I completed my 4th full summer of being a hunting guide and a camp counselor at a Christian youth hunting summer camp called Christian Outdoor Alliance (
www.mycoa.org). I became friends with one of the camper's family that I guided each summer. Through this friendship, an opportunity became available for me to be able to hog and aoudad hunt his family's 60 acre low fence property near Rock Springs, TX. So during a couple of the off weeks in between the summer camps, I found time to go hunt this awesome small acreage.
The first trip to the property this summer proved to be very successful. One of the COA volunteers was tagging along with me and the plan was for me to shoot a big aoudad if the opportunity presented itself, or for my friend to get a pig. The feeder doesn't go off til 7:30. When we arrived at 6:30, we glassed the valley 410yds from the farthest feeder, and 291yds from the closest feeder. It turned out that their were already 19 aoudad at the feeder 410 yds away, right in front of the deer stand. One of those aoudad rams was a JUMBO, one that I decided I should kill.
It was too risky to stalk to the deer blind to get a closer shot. So we setup on the back deck of an old worn out cabin (used as only a storage shed now) and got prone with my Savage 10/110 FCP HS Precision in .300 Win Mag topped with a Bushnell Elite Tactical Scope. I had this weapon dialed in with Hornady SST 180 gr, and had been practicing with the mil dot adjustment turrets to make the gun dead on at distances in between 100-500yds. However, I was still a little nervous shooting an animal at those distances, especially a big tough aoudad.
I made the decision to let the big aoudad come to the closer feeder only 291yds away. When he did, I made a few elevation clicks that the Mil Dot Ballistics app on my iPhone recommended, held dead on the shoulder, and squeezed the shot off. The aoudad jumped up twice, and ran up hill about 50 yds and piled up about 20yds from the main road that leads from the property entrance to the deer stand, how lucky can I get. The other option was to run 200 yds down the draw and force me a late night of back packing out the aoudad with no close vehicle access. So praise God for letting the ram run towards the road!
While we were celebrating the aoudad kill and I was talking to the property owner on my cell phone, I looked over my shoulder at the far feeder 410yds from the setup. Only 25 min after shooting my aoudad, 15 wild hogs are at the far feeder. It was now my buddy's time to shine. We were racing against the sunset trying to get back setup prone with the .300 on the sand bags. I made the mil dot elevation adjustments for 410yds. My 15 year old friend got ready to kill a pig at a distance he had never shot before with a gun he had never shot before. We had about 5 min of daylight left. A nice "oreo" sow in the group turned broadside, and he squeezed the shot off. All the pigs ran off. The video showed the shot was VERY close, but could have missed high. We looked at each other and didn't know if it was a hit or not.
We decided to go ahead and pose the aoudad up for pics before checking on the pig. We took some good photos then went to the far feeder. It was already dark. We got out of the truck and found blood. 80yds down in the draw later, the sow was piled up. My 15yr old buddy just shot a hog at 410yds with a gun he had never shot before. AWESOME!
Here is a video link for these two kills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66nlhzX_uGE&feature=share&list=UUjeOKqCvAFZtPdtR7UGJh1g
A summer camp goes by and another off week becomes available. The property owner allows me and one of my co counselors/best friends to use his RV and stay on the property a full week. My friend has permission to take an aoudad also. I was borrowing my boss's SONY NXCAM Z5U and GoPro Hero 2 to get some cool video of the hunt. The first evening we sit in the blind, an aoudad is down on camera. 110 yd shot with my .300 win mag, ram piled up only 10 yds from the shot. Beautiful, my buddy has shot his first aoudad ever!
The next evening, the swine action heats up! About 10 pigs showed up to the same feeder we killed the aoudad at. I got my boss's professional camera recording in 24p 1080 HD, and my buddy smacks a nice blonde pig with his remington .270. The pigs were shot with .270s. The aoudads we shot with the .300 because we didn't want them to run too far from where we could get the truck, and we didn't want to have to shoot them in the neck with a smaller weapon to ruin a good trophy photo. There is no question that a .270 130gr-150gr bullet placed directly in the shoulder of an aoudad will kill it, but a 180 gr. 300 win mag bullet in the same spot offers a lot more forgiveness and puts some more shock to minimize how far the animal will run. My buddy made a good behind the shoulder shot on the blonde sow while it was quartering away, and we found her piled up about 60 yds down the draw.
My buddy has claimed and aoudad and pig kill on camera. I'm now back up to bat. The NEXT evening, we have a small group of aoudad at the feeders. But right at dark, they spooked as a big pregnant sow came trotting in. I had the camera turned on and setup beside me while I took careful aim with my .270. When she turned broadside and was good in the camera view finder, BOOM! 130gr Hornady SST was placed right behind her ear. Dropped in tracks, on her stomach, with the mouth open. Classic wild hog head shot. No tracking required. Three evenings. Three kills. All in HD. These three hunts have not been put together yet because they may end up on Bullets & Broadheads, a hunting show I do some part-time videoing for on the Sportsman Channel.
For more information about hog and aoudad hunting this small acreage or to find out about the COA Summer Camps, call Michael Marbach at (210) 827-9802 or email him at marbach@coaoutfitters.com.
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