredith. Little did I know. A tumble down Meredith will at minimum hurt, maybe break a bone, on a bad day put you in a coma, or if you are exceptionally fragile, kill you. A minor tumble down certain areas of parts of Palo Duro has the potential straight up kill you. It's some of the most insane terrain I've ever hunted (and I ended up feeling it). Make's me understand why the Comanches gave a big FU to the .gov until the Tonkawa scouts showed them the way down to the bottom.
Weather was perfect. Sunny, no wind, and about 60 F. Got out and started glassing. The unit I was in overlooked a major, steep, and nasty canyon. The unit above me was a bunch of minor canyons that stepped down from the rim before dropping down into the major canyon which I was overlooking. The other side was open territory for us, but it was next to impossible to get there, much less hunt it. Spot sheep there? Good for you, since there was probably a.) no way for you to get the canyon bottom to cross over to the other side, or b.) if a.) happens, any way to get up to them once you get to the opposite side.
There were several ridges in the top unit that stayed elevated compared to the rest of the terrain while still dropping down toward the bottom. I went out to the point of one of these so I could see plenty of terrain and glassed for a couple of hours with no luck. Finally, I happened to glance down the canyon (east) and saw movement in the very bottom. Sheep! They were in my unit, but about 0.5-0.75 miles away, about 500' lower, and several slot canyons away. Lets do this. I shed some layers, looked at my topo map & GPS, and took off, trying to retain as much elevation as I originally had. Even so, what looks flat on a topo is anything but. Between elevation lines, it is rising and falling, and you are zig-zagging and backtracking, depending on how thick or thorny the brush is. Needless to say, I was sucking wind by the time I go to where I wanted to be. And even then I had misjudged my position and still had another 0.25 mile to go.
(I'm going to preface this by saying that TPWD staff told us that if we saw aoudad and we weren't being picky, to put a bullet in sheep. They didn't care how big they were or if we recovered them or not. They view them as feral hogs, since they compete 1:1 with mule deer, and the more of them that are dead, the better muleys do.)
Finally made it to where I needed to be and no sheep. Okay, maybe they are further down. Shift. No sheep. Shift. SHEEP! Big one directly below me. Went prone, lased him for distance, lined it up, and BOOM. He was a good 500' straight below me. At the shot he bucked and ran back toward the cliff, where I lost sight of him. At this point, sheep were running everywhere. I didn't know if the one I shot at was down or not, so I picked out a second target (ram) and shot twice on the run. Thought I got a hit but couldn't tell. Lost them behind some rocks, so I had to pick up and shift forward and to my right. Found them again at about 350m, and he looked to be limping, so I hit him again, at which point he disappeared into juniper brush. Mag was empty by this point, so I scrambled back to my backpack, pulled out my extra cartridges and reloaded. A minute or so later, another group of 4 busted out directly below me. Biggest one was in the lead and looked to be a good ram. I got on it, and they stopped at about 300m. I pulled the trigger, and it bucked, obviously hit, but I again lost it in the junipers. This time, I had a decent terrain marker on it, and the three that were following it were the only ones that exited, so I was sure it was down.
So now the frustration began. I had 3 possible hits, and I was 500' above them and still had to find a way down while still maintaining my landmarks. It took me a good half hour, but I finally found one slot that was only a 5' drop from the caprock, rather than the typical 10-20'. Made it down the bottom and after a few minutes of searching, finally found the one that I was certain was down for good. Turned out to be a very large ewe, and she measured 21-22", which is apparently insane for a ewe (supposedly 18" is considered big; I thought she was a ram), and was 10-12 years old.
I caped her out and spent another hour looking around for the other two, with no luck. I was bummed, but at least happy that I put one on the ground. They are apparently tough animals. :/
So now was the pack out. Since I was in the canyon bottom, I decided to hike west up the road to the base of the canyon below the point where I started. Hiked up to there where it crossed the river, then took the river bed up 100 yards or so until I hit I stream bed from the canyon that I would follow up to my truck. Followed that bed up a couple hundred yards until I encountered this interesting rock feature and decided to take break and take some pics. Notice the red arrow and remember it.
Sat down for a breather, took the pic, then noticed this, just under the arrow in the above pic:
Ok. He looks far away. Lets see if my 1000 meter laser range finder is up to the job. Wow, he's popping up at 535 meters, after about 5 laser shots to get a representative sample. I can make this. .308, 168 gr. TTSX, -4.2 mils at 525. 42 clicks up, prone, judge wind, breath, squeeze, bang, flop.
So now I have my work cut out for me. I'm still in the process of climbing out with the ewe, and he was a good mile in, and midway in elevation between the bottom and the top where my truck was. It was going to get pretty chilly that night, so I figured I could get to him the next morning and he'd be okay.
The climb out was a cast iron beetch. Where Lake Meredith is a mad girlfriend, Palo Duro is the jilted lover that vowed to make your life hell until you die. I wish I took pics of the drainage I climbed out in, but I literally feared for my life at several points. Hanging boulders, vertical cliffs of sand and gypsum, rotten rock, most of it at a 60-70 degree angle heading up. Times where I thought if I stepped on a rock wrong, a 30 ton boulder would come crashing down on me. I was literally asking myself what he eff I had got myself into at several points, something that I have never done before.
I was almost to the top and pretty much gassed when I kept hearing some chirping above me. Turned around and saw this:
I was breathing so hard and beat at this point, I just let her go. Figured we weren't going to eradicate them anyway, so the youngster at least gets a chance to live some.
Next morning, I figured out the best/easiest way to hike back in to the ram I shot. Refer to the arrow/scope pic above to see the vertical drop. Found him like this; 2' from the 75-100' drop to the bottom:
Needless to say, I was super happy. I wasn't sure how big he would turn out to be, but he measured ~26" on both horns.
There were two other 26" rams and a really nasty 28" taken this week, along with one other ewe. Several pigs were shot, and one guy was certain he saw a cougar. He'd had run-ins with cougars in NM & CO before, so he was pretty certain of what he saw. Plus that area isn't know for it's yellow labs, and he was glassing it before he ID'd it.
To finish up, here are some more random scenery pics I took while there for your enjoyment. Beautiful country, and I just wish I was closer to it.
I really want to do this hunt again. Just hope it doesn't take me another 20 years to get drawn.
http://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2648818
I started applying for the "Exotic" category back in the mid- to late-90's. After I got a few PP's under my belt, I started applying only at Caprock Canyons, since I wanted an aoudad, figuring I would have increased odds due to my PP's. Several years ago, they opened up Palo Duro as well. And then they recently changed things around so that you could apply at multiple locations within the same category (Antlerless, Exotic, etc.), so I started applying at both locations.
Well, it's no secret that the TPWD god's had it in for me, since it took me 17 years to draw a buck hunt on Matador in 2012. So this year, I finally got drawn on the 2nd draw (a new thing they started doing the last couple of years) for the aoudad hunt, with somewhere between 18-20 PP's.
Poor man's bighorn for sure. People draw Rocky Mountain bighorn with fewer PP's out west every year. :/
Anyway, I was just pumped to be able to hunt a bonafide area of the Comancheria (I recommend reading "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne). They ranged all over, but the Palo Duro was their citadel. I've done a ton of searching trying to find the exact location of the Battle of Palo Duro, but nothing I can find in the public domain will pinpoint it. I even asked the State Park employees upon check-in, and they refused to disclose the location, even though it is apparently under state control now, rather than private land. I'd love to just walk though it, feel the ghosts, and to be in an area that is full of history and marked a major turning point, if not a little known chapter (outside of TX), of U.S. history. I want to see it out of sheer respect, so I understand why they keep it a secret. Still, I'd like to visit it at some point, along with the horse kill site in Tule Canyon.
Hunt started Wednesday morning and they turned us loose around 11 a.m. after orientation. I did my research, downloaded topos, and expected it to be a bit worse that Lake Meredith. Little did I know. A tumble down Meredith will at minimum hurt, maybe break a bone, on a bad day put you in a coma, or if you are exceptionally fragile, kill you. A minor tumble down certain areas of parts of Palo Duro has the potential straight up kill you. It's some of the most insane terrain I've ever hunted (and I ended up feeling it). Make's me understand why the Comanches gave a big FU to the .gov until the Tonkawa scouts showed them the way down to the bottom.
Weather was perfect. Sunny, no wind, and about 60 F. Got out and started glassing. The unit I was in overlooked a major, steep, and nasty canyon. The unit above me was a bunch of minor canyons that stepped down from the rim before dropping down into the major canyon which I was overlooking. The other side was open territory for us, but it was next to impossible to get there, much less hunt it. Spot sheep there? Good for you, since there was probably a.) no way for you to get the canyon bottom to cross over to the other side, or b.) if a.) happens, any way to get up to them once you get to the opposite side.
There were several ridges in the top unit that stayed elevated compared to the rest of the terrain while still dropping down toward the bottom. I went out to the point of one of these so I could see plenty of terrain and glassed for a couple of hours with no luck. Finally, I happened to glance down the canyon (east) and saw movement in the very bottom. Sheep! They were in my unit, but about 0.5-0.75 miles away, about 500' lower, and several slot canyons away. Lets do this. I shed some layers, looked at my topo map & GPS, and took off, trying to retain as much elevation as I originally had. Even so, what looks flat on a topo is anything but. Between elevation lines, it is rising and falling, and you are zig-zagging and backtracking, depending on how thick or thorny the brush is. Needless to say, I was sucking wind by the time I go to where I wanted to be. And even then I had misjudged my position and still had another 0.25 mile to go.
(I'm going to preface this by saying that TPWD staff told us that if we saw aoudad and we weren't being picky, to put a bullet in sheep. They didn't care how big they were or if we recovered them or not. They view them as feral hogs, since they compete 1:1 with mule deer, and the more of them that are dead, the better muleys do.)
Finally made it to where I needed to be and no sheep. Okay, maybe they are further down. Shift. No sheep. Shift. SHEEP! Big one directly below me. Went prone, lased him for distance, lined it up, and BOOM. He was a good 500' straight below me. At the shot he bucked and ran back toward the cliff, where I lost sight of him. At this point, sheep were running everywhere. I didn't know if the one I shot at was down or not, so I picked out a second target (ram) and shot twice on the run. Thought I got a hit but couldn't tell. Lost them behind some rocks, so I had to pick up and shift forward and to my right. Found them again at about 350m, and he looked to be limping, so I hit him again, at which point he disappeared into juniper brush. Mag was empty by this point, so I scrambled back to my backpack, pulled out my extra cartridges and reloaded. A minute or so later, another group of 4 busted out directly below me. Biggest one was in the lead and looked to be a good ram. I got on it, and they stopped at about 300m. I pulled the trigger, and it bucked, obviously hit, but I again lost it in the junipers. This time, I had a decent terrain marker on it, and the three that were following it were the only ones that exited, so I was sure it was down.
So now the frustration began. I had 3 possible hits, and I was 500' above them and still had to find a way down while still maintaining my landmarks. It took me a good half hour, but I finally found one slot that was only a 5' drop from the caprock, rather than the typical 10-20'. Made it down the bottom and after a few minutes of searching, finally found the one that I was certain was down for good. Turned out to be a very large ewe, and she measured 21-22", which is apparently insane for a ewe (supposedly 18" is considered big; I thought she was a ram), and was 10-12 years old.
I caped her out and spent another hour looking around for the other two, with no luck. I was bummed, but at least happy that I put one on the ground. They are apparently tough animals. :/
So now was the pack out. Since I was in the canyon bottom, I decided to hike west up the road to the base of the canyon below the point where I started. Hiked up to there where it crossed the river, then took the river bed up 100 yards or so until I hit I stream bed from the canyon that I would follow up to my truck. Followed that bed up a couple hundred yards until I encountered this interesting rock feature and decided to take break and take some pics. Notice the red arrow and remember it.
Sat down for a breather, took the pic, then noticed this, just under the arrow in the above pic:
Ok. He looks far away. Lets see if my 1000 meter laser range finder is up to the job. Wow, he's popping up at 535 meters, after about 5 laser shots to get a representative sample. I can make this. .308, 168 gr. TTSX, -4.2 mils at 525. 42 clicks up, prone, judge wind, breath, squeeze, bang, flop.
So now I have my work cut out for me. I'm still in the process of climbing out with the ewe, and he was a good mile in, and midway in elevation between the bottom and the top where my truck was. It was going to get pretty chilly that night, so I figured I could get to him the next morning and he'd be okay.
The climb out was a cast iron beetch. Where Lake Meredith is a mad girlfriend, Palo Duro is the jilted lover that vowed to make your life hell until you die. I wish I took pics of the drainage I climbed out in, but I literally feared for my life at several points. Hanging boulders, vertical cliffs of sand and gypsum, rotten rock, most of it at a 60-70 degree angle heading up. Times where I thought if I stepped on a rock wrong, a 30 ton boulder would come crashing down on me. I was literally asking myself what he eff I had got myself into at several points, something that I have never done before.
I was almost to the top and pretty much gassed when I kept hearing some chirping above me. Turned around and saw this:
I was breathing so hard and beat at this point, I just let her go. Figured we weren't going to eradicate them anyway, so the youngster at least gets a chance to live some.
Next morning, I figured out the best/easiest way to hike back in to the ram I shot. Refer to the arrow/scope pic above to see the vertical drop. Found him like this; 2' from the 75-100' drop to the bottom:
Needless to say, I was super happy. I wasn't sure how big he would turn out to be, but he measured ~26" on both horns.
There were two other 26" rams and a really nasty 28" taken this week, along with one other ewe. Several pigs were shot, and one guy was certain he saw a cougar. He'd had run-ins with cougars in NM & CO before, so he was pretty certain of what he saw. Plus that area isn't know for it's yellow labs, and he was glassing it before he ID'd it.
To finish up, here are some more random scenery pics I took while there for your enjoyment. Beautiful country, and I just wish I was closer to it.
I really want to do this hunt again. Just hope it doesn't take me another 20 years to get drawn.
