Chef hunts Barbary sheep...

[Chef]

This hunt started a few years back with my good friend Jesse Novak showing me footage he had of some cool looking Aoudad rams. Jesse lives in New Mexico and spends a ton of time in sheep country filming desert and rocky mountain bighorn sheep. He always sends me dvd's with a lot of cool and sometimes HUGE rams that my friends and I drool over. He mentioned that hunting Barbary on public land is no "gimme" and it made for a rewarding and fun hunt.

 

I really love the way these animals look. Their flowing chaps make for a great and interesting mount. So with that said, I sent in my money and later drew a New Mexico tag for 2011.

 

Fast forward to the first week of February which had me packing my rig and getting ready for the long 11 hour haul to camp from Phoenix. I didn't have much time to waste as I only had a few days available to enjoy this hunt. So I drove straight through, stopping only for gas and food "to go" as I made my way towards camp. Once I left the pavement, I reset my tripometer just to see how far camp was from the nearest asphalt road. I arrived at camp at one in the morning and my tripometer read 28 miles!

 

It was windy and brutally cold. It had snowed for several days straight a few days earlier but we were expecting "nicer" weather. I was fortunate to arrive when it was getting better. With that said, it was zero degrees at night, add the windchill factor to that and well, you get the picture.

 

Jesse had a client tag a beauty of a ram a day earlier and told me that there was an even better one in the group. It could take several days to relocate him, if we even found him. Being as I didn't have much time, I told him I would be very happy with taking any mature ram as long as he had nice chaps. With that said, Jesse decided we should leave the spotters in camp, pack light, and he would bring the video camera. He said we would get into sheep early and he would get my shot on video. Little did I know, that was exactly what would transpire.

 

Jesse wasn't kidding when he said this would be no easy hunt. We put a lot of miles in on foot just to get to where the sheep were. Weaving around private land to get to pockets that held game. The North facing slopes still had snow and it was so tough to walk through it without knowing what rocks and holes lay underneath. Between the terrain and the cold, it was some tough going. As the sun crested the horizon, we spotted mule deer almost immediately. The warmth of the suns rays felt so good and I started to really breath it all in. At exactly 7:15 Jesse spots a group of sheep two ridges over. It was hard to see if there were any rams so we crossed the canyon to get a better look...

 

Here is a little recap of what I just said, as well as...the rest of the story...

click here --->

 

We did end up getting the kill shot on video but I can't transfer the footage from dvd to my computer.

I will keep trying and will update the post if it happens.

 

Pics...

 

The 280 Ackley does it again!

[Chef]

A co worker of mine that cooks goats all the time gave cooking Barbary a shot just last week.

He brought it into work and I made some potatoes and we all tried it. The flavor was good, the meat

wasn't too tough, it was just on the dry side. He had a lot of shrinkage even while cooking it low and slow

for four hours in spices, herbs, and wine.

 

Keep in mind, these were the hindquarters.

I saved the backstraps in the freezer and will grill those some day and post the results.

 

Also wanted to add that I caped the Barbary for a half body mount. He indeed ended up having some nice chaps on him.

[KGAINES]

Congrats Hector, sounds like you had a good time. God Bless and take care.

[bonecollector]

Looks like you had a great trip to New Mexico. Congrats and thanks for taking us along on your hunt.

[pwrguy]

That is cool...congrats!!!

[lucky2hunt]

Congrats! Awesome animal, would love to see the other video of the shot!

[coyotekid]

great write up and awesome pictures. Thanks for sharing, Congrats on gettin er done.

-sam

[CouesWhitetail]

Great hunt Hector! I enjoyed the recap video...nice job! If you want help transferring your video to your computer, give me a call.

[tjhunt2]

You certainly have been busy this past couple of months. Congratulations on this beautiful animal and thanks for sharing. Hope you get the shot footage figured out. Thanks for sharing Hector. Later!

 

TJ

[izquik72]

That sounds like an awesome adventure.

Great recap and photos

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations again buddy on a really cool hunt and trophy. I'm happy it all came together for you and you got 'er done! Great pictures as well.

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Awesome! Congrats on a great hunt!

[WFGinNM]

Good deal, I've lived here most of my life and this past season was the first time I have put in (didn't draw). I'm hoping this coming season I'll have a chance. Thanks for sharing the pictures and video, I hope you get the shot video up.

 

Congratulations on the Barbary,

 

--Bill

[5yearcoueshunter]

Congrats Chef on a magnificent trophy! That's a beautiful ram and a very tough hunt. I hunted them for the first time last season. I covered probably 20+ miles and finally saw 2 sheep. I passed as it was a ewe and a lamb. But ever since then, I've been hooked. They are awesome animals. Didn't draw this season, but hoping to this year.

 

Congrats again!

Travis

[AZbowhntr]

Congrats Hector. You are filling not only the freezer but the walls. You've had an excellent few months. And with you probably drawing a bull tag this next year you'll be looking for a new job. Nice mulie, whitetail and Audad.