My First High-Fence Ranch Hunt

One of my top bucket list items, that I can still physically accomplish, is to participate in a 7 to 10-day safari in east Africa and bag 4 or 5 African game animals.  But until I have the opportunity, I decided to embark on a high fence hunt for the first time.  What is a high fence hunt you ask? Simply put, high fence hunts occur on large ranches that raise or acquire exotic animals (they are not imported!)  These ranches then provide hunters a chance to stalk and bag African, Asian, and other game that are not indigenous to Texas.  I know, you’ve heard the rumors that these ‘hunting ranches’ simply put tame animals on display for blood-thirsty hunters to shoot, but you couldn’t be farther from the truth! This blog will not discuss the conservation practices or how many of these animals have been in this country since the 1930s, but rather, the experience of hunting on a high fence ranch, particularly, OX Ranch near Uvalde, Texas.

Ox Ranch is an 18,000-acre managed hunting ranch in which I attempted to bag an aoudad sheep.  Audad sheep, also known as Barbary sheep, are native to the rocky mountains of North Africa.  They were brought to Texas in the 1950s where they escaped their confinements and thrive in West Texas with a wild population of over 25,000.  They are considered an invasive species and can be hunted at any time of the year.  I arrived at the gate of OX ranch at 12:30 and ate lunch with my guide, Dylan and immediately began a safari style hunt. Basically, we drive in a heavily modified Jeep through mountain passes about 3-5 mph glassing the hillsides looking for aoudads.  I sighted-in my 300 Win Mag prior to lunch and easily hit the 300 yd target, the average shot for an aoudad on Ox Ranch.

Day 1: A Quick Start

It was an hour into the hunt when we saw 7 males in a group, including several large ones, but they were moving fast and provided no shot.  Over the next four hours we spotted several other small groups and individuals, but none were large enough to harvest.  We left the Jeep and walked through South Texas trees and shrubs for several hours without luck. We returned to the cabins at 6PM to pick up some hay to spread for the morning hunt, then returned to the lodge for a great meal consisting of zebra, water buffalo, alligator, and quail appetizers; a 22 oz ribeye (boneless) and a ¼ of an apple pie – I was stuffed!

The Ox Ranch lodge is huge and has a great assortment of trophies throughout the lodge and the individual cabins.  There are also many game animals wandering around the living areas providing some great sights and camera opportunities. I was staying in the Aoudad cabin, which was built to resemble an 1860 plains settlers’ cabin – very nice and fully stocked! 

Day 2: Disappointment and Success

My morning started at 0545 after a great night sleep.  I made some coffee in the provided expresso machine and took in the sites from my rocking chair on the porch. My guide came right on time at 0730 and we returned to a road above the site where we saw some aoudad the previous afternoon and where we left some hay and corn to draw them out.  We arrived around 0745, stopping about ¾ of a mile from the location to walk the rest of the way up a steep hill. Aoudad have keen eyesight and great hearing, so even though our shooting spot was about 325 yards from the target, up a steep terrain surrounded by mesquite trees, the audad had already spotted us.

Moving a couple of hundred yards up a very steep grade to get in a better position, we saw several males and one was a shooter!  As they were already staring at us, we didn’t have much time to setup the shooting stick and take a shot.  My guide setup his shooting stick and one of its legs were broken, so it was rather wobbly.  I was huffing and puffing from the climb which added to the difficulty!

The shot was aiming down at about 40 degrees and the distance was 300 yards.  Dylan said to shoot at the top of its back just above the shoulder and I did.  The shoot was 2” high hitting the rocks behind it!  I had forgot I had set my sights to 200 yards earlier that morning, so the bullet hit where I aimed, not the 6-8” lower that would have been a kill shot. It was a clean miss on a medium-sized audad, which was now running away and out of shooting range.  We spent the rest of the morning looking for a bigger one but saw nothing at all. It was getting warm and they were bedding where we couldn’t see them, so we returned for breakfast at 0930.

Although the missed chance at an audad was a disappointment I decided I wanted a bigger one anyway.  At 1030 we headed out again and glassed the entire ranch for over 2 hours with no luck.  Dylan said it was due to the unusually warm January weather, which was 75o on this day.  Also, there was a full moon and the audad tend to move at night, not during the day when this happens. The trees and brush were extremely thick in the areas where they tend to bed and spotting them was rather difficult.

Plan B

I had two other animals on my list, a Wildebeest, or an Oryx.  The wildebeest is reported to taste very good and would be easier to locate.  The Oryx is also a great tasting animal but more difficult to locate and would require a longer stalk, so oryx first and if I had no luck, wildebeest it is! After about 45 minutes we spotted a group of 7 scimitar horned oryx: one large male, one large female, and several smaller of each.  This species of oryx is extinct on the Arabian Peninsula where they originate from due to poaching, but they are plentiful in Texas due to breeding and conservation programs, which includes hunting.

We stopped the Jeep and began the stalk. This herd tends to keep moving so you must be in position when they stop to get a quick shot.  I took along my shooting stick as its new (a present from Shari Running Wild) and we mirrored their movements from 400-600 yards for over 3 miles through south-central Texas rocky and hilly terrain covered with prickly pear cactus. On four occasions we thought I would get a shot on the big male, but he never stopped moving so we kept moving.  Although I was limping and puffing, at no time did they appear to notice we were stalking them. Even though I was huffing and puffing, it was a hell of a stock – and so satisfying!  Finally, 3 miles later, we got ahead of them and setup on a hill to watched them pass through a small clearing at 200 yards.  They were all bunched up moving in circles making it difficult to see the big male, and like all African antelope, both males and females have antlers.  Additionally, the male parts are exceedingly small and hard to see – especially from 200 yards.  I set my backpack on the ground and used it as the gun rest, making sure my scope was setup correctly for a 200-yard shot.

Suddenly they all stopped moving and bunched up – damnit, no shot!  Then a big one moved in front of the rest, towards us, and another moved to the left of the group; both were in the open and provided a shooting lane.  After 20 seconds of glassing, my guide made the determination the big male was in the front and said to shoot him, so I took the shoot. A single shot through the heart killing it instantly.  My guide said, “Great Shot! But why didn’t you shoot the one in the front?” I retorted that I did!  Dylan said he meant the one on the left, and we both chuckled and walked down to our prey.  It was a beautiful animal which I stayed with while the Dylan hiked three miles back for the custom Jeep so we could haul it back and dress it.

My oryx weighed about 280lbs, 210 after field dressing.  They prefer we only shoot the males, but I suggested in our modern ‘woke’ society this oryx identified as a male and we laughed. At any rate, she was older, will taste better than the male, and was nearly as big.  While waiting for the Jeep three Thompson gazelle walked right up to me as if nothing had happened!

We took it to the skinning shed where I helped field dress it and put it in the cooler.  Afterwards we took the guts to the “pit” and disposed of them – not a pretty sight as it contained hundreds of remains…and smelled bad!  

Finally, prior to my ¾ lb. zebra cheeseburger and fries, I spent an hour calling predators with my guide, a 20-year-old expert!  We got 3 grey fox and saw five more.

I’ve been hunting turkey, feral hogs, whitetail, and axis deer on my ranch, and I can tell you, it was just as difficult and exciting to hunt at this high-fence ranch.  The stalks were not easy, and you are not assured of bagging your game.  If you can’t make it to Africa I suggest you consider this type of hunt for some exotic animals that you will not see anywhere else.  By the way, my wife who likes lean organic wild game meat told me the oryx hamburger was the best she ever tasted!

Oryx can be found at many locations in Texas in large numbers, as hunting ranches raise them for profit. In fact, there are more in Texas than anywhere in the world, and as I said earlier, they’ve been extinct in the Arabian Peninsula since 1990. Even after conservationist tried to reintroduce them in 2000, they were once again wiped out by poachers.

I spent the evening prior to dinner touring one of Ox Ranches large blinds and it was amazing! There was room for 14 hunters, comfortably, an entertainment system, refrigerator and freezer, full bar and snack area, and a gambling table setup with chips! Each of the six shooting windows faced a feeder ranging from 80 yards to 660 yards, and it was climate controlled.