We have some aoudad on game cams and have been hearing about how tough they are to bring down.

I am open to any advice on shot placement and information on the location of their vitals...

Thanks

Well placed shots with premium bullets or broadheads will do the trick just fine. Aim right behind the shoulder 1/3 of the way up the body and you'll have your trophy.

The problems arise when your shot is not precise, as they can be extremely durable. Once wounded, in my experience, they can be difficult to dispatch and can cover an incredible amount of distance. Moral: shoot well!!

In addition they are very wary and have extremely good eyesight. Again, in my opinion, they are even more nervous than Axis and will test your scent-control and hunting skills to the max!!

I absolutely love hunting Aoudad and consider them to be one of the most challenging, rewarding, and affordable trophies in N.A..

Good luck and good hunting !!

Regards,
Scott

My advice big gun with lots of knock down power if your going to shoot a big ram.

Our last hunt my client shot a big ram twice in the shoulder solid hits with a 7mag then one right behind the shoulder then another right bellow that. 4 shots all solid hits and it still took 5 9mm rounds to dispatch the ram.

Then again the next ram we shot dropped like a rock with a single shot at the base of the neck.

scott,
i thought you just ran them down, jumped on their back and put them in the sleeper hold of death...

I shot one quartering away from me with a well placed arrow 1/3 of the way up the body and it went about 40 yards.

My fiancee' last fall shot one quartering toward her just inside the shoulder between the brisket on the animals left side. Heart and lung shot with her arrow and the animal went about 30 yards then piled up.

Last fall I shot my second and jumpy they are jumpy! I had a huge ram at 20 yards and with pigs coming in they were jumpier to say the least. I aimed and with a clear shot settled my pin on my bow behind the front shoulder, as I was releasing a hog squeeled and a ewe jumped taking my arrow in the juggler vein. I was sick thinking I wounded one in the neck as they blew out. I followed blood and recovered her about 100 yards away. Just jumpy critters, jumpy beyond belief and anything even a fly will scatter them. Very killable with a bow if the shot is placed right!

I understand your confusion Jay. I am a trained perfishional, however, and what I do is extremely dangerous (I lost a contact lens once trying to rassle a young ewe...it gives me chills just thinking about it!!) so I don't recommend trying this at home.

As with most things; it's all in the timing !!!

Besides alfalfa, have any of you guys found something that worked well for getting these things to come in with some regularity? I realize that is something that usually isn't possible with aoudad, but I am wondering if something things work better than others.

i cant say i am an expert on the subject.
ours are inside a 2,000 acre high fence, so they come and go as they please. While i have many pictures, i have never seen them while in one of my blinds

i did notice that they really seemed to like my protein feeder when it was full
would hit it pretty regularly

they also seemed to like a pile of corn near a water source

Try salt. Lots and lots of salt. Best thing you can use.

interesting you should say that. thanks for the input mike.

the deer wont hit this block very often, but the aoudad seem to like it

I haven't had any luck with salt. So far, I have used mineral blocks, salt blocks, alfalpha, and corn.

-From what I can tell, nothing has ever touched the salt block. Its been there for over a month.

-They (deer and aoudad) destroyed two mineral blocks in two weeks and then hardly touched them after that. A vet told me that the reason might be that they had a "mineral deficiency" prior to eating the blocks. After eating them, it wasn't as appealing. Go figure.

- Alfalfa seems to work ok at times. So does corn.

I have heard that corn which is soaked/dried in sugar is by far the best for deer. Just thought some of you may know of something similar that aoudad go for.

Well, ive never shot an aoudad off a ranch but right beside big bend national park terlingua ranch is... There is monster aoudad on the cliffs an sides of high peeked mountains. you see them for maybe 15 seconds before they jump off the cliff into the bottoms. I have a Remington 243 auto. an ive never had a prob killing them ive shot over 15 biggest being 28in... i believe ive shot bigger but when they jump into the bottoms its hard to retrieve them back. There are an amazing animal outside of game fence... good luck to all with the aoudads.

I see them at the feeder all the time while sitting in the blind. They are really annoying, especially when they bully away all of the deer that are at the feeder. It seems to me that if you're not after a trophy ram they aren't that difficult to find and hunt, the big boys are tough though and very elusive.