Max Kerr writes, "So after my elk and mule deer hunt, I got a little depressed that I had no more big game hunts in the near future. I began reading the NM Game and Fish catalog and found that Barbary Sheep season was in the month of Febuary, but the only tags still available were the otc private land tags. I began beating the bushes and finally I was able to speak with an awesome ranch owner in SE NM between Artisa and Cloudcroft who sold me a tresspass for Aoudad. She said, "You may get a trophy . . . and you may not see anything." After the first day, Friday, I thought I wasn't going to see a thing. We hiked and extensively glassed some difficult terrian and got pretty discouraged. We called the land owner midday and she pointed us in the right direction, but we still didn't even see sign.

The next morning we hit it early again and focused our energies toward where the land owner suggested. The wind was cutting about 40 degrees and 30-40 mph in our faces on the top of the highest hill we could crawl up. From the top of the hill, we began glassing the surrounding area, and thankfully my buddy spotted a ram sheep about a mile to our west. There was three of us, so my buddy and I put on the stalk as another friend stayed and spotted the animal with a 2-way radio. Luckily, the sheep bedded down just where we spotted it and the wind was blowing in our faces. It couldn't have been planned any better, we slowly closed the mile gap of rugged terrian without the animal even knowing we were there. We were able to get within 160 yards of the sheep and I made the shot. The animal was quartering away from me and I was shooting without a rest so the first shot took out the sheep's front left leg and as he ran off I was able to put another round in him. He finally went down and I put the kill shot in at the base of a deep draw. We posed for pictures and then got to work.

We quartered and caped the ram and then had to pack it about a half mile back to the truck. It was an intense, great, and fortunate hunt . . . team work at its best. The ram measured at 26" and was an old mature sheep. I sent the quarters to sausage out and we sauteed some the the thick backstrap. Although extremely tough, the meat was great, savory and without any game. I also told Jeannie that the trophy is going over our bed."