Texas Hunt For Barbary Sheep

I have been hunting whitetail deer in Texas for almost 50 years. I had very little luck bagging a trophy buck until recently. I now have five trophy deer that would make any hunter proud.

I started a bucket list at age 60, purchased a Hill Country Custom Long Range Hunter in 6.5 Creedmoor and began calling guides to book an Aoudad sheep hunt. I vetted guides from all over Texas and New Mexico for free-range and fair chase hunts with good sheep populations. After numerous calls, I chose Bubba Glosson, owner of Southwest Trophy Hunts. Bubba’s attitude over several phone conversations is what sold me, along with his 35-year successful track record.

I met Bubba in Alpine, Texas on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020 and we made our way to Mitre Peak. The camp was great, food fit for a king and spectacular views made for an awesome first evening. I got to bed fairly early and had visions of trophy sheep throughout the night.

We got up early the next morning, had a cup of coffee, packed lunches and went out to a clear morning with a crisp 40-degree temperature. We hiked our way to some higher elevations and glassed several canyons with no sheep in sight. The next stop along the rim rock gave us a great view of three mature rams. I asked Bubba how big they were, and he replied they were 30-32 inches, nice sheep, but we would pass as they closed within 200-yards.

We eased off and went to the next rim rock to glass. Bubba waved me over to join him to see a herd of approximately 40 sheep. There were a couple of rams that dwarfed the rest. Bubba crawled 40 yards to get a better vantage point and motioned for me to join him. He had a rifle rest ready.

Two monster rams were in the center of the herd, pushing each other. Bubba said he needed one more view to confirm their size. A few seconds later the bigger of the two turned towards us and Bubba instructed me to chamber a round.

The ram was at 308 yards and angling away. Over the next several minutes, Bubba gave yardage markers, while making sure I was on the right sheep. The next sentence from Bubba was, “He is at 338 yards looking at one o’clock, hold the crosshairs on top of his shoulder and squeeze.” I fired and the sheep herd scattered and disappeared except for the one I shot. Bubba said to fire again and the vapor trail followed to a thud and the big sheep was down. We sat motionless for several minutes and Bubba told me, “You have no idea what you have just done.”

My shot was the equivalent of a 190-yard low fence whitetail. We made our way to the sheep and the closer we got the bigger he became. Bubba said it was probably in the top six in the world – SCI low fence free-range! The ram officially scored 164 6/8” by SCI and ranks number four in the world.

This is the largest ram harvested in West Texas and Bubba’s 335th ram for which he has guided the hunt. My five-day reserved hunt was over in just under two hours and gave me the most memorable hunt of my life!–Charles E. Nagel