During the hot summer months, fishing is the main outdoor activity. To take a different approach this week, I will relate my recent hunting trip.

Although most hunting in Texas is done during the fall general hunting season, some species of exotic game can be hunted year-round.

I have never hunted in Africa, but from watching television hunting shows it is my impression that much of the hunting is conducted during the summer months. The professional hunter wears khaki shorts, and everyone seems to perspire a lot.

Anyway, my hunt took place in April when the daytime high temperatures were in the mid 80s. Even though it was a little warm, I wasn’t too uncomfortable.

I left my home early in the morning and drove to Mason, where I met Bruce Williams, an employee of The Wildlife Ranch. We drove west to a high-fenced pasture that was not hunted. I took photos of several species of exotic animals, including fallow and sika deer, Corsican and Mouflon sheep, a zebra, and several species of antelope including blackbuck, scimitar-horned and addax.

PHOTO BY MAT TAYLOR This Painted Desert Corsican ram is similar to the one I took on a hunt near Mason. This ram, however, lives in a pasture where no hunting is allowed. PHOTO BY MAT TAYLOR Later, we drove south on a county road to a ranch that The Wildlife Ranch recently had leased. Bruce said there were several trophy-sized Corsican rams in the low-fence pasture, and they could be hunted at a special discounted price.

There was only one road in the pasture, and the pasture was covered in thick vegetation that included mesquite, bee brush, persimmon, tall grass, prickly pear and other species of cactus.

Shortly after driving into the pasture, we saw a small bunch of sheep. Two rams caught my attention, a black one and a multicolored Painted Desert ram. I decided the Painted Desert ram would look good mounted on the wall of my office.

I have not hunted much in recent years except with a camera. After seeing the ram, however, the old urge to hunt came back.

We tried to stalk within shooting range, but the sheep ran every time I tried to take a shot. After a couple of hours walking through heavy brush and getting stuck and scratched by mesquite thorns, we gave up the chase. We drove to another area of the ranch and saw more sheep, but none of them interested me.

Then we decided to drive back to Mason for lunch. After a hamburger and fries and a short rest, it was back to the ranch for another try, but with the same results.

Bruce recommended changing tactics. He told me to walk to the north part of the pasture where there was a clearing, and he would try to drive the sheep to me and maybe I could get a shot. I did that and waited for the sheep to appear.

After awhile, I heard a noise and turned around. Instead of the sheep coming in front of me, they cut across the pasture behind me. So another opportunity was missed.

Bruce then ran around the herd, and this time they did come into the clearing, but they were all bunched up, and I could not shoot the ram without hitting another sheep.

Finally, after a long period of time, the sheep settled down, and the Painted Desert ram walked clear of the herd. Bruce said, “Clear,” and I shot the ram at just under a hundred yards with my Browning BLR in .243.

The ram dropped immediately with a one-shot kill. I shot the ram standing up resting my rifle on a combination hiking/ shooting stick.

After taking photos, we took the ram back to The Wildlife Ranch headquarters, where Bruce capped the head for a mount.

I did not want the meat, as I am a native Texan and prefer beef or chicken, so the meat was donated to a needy family in Mason. Later I dropped the ram’s head off at Sulphur Creek Taxidermy to be mounted. Owner Jed Dunning measured the horns, and each one taped just over 28 inches long.

As I discussed in a previous column, there are good and bad points about exotic game hunting. Unfortunately, many animals are killed in canned hunts where they are shot in a small, high-fenced pasture with no chance of escape.

That was not the case in my hunt, as it was a fair-chase hunt in a lowfenced pasture. I walked for many hours, and at the end of my hunt, I was covered in perspiration and was very tired. Mesquite thorns had scratched me, and I picked prickly pear spines out of my legs for several days. I also had a blister on one of my toes.

To be honest, Corsican sheep are not as difficult to hunt as whitetailed deer, but my hunt was more challenging than sitting in a deer blind over a corn feeder waiting for a buck to appear.

Many hunters consider one of the wild sheep the ultimate trophy. A hunt for a bighorn, dall, stone or desert bighorn in North America, however, can be very expensive and is out of the range for many hunters. Most wild sheep are found in rough terrain, and the hunter needs to be in top physical condition.

At my age, I will never be able to hunt for native wild sheep, so I am happy with my exotic sheep trophy.

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@wildblue.net.